tqma6-yocto-mirror/docs/02-mirror-creation/step-by-step-mirror-creation.md

Step-by-Step Yocto Mirror Creation with ci-meta-tq

Document ID: PROC-MIRROR-001-REV3 Date: 2026-03-01 Verified: 2026-03-01 (Debian 13 + Ubuntu 22.04 Docker, incl. air-gapped deployment) System: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (recommended), Debian 12/13 (works with warning) Target: TQMa6UL Yocto Scarthgap mirror (UT build)

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Hardware Target

Field	Value
SoM	TQMa6UL (sticker: TQMA6U-AB)
SoC	NXP i.MX6 UltraLite (Cortex-A7, single core, 32-bit)
Carrier	MBa6ULx
Machine	tqma6ul-multi-mba6ulx
BSP Config	mainline (NOT imx!)

Warning: Do NOT use tqma6qdl-multi-mba6x — that is for the Quad/Dual variant on a different carrier board. The UltraLite is ONLY in mainline.

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Prerequisites

1.1 Host System

Resource	Minimum	Recommended
CPU	4 cores	8+ cores
RAM	8 GB	16+ GB
Disk	100 GB	200+ GB
OS	Ubuntu 22.04 LTS	Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

Note: Debian 12/13 also works. BitBake will show a warning ("Host distribution has not been validated") but builds succeed.

1.2 Required Packages (Ubuntu 22.04)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y \
    git python3 jq bash grep gawk wget diffstat \
    chrpath cpio texinfo gcc g++ make file tar \
    bzip2 gzip xz-utils zstd lz4 patch perl \
    python3-pexpect socat unzip rsync bc \
    libsdl1.2-dev xterm

1.3 Locale

sudo locale-gen en_US.UTF-8
export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

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Step 1: Clone ci-meta-tq

export UT_BASE=~/UT
mkdir -p ${UT_BASE} && cd ${UT_BASE}

# Clone at the Scarthgap release tag
git clone --branch scarthgap.TQ.ARM.BSP.0006 \
    --recurse-submodules \
    https://github.com/tq-systems/ci-meta-tq.git

cd ci-meta-tq
git submodule sync && git submodule update --init

Verify:

./ci/ls-configs --file
# Expected: imx, ls, mainline, ti

./ci/ls-machines --file --config=mainline | grep tqma6ul
# Expected: tqma6ul-multi-mba6ulx

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Step 2: Configure Downloads Directory

# Create shared download directory (outside build tree)
sudo mkdir -p /srv/yocto/downloads /srv/yocto/sstate-cache
sudo chown -R "$USER:$USER" /srv/yocto

# Create site.conf (global Yocto config)
mkdir -p ~/.yocto
cat > ~/.yocto/site.conf << 'EOF'
# UT Project - Download Directories
DL_DIR ?= "/srv/yocto/downloads"
SSTATE_DIR ?= "/srv/yocto/sstate-cache"
EOF

Important: Do NOT add premirror/own-mirrors config yet! That is only for the air-gapped target machine (Step 6).

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Step 3: Initialize Build Environment

cd ${UT_BASE}/ci-meta-tq

# CRITICAL: Accept the NXP/FSL EULA (required for firmware-imx)
export ACCEPT_FSL_EULA=1

# Set machine
export MACHINE=tqma6ul-multi-mba6ulx

# Initialize (creates build_ut/ directory)
. ./setup-environment build_ut mainline

Note: You will see a Qt6 GPL Exception EULA prompt. The ACCEPT_FSL_EULA=1 environment variable auto-accepts it. Without this variable, the setup script blocks waiting for input.

CRITICAL: Some recipes (firmware-imx) check local.conf, not just the environment variable. Add this to your local.conf:

echo 'ACCEPT_FSL_EULA = "1"' >> conf/local.conf

Verify:

bitbake -e | grep -E "^MACHINE=|^DISTRO=|^DL_DIR="
# Expected:
#   MACHINE="tqma6ul-multi-mba6ulx"
#   DISTRO="spaetzle"
#   DL_DIR="/srv/yocto/downloads"

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Step 4: Download All Sources (Fetch Only)

For mirror creation, you do NOT need a full build. Fetch-only is faster:

# Fetch all sources for the target image (no compilation)
bitbake tq-image-small-debug --runall=fetch

Expected: ~510 fetch tasks, takes 30-60 minutes depending on bandwidth.

Verify:

du -sh /srv/yocto/downloads/
# Expected: ~5 GB

ls /srv/yocto/downloads/*.done | wc -l
# Expected: ~138 completed downloads

Alternative: For a full build (also populates sstate-cache):

bitbake tq-image-small-debug

This takes 4-8 hours but also verifies the build actually succeeds.

