I.MX6 - Ubuntu 13.04 with GPU acceleration

One of the main drawbacks with the existing freescale BSP releases (up to 4.1.0) was the lack of support beyond xorg-server version 11. This was due to lack of support within the Vivante GPU libraries. With the introduction of a new BSP based on kernel 3.5.7,  it is finally possible to build support for xorg-server beyond version 11. The added bonus is support for armhf, however this is offset by the fact that the Vivante libraries are currently marked as alpha.

I've put together a preview Xubuntu Raring (13.04) rootfs to demonstrate this, 13.04 is based on xorg-server 13.3. Sadly there no video acceleration, this is work in progress, the major hurdle is that existing fsl gstreamer plugins are coded against 0.10 and there are compatibility issues with a later GLib version. The short video above gives an indication of how the libraries performs (video shows running  glmark2-es2,  vivante sdk sample and the 3D game Neverball at 720p). Note, not all OpenGL applications (eg FireFox) are compatible with the Vivante libraries because of limited API.

The rootfs has been updated to use the latest Vivante libraries producing better performance figures for OpenGL.

The origins of my rootfs is this minimal console rootfs  which I think was put together by Robert Nelson (this has no GPU/VPU support). My rootfs is fairly clean, sanitised and contains a minimal xbuntu installation. The intention was include just enough to get an accelerated desktop functioning and for the rest to be customised depending on the target device.

Another goal was to make the rootfs available to be deployable to any i.mx6 device. It should be possible to deploy this to any i.mx6 device (eg boundarydevices, wandboard, utilite, udoo, cubox-i) assuming it contains a dual or quad processor. By the way I don't own any of the mentioned devices but glad to accept hardware donations. All you require is a working uboot and kernel (4.1.0) or (3.5.7). I haven't tested again a 3.5.7 kernel, furthermore it may be possible to run against a later kernel again not tested. If you plan to derive a new rootfs from mine, please acknowledge the author.

Extract the rootfs to your designated media and copy your kernel and modules as required. The rootfs is configured to output to the serial console with auto-logon for root. By default the image boots to display a console logon prompt, if hdmi is configured. The user and password are 'ubuntu'.

Xfce4 is not configured to auto start, you can start it by:

service lightdm start

If you require auto start, remove lightdm override:

rm /etc/init/lightdm.override

You will need to configure networking as per your requirements. I decided not to install network-manager due the dependencies on gnome. You may need to edit the nameserver entry in /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/tail .

The mesa utilities glxgears,es2gears, glmark2, glmark2-es2 are pre-installed. glmark2 will end after the jellyfish demo with a segmentation fault.

The Vivante samples are located in /root/gpu-viv-bin-mx6q-3.10.9-1.0.0-hfp/opt/viv_samples.

If your deployment fails to run X, then my next post has some debugging steps. Also available to answer questions  IRC Freenode #imx6-dongle