Linux QT OS

Linux QT OS User Manual

../../../../../_images/Chipsee_Logo_Full.png

This manual provides users with a fast guide of Chipsee Industrial Computer (Abbreviate as IPC) about Linux QT OS development. Through this manual, users can quickly understand the hardware resources; users can build a complete compilation of Linux development environment; users can debug Linux QT OS via serial and Internet.

Revision

Date

Author

Description

V1.0

2021-12-09

Randy

Initial Version

SUPPORTED BOARDS:

CS80480T050 CS80600T080 CS10600T101 CS10600T070 CS80480T070 CS10768T097

PREBUILT FILES PACKAGE:

Prebuilt files for the various industrial PCs can be found in the OS Downloads.
Below are the links to the prebuilt files for each industrial PC model.

System Features

Feature

Comment

System

LinuxQt 4.8 & LinuxQt 5.5

Preparation

You will need to prepare the following items before you can start using the Prebuilt Files Package to re-flash the system.

  • Power Supply Unit (PSU) with the appropriate voltages, as follows:

    • Products with 5” display panel require 6V to 36V PSU

    • Products with 7” to 10.1” display panel and larger require 6V to 42V PSU

  • USB to serial cable for debugging Chipsee Industrial Embedded Computers (Chipsee IPC)

  • TF Card to create a bootable storage for re-flashing the system. Use the prebuilt files link above to re-flash the system.

Hardware Requirements

  • Chipsee Industrial PC

  • PSU according to the instructions above

  • USB-to-serial or other serial cable for debugging

  • TF Card (at least 4GB) and card reader

  • USB A-A cable (used only if the hardware configured as OTG)

  • Windows 7 PC

Software Requirements

  • Linux QT OS Prebuilt Files Package (from the link above)

  • Useful tools for Qt development

Note

In this documentation, all the commands are executed with root user privileges.

Getting Started and Tests

DIP Switch Configuration

Set the boot DIP switch, as shown on the figure below, to boot the system from the external SD Card.

../../../../../_images/Boot_SW2.jpeg

Figure 780: Boot Mode Setup

Downloading Images

Chipsee IPC supports booting from an integrated eMMC or an external TF Card (also known as the micro SD card). Booting from the external TF Card allows flashing the system OS.

Note

The operator should use the prebuilt file we provided in the CD to test the hardware before re-flashing the system.

Prebuilt Files Package

You can get the Prebuilt Files Package for each model from links mentioned at the beginning of this documentation. You can also get the Prebuilt Files Package from the DVD in /Linux QT/Prebuilds folder. However, it may be outdated so always compare the versions (the last number in the filename is the release date).

The prebuilt package has the following content:

Table 233 Prebuilt Files Package

Contents

Comment

boot/imx6ulipc.dtb

TF Card boot dtb file

boot/u-boot.imx

TF Card boot bootloader

boot/zImage

TF Card boot kernel file

filesystem/rootfs-emmc-flasher.tar.bz2

TF Card boot rootFS

mksdcard.sh

Shell tools to make bootable TF Card

README

Simple guidelines

S1.jpg

Boot Switch Config Figure

emmc-flash/emmc/rootfs.tar.gz

RootFS in target eMMC

emmc-flash/emmc/u-boot.imx

Bootloader in target eMMC

emmc-flash/emmc/zImage

Kernel file in target eMMC

emmc-flash/emmc/imx6ul-eisd.dtb

dtb file in target eMMC

emmc-flash/mkemmc.sh

Shell tools to download images

Note

The default zImage and imx6q-sabresd.dtb files support ‘keep the logo from uboot to kernel’ but do not support framebuffer. Chipsee provides zImage_framebuffer and imx6q-eisd.dtb_framebuffer file versions that support the framebuffer function but do not support the ‘keep the logo from uboot kernel’ feature. If you need the framebufer, just rename these two files to zImage and imx6q-eisd.dtb.

How to make a bootable SD card

The Prebuilt Files Package has a shell tool that can help create a bootable SD card using a Linux platform (such as desktop PC or Virtual Machine running Ubuntu 14.04 distribution).
Use the SD Card to download the bootable system image onto the Linux platform and follow the steps below to create a bootable SD card:

  1. Copy the Prebuilt Files Package to a Linux environment (such as Ubuntu 14.04).

  2. Insert the SD card into your computer. If you are using virtual machines, please ensure the SD card is mounted to the Linux operating system.

