Xserver from scratch on i.MX6

Working through tutorials on Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 7.4, and building the X Window System from source on MX6. These instructions are for Xorg-Server-1.14.3 and GPU blobs from 3.10.17-1.0.2 BSP release. With this setup, glmark-es2 and other demos seem to run properly with the Vivante hardware.

Create a minimal rootfs but do not install anything xorg from the distro.

Refer to the official instructions and setup the build environment. Using XORG_PREFIX=/usr/local in this example. The following would be read into the environment to prepare for building:

# Functions to help us manage paths.  Second argument is the name of the
# path variable to be modified (default: PATH)
pathremove () {
        local IFS=':'
        local NEWPATH
        local DIR
        local PATHVARIABLE=${2:-PATH}
        for DIR in ${!PATHVARIABLE} ; do
                if [ "$DIR" != "$1" ] ; then
                  NEWPATH=${NEWPATH:+$NEWPATH:}$DIR
                fi
        done
        export $PATHVARIABLE="$NEWPATH"
}

pathprepend () {
        pathremove $1 $2
        local PATHVARIABLE=${2:-PATH}
        export $PATHVARIABLE="$1${!PATHVARIABLE:+:${!PATHVARIABLE}}"
}

pathappend () {
        pathremove $1 $2
        local PATHVARIABLE=${2:-PATH}
        export $PATHVARIABLE="${!PATHVARIABLE:+${!PATHVARIABLE}:}$1"
}

export -f pathremove pathprepend pathappend

# if Xorg is to be installed somewhere other than the default /usr, it will require some
# additional setup to the environment 

XORG_PREFIX=/opt/X11

XORG_CONFIG="--prefix=$XORG_PREFIX \

             --sysconfdir=/etc \

             --localstatedir=/var \

             --disable-static"

export XORG_PREFIX XORG_CONFIG

pathappend $XORG_PREFIX/bin             PATH

pathappend $XORG_PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig   PKG_CONFIG_PATH

pathappend $XORG_PREFIX/share/pkgconfig PKG_CONFIG_PATH

pathappend $XORG_PREFIX/lib             LIBRARY_PATH

pathappend $XORG_PREFIX/include         C_INCLUDE_PATH

pathappend $XORG_PREFIX/include         CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH

# single quotes will prevent XORG from expanding 

ACLOCAL="aclocal -I $XORG_PREFIX/share/aclocal"

export PATH PKG_CONFIG_PATH ACLOCAL LIBRARY_PATH C_INCLUDE_PATH CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH

Add $XORG_PREFIX/lib to the /etc/ld.so.conf file if necessary (e.g. for Debian):

echo "$XORG_PREFIX/lib" >> /etc/ld.so.conf.d/xdev.conf

sudo mkdir $XORG_PREFIX $XORG_PREFIX/lib

sudo ldconfig

# most of the following tools will probably need to be installed:

apt-get install curl vim sudo gcc make bzip2 python lzop bc git libncurses5-dev
apt-get install flex libtool automake pkg-config bison check
apt-get install gettext libxml2-dev python-libxml2 libexpat1-dev libfreetype6-dev libpng12-dev \
intltool libpixman-1-dev libgcrypt11-dev  libfontconfig1-dev intltool g++ xsltproc
apt-get install libudev-dev # silently disabled udev in xserver configure without this

Follow BLFS instructions to get started installing the following modules:

• util-macros-1.17.1
• Xorg Protocol Headers
• libXau-1.0.8
• xcb-proto-1.8
• libxcb-1.9.1 # might need xdmcp
• Xorg Libraries - all at once or try to piece it out to get as far as MesaLib 
• xtrans-1.2.7
• libX11-1.6.2
• libXext-1.3.2 
• libXfixes-5.0.1
• libXdamage-1.1.4

MesaLib-9.2.0

MesaLib should build once libdrm and all the previous dependencies are installed.

On i.MX6, installing libdrm will provide libdrm.so and libkms.so. The GPU driver will come from the FSL blobs.

The drm-update-arm.patch has been applied to libdrm but what will break if it is not?

