# How to manage your Qt based embedded Linux device with Mender (Colibri iMX7) **URL:** \ **Category:** Mender\ **Tags:** yocto, mender, qt\ **Created:** [December 10, 2019, 11:25am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/how-to-manage-your-qt-based-embedded-linux-device-with-mender-colibri-imx7/1344 "2019-12-10T11:25:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mirzak](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/mirzak/32/2056_2.png) [@mirzak](https://hub.mender.io/u/mirzak)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2019, 11:25am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/how-to-manage-your-qt-based-embedded-linux-device-with-mender-colibri-imx7/1344/1 "2019-12-10T11:25:35Z")
## Introduction This is a step-by-step guide on how to reproduce the demonstration that was done during the “Managing Your Qt Based Embedded Linux Device With Mender” webinar that was hosted by The Qt Company. Abstract from the webinar: _So you have made a world-class application with Qt, but how do you deploy it to many devices in a robust, reproducible and secure way?_ _In this webinar Harald Kjølberg from Qt and Mirza Krak from [Mender.io](http://Mender.io) will show you how to use [Mender.io](http://Mender.io) to quickly and easily deploy applications made in Qt on to your field-deployed devices._ _Mender is an end-to-end OTA (over-the-air) solution for users who seek a secure and robust way to deploy firmware and software to connected devices._ _In this webinar we will start off by:_ - _Giving an overview of Mender and how it works_ _Followed by an impressive demo showing you how to:_ - _Use a QtCreator build as input artifact for [Mender.io](http://Mender.io) to do an application update_ - _Do a phased roll-out of the newly created / updated application_ - _Explain how you can automate the roll out using APIs_ - _Explain how this can be integrated to deploy images based updates_ ## Prerequisites - A supported Linux distribution and dependencies installed on your workstation/laptop as described in the [Yocto Mega Manual](https://www.yoctoproject.org/docs/current/mega-manual/mega-manual.html#detailed-supported-distros) - Google repo tool [installed](https://hub.mender.io/t/google-repo/58/2) and in your `PATH`. - A deployment environment using a desktop PC with Ubuntu 18.04 and Google Chrome as a web browser and at least 10 GB free disk space and 2 GB RAM available for Mender. - You should have a running Mender demo server. Instructions on how to setup this up can be found [here](https://docs.mender.io/2.4/getting-started/on-premise-installation/create-a-test-environment) - Colibri Aster carrier board - Colibri iMX7D 1GB V1.1A SOM - USB flash drive connected to the Colibri iMX7D with the following content: - Working U-boot on the Colibri iMX7D - Qt Creator IDE installed on your development PC with the Qt examples. On a Debian based operating system you can run: ```auto apt-get install qtcreator qtbase5-examples ``` ## Step 1 - Initial setup of the Boot 2 Qt environment Create workspace and change directory: ```auto mkdir boot2qt && cd boot2qt ``` Clone `meta-boot2qt`: ```auto git clone git://code.qt.io/yocto/meta-boot2qt.git -b v5.12.4 ``` Change directory to `meta-boot2qt`: ```auto cd meta-boot2qt ``` Clone `meta-mender`: ```auto git clone https://github.com/mendersoftware/meta-mender.git -b sumo ``` Clone `meta-mender-community`: ```auto git clone https://github.com/mendersoftware/meta-mender-community -b sumo ``` Initialize the environment: ```auto ./b2qt-init-build-env init --device colibri-imx7 ``` Setup the environment: ```auto MACHINE=colibri-imx7 . setup-environment.sh ``` Add Mender layers to environment: ```auto cat <<- 'EOF' >> conf/bblayers.conf BBLAYERS += "${BSPDIR}/sources/meta-mender/meta-mender-core" BBLAYERS += "${BSPDIR}/sources/meta-mender/meta-mender-demo" BBLAYERS += "${BSPDIR}/sources/meta-mender-community/meta-mender-toradex-nxp" EOF ``` Add generic customizations to `local.conf`: ```auto cat ../sources/meta-mender-community/templates/local.conf.append >> conf/local.conf ``` Add Colibri iMX7 customizations to `local.conf`: ```auto cat ../sources/meta-mender-community/meta-mender-toradex-nxp/templates/local.conf.append >> conf/local.conf ``` Update `MACHINE` in `local.conf` to: ```auto MACHINE="colibri-imx7-emmc" ``` Update the Mender server configuration in `local.conf` to connect to your running demo environment: ```auto # Update IP address to match the machine running the Mender demo server MENDER_DEMO_HOST_IP_ADDRESS = "< IP address >" ``` Add the following to `local.conf` (experienced build error with this enabled, we will not use this and can be disabled without impacting device functionality): ```auto echo 'IMAGE_POSTPROCESS_COMMAND_remove = "do_qbsp_image;"' >> conf/local.conf ``` Build the embedded image: ```auto bitbake b2qt-embedded-qt5-image ``` Build the toolchain (which is later used in Qt Creator IDE): ```auto bitbake meta-toolchain-b2qt-embedded-qt5-sdk ``` ### Using the build output After a successful build, the images and build artifacts are: - `tmp/deploy/images/colibri-imx7-emmc/b2qt-embedded-qt5-image-colibri-imx7-emmc.sdimg.gz` - `tmp/deploy/images/colibri-imx7-emmc/b2qt-embedded-qt5-image-colibri-imx7-emmc.mender` - `tmp/deploy/images/colibri-imx7-emmc/u-boot-nand.imx` - `tmp/deploy/sdk/b2qt-x86_64-meta-toolchain-b2qt-embedded-qt5-sdk-colibri-imx7-emmc.sh` The disk image (with .sdimg.gz suffix) is used to provision the device storage for devices without Mender running already. The u-boot-nand.imx file is used to provision the device with a Mender compatible U-Boot. `b2qt-x86_64-meta-toolchain-b2qt-embedded-qt5-sdk-colibri-imx7-emmc.sh` you should install on your development machine which contains the cross-toolchain with all Qt components. If you already have Mender running on your device and want to deploy a rootfs update using this build, you should use the [Mender Artifact (b2qt-embedded-qt5-image-colibri-imx7-emmc.mender)](https://docs.mender.io/overview/artifact) files, which have `.mender` suffix. You can either deploy this Artifact in managed mode with the Mender server (upload it under Releases in the server UI) or by using the Mender client only in [Standalone deployments](https://docs.mender.io/artifact-creation/standalone-deployment). ## Step 2 - Provisioning the device with the built images Halt the boot process at the U-boot prompt on your serial console: ```auto Colibri iMX7 # ``` The following commands are all executed from the U-boot prompt. Setup convenience script to calculate number of blocks based on file size: ```auto setenv set_blkcnt 'setexpr blkcnt ${filesize} + 0x1ff && setexpr blkcnt ${blkcnt} / 0x200' ``` Enable USB in U-boot: ```auto usb start ``` Load `u-boot.imx` from USB flash drive to RAM: ```auto fatload usb 0:1 ${loadaddr} u-boot.imx ``` Write `u-boot.imx` to eMMC: ```auto run set_blkcnt && mmc dev 0 1 && mmc write ${loadaddr} 2 ${blkcnt} ``` Reset U-boot and halt it again at the U-boot prompt. This is because we want to be running the binary that we flashed in above command: ```auto reset ``` Enable USB in U-boot again since we restarted U-boot: ```auto usb start ``` Load `b2qt-embedded-qt5-image-colibri-imx7-emmc.sdimg.gz` from the USB flash drive to RAM: ```auto fatload usb 0:1 ${loadaddr} b2qt-embedded-qt5-image-colibri-imx7-emmc.sdimg.gz ``` Write `b2qt-embedded-qt5-image-colibri-imx7-emmc.sdimg.gz` to eMMC: ```auto gzwrite mmc 0 $loadaddr 0x$filesize ``` Above operation can take 5-10 minutes. That is it, you can now power-cycle or reset the device and you should have a Boot2Qt image with Mender running on your device. ## Step 3 - Mender integration with Qt Creator This step requires you to setup a device kit in Qt Creator for the desired device. You can find more information in the [Qt Documentation](https://doc.qt.io/QtForDeviceCreation/qtee-custom-embedded-linux-image.html#configuring-qt-creator-for-linux-toolchain) on how to accomplish this with the built tool chain in previous steps. Next we need to setup an example project to utilize for our demo: 1. Create a new project in Qt Creator IDE based on the example application “Wearable” 2. Select “copy and open” option, which will copy the project the custom qt5 workspace, e.g `${HOME}/qt5-projects` 3. Select the custom device kit in the next step 4. Disable shadow builds under “Projects → Build” 5. Test that you are able to compile and deploy the Wearable