Verdin imx8mm Desktop environment with apt package manager

Hi,

I want to use desktop environment (like lxde, gnome) on verdin imx8mm module (with custom yocto build and apt package manager). Is this possible? How should i configure my yocto configure files and display server (wayland, x11) and other dependicies to do this?.

I tried this on portainer docker containers (with debian xfce) but "core dumped error " has been occured or gtk display server error.

How can i do this ?

Hi @askak,

Let us first validate your build environment.

Please follow the step-by-step presented here to build a Yocto image for BSP 5.0 with a machine set for the Verdin iMX8MM module.

Once you have set everything, go ahead with the build of our reference multimedia image:

bitbake tdx-reference-multimedia-image

That will generate a TEZI artifact that you’ll have to flash into your Verdin iMX8MM module.

Also, be aware that you shall use Toradex Easy Installer 2.0b6, which is available to download in our Artifactory as instructed here.

If you manage to build and flash the “tdx-reference-multimedia-image”, we can prepare for the next steps.

What I can say to you in advance is that we don’t have the support for LXDE/Gnome/XFCE anymore, that has been dropped after BSP 3.

The way for you to use any graphical application is to use Wayland directly, or to configure your Yocto Project for using a Desktop Environment compatible with Wayland.

Best regards,
André Curvello

Greetings,

On what version of our software are you working on? Mainly are you working on our 5.0 or 4.0 BSP/Torizon.

Generally speaking though I do have some suggestions. With the yocto/BSP approach you are welome to try and combine any 3rd party meta-layers that provide desktop capabilities. We currently don’t have any documentation or proven methods here to share as testing particular desktops falls out of scope of our usual testing. Though starting with our 5.0 BSP we provide a “multimedia” image this image provides a large suite of graphical libraries and packages namely the wayland and weston stack. So I’d suggest starting your customization efforts based on this image, since the foundation is already there.

As for the Torizon/Containers approach this is a little harder to say as it’s harder to say what does and doesn’t work since containers allow for such a wide arrange of customization. Though similarly as with BSP/Yocto we do provide some base Debian containers with the weston/wayland stack preinstalled: Debian Containers for Torizon | Toradex Developer Center

The point I’m trying to make is that I’d suggest to start with foundations we already provide with weston/wayland and try a desktop solution that works with this stack. Not to say that other graphical stacks don’t work just that we’re more familiar with weston/wayland.

Best Regards,
Jeremias