Building and Configuring Panda Server

Setting up the build for the Panda Socket Server requires configuring a number of dependencies and creating a suitable CONFIG file in the root directory so that they can be found.

Dependencies

The following dependencies must be configured before any part of the server can be built.

Zynq cross-compiler toolchain

This can be downloaded as part of the Xilinx Vivado build environment for working with Zynq, or probably any ARMv7-A cross-compiler can be used. This is needed to build all applications running on Panda.

PandABlocks-FPGA

This part of the Panda project must be available before the server can be built, as it contains a configuration file defining the low level register interface to the Panda firmware.

PandABlocks-rootfs

This part of the Panda project is required in order to provide a working kernel build tree, and to provide the zpkg build tool.

Setting up the CONFIG file

Start by copying the file CONFIG.example to CONFIG in the base directory, and edit the file by commenting out lines as appropriate and editing them.

The following symbols must be set to point to the appropriate dependencies:

BINUTILS_DIR

If the Zynq cross-compiler toolchain is not on the path, this must be set in order to build the kernel module and the target build. This symbol is not required for building the simulation server or the documentation.

KERNEL_DIR

In order to build the kernel module, this symbol must be pointed to the kernel build tree generated by the PandABlocks-roots build.

PANDA_ROOTFS

The zpkg build tool is found here.

The following symbols can all be left at their default values:

BUILD_DIR

This configures where the built files will be placed.

PYTHON

This configures which Python interpreter will be used for building.

SPHINX_BUILD

The sphinx-build Python script used for building the documentation.

DEFAULT_TARGETS

This determines which makefile targets are generated when make is run without specifying a particular target, or when make default is run.

Build Targets

The following build targets for the top level makefile are useful:

default

Builds all the targets specified by $(DEFAULT_TARGETS), by default this list is: driver, server, sim_server, docs, zpkg.

driver

Builds the kernel driver module.

server

Builds the server version to run on Panda.

sim_server

Builds a simulation version of the server to run on the local PC.

docs

Builds the documentation.

zpkg

Builds the final panda-server zpgk file.

clean

Removes the entire $(BUILD_DIR) directory.

Generated Files

In the $(BUILD_DIR) directory the following subdirectories and files will be found. In practice the .zpg file and html/ directory will be wanted.

driver/

The kernel module required for hardware access is built here.

server/

sim_server/

These two directories are used to build the server to run on Panda, and a simulation server to run on the local PC.

html/

The documentation is built in html format in this directory.

panda-server@version.zpg

zpkg-panda-server/

A zpkg for the server is built here.