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Step 5: Generate License Table

The license table is generated from BitBake metadata, NOT from build output:

cd ${UT_BASE}/ci-meta-tq
export ACCEPT_FSL_EULA=1
export MACHINE=tqma6ul-multi-mba6ulx
. ./setup-environment build_ut mainline

# Generate the build list (all 264 recipes)
bitbake tq-image-small-debug -g
# Creates: pn-buildlist, task-depends.dot

# Extract license + SRC_URI for every recipe
echo "Package,Version,License,SRC_URI,Recipe_File" > license-table.csv

while IFS= read -r recipe; do
    output=$(bitbake -e "$recipe" 2>/dev/null)
    pv=$(echo "$output" | grep '^PV=' | head -1 | sed 's/^PV="//' | sed 's/"$//')
    license=$(echo "$output" | grep '^LICENSE=' | head -1 | sed 's/^LICENSE="//' | sed 's/"$//')
    src_uri=$(echo "$output" | grep '^SRC_URI=' | head -1 | sed 's/^SRC_URI="//' | sed 's/"$//')
    recipe_file=$(echo "$output" | grep '^FILE=' | head -1 | sed 's/^FILE="//' | sed 's/"$//')
    first_url=$(echo "$src_uri" | grep -oP '(https?|ftp|git)://[^\s]+' | head -1 | sed 's/;.*//')
    recipe_file=$(echo "$recipe_file" | sed "s|.*/sources/||")
    license=$(echo "$license" | tr ',' ';')
    echo "\"$recipe\",\"$pv\",\"$license\",\"$first_url\",\"$recipe_file\"" >> license-table.csv
done < pn-buildlist

echo "Done: $(wc -l license-table.csv) entries"

Note: This takes ~30 minutes (one bitbake -e call per recipe). All Yocto variables (${GNU_MIRROR}, ${PV}, etc.) are fully resolved.

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Step 6: Package the Mirror

cd ${UT_BASE}

TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y%m%d)
ARCHIVE="UT-tqma6ul-yocto-scarthgap-${TIMESTAMP}"

mkdir -p ${ARCHIVE}/{sources,downloads,configs,docs}

# Copy repository (with submodules)
cp -r ci-meta-tq ${ARCHIVE}/sources/

# Copy all downloaded sources
cp -r /srv/yocto/downloads/* ${ARCHIVE}/downloads/

# Copy configs
cp ~/.yocto/site.conf ${ARCHIVE}/configs/
cp ci-meta-tq/build_ut/conf/local.conf ${ARCHIVE}/configs/ 2>/dev/null
cp ci-meta-tq/build_ut/conf/bblayers.conf ${ARCHIVE}/configs/ 2>/dev/null

# Copy license table
cp ci-meta-tq/build_ut/license-table.csv ${ARCHIVE}/docs/

# Create archive
tar czf ${ARCHIVE}.tar.gz ${ARCHIVE}/
sha256sum ${ARCHIVE}.tar.gz > ${ARCHIVE}.tar.gz.sha256

echo "Archive: ${ARCHIVE}.tar.gz ($(du -h ${ARCHIVE}.tar.gz | cut -f1))"

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Step 7: Air-Gapped Deployment

On the target machine (no internet):

# Extract
tar xzf UT-tqma6ul-yocto-scarthgap-*.tar.gz
cd UT-tqma6ul-yocto-scarthgap-*/

# Configure premirror (point to local downloads)
mkdir -p ~/.yocto
cat > ~/.yocto/site.conf << EOF
DL_DIR = "$(pwd)/downloads"
SSTATE_DIR = "/tmp/sstate-cache"
SOURCE_MIRROR_URL = "file://$(pwd)/downloads/"
INHERIT += "own-mirrors"
BB_NO_NETWORK = "1"
EOF

# Build
cd sources/ci-meta-tq
export ACCEPT_FSL_EULA=1

# CRITICAL: Also add to local.conf
echo 'ACCEPT_FSL_EULA = "1"' >> conf/local.conf
export MACHINE=tqma6ul-multi-mba6ulx
. ./setup-environment build_ut mainline

bitbake tq-image-small-debug

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Verified Results (2026-03-01)

Step	Status	Notes
Clone ci-meta-tq	✅	Tag scarthgap.TQ.ARM.BSP.0006
setup-environment	✅	Requires ACCEPT_FSL_EULA=1
Fetch all sources	✅	510/510 tasks, ~5 GB
License extraction	✅	264/264 recipes, 224 URLs
ci/ls-machines	✅	tqma6ul-multi-mba6ulx found
Debian 13 host	✅	Warning but functional
Ubuntu 22.04 host	✅	Tested in Docker, all steps pass
Air-gapped fetch (BB_NO_NETWORK=1)	✅	510/510 from local mirror
Full build	⬜	Not tested (sandbox RAM limit, needs 8GB+)

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Author: Siggi ⚙️ Revision: 3.1 (Ubuntu 22.04 + air-gap verified)