OpenPOWER Firmware Build Environment

The OpenPOWER firmware build process uses Buildroot to create a toolchain and build the various components of the PNOR firmware, including Hostboot, Skiboot, OCC, Petitboot etc.

Documentation

https://open-power.github.io/op-build/

See the doc/ directory for documentation source. Contributions are VERY welcome!

Development

Issues, Milestones, pull requests and code hosting is on GitHub: https://github.com/open-power/op-build

See CONTRIBUTING.md for howto contribute code.

• Mailing list: openpower-firmware@lists.ozlabs.org
• Info/Subscribe: https://lists.ozlabs.org/listinfo/openpower-firmware
• Archives: https://lists.ozlabs.org/pipermail/openpower-firmware/

Building an image

To build an image for a Blackbird system:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/open-power/op-build.git
cd op-build
./op-build blackbird_defconfig && ./op-build

There are also default configurations for other platforms in openpower/configs/. Current POWER9 platforms include Witherspoon, Boston (p9dsu), Romulus, and Zaius.

Buildroot/op-build supports both native and cross-compilation - it will automatically download and build an appropriate toolchain as part of the build process, so you don't need to worry about setting up a cross-compiler. Cross-compiling from a x86-64 host is officially supported.

The machine your building on will need Python 2.7, GCC 8.4 (or later), and a handful of other packages (see below).

Dependencies for 64-bit Ubuntu/Debian systems

1. Install Ubuntu 22.04 or Debian 12 (x86_64 or ppc64le).

2. Enable Universe (Ubuntu only):

    sudo apt-get install software-properties-common
    sudo add-apt-repository universe
   

3. Install the packages necessary for the build:

    sudo apt-get install cscope universal-ctags libz-dev libexpat-dev \
      python2 python-is-python3 language-pack-en texinfo gawk cpio xxd \
      build-essential g++ git bison flex unzip \
      libssl-dev libxml-simple-perl libxml-sax-perl libxml-parser-perl libxml2-dev libxml2-utils xsltproc \
      wget bc rsync
   

Dependencies for 64-bit Fedora systems

1. Install Fedora 33 (x86_64 or ppc64le).

2. Install the packages necessary for the build:

    sudo dnf install gcc-c++ flex bison git ctags cscope expat-devel patch \
      zlib-devel zlib-static texinfo "perl(bigint)" "perl(XML::Simple)" \
      "perl(YAML)" "perl(XML::SAX)" "perl(Fatal)" "perl(Thread::Queue)" \
      "perl(Env)" "perl(XML::LibXML)" "perl(Digest::SHA1)" "perl(ExtUtils::MakeMaker)" \
      "perl(FindBin)" "perl(English)" "perl(Time::localtime)" "perl(open)" \
      libxml2-devel which wget unzip tar cpio python bzip2 bc findutils ncurses-devel \
      openssl-devel make libxslt vim-common lzo-devel python2 rsync hostname
   

Building on a newer Fedora host with Toolbx

op-build officially targets Fedora 33. On a newer Fedora release, run the build inside a Fedora 33 Toolbx container. Your home directory is shared with the host, so you can keep the checkout where it is.

1. Create a Fedora 33 container (run on the host).

   On x86_64 the official image is used automatically:

    toolbox create --distro fedora --release 33 f33
   

   On ppc64le there is no official pre-built fedora-toolbox:33 image, so build one locally first, tagging it with the name Toolbx expects, then create the container from it:

    git clone https://github.com/containers/toolbox.git
    cd toolbox/images/fedora/f33
    podman build -t localhost/fedora-toolbox:33 .
    toolbox create --image localhost/fedora-toolbox:33 f33
   

2. Enter the container and install the Fedora 33 build dependencies listed above (the same sudo dnf install ... command):

    toolbox enter f33
   

3. Still inside the container, build as usual:

    cd op-build
    ./op-build blackbird_defconfig && ./op-build
   

   Re-enter the container with toolbox enter f33 for subsequent builds.

Alternatively, you do not have to enter the container at all. Because ./op-build sources the build environment itself, you can drive the build from the host with toolbox run (useful for headless or scripted builds). From the op-build checkout:

    toolbox run -c f33 ./op-build blackbird_defconfig
    toolbox run -c f33 ./op-build

The one-time dependency install can be run the same way:

    toolbox run -c f33 sudo dnf install <packages listed above>