Docker as build environment

Due to the compatibility issues in different OS platform, some tools such as automake or autoconf which is the popular tool in opensource to set up the compile environment, the building numerous open source projects could be failed because of unmatched tool versions on your building environment. In order to prevent this failure, Docker container that already has necessary tools and toolchains would be the promising building environment tools, it could help you to start the building and you are not required to install unnecessary tools to your OS platform.

For ODROID-N2, the Docker container based on Ubuntu 16.04 with toolchains is provided through Docker Hub. This page will briefly go through how you can use it.

https://hub.docker.com/r/odroid/meson64-dev

In order to run the Docker container, Docker must be installed on your system and Docker webpage provides the instructions for the various OS platforms and the versions. Between the variant of Docker services, Docker CE is strongly recommended to install.

• Debian
• Ubuntu
• Fedora
• Mac
• Windows

Once your account is privileged to access Docker service, you can start to download and install the Docker image. For ODROID-N2, the Docker container based on Ubuntu 16.04 with toolchains is provided through Docker Hub, https://hub.docker.com/r/odroid/meson64-dev.

host

$ docker pull odroid/meson64-dev:201901
201901: Pulling from odroid/meson64-dev
3b37166ec614: Pull complete 
504facff238f: Pull complete 
ebbcacd28e10: Pull complete 
c7fb3351ecad: Pull complete 
2e3debadcbf7: Pull complete 
8200f2345b79: Pull complete 
19b0cbc43f19: Downloading [===========================>                       ]  27.62MB/51.06MB
44413b1d22ad: Downloading [=======================================>           ]  98.68MB/125.4MB
26eb8b89cad2: Download complete 
f70b2fb97e70: Download complete 
2ac91b46f862: Download complete 
f065583f93e0: Download complete 
25e2e434e6c5: Downloading [=====================>                             ]  48.28MB/111.1MB
7c9bfd7b4c30: Waiting 
47492c161b55: Waiting 
0dd0cecdfc05: Pulling fs layer 
e34313b986e1: Waiting 
a5a90a812114: Waiting 
6c3b77dd78fc: Waiting 
e1f9544ef33e: Waiting 
403a115e7e88: Pulling fs layer 
9fd3394805a2: Waiting 
8f0535da0557: Waiting 

Downloaded Docker containers can be listed with the command docker images.

host

$ docker images
REPOSITORY                            TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
odroid/meson64-dev                    201901              1a26e3b18434        8 days ago          2.51GB

In this example, the host OS platform is Ubuntu 18.04 and after starting Docker container with docker run … command, OS platform is switched to another one installed to the container.

host

$ uname -a
Linux paju.odroid.com 4.15.0-45-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jan 29 16:28:13 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
$ cat /etc/lsb-release 
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=18.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=bionic
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS"

You can simple get into the container and the default directory is /srv in the container.

host

$ docker run --privileged -it odroid/meson64-dev:201901
To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

Kernel version and OS platform version is switched from the host platform.

host

odroid@e3b08b8268aa:/srv$ uname -a
Linux e3b08b8268aa 4.15.0-45-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jan 29 16:28:13 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux    
odroid@e3b08b8268aa:/srv$ lsb_release
bash: lsb_release: command not found
odroid@e3b08b8268aa:/srv$ cat /etc/lsb-release 
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04.5 LTS"

The toolchains for ODROID-N2 are already installed in the container, odroid/meson64-dev:201901.

host

$ ls -l /opt/toolchains/
total 16
drwxr-xr-x 6 root  root 4096 Feb  4 03:44 gcc-arm-none-eabi-6-2017-q1-update
drwxr-xr-x 8 11827 9000 4096 Feb 16  2017 gcc-linaro-6.3.1-2017.02-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu
drwxr-xr-x 7  1001 1001 4096 Nov 19  2013 gcc-linaro-aarch64-none-elf-4.8-2013.11_linux
drwxr-xr-x 7  1001 1001 4096 Apr 17  2014 gcc-linaro-arm-none-eabi-4.8-2014.04_linux

For example, you alrady have downloaded the source tree of Buildroot in your host platform and willing to build it in the container, you must mount the source tree to a directory in the container. This can be simply done adding an argument -v $PWD:/srv to docker run.

This is the directory in the host platform.

host

$ ls -l
total 36
-r--r--r--  1 tobetter tobetter   98 Aug 29 03:07 Makefile
drwxr-xr-x  3 tobetter tobetter 4096 Jan  9 00:30 bootloader
drwxr-xr-x 18 tobetter tobetter 4096 Feb  9 19:02 buildroot
drwxr-xr-x  5 tobetter tobetter 4096 Nov  8 22:55 hardware
drwxr-xr-x  3 tobetter tobetter 4096 Dec  3 23:03 kernel
drwxr-xr-x 17 tobetter tobetter 4096 Nov  8 22:55 multimedia
drwxr-xr-x  3 tobetter tobetter 4096 Aug 29 03:07 toolchain
drwxr-xr-x  5 tobetter tobetter 4096 Feb  9 18:49 vendor

Docker container can be started,

host

$ docker run -v $PWD:/srv -it odroid/meson64-dev:201901
To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.
 
odroid@6020bc058acd:/srv$ ls -l
total 36
-r--r--r--  1 odroid 1000   98 Aug 28 18:07 Makefile
drwxr-xr-x  3 odroid 1000 4096 Jan  8 15:30 bootloader
drwxr-xr-x 18 odroid 1000 4096 Feb  9 10:02 buildroot
drwxr-xr-x  5 odroid 1000 4096 Nov  8 13:55 hardware
drwxr-xr-x  3 odroid 1000 4096 Dec  3 14:03 kernel
drwxr-xr-x 17 odroid 1000 4096 Nov  8 13:55 multimedia
drwxr-xr-x  6 odroid root 4096 Oct 10 15:51 output
drwxr-xr-x  3 odroid 1000 4096 Aug 28 18:07 toolchain
drwxr-xr-x  5 odroid 1000 4096 Feb  9 09:49 vendor
odroid@6020bc058acd:/srv$ pwd
/srv
odroid@6020bc058acd:/srv$ whoami
odroid
odroid@6020bc058acd:/srv$ id -u
1000
odroid@6020bc058acd:/srv$ id -g
0