Device specification

How to Add a New kas Machine to meta-pantavisor

After defining a kas platform, the next step is to create a machine file. This file is the most specific configuration, connecting the general platform (which contains all the layers) to a single, specific device.

This file tells kas two primary things:

  1. Which platform (and all its layers) to use.
  2. What to set the Yocto MACHINE variable to.

Before You Start: We already have many machines defined in meta-pantavisor. Before creating a new one, please check if a file for your device already exists:

Example: Adding the Verdin i.MX 8MM machine

Let’s continue our example by creating a machine file for the Verdin i.MX 8M Mini, which uses the toradex-nxp platform we defined in the previous tutorial.

1. Find the Official Machine Name

Before creating the file, you must find the exact machine name defined by the vendor’s BSP. This name typically corresponds to a .conf file in the vendor’s Yocto layer.

For example, in the Toradex BSP layers (like meta-toradex-nxp), you can find machine configurations under conf/machine/. The file we are looking for is verdin-imx8mm.conf.

Therefore, the machine name is: verdin-imx8mm

2. Create the Machine YAML File

Now, we create a new file in the kas/machines/ directory, named after our machine: verdin-imx8mm.yaml.

This file will be very simple. Its main jobs are to include the correct platform and state the machine name.

Add the following content to kas/machines/verdin-imx8mm.yaml:

header:
  version: 16
  includes:
    # 1. Include the platform we created in the previous tutorial
    - kas/platforms/toradex-nxp.yaml

# 2. Specify the exact machine name from the BSP layer
machine: "verdin-imx8mm"