Build as follows, else it will probably fail to configure unless intel, radeon etc. are explicitly disabled:

autoreconf -fi &&

./configure --prefix=$XORG_PREFIX --enable-udev \

            --disable-intel --disable-radeon --disable-nouveau 

The following command provides a minimum Mesa configuration ("--with-dri-drivers" ensures that glxgears will run in X with the software rasterizer, and is implicitly linked to "--enable-opengl"): 

autoreconf -fi &&

./configure CFLAGS="-O2" CXXFLAGS="-O2"    \

            --prefix=$XORG_PREFIX          \

            --sysconfdir=/etc \

            --with-dri-drivers=swrast \

            --disable-egl --disable-gbm \

            --disable-gallium-egl --disable-gallium-llvm \

            --disable-gallium-gbm \

            --with-gallium-drivers="" \

            --disable-shared-glapi \

            --disable-glx

If all goes well, configure confirms what goes in the build:

        prefix:          /opt/xorg

        exec_prefix:     ${prefix}

        libdir:          ${exec_prefix}/lib

        includedir:      ${prefix}/include

        OpenGL:          yes (ES1: no ES2: no)

        OpenVG:          no

        OSMesa:          no

        DRI drivers:     swrast

        DRI driver dir:  ${libdir}/dri

        GLX:             no

        EGL:             no

        llvm:            no

        Gallium:         no

        Shared libs:     yes

        Static libs:     no

        Shared-glapi:    no

        CFLAGS:          -O2 -Wall -std=c99 -Werror=implicit-function-declaration -Werror=missing-prototypes -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-builtin-memcmp

        CXXFLAGS:        -O2 -Wall -fno-strict-aliasing -fno-builtin-memcmp

        Macros:          -D_GNU_SOURCE -DHAVE_PTHREAD -DHAVE_DLOPEN -DHAVE_POSIX_MEMALIGN -DUSE_EXTERNAL_DXTN_LIB=1 -DHAVE_ALIAS -DMESA_EGL_NO_X11_HEADERS

        PYTHON2:         python2

        Run 'make' to build Mesa

This should not be seen if gallium options are disabled as in the configure shown above, otherwise glxgears will run but perform poorly, e.g.:

GL_RENDERER   = Gallium 0.4 on softpipe

GL_VERSION    = 2.1 Mesa 9.2.0

GL_VENDOR     = VMware, Inc.

xorg-server

Install additional tools and build more modules.

apt-get install libgcrypt20-dev libudev-dev libpciaccess-dev libfreetype6-dev intltool

pixman-0.30.2

# Xorg Libraries
libXxf86dga-1.1.4
libxkbfile-1.0.8
libfontenc-1.1.2
libXfont-1.4.6

# Xorg Applications
mkfontscale-1.1.2
mkfontdir-1.0.7
bdftopcf
xkbcomp-1.3.0.tar.bz2
Xorg Fonts
xkeyboard-config-2.9

Configure and build xorg-xserver:

# --enable-config-udev should not be needed (auto) if libudev intalled

./configure $XORG_CONFIG  --with-xkb-output=/var/lib/xkb  --enable-config-udev  --enable-install-setuid && make clean && make

# Be sure libudev has been installed (see example warning RE udev below), else keyboard 
# and mouse probably will not work ... "--enable-config-udev" should be enabled by default 

configure: error: udev configuration API requested, but libudev is not installed

checking for OPENSSL... no  # is it needed?

Not sure this part (/etc/sysconfig doesn't exist in my Jessie bootstrap):

cat >> /etc/sysconfig/createfiles << "EOF"
/tmp/.ICE-unix dir 1777 root root
/tmp/.X11-unix dir 1777 root root

Before installing xorg-xserver, run "make check" to detect missing components or other problems:



XKB: Failed to compile keymap

Keyboard initialization failed. This could be a missing or incorrect setup of xkeyboard-config.

(EE)

Fatal server error:

(EE) Failed to activate core devices.(EE)

(EE)

Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support at http://wiki.x.org for help.

(EE)

FAIL: xtest



# Xorg Drivers

xf86-video-fbdev-0.4.3

xf86-input-evdev-2.8.1

XTERM:

# Xorg Libraries

libXt-1.1.4 (libICE-1.0.8 libSM-1.2.2)

libXaw-1.0.12 (libXmu-1.1.2 libXpm-3.5.11)

xinit-1.3.3

# update server location if not /usr/bin, or link it to /usr/bin/X

defaultserver=/usr/local/bin/X

# missing xf86-video-fbdev

[ 93901.576] (EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0) 

[ 93901.576] (EE) No drivers available. 

[ 93901.576] (EE)
Fatal server error: 

[ 93901.576] (EE) no screens found(EE)

# missing xf86-input-evdev-2.8.1

[ 95009.839] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module evdev 

[ 95009.839] (II) UnloadModule: "evdev" 

[ 95009.839] (II) Unloading evdev 

[ 95009.839] (EE) Failed to load module "evdev" (module does not exist, 0)

# missing Modesetting drivers (not installed in BLFS) ?.

[ 95008.617] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"

[ 95008.619] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module modesetting

[ 95008.619] (II) UnloadModule: "modesetting" 

[ 95008.619] (II) Unloading modesetting 

[ 95008.619] (EE) Failed to load module "modesetting" (module does not exist, 0)