  3. Confirm the SD card mount point, /dev/sdX，(e.g., /dev/sdc or /dev/sdb, be sure to use the right one). In a Linux system, you can use the command below to find out what X is.
    $ sudo fdisk –l

  4. Copy the prebuilt-som-v3-csxxxxxtxx-v3-ezsdk-sd-yyyymmdd.tar.gz to somewhere(such as $HOME).

  5. Extract the prebuilt-som-v3-csxxxxxtxx-v3-ezsdk-sd-yyyymmdd.tar.gz
    $ tar -xzvf prebuilt-som-v3-csxxxxxtxx-v3-ezsdk-sd-yyyymmdd.tar.gz
  6. Go to the folder
    $ cd ~/prebuilt-som-v3-csxxxxxtxx-v3-ezsdk-sd-yyyymmdd
  7. Use the following command to flash the Linux QT OS to the SD card
    $ sudo ./mksdcard.sh --device /dev/sd<?>

    Note

    • sd<?> means the SD card mount point, (e.g., /dev/sdc or /dev/sdb) in Ubuntu system.

    • The recommended SD card should be Sandisk Class4 level SD card or above.

  8. The bootable SD Card is now ready. Power OFF the industrial PC and insert the SD Card.

  9. Set the DIP switch to uSD BOOT mode. (refer to DIP Switch Configuration above)

  10. Connect the industrial PC to PC via COM1. Power ON the IPC.

  11. After 20 minutes, if the LED on industrial PC stays lit, flashing is completed. Using COM1, you can also find this message >>>>>>> eMMC Flashing Completed <<<<<<< which indicates that the system image was downloaded correctly to the eMMC.

  12. Power OFF the IPC and set the DIP switch to eMMC BOOT mode. (refer to DIP Switch Configuration above)

How to flash Linux to eMMC

The Prebuilt Files Package has a shell tool that can help create a bootable SD card using a Linux platform (such as desktop PC or Virtual Machine running Ubuntu 14.04 distribution).
Follow the steps below to create a bootable SD card:

  1. Copy the Prebuilt Files Package to a Linux environment (such as Ubuntu 14.04).

  2. Insert the SD card into your computer. If you are using virtual machines, please ensure the SD card is mounted to the Linux operating system.

  3. Confirm the SD card mount point, /dev/sdX，(e.g., /dev/sdc or /dev/sdb, be sure to use the right one). In a Linux system, you can use the command below to find out what X is.
    $ sudo fdisk –l

  4. Copy the prebuilt file prebuilt-som-v3-csxxxxxtxx-v3-ezsdk-emmc-yyyymmdd.tar.gz to somewhere(such as $HOME).

  5. Extract the prebuilt file prebuilt-som-v3-csxxxxxtxx-v3-ezsdk-emmc-yyyymmdd.tar.gz
    $ tar -xzvf prebuilt-som-v3-csxxxxxtxx-v3-ezsdk-emmc-yyyymmdd.tar.gz
  6. Go to the folder prebuilt-som-v3-csxxxxxtxx-v3-ezsdk-emmc-yyyymmdd
    $ cd ~/prebuilt-som-v3-csxxxxxtxx-v3-ezsdk-emmc-yyyymmdd
  7. Use the following command to flash the Linux QT OS to the SD card
    $ sudo ./mksdcard.sh --device  /dev/sd<?>

    Note

    • sd<?> means the SD card mount point, (e.g., /dev/sdc or /dev/sdb) in Ubuntu system.

    • The recommended SD card should be Sandisk Class4 level SD card or above.

  8. The bootable SD Card is now ready. Power OFF the industrial PC and insert the SD Card.

  9. Set the DIP switch to SD BOOT mode. (refer to DIP Switch Configuration above)

  10. Connect the industrial PC to PC via COM1. Power ON the IPC.

  11. After 20 minutes, if the LED on industrial PC stays lit, flashing is completed. Using COM1, you can also find this message >>>>>>> eMMC Flashing Completed <<<<<<< which indicates that the system image was downloaded correctly to the eMMC.

  12. Remove the SD card and Power OFF the IPC.

  13. Set the DIP switch to eMMC BOOT mode (refer to DIP Switch Configuration above) and Power ON the IPC.

Start Linux QT OS

The first time you start Linux QT OS on the industrial PC will take a little time. But after the first time, Linux QT OS will start quickly. When the Linux QT OS starts up, you will see the Chipsee Logo on the LCD screen. It is a successful start if you see the Linux QT OS desktop such as the one shown in the figure below:

../../../../../_images/Startup_Screen3.jpeg

Figure 781: Chipsee Linux QT OS start-up screen

Tests

Touch screen and buzzer test

Click on the screen, the mouse arrow stays in a position that triggers the buzzer sounds, indicating that touch and buzzer work properly.
After working for some time, the resistive touch screen may not be accurate. The user must run a touch screen calibration test.
Click on the Chipsee icon on the desktop. Select Calibrate Screen to calibrate it, just as described in the figure below.

