MAIX AX620E System Build

Introduction

If you are first time using, you can refer to this document for a complete system use guide.

This repository contains the source code for building MaixCam2, KVM Pro etc. basic system images.

This repository requires the submodules maix_ax620e_sdk_msp and maix_ax620e_sdk_kernel to be cloned before compiling.

Note: Currently only tested to compile successfully on Ubuntu22.04

Get Source Code

git clone https://github.com/sipeed/maix_ax620e_sdk
git submodule update --init --recursive

Build

• Download toolchain

# Download and extract
wget https://armkeil.blob.core.windows.net/developer/Files/downloads/gnu-a/9.2-2019.12/binrel/gcc-arm-9.2-2019.12-x86_64-aarch64-none-linux-gnu.tar.xz
sudo tar -xvf gcc-arm-9.2-2019.12-x86_64-aarch64-none-linux-gnu.tar.xz -C /opt

# Configure environment variables
echo 'export PATH=/opt/gcc-arm-9.2-2019.12-x86_64-aarch64-none-linux-gnu/bin:${PATH}' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Alternative toolchain download method: Download the gcc9.2-2019.12 toolchain from here

• Test toolchain

aarch64-none-linux-gnu-gcc --version
which aarch64-none-linux-gnu-gcc

• Install necessary software

sudo dpkg-reconfigure dash # Then choose No

sudo apt install make libc6:i386 lib32stdc++6 zlib1g-dev libncurses5-dev ncurses-term libncursesw5-dev g++ u-boot-tools texinfo texlive gawk libssl-dev openssl bc bison flex gcc libgcc1 gdb build-essential lib32z1 u-boot-tools device-tree-compiler qemu qemu-user-static fusefat patchelf libpcre3

sudo python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
sudo pip3 install lxml axp-tools pyelftools

• Build ubuntu rootfs

# If the rootfs source code has not been modified, you only need to build once
cd rootfs/arm64/glibc/ubuntu_rootfs/

# For MaixCAM2
./mk_ubuntu_base_sipeed.sh .

# For KVM Pro
./mk_ubuntu_kvm_sipeed.sh .

• Build System Image

Note: If you encounter a missing symbol error during the first compilation, try to recompile. This may be because some dependencies are generated during the compilation process. Or you can add the -j1 option to avoid multi-threaded compilation when compiling.

# export use_ubuntu_rootfs=no  # For MaixCAM2 and KVM project, the default is yes

cd build

# For MaixCAM2
make p=AX630C_emmc_arm64_k419_sipeed_maixcam2 clean all install axp -j8

# For KVM Pro
make p=AX630C_emmc_arm64_k419_sipeed_nanokvm clean all install axp -j8

• In build/out directory, you will find the axp format package.

Customize rootfs

If you need to add or remove rootfs packages during development, you can modify the packaging script for the corresponding platform.

The path of the packaging script:

Platform	Packaging script path
MaixCAM2	rootfs/arm64/glibc/ubuntu_rootfs/mk_ubuntu_base_sipeed.sh
KVM Pro	rootfs/arm64/glibc/ubuntu_rootfs/mk_ubuntu_kvm_sipeed.sh

Modification method reference:

• If you need to install the i2c-tools utility, add apt install -y i2c-tools near the apt install section in the script.
• If you need to install the Python package pyaudio, add pip install pyaudio near the pip install section in the script, or add toml to the rootfs/arm64/glibc/ubuntu_rootfs/requirements.txt file. For KVM Pro, the configuration file is kvm_requirements.txt.

Read the packaging script code, you can customize the rootfs more freely by modifying the packaging script.

Note: If you modify the rootfs and add too many files, you need to modify build/projects/xxxx/partition_ab.mak to ensure ROOTFS_PARTITION_SIZE is large enough, otherwise the packaging will be wrong.

Based on rootfs Customize Files

This step is based on the already packaged rootfs to customize files, which can reduce the time required to modify rootfs every time.

Platform	Project Directory
MaixCAM2	build/projects/AX630C_emmc_arm64_k419_sipeed_maixcam2
KVM Pro	build/projects/AX630C_emmc_arm64_k419_sipeed_nanokvm

In the project directory, modify bootfs.filelist to specify the content of /boot to be updated, modify rootfs.filelist to specify the content of / to be updated.

Examples: If you want to add new files to /opt, just add the new files to rootfs/opt.

Download and Start

Download AXDL Download AXDL Driver, extract and run DriverSetup.exe to install the driver.

By default, the build process generates an axp file, which is usually output to build/out/xxx.axp.

• The axp file can be directly flashed to EMMC using the official AXDL tool (this method always works).

Creating an SD Boot Card

1. Insert the SD card.
2. Format the SD card and create an MBR partition table (it must be MBR).
3. Create partition 1 as fat32 with 128 MB allocated.
4. Create partition 2 as ext4, allocating all remaining space. Note: the partition order must not be changed.
5. Copy all contents of build/out/AX630C_emmc_arm64_k419_sipeed_maixcam2/images/sd_boot_pack to partition 1.
6. Copy build/out/AX630C_emmc_arm64_k419_sipeed_maixcam2/images/spl_AX630C_emmc_arm64_k419_sipeed_maixcam2_sd_signed.bin to partition 1 and rename it to boot.bin.
7. Copy all contents of build/out/AX630C_emmc_arm64_k419_sipeed_maixcam2/objs/ubuntu_rootfs to partition 2.
8. Insert the SD card, hold down boot, then press rst. The bootrom will attempt to load boot.bin from the FAT32 partition of the SD card and start it. boot.bin will then launch atf.img and uboot.bin.uboot.bin will load kernel.img and dtb.img, and boot into the Linux system. The U-Boot startup logic can be found inboot/uboot/u-boot-2020.04/cmd/axera/sd_boot/sd_boot.c.

Modifications and Notes

All code changes are marked with:

### SIPEED EDIT ###
modified content
### SIPEED EDIT END ###

Pay attention to spaces. You can locate all changes by performing a global search.

Modifications related to CMM and SYSTEM memory allocation:

1. Default configuration: modify the BOARD_xxx_OS_MEM_SIZE value in partition.mak / partition_ab.mak.
2. After flashing: modify the maix_memory_cmm size in /boot/configs. This value will be automatically read by U-Boot and during driver loading at boot time.