Linux for

DesignWare®
ARC®
Getting Started
Version 5977-007 August 2011
Linux for DesignWare ARC Getting Started
Synopsys, Inc.
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i Synopsys, Inc. August 2011

 Contents
Customer Support ...................................................................................................... 1
Accessing SolvNet ................................................................................................. 1
Contacting the Synopsys Technical Support Center .............................................. 1
1 About this Document ............................................................................................... 2
Document Overview ............................................................................................... 2
Typographical Conventions .................................................................................... 2
2 Building Linux for DesignWare ARC ........................................................................ 4
Installation and Build Overview .............................................................................. 4
Prerequisites .......................................................................................................... 4
Preparing Initramfs Before Building ........................................................................ 4
Building the Kernel ................................................................................................. 5
3 Running Linux for DesignWare ARC ....................................................................... 7
Running ARC Linux on Hardware (AA4 Board) ...................................................... 7
Running ARC Linux on the Instruction-Set Simulator ............................................. 8
4 Building BusyBox for ARC ....................................................................................... 9
5 Using an NFS-Based Workflow ............................................................................. 10
6 Troubleshooting ..................................................................................................... 11

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 Customer Support

Customer support is available through SolvNet online customer support and through
contacting the Synopsys Technical Support Center.

Accessing SolvNet
SolvNet includes an electronic knowledge base of technical articles and answers to
frequently asked questions about Synopsys tools. SolvNet also gives you access to
a wide range of Synopsys online services, which include downloading software,
viewing Documentation on the Web, and entering a call to the Support Center.
To access SolvNet:
1. Go to the SolvNet Web page at [Link]
2. If prompted, enter your user name and password. (If you do not have a
Synopsys user name and password, follow the instructions to register
with SolvNet.)
If you need help using SolvNet, click SolvNet Help in the Support Resources section.

Contacting the Synopsys Technical Support Center

If you have problems, questions, or suggestions, you can contact the Synopsys
Technical Support Center in the following ways:
Open a call to your local support center from the Web by going to
[Link] (Synopsys user name and password
required), then clicking “Enter a Call to the Support Center.”
Send an e-mail message to your local support center.
o E-mail support_center@[Link] from within North America.
o Find other local support center e-mail addresses at
[Link]
Telephone your local support center.
o Call (800) 245-8005 from within the continental United States.
o Call (650) 584-4200 from Canada.
o Find other local support center telephone numbers at
[Link]

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 1
About this Document

Document Overview
This document describes how to get up and running with ARC Linux. It
covers the following topics.
Preparing the shipped initramfs for kernel build
See Preparing Initramfs Before Build.
Building the ARC Linux kernel
See Building the Kernel.
Running ARC Linux on hardware (AA4 FPGA Reference Board)
See Running ARC Linux on Hardware (AA4 Board).
Running ARC Linux on the MetaWare Debugger’s Instruction Set
Simulator (ISS)
See Running ARC Linux on the Instruction-Set Simulator.
Building or rebuilding your own version of BusyBox for ARC
See Building BusyBox for ARC.
NFS-Based workflow
See Using an NFS-Based Workflow.
Troubleshooting
See Troubleshooting.

Typographical Conventions
This document uses the following typographical conventions:

Convention Meaning Examples

bold Functions get_callback()
predefined the simple_initiator_socket
classes class
values to be template
entered >

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Typographical Conventions Linux for DesignWare® ARC®

Convention Meaning Examples

literally Select Save All.
GUI elements
text to be replaced
with your own
sc_time
values
code in general

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 2
Building Linux for DesignWare ARC

Installation and Build Overview

A minimal Linux environment requires a kernel with a root file system
containing the init program, shell, inetd and utilities such as , , etc.
The ARC Linux distribution ships with kernel sources, a pre-built binary
initramfs (BusyBox based) that serves as the initial root file system, and the
uboot bootloader.

Prerequisites
The ARC GNU tools must be installed before attempting kernel builds.
Installation is described in the readme files that accompany ARC GNU.
Ensure the environment variable points to both the elf32 compiler
for kernel builds and the uClibc compiler used for application builds.
Assuming as your shell, issue a command such as the following:

Preparing Initramfs Before Building

The initramfs you receive is preloaded with the following:
Startup scripts:
Configuration scripts:
Target system libraries:
Cross-compiled BusyBox binary, which provides the functionality of
commonly used Unix utilities such as , , , , etc.,
including the program. The initramfs you receive includes both
statically and dynamically linked versions with the dynamically linked
version as the default (using symbolic links).
Other cross-compiled utilities such as , , ,
,
The initramfs you receive lacks the device nodes, typically mounted at
in a running Linux system, since creating, packaging, and unpacking

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 Building the Kernel Linux for DesignWare® ARC®

them requires superuser or sudo privileges. You can create them using a
helper script in the untarred initramfs:

Additionally, you can put whatever you please (scripts, cross-compiled

binaries) in the initramfs to be made accessible at run time on the target.