../../../../../_images/Touch_Screen_Test.jpeg

Figure 782: Resistive touch screen calibration app

The buzzer will sound when the screen is touched, if you want to disable it, you can do this:

  • On capacitive touchscreen:
    # echo 0 > /sys/devices/ocp.3/44e0b000.i2c/i2c-0/0-0038/buzopen
  • On resistive touchscreen:
    # echo 1 > /sys/devices/ocp.3/44e0d000.tscadc/tsc/buzopen
    where:

    • 0 = disable

    • 1 = enable

Audio and video test

Insert the microphone and earphones into the Audio IO interface (Audio IN coloured pink, Audio OUT coloured light blue).
as shown on the figure below, click the Multimedia icon on desktop then choose the MPEG-4+AAC Dec codec to test.

../../../../../_images/Audio_Video_Test.jpeg

Figure 783: Audio and Video

3D Test

Click the 3D icon on desktop, then choose Film TV to test perform 3D testing as shown on the figure below.

../../../../../_images/3D_Test.jpeg

Figure 784: 3D test Film TV

Serial test

There are four serial ports on the Chipsee IPC: 2 X RS232 and 2 X RS485. The COM1(RS232) is used as the debug serial port. Users can communicate with the OS via COM1. Refer to the table below for the available serial device nodes.

Table 234 Serial Ports Nodes on the System

Ports

Device Node

COM1(RS232, Debug)

/dev/ttyO0

COM2(RS232)

/dev/ttyO1

COM3(RS485)

/dev/ttyO2

COM4(RS485)

/dev/ttyO4

If you want to use COM1 as a normal serial port, you can re-configure the port by following these steps:

  • Open and edit the file /etc/inttab with any text editor.

  • At the end of the file, edit this line S:2345:repawn:/sbin/getty 115200 ttyO0 to

# S:2345:repawn:/sbin/getty 115200 ttyO0

  • The code-block above, comments off the last line making it possible to use all the four serial ports as normal serial ports.

  • You can verify the changes by running a serial test.

  • Run a serial test:

    • Install SecureCRT or Putty software on a Windows 7 PC and use it to perform the serial port testing.

    • Click on the Chipsee icon on desktop, select ChipseeTest to run the SerialTest app to communicate with Windows 7 PC.

    • From the ChipseeTest app, search for the serial area then configure the following settings, as shown on the figure below.

      • set Com to COM2

      • set Baud to 115200

      • click on the Open button

      ../../../../../_images/ChipseeTest_Screen.jpeg

      Figure 785: ChipseeTest

    • It will send the string Succeed in sending message!!! every two seconds through the serial port to the Windows 7 PC.

    • Click on the SendMSG button to send the string Succeed in sending message-manual!!!.

    • Every two seconds, it will read the received buffer and show the result to the received area.

CAN test

To perform the test, the user will need the following: 2 x Embedded Industrial Computers, 2 x CAN bus connectors, 1 x 120Ω resistor, and oscillometer.

  • The user will connect the two CAN bus connectors directly to each other for testing.

    Between CANH and CANL you should use a 120Ω resistor

  • At the CAN area, click on the Open button, then click on the SendMSG button to send message: 11 22 33 44 55 66 77 88

  • On both embedded industrial PCs, you should see the message shown at the received area.

  • If you have one embedded industrial PC, you can use an oscillometer to see the result.

GPIO test

There are (4) four input and (4) four output pins. LOW is 0V, HIGH is 5V.
The GPIO input terminals connect to the GPIO output terminals, respectively. IN1-4 corresponds to OUT1-4.
As a result, if you set the GPIO_OUT area, you will see the GPIO_IN region change as well.
You can control the LED light on the industrial PC by setting the LED ON or OFF.

Table 235 GPIO Nodes on the System

GPIO

GPIO In System

OUT1

gpio49

OUT2

gpio50

OUT3

gpio51

OUT4

gpio52

IN1

gpio53

IN2

gpio54

IN3

gpio55

IN4

gpio56

USER_LED

gpio19

You can read and write the GPIO by following the steps below. For this example, we are going to use gpio49 (OUT1).