application to the connect device using the Qt Creator IDE built in tools, e.g ssh or rsync. We have a prepared a simple example script which can be found [here](https://gist.github.com/mirzak/d77ca35cc39d844e1715e77df998ecb7) that builds Mender Artifacts from the built Qt application. Enter the Qt workspace of the project using a terminal: ```auto cd ${HOME}/qt-projects/wearable ``` Download the script: ```auto wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/mirzak/d77ca35cc39d844e1715e77df998ecb7/raw/30000f8eaea62ba62beb93aa51f87604c4f335ce/create-mender-artifact.sh ``` Allow the script to be executed: ```auto chmod +x create-mender-artifact.sh ``` Edit the following fields in the `create-mender-artifact.sh` script: ```auto MENDER_SERVER_USER="" MENDER_SERVER_PASS="" ``` **NOTE!** This is the credentials you created when starting the [Mender demo environment](https://docs.mender.io/2.4/getting-started/on-premise-installation/create-a-test-environment) Create a Mender Artifact ([single-file](https://hub.mender.io/t/single-file/486/16)) containing the `wearable` binary and upload it to the server: ```auto ./create-mender-artifact.sh -f wearable -u ``` **NOTE!** Above command can be added to the Qt Creator IDE configuration to run this step as a `post-build` step. This script additional supports packaging the application binary in to a root filesystem image by running: ```auto ./create-mender-artifact.sh -f wearable -u -r b2qt-embedded-qt5-image-colibri-imx7-emmc.ext4 ``` **NOTE!** Above command can be added to the Qt Creator IDE configuration to run this step as a `post-build` step. ## Conclusion The outlined steps are primarily a demonstration to highlight possibilities and should not be considered suitable for production. * * * _If this tutorial was useful to you, please press like, or leave a thank you note to the contributor who put valuable time into this and made it available to you. It will be much appreciated!_ ---
**Author:** ![Drebble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a587f6/32.png) [@Drebble](https://hub.mender.io/u/Drebble)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 12:28pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/how-to-manage-your-qt-based-embedded-linux-device-with-mender-colibri-imx7/1344/2 "2020-01-21T12:28:34Z")
Hi Mirzak, First of all thanks for the interesting webinar held a while ago and the follow up with this blogpost on how to reproduce the demonstration. First I’ve been pulling some efforts in converting our Qt application to boot2qt based on a raspberrypi3 which runs successfully. Next, I’ve been using your guide in order to add meta-mender to the build. After some small changes to local.conf I’ve been able to run bitbake successfully. I’ve flashed an SD card with the `.sdimg` image and booted the raspberry. U-boot runs and seems to select a rootfs but the boot process will eventually hangs at some point. In order to debug I attached a serial console to GPIO14/15 but minicom is giving rubbish on the output. The best I can give is the following; ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/mender/original/1X/fbab188c3e11b9a0cd282be14eb07e04145807ca.jpeg) Not sure why it doesn’t finish the boot process. Could you point me in the right direction based on this information? should I add `enable_uart=1` in `config.txt` in boot partition to get proper output on serial console? ---
**Author:** ![mirzak](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/mirzak/32/2056_2.png) [@mirzak](https://hub.mender.io/u/mirzak)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 1:03pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/how-to-manage-your-qt-based-embedded-linux-device-with-mender-colibri-imx7/1344/3 "2020-01-21T13:03:16Z")
> First of all thanks for the interesting webinar held a while ago and the follow up with this blogpost on how to reproduce the demonstration. Thank you. Glad to hear it was useful. > should I add `enable_uart=1` in `config.txt` in boot partition to get proper output on serial console? Yeah, this will help further debugging. I do see something strange in the boot log, it says ```auto Waiting for root device /dev/mmcblk0p2fbcon=map:10... ``` It seems that there is a `space` missing in the kernel arguments. Can you check the contents of the `cmdline.txt` file on the boot partition to verify? ---