Building the Kernel

1. Configure the kernel:

Because the kernel source tree contains code for multiple architectures,
you need to provide with information to build ARC as an architecture-
specific component, using the variable . Specify this variable for all the
build commands; as a shortcut, you can set a shell alias or export as
an environment variable.
The defconfig target generates a kernel build configuration file
based on .
You can further modify the default configuration using or
targets.
2. Optionally adjust the initramfs folder path in .
Kernel build needs the exact path (absolute or relative) of the untarred
initramfs folder (see Preparing Initramfs Before Building). This information
is specified in kernel file with option .
By default its value is , which works out-of-the-box if
both the kernel and initramfs folders are at the same level in the directory
hierarchy. If not, change it to reflect the path on your system.
Note
If this initramfs path is a symbolic link, make sure a trailing '/' is appened to it:

3. Build the kernel with the following command:

It is not necessary to specify target as in previous ARC Linux

releases.

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Linux for DesignWare® ARC® Building the Kernel

The resulting file is a fully contained Linux image that is ready to

run on a simulator or an ARCangel target.

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 3
Running Linux for DesignWare ARC

This section describes running Linux for DesignWare ARC on hardware or

instruction-set simulator.

Running ARC Linux on Hardware (AA4 Board)

This section describes how to run ARC Linux on the FPGA-based
ARCangel 4 (AA4) board using the MetaWare debugger and Ashling
Opella XD connector (over JTAG) – assuming Microsoft Windows as host.
In addition to the vmlinx binary, you also need an FPGA bitfile (XBF)
containing ARC 700 and other hardware IP blocks to program the FPGA.
Start the debugger with the following command line:

This command line starts the MetaWare debugger in GUI mode and blasts
the FPGA with the bitfile, then downloads the kernel ELF file to the target.
Click Run, and the kernel will start booting.
To view the Linux console, connect the host to the ARCangel via serial port.
Configure the host serial port as follows:

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Linux for DesignWare® ARC® Running ARC Linux on the Instruction-Set Simulator

Running ARC Linux on the Instruction-Set Simulator

ARC Linux can also be run on the MetaWare debugger instruction-set
simulator (ISS). This way you can experiment with Linux without the need
for ARC hardware or FPGA implementations. The ISS not only emulates
the ARC ISA (and CPU micro-architecture such as caches and MMU); it
can also emulate some of the essential peripherals such as UART, frame
buffer, and Ethernet (Windows only). This makes the Linux experience very
realistic even though it is simulated: You can type shell commands on the
console, start new programs, and see their output in real time. It also
provides a very convenient environment to debug the kernel itself by
providing a slower system with features such as instruction tracing and
profiling.
The kernel binary built for real peripherals on AA4 also works in the ISS, as
corresponding device drivers detect where they are executing and abort
the device initialization if executing on the ISS instead of real hardware.
To emulate an ARC 700 4.9-based system, launch the debugger with the
following command line:

To emulate an ARC 700 4.10-based system, add the following:

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 4
Building BusyBox for ARC

ARC Linux releases up to and including 1.3 shipped a verified version of

BusyBox as part of the distribution – as patched sources. With ARC Linux
Release 1.4 that is no longer required. Any relatively recent upstream
version will build out-of-the-box for ARC. ARC Linux does include a pre-
built, binary-only BusyBox as part of the initramfs for ease of use.
To build your own version of BusyBox, do the following:
1. Issue the following commands:

2. Copy the resulting binary into initramfs:

3. Rebuild the kernel with the updated initramfs.

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 5
Using an NFS-Based Workflow

While initramfs serves as a good starting point for a working ARC Linux
system, it quickly becomes a major inconvenience in an iterative develop-
test-debug workflow, as it involves developing, copying-to-ramfs, kernel-
rebuild, kernel-reboot. Application development must not require a kernel
rebuild or especially a reboot. Ideally users want to develop on target itself,
but given the embedded nature of ARC Linux deployment and the lack of
target resources (processing power, applications), the next-best option is to
develop on the host and be able to access that development environment
on target in real time. You can do this by using NFS protocol-based remote
access (by default, NFS client is already enabled in the ARC Linux kernel).
Details might vary by distribution, but if you have NFS-shared one or more
host folders, you can mount the same folders on target as follows:

As a next step, you can completely eliminate initramfs by having an NFS-

based root file system. To do so, enable the option in
the kernel and specify the of the host that serves the root
file system as part of the kernel command line.

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 6
Troubleshooting

Following are some of the common pitfalls when trying to start the system
for the first time.
Problem: Linux Fails to Boot to the Shell Prompt
The CPU configuration (real or simulated) doesn't match the kernel
configuration (the kernel generally can report the exact cause of this
mismatch, primarily due to ).
Possible Causes
Cache-line size
MMU page size
MMU version
Absence of real peripherals (IDE or frame buffer) which a kernel built
with the corresponding driver tries to initialize
Clock frequency of the board as configured with MetaWare debugger
using does not match kernel configuration option
.
On the ISS, the kernel might not boot if one of the following toggles is
on in the MetaWare debugger:
o
o
o
o
You can turn them off using trace_throw, for example.
Problem: Garbled Output in Serial Console
Possible Cause
The baud rate of the UART does not match kernel configuration option
.

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