Yocto Raspberry Pi 3 with cpane Distribution

This repository provides a Yocto build setup for Raspberry Pi 3 using a custom "cpane" distribution with systemd, networking, and useful utilities pre-configured.

Quick Start

Option 1: Yocto-Native Approach (Recommended)

git clone --recursive <your-repo-url>
cd yocto-rpi3
source setup-env
bitbake core-image-minimal

Option 2: Automated Setup Script

git clone --recursive <your-repo-url>
cd yocto-rpi3
./scripts/setup-build.sh

Option 3: Custom Build Directory

git clone --recursive <your-repo-url>
cd yocto-rpi3
source setup-env my-custom-build
bitbake core-image-minimal

All approaches will automatically:

• Use the Raspberry Pi 3 machine configuration (MACHINE = "raspberrypi3")
• Apply the cpane custom distribution (DISTRO = "cpane")
• Configure all required layers (raspberrypi, openembedded, cpane)
• Set up systemd as the init system with networking features
• Include essential utilities and development tools

What's Included

cpane Distribution Features

• Target: Raspberry Pi 3
• Init System: systemd with usrmerge
• Networking: WiFi, Ethernet, ConnMan, DHCP
• Utilities: SSH, nano, htop, wget, curl, rsync
• Image Format: SD card image (rpi-sdimg)
• Serial Console: 115200 baud on ttyAMA0

Layer Structure

• meta-cpane/: Custom layer with cpane distribution
• meta-raspberrypi/: Raspberry Pi BSP layer
• meta-openembedded/: Additional OE layers (oe, multimedia, networking, python)
• poky/: Core Yocto Project reference distribution

Building Images

Once the environment is set up:

# Build minimal image
bitbake core-image-minimal

# Build image with development tools
bitbake core-image-full-cmdline

# Build image with GUI (if supported)
bitbake core-image-sato

Images will be created in build/tmp/deploy/images/raspberrypi3/.

Configuration Details

The setup uses Yocto's TEMPLATECONF mechanism to automatically configure builds with the cpane distribution templates, ensuring:

• No manual editing of build configuration files
• Consistent setup across different machines
• Standard Yocto workflow compatibility

Template Files

• meta-cpane/conf/templates/cpane/local.conf.sample: Machine and distribution settings
• meta-cpane/conf/templates/cpane/bblayers.conf.sample: Layer configuration

Customization

To modify the distribution:

1. Edit meta-cpane/conf/distro/cpane.conf for distribution-wide changes
2. Update templates in meta-cpane/conf/templates/cpane/ for build defaults
3. Add recipes to meta-cpane/recipes-* directories for additional software

Development Workflow

# Set up development environment
source poky/oe-init-build-env

# Make changes to meta-cpane layer
# Build and test
bitbake core-image-minimal

# Deploy to SD card (replace /dev/sdX with your SD card)
sudo dd if=build/tmp/deploy/images/raspberrypi3/core-image-minimal-raspberrypi3.rpi-sdimg of=/dev/sdX bs=1M status=progress

Requirements

• Host system with Yocto Project dependencies installed
• At least 50GB free disk space
• 8GB+ RAM recommended for parallel builds