**Author:** ![Drebble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a587f6/32.png) [@Drebble](https://hub.mender.io/u/Drebble)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2020, 2:33pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/how-to-manage-your-qt-based-embedded-linux-device-with-mender-colibri-imx7/1344/4 "2020-01-21T14:33:09Z")
Good catch! When i compare cmdline.txt of non-mender image > dwc\_otg.lpm\_enable=0 root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 rootfstype=ext4 rootwait fbcon=map:10 fbcon=font:VGA8x8 To mender image > dwc\_otg.lpm\_enable=0 rootfstype=ext4 rootwait root=${mender\_kernel\_root}fbcon=map:10 fbcon=font:VGA8x8 Shows a missing space indeed. However just adding the space results in very weird output; ![IMG_3194](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/mender/original/1X/acf89a0877fd4242b058f63663d6ea6c87f5ce75.jpeg) setting `enable_uart=1` and connecting serial console will work fine and brings up the `linux login`. Discarding the kernel arguments `fbcon=map:10 fbcon=font:VGA8x8` all togetherwill result in a proper boot and I’m able to remote deploy my Qt application. So what is the function of these kernel arguments and where are they coming from? ---
**Author:** ![mirzak](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/mirzak/32/2056_2.png) [@mirzak](https://hub.mender.io/u/mirzak)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2020, 8:48am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/how-to-manage-your-qt-based-embedded-linux-device-with-mender-colibri-imx7/1344/5 "2020-01-23T08:48:52Z")
> So what is the function of these kernel arguments and where are they coming from? Those configuration options come from, [https://github.com/agherzan/meta-raspberrypi/blob/c3b3cd6efd300cd2f9ef0e952d2ebd5077bb17af/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-raspberrypi.inc#L136-L138](https://github.com/agherzan/meta-raspberrypi/blob/c3b3cd6efd300cd2f9ef0e952d2ebd5077bb17af/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-raspberrypi.inc#L136-L138) It is not something that is set in Mender layers so I suppose it comes from Boot2Qt. The options are documented here, > Though it might be worth to update the logic in meta-mender adding a space at the end to avoid this issue, [https://github.com/mendersoftware/meta-mender/blob/master/meta-mender-raspberrypi/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-raspberrypi-mender.inc#L2](https://github.com/mendersoftware/meta-mender/blob/master/meta-mender-raspberrypi/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-raspberrypi-mender.inc#L2) ---
**Author:** ![Drebble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a587f6/32.png) [@Drebble](https://hub.mender.io/u/Drebble)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2020, 12:55pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/how-to-manage-your-qt-based-embedded-linux-device-with-mender-colibri-imx7/1344/6 "2020-01-25T12:55:18Z")
As the kernel arguments are appended upstream maybe this should be the place to prepend space. However, your suggestion works evenly well. > Although Raspberry is booting, the duplicated console output during boot isn’t resolved. Once booted, the screen goes black. Deploying Qt application does work and application is starting normally. For some reason it’s switching display mode causing this behavior. The Linux kernel takes parameters from the boot loader, U-boot in the case of meta-mender. This should explain why this is happening only with meta-mender. Although I’m not sure, do you have any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![mirzak](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/mirzak/32/2056_2.png) [@mirzak](https://hub.mender.io/u/mirzak)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2020, 8:20am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/how-to-manage-your-qt-based-embedded-linux-device-with-mender-colibri-imx7/1344/7 "2020-01-27T08:20:14Z")