  • Use this command to export gpio.
    # echo 49 > /sys/class/gpio/export
  • Use this command to check if the directory /sys/class/gpio/gpio49/ exist before writing to it
    # find /sys/class/gpio/gpio49/
  • Use this command to write gpio
    # echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio49/value
  • Use this command to read gpio
    # cat /sys/class/gpio/gpio49/value

Network

To view the network information on the industrial PC, follow these steps:

  • Click on the Network tab, then click the Ifconfig button to view the network information on the industrial PC.

  • Click on the Refresh button to restart the network service which will take five or six seconds to finish.

The figure below is an illustration of the network information on the industrial PC.

../../../../../_images/Network_Test.jpeg

Figure 786: View Network Information

Date and Time

Click the Edit icon at the time display area to set the time and date, as shown on the figure below.

../../../../../_images/Date_Time_Test.jpeg

Figure 787: Set Date and Time

  • Check the system time
    # date
  • Set the system time
    # date –s "2014-03-15 10:30:30"
  • Check RTC
    # hwclock
  • Write RTC
    # hwclock -w
  • Modify the time zone to a different timezone, such as China
    # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Hong_Kong /etc/localtime

Backlight

Modify this file /sys/class/backlight/backlight to adjust the screen brightness. Brightness ranges from 0 to 100 where 0 means no backlight, and 100 is the MAX brightness value.
For example, you can adjust the screen brightness using this command:

# echo 50 > /sys/class/backlight/backlight.10/Brightness

WiFi

The Linux QT OS has a WiFi module. If you want to get Wifi module to work, you need to edit the configuration file: /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf.

  1. Set SSID and password in the config file, as shown in the code-block below:
    1# vi /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf
2network={
3        ssid="Chipsee"    //set your wifi ssid
4        psk="1chipsee234567890"   //set your wifi password
5}
  2. Launch the Wifi
    ../../../../../_images/WiFi_Test_1.jpeg
    ../../../../../_images/WiFi_Test_2.jpeg
    ../../../../../_images/WiFi_Test_3.jpeg

    Figure 788: Launching WiFi

  3. After a few minutes, you can use the WiFi

Linux QT OS debug

In this section, we will discover how to view the Linux QT system via the serial port on a Windows 7 PC.
Also, we will discover how to debug using NFS on a Ubuntu Linux PC.

View Linux QT system via the serial port

Install the SecureCRT or Putty software on a Windows 7 PC to view the Linux QT system via the serial ports.
Follow these steps to view Linux QT system via the serial port:

  • Connect COM1 on the industrial PC board to Windows 7 PC.

  • Open the SecureCRT or Putty software on the Windows 7 PC.

  • Power ON the industrial PC. You will see the serial output information as shown on the figure below.

  • When the system is fully booted, you can communicate with it by logging in with these details: user= root and password= empty.

../../../../../_images/Serial_Debug.jpeg

Figure 793: Serial output information

Debug via NFS

  1. Install NFS on Ubuntu Linux PC.
    $ sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server
  2. Configure the file /etc/exports, by adding this line at the end of the file.
    /qtprojects *(rw, sync, insecure, no_subtree_check)

    Note

    • /qtprojects: the shared folder in Ubuntu system

    • *: allows all other PC to get access to this system

    • rw: means this folder can be read and write by NFS client

    • sync: synchronous write memory and hard disk

    • insecure: sent message through the port above 1024

    • no_subtree_check: no check the parent directory permissions

  3. Restart NFS service.
    $ sudo /etc/init.d/portmap restart
$ sudo /etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart
  4. Test
    $ showmount -e

    or mount the shared folder to /mnt:

    $ sudo mount -t nfs –o nolock localhost:/qtprojects /mnt

    Use the command df to check out the result, then umount.

    $ df -h
$ sudo umount /mnt
  5. Mount NFS on the industrial PC running Linux QT OS.

    Create the nfsdir directory

    # mkdir /nfsdir

    Mount the folder /qtprojects on the Ubuntu Linux PC to /nfsdir on the industrial PC.

    # mount –t nfs :/qtprojects /nfsdir

    If you have an executable program like SerialTest under folder /qtprojects, you can run it directly on the industrial PC.

    # /nfsdir/SerialTest

Linux App Development

In this section, we will introduce how to develop applications for the industrial computer in Linux.

