1. Overview

Debian, also known as Debian GNU/Linux, is a Linux distribution composed of free and open source software. Community-supported Debian Project develops and maintains it. It offers a vast repository of software packages, which the apt package manager can install.

TI creates Debian images by using the popular project called Armbian. Armbian is a highly-optimized base operating system (i.e. an extensive build framework) for building Debian-based images for Single-Board Computers. Unlike other tools, such as mmdebstrap and bdebstrap, which are often used for creating Debian images, Armbian focuses on creating images for Single-Board Computers.

TI’s AM62LX, AM62Px, AM62x and AM64x platforms offer the Debian distribution. Few key highlights of this project are:

  • The Debian filesystem image requires standard packages from debian.org and TI’s customizations as .deb packages. TI’s package build infrastructure uses public sources of git repositories to build deb packages. TI’s official repository maintained on Github/TexasInstruments/ti-debpkgs hosts these packages.

  • This document also provides the required steps and instructions to customize the TI’s components for AM62Lx, AM62Px, AM62x and AM64x Systems-on-Chip and create the corresponding deb packages.

  • The entire project is public and we accept community contributions as pull requests to GitHub repositories.

1.1. Debian vs Yocto

TI provides both Debian and OpenEmbedded/Yocto based images as their Linux offering. Here’s a quick comparison between both to decide the one to start with:

1.1.1. Comparison

File System

Debian

OpenEmbedded/Yocto (Arago)

Build Time

Faster since all the packages are downloaded as deb packages and installed.

All the packages are built from source. so build time is too high.

Patching SW Stack

Difficult because all components are installed as deb packages.

Since all the components are built from sources, patches can be applied using yocto recipes.

Host Hardware Requirements

Less because every component is downloaded except for bootloader.

High because building all the software stack takes so much storage space and computing power.

Installing new packages on the target

Since there is a package manager, installing packages is as simple as running apt install <package>.

Since there is no package manager, packages has to be built using yocto or cross-compiled, and then copied to the RootFS.

1.2. Acknowledgements

1.3. Technical Support

Technical support is a broad term. Our desire is to provide a solid product, good documentation, and useful training that defines a clear path for developing a product based on the Linux/Debian/RTOS/Android SDKs. However, we know we’ll never cover everything that can be done, and occasionally we even make mistakes <gasp>. So, when you can’t seem to find what you need, there’s a good place to search through previously answered questions and ask a new one - The E2E Support Forums.

There is an active community of TIers and other customers like you already using a TI Processor, on these forums. You may find your question has already been answered with a quick Search of the Forums. If not, a quick post will likely provide you the answers you need.