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https://github.com/turing-machines/BMC-Firmware

Turing-pi BMC firmware
https://github.com/turing-machines/BMC-Firmware

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Turing-pi BMC firmware

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README 

        
# Official Turing Pi BMC firmware



![GitHub Workflow

Status](https://img.shields.io/github/actions/workflow/status/turing-machines/BMC-firmware/build.yml?branch=master&style=for-the-badge)



The Turing Pi is a compact AI & edge computing cluster purposed to run cloud

stacks and AI inference at the edge. Find out more on our

[website](https://turingpi.com).



The firmware is based on a Linux 5.4 kernel and hosts a web interface with a

REST API to control and manage the board. The packages

[bmcd](https://www.github.com/turing-machines/bmcd),

[tpi](https://github.com/turing-machines/tpi) and

[bmc-ui](https://github.com/turing-machines/BMC-UI) are part of the firmware and

facilitate most of this functionality.



## Reporting issues & requesting features



It is recommended to use the issue tracker of the current BMC-Firmware repository

to request features or submit bug reports. We are open to all feedback and

improvements. We scan the dependent repositories regularly for activity, but for

visibility reasons, we will mainly use the issue tracker of this repository.



## BMC chip specs



 * CPU Allwinner T113-S3 (ARM Cortex-A7)

 * 128 MB DDR3 RAM

 * 128 MB SPI NAND flash (MX35LF1GE4AB)

 * EEPROM (24C02C)

 * 3 port Gigabit Ethernet Switch (RTL8370MB)

 * Ethernet PHYceiver (RTL8201F-VB-CG)

 * SD card slot



## Install firmware



>**Note: If you are running a firmware version lower than < v2.0.0, you must do

>a one-time-only SD card upgrade to version v2.0.0.**



>**Note 2: Prior to v2.0.0 a third-party tool 'PhoenixSuit' was required to

>flash firmware. This tool is obsoleted, and only the methods described on our

>website can be used to flash your board.**



The latest firmware images can be found on the [release page](https://github.com/turing-machines/BMC-firmware/releases).



On our

[website](https://docs.turingpi.com/docs/turing-pi2-bmc-firmware-upgrade)

you can find more information on installing firmware.



## Manual builds



If you want to build the BMC firmware yourself, there is some preparation

needed, which depends on your working environment.



The recommended way is to build using Docker, for that is a `Dockerfile` in the

root directory of this repository, that can be used to build a development

container. It has all the dependencies needed to build the firmware.



> The build process needs approx. 5GB to 10GB disk space. On OSX you need that

> amount of space reserved and free in the the LIMA VM of Docker or Rancher

> Desktop.



The build process uses [Buildroot](https://buildroot.org/) for further documentation

can be found [here](https://buildroot.org/downloads/manual/manual.html).

Buildroot is not included in this repository and needs to be downloaded once

before building. We included a script (`setup_build.sh`) that does everything

for you. Be aware that this script must be rerun when the buildroot version is updated.



### Using Docker on Linux



We would recommend that you go through the official docker documentation for

further details. If you want to quickly build and run it, execute the following

commands in the root of your repository:



```shell

# On the host: build the docker image

docker build . -t tp_container



# On the host: enter the container

docker run -it --rm -v $PWD:/src -w /src -u $(id -u):$(id -g) tp_container

# NOTE: the shell prompt might be a bit garbled, this is fine

#       the -u $(id -u):$(id -g) parameter ensures that the generated files

#       are owned by your user



# inside of the container: prepare buildroot

setup_build.sh

cd buildroot

make BR2_EXTERNAL=../tp2bmc tp2bmc_defconfig



# build

make

```



### Using Docker on OSX



Build of the BMC firmware is also possible here by using [Rancher

Desktop](https://rancherdesktop.io) or [Docker

Desktop](https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop/). The way Docker and

directory forwarding into the is working on OSX we need some addition step in

the manual build process. Those might not be needed for Docker Desktop, but

strange issues might happen. So if unsure follow this guide, it also speeds up

building on OSX significantly.



```shell

# On OSX shell: create container

docker build . -t tp_container



# On OSX shell: create a docker volume for building volume

docker volume create turing-pi-bmc-firmware



# On OSX shell: check out the repository in the volume

docker run -it -v turing-pi-bmc-firmware:/src -w /src tp_container \

  git clone https://github.com/turing-machines/BMC-Firmware.git



# On OSX shell: enter the container

docker run -it --rm -v turing-pi-bmc-firmware:/src -w /src tp_container



# inside of the container: prepare buildroot

setup_build.sh

cd buildroot

make BR2_EXTERNAL=../tp2bmc tp2bmc_defconfig



# build

make

```



> NOTE: Due to the ways this works the generated firmware files are on the

> volume



> NOTE: this steps also work on native Linux with Docker.



> Q: Why do we need this on OSX? A: This is because on Docker Desktop and

> Rancher Desktop on OSX use a remote filesystem via some tunneling mechanisms.

> This does not resemble all needed POSIX capabilities, and leads to strange

> errors and most likely non-working builds.



### Build nativly on a Debian or Ubuntu-like host



Currently, only X86 Linux build hosts are supported. They are

required to have the following packages installed:



```shell

# install packages needed for build

sudo apt-get -y install \

  build-essential subversion git-core \

  libncurses5-dev zlib1g-dev gawk flex quilt libssl-dev xsltproc \

  libxml-parser-perl mercurial bzr ecj cvs unzip zlib1g-dev \

  libstdc++6 libncurses-dev u-boot-tools mkbootimg



# prepare buildroot

setup_build.sh

cd buildroot

make BR2_EXTERNAL=../tp2bmc tp2bmc_defconfig



# build

make

```



> NOTE: This might work on WSL on Windows with Ubuntu, too.



Once the build completed, the SD card image and upgrade package

(`rootfs.erofs`)

can be found in the buildroot output folder, `buildroot/output/images/`.



Both UI and `tpi` can be used to write the upgrade package to your board. When

you try to upload the image via the firmware upgrade tab on the UI, You will

notice that the file extension is not matching the one the UI expects. You can

ignore this, a `.tpu` image is nothing more than a rename of `rootfs.erofs`

image. To smoothen the experience, you can decide to change the extension of the

file to `.tpu`.