Preparation

Software:

  1. Ubuntu system, we suggest Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS x64

  2. Install Qtcreator package: qt-linux-opensource-5.1.0-x86-offline.run.

  3. Install package ti-sdk-am335x-evm-07.00.00.00-Linux-x86-Install.bin provided by TI.

Steps

  1. We assume you have created a GUI program using Qtcreator, such as HelloWorld.

  2. Configure the environment variables for the TI package by using the command below to source a script file included in the TI package.
    $ source /opt/ti-sdk-am335x-evm/linux-devkit/environment-setup
  3. Change directory into the folder of your GUI program (HelloWorld) and run these commands:
    $ qmake –project
$ qmake
$ make

    Now there will be a file which you can run in the industrial PC. You can use the command file HelloWorld, to check if the file can be executed in the ARM platform.

  4. Put the file HelloWorld on the industrial PC. Then run the command below in the Ubuntu Linux system (communicate via COM1).
    # ./Hello

    The program will start running

  5. Add application to the desktop of Matrix

    • Put your program file HelloWorld into a folder which can be found by the system such as, /usr/bin.

    • Put the program’s icon into the folder: /usr/share/matrix-gui-2.0/apps/images/. For example, /usr/share/matrix-gui-2.0/apps/images/YOURAPPIMG.png

    • Go to the folder /usr/share/matrix-gui-2.0/apps/, then create a new folder named HelloWorld using this command $ mkdir HelloWorld.

    • Change directory to HelloWorld folder, then create a new file named HelloWorld.desktop using the command $ touch HelloWorld.desktop.

    • Edit the HelloWorld.desktop file using the command:

      1#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open[Desktop Entry] Name= YOURAPPNAME // Can be changed
2GenericName=Demo App
3Icon=/usr/share/matrix-gui-2.0/apps/images/YOURAPPIMG.png
4Exec=YOURAPPNAME
5Type=Application
6ProgramType=gui

    • Refresh the system by clicking on Settings–>Refresh Matrix, then click on run.

    • You will see your application’s icon on the desktop after refreshing. If the icon does not change in time, you need to reboot your system.

New development kit

  1. Open a Terminal in Ubuntu using the CTRL + ALT + T key combination. Enter the command below.
    # source /usr/local/ti-sdk-am335x-evm/linux-devkit/environment-setup
  2. Then open QtCreator
    # /opt/Qt5.1.0/Tools/QtCreator/bin/qtcreator &

    Choose Tool–>Options:

    ../../../../../_images/Dev_Kit_1.jpeg

    Figure 794: New Device

    ../../../../../_images/Dev_Kit_2.jpeg

    Figure 795: Properties of the Device

    ../../../../../_images/Dev_Kit_3.jpeg

    Figure 796: Succeed

    Click the Finish button to test the connection between the Ubuntu Linux system and the industrial PC via internet.
    Then click the Build & Run tab to select and apply a compiler, as shown on the figure below.

    ../../../../../_images/Dev_Kit_4.jpeg

    Figure 797: Compilers

    ../../../../../_images/Dev_Kit_5.jpeg

    Figure 798: Qt Version

    ../../../../../_images/Dev_Kit_6.jpeg

    Figure 799: Change the name

    ../../../../../_images/Dev_Kit_7.jpeg

    Figure 800: New kit settings

    Follow the Steps above to build a new project named Test and choose the new development kit.

    ../../../../../_images/Dev_Kit_8.jpeg

    Figure 801: Choose new kit

    Add the code below to the Test.pro file before you build & run.

    target.files = Test
target.path = /home/root
INSTALLS += target
    ../../../../../_images/Dev_Kit_9.jpeg

    Figure 802: Test.pro file

    Now you should see a window on the industrial PC.

Disclaimer

This document is provided strictly for informational purposes. Its contents are subject to change without notice. Chipsee assumes no responsibility for any errors that may occur in this document. Furthermore, Chipsee reserves the right to alter the hardware, software, and/or specifications set forth herein at any time without prior notice and undertakes no obligation to update the information contained in this document.

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, this document is not guaranteed to be error-free. Further, it does not offer any warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document, and no contractual obligations are formed either directly or indirectly by this document.

Despite our best efforts to maintain the accuracy of the information in this document, we assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, nor for damages resulting from the use of the information herein. Please note that Chipsee products are not authorized for use as critical components in life support devices or systems.

Technical Support

If you encounter any difficulties or have questions related to this document, we encourage you to refer to our other documentation for potential solutions. If you cannot find the solution you’re looking for, feel free to contact us. Please email Chipsee Technical Support at support@chipsee.com, providing all relevant information. We value your queries and suggestions and are committed to providing you with the assistance you require.