4.1.1. Moving Files to the Target System
Introduction
This guide discusses how applications or other files can be moved to the target file system of the EVM.
File System on SD card
The SD card wic image which comes with the TI SDK has a Linux ext4 partition that is used as the target file system. This partition is readable from a Linux host. In Ubuntu 22.04 (64-bit) this partition will be mounted on :file`/media/$USER/rootfs` when the card is used with an SD card reader inserted into a USB port on the Ubuntu host.
When the SD card is mounted with a card reader in the Linux host it is possible to perform cp commands from the host into sub-directories
under /media/$USER/rootfs or just use a browser window to drag and drop the files from the host to the SD card.
Switching the SD card back and forth from the EVM to the SD card reader is time consuming during development. Using a NFS during development is the preferred method and makes moving files between the host and target trivial.
File System on Network File System (NFS)
When the target file system is served from the Linux development host
machine it is trivial to move files between the host and target. The
NFS directory is set up on the host machine by the SDK installer. The
default location in the SDK environment is $PSDK_PATH/targetNFS
This could vary depending on the version of the SDK and how it was installed.
An ls -l of this directory in the host system will show what will be the root
directory of the target when it boots up.
user@U1004GT:~/ti-sdk-AM3715-evm-4.0.0.0/filesystem$ pwd
/home/user/ti-sdk-AM3715-evm-4.0.0.0/filesystem
user@U1004GT:~/ti-sdk-AM3715-evm-4.0.0.0/filesystem$ ls -l
total 68
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 bin
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 boot
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 dev
drwxr-xr-x 55 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 etc
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 home
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 lib
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 Mar 9 2018 linuxrc -> /bin/busybox.nosuid
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 media
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 mnt
drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 opt
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 proc
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 run
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 sbin
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 srv
dr-xr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 sys
drwxrwxrwt 2 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 usr
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 4096 Mar 9 2018 var
So from the perspective of the host, the target filesystem is just a
sub-directory of the host. If the file is in ./targetNFS on the host,
then the same file will show up in the root directory of the target
after the target boots into the NFS. And if the file is in a
subdirectory of ./targetNFS (example ./targetNFS/sub-dir/) then it will
show up in the /sub-dir directory of the target after the target boots
into the NFS.
The top level makefile of the TI SDK supports an install target that will copy applications into the NFS of the SDK. See the README file at the top level of the SDK for information about the install target.