> the duplicated console output during boot isn’t resolved Can you clarify what this is? > [@Drebble](#): > > This should explain why this is happening only with meta-mender. Although I’m not sure, do you have any suggestions? Can you compare the kernel arguments by reading `/proc/cmdline`. I would expect them to be pretty much the same with and without meta-mender. U-Boot will starta a console on display output by default which might causing this, but this can be disabled. ---
**Author:** ![Drebble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a587f6/32.png) [@Drebble](https://hub.mender.io/u/Drebble)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2020, 7:56pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/how-to-manage-your-qt-based-embedded-linux-device-with-mender-colibri-imx7/1344/8 "2020-09-28T19:56:29Z")
It has been a while but we still encounter the same issue (after boot no console is shown on display). It affects raspberrypi3 only and is related to following issue [MEN-2239](https://tracker.mender.io/browse/MEN-2239). Please see following [video](https://drebble-mender.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/MenderQt.mov) for clarity. ---
**Author:** ![mirzak](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/mirzak/32/2056_2.png) [@mirzak](https://hub.mender.io/u/mirzak)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 8:38am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/how-to-manage-your-qt-based-embedded-linux-device-with-mender-colibri-imx7/1344/9 "2020-10-12T08:38:07Z")
> [@Drebble](#): > > It has been a while but we still encounter the same issue (after boot no console is shown on display). It affects raspberrypi3 only and is related to following issue [MEN-2239](https://tracker.mender.io/browse/MEN-2239). I am not sure why this would be related to MEN-2239? > Can you compare the kernel arguments by reading `/proc/cmdline` . I would expect them to be pretty much the same with and without meta-mender. Would still be interesting to see above. ---
**Author:** ![mirzak](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/mirzak/32/2056_2.png) [@mirzak](https://hub.mender.io/u/mirzak)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2020, 8:39am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/how-to-manage-your-qt-based-embedded-linux-device-with-mender-colibri-imx7/1344/10 "2020-10-12T08:39:22Z")
Also can you try this [patch](https://github.com/mendersoftware/uboot-mender/commit/e22d3af5d840a92f44cae4d430347a0ec0be5473) ---
**Author:** ![Hey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/2acd7d/32.png) [@Hey](https://hub.mender.io/u/Hey)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 9:08am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/how-to-manage-your-qt-based-embedded-linux-device-with-mender-colibri-imx7/1344/11 "2020-10-27T09:08:46Z")
Hey Mirzak, I am trying to follow this guide with my machine (imx8mm-var-dart) from varicite. and changed a few things so the customization in local.conf will be appropriate for my machine. but when i try to build i get this error: **ERROR: Task do\_patch in {WORKDIR}/sources/meta-mender/meta-mender-core/recipes-bsp/u-boot/u-boot-fw-utils-mender-auto-provided\_1.0.bb depends upon non-existent task do\_mender\_tar\_src in {WORKDIR}/sources/meta-variscite-imx/recipes-bsp/u-boot/u-boot-variscite.bb** **ERROR: Command execution failed: 1** what should i do? does it mean that mender will not work on my qt based machine? ---
**Author:** ![mirzak](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/mirzak/32/2056_2.png) [@mirzak](https://hub.mender.io/u/mirzak)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2020, 9:12am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/how-to-manage-your-qt-based-embedded-linux-device-with-mender-colibri-imx7/1344/12 "2020-10-27T09:12:36Z")
Typically each board requires a custom integration for Mender, so you will need to sort that out first. We do have support for various Variscite boards, [https://github.com/mendersoftware/meta-mender-community/tree/zeus/meta-mender-variscite](https://github.com/mendersoftware/meta-mender-community/tree/zeus/meta-mender-variscite), and you might need to add that layer as well. (do not know if your specific board is supported, but it is a starting point at least.)