[OE-core] [RFC] Adding machine-specific default packages to an image

[Mike Looijmans]

Since our boards needs 'some' bitstream in the FPGA to become somewhat useful, 
in the machine.conf I say:

MACHINE_FPGA_BITSTREAM ?= "fpga-image-miami-florida-gen-reference"
MACHINE_EXTRA_RRECOMMENDS = "${MACHINE_FPGA_BITSTREAM} ..."

This puts that into the packagegroup-base-machine RDEPENDS and hence it gets 
installed on the board if you don't specify anything else.

However, I want to be able to pick alternative FPGA bitstream providers in the 
image recipe. Without having to define a new machine for each and every project...

Currently, I do this by forcing packagegroup-base-machine and 
packagegroup-base-distro out of the IMAGE_INSTALL list (for some obscure 
reason, building packagegroup-base-distro also results in building the 
reference bitstream) and then add MACHINE_EXTRA_RRECOMMENDS directly to the 
IMAGE_INSTALL list, so I can set MACHINE_FPGA_BITSTREAM to whichever I'd like 
to have in this image.

I was lookign for a way to have the machine configuration inject its packages 
into the IMAGE_INSTALL (or similar) list, so it can easily be overridden in an 
image recipe.

Bluntly putting IMAGE_INSTALL+="${MACHINE_FPGA_BITSTREAM}" into the 
machine.conf might work, but doesn't "feel" quite right. But there's 
apparently no other way to do this.

An alternative would be to introduce an IMAGE_INSTALL_MACHINE variable that 
gets added to the PACKAGE_INSTALL variable in image.bbclass. That would allow 
machines to inject their desirables into the image instead. It's a simple 
patch, I've pasted it below:

diff --git a/meta/classes/image.bbclass b/meta/classes/image.bbclass
index 86a98bb..90c1c05 100644
--- a/meta/classes/image.bbclass
+++ b/meta/classes/image.bbclass
@@ -64,7 +64,8 @@ def check_image_features(d):

  IMAGE_INSTALL ?= ""
  IMAGE_INSTALL[type] = "list"
-export PACKAGE_INSTALL ?= "${IMAGE_INSTALL} ${ROOTFS_BOOTSTRAP_INSTALL} 
${FEATURE_INSTALL}"
+IMAGE_INSTALL_MACHINE ?= ""
+export PACKAGE_INSTALL ?= "${IMAGE_INSTALL} ${ROOTFS_BOOTSTRAP_INSTALL} 
${FEATURE_INSTALL} ${IMAGE_IN
  PACKAGE_INSTALL_ATTEMPTONLY ?= "${FEATURE_INSTALL_OPTIONAL}"

  # Images are generally built explicitly, do not need to be part of world.


Kind regards,

Mike Looijmans
System Expert

TOPIC Embedded Products
Eindhovenseweg 32-C, NL-5683 KH Best
Postbus 440, NL-5680 AK Best
Telefoon: +31 (0) 499 33 69 79
Telefax: +31 (0) 499 33 69 70
E-mail: mike.looijmans at topicproducts.com
Website: www.topicproducts.com

Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail