[TOC]
This document defines the organization of the program and project specific files needed by Zephyr EC projects.
The goals of the project organization include:
- Minimize code duplication, allowing multiple projects to share common configuration options and devicetree nodes.
- Define the set of files required by each project.
- Define the best practices for devicetrees.
-
program: The name of a Chromebook reference design. The program includes all Chromebooks based on a single AP SoC, such as Intel MeteorLake, Qualcomm 7c G3, or AMD Mendocino. The program corresponds to a single board overlay in the ChromeOS SDK. The term baseboard is often used as a synonym for program.
-
project: The name of a specific Chromebook model or variant. All Chromebook programs contain at least one project which serves as the reference design(s) for the program. The reference project may or may not use the same name as the program. For example, the reference project for the skyrim program is also called skyrim. The corsola program included two reference projects, kingler and krabby. For the legacy ECOS builds, board was used as a synonym for project.
This document uses bold to highlight the terms program and project to reference the definitions above.
The zephyr/program
contains the program and
project configuration files for all Zephyr based EC builds.
Each program has it's own subdirectory under zephyr/program
.
zephyr/program/
├── brya/
├── corsola/
├── herobrine/
├── intelrvp/
├── it8xxx2_evb/
├── minimal/
├── nissa/
├── npcx_evb/
├── rex/
├── skyrim/
└── trogdor/
The
zephyr/program/minimal
program contains example EC projects that demonstrate how to build a Zephyr EC with the minimum feature set enabled. These projects require only a working UART on the target board.
Each program subdirectory contains a subdirectory foreach each project, including a subdirectory for the reference project.
The minimum configuration for a program named skyrim with just a single reference project, also named skyrim, is shown below.
zephyr/program/skyrim/
├── include/
│ └── <program headers>.h
├── skyrim/
│ ├── include/
│ │ └── <project headers>.h
│ ├── src/
│ │ └── <project sources>.c
│ ├── CMakeLists.txt
│ ├── project.conf
│ └── project.overlay
├── src/
│ └── <program sources>.c
├── BUILD.py
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── Kconfig
├── program.conf
└── <devicetrees>.dtsi
Description of the files and directories found directly in the
level directory. Note that all paths are relative to the zephyr/program/
directory.
<program>
/
: Top level directory for the program. skyrim is the program name in the example above.<program>
/include/
: Directory containing the header files common to all projects in the program. Use of program level includes is discouraged. Instead, consider creating a generic driver that can be shared across all programs.<program>
/src/
: Directory containing the C source files common to all projects in the program.<program>
/BUILD.py
: Defines which projects can be made from this directory.<program>
/CMakeLists.txt
: CMake file for the program.<program>
/Kconfig
- Defines new Kconfig options, used by all projects in the program.<program>
/program.conf
- Sets the default Kconfig settings for all projects.<program>
/<devictrees>.dtsi
- One or more devicetree files, organized by the hardware module or EC feature. See the Devicetree Best Practices section for additional information.<program>
/
<project>
/
: Top level directory for the <project>. Create a separate directory for each project defined by the program.
Each project provides the following files. Note that all paths are relative
to the zephyr/program/
<program>
/
directory.
<project>
/include/
: The project may optionally provide a public include directory, but this is discouraged. There are some exceptions where the legacy EC code expects the project to define a public header, such as the keyboard_customization.h file.<project>
/src/
: Directory containing the C source files specific to the project.<project>
/CMakeLists.txt
: CMake file for the project.<project>
/project.conf
: Kconfig settings for the project.<project>
/project.overlay
: Main devicetree overlay for the project.
Creation of custom C source files specific to the program or project is discouaraged. You can usually project manage project specific settings with Kconfig and devicetree changes only.
Note that program and project custom C files are still subject to the same unit test requirements. So all custom C files also require that you write tests.
To set up a new EC program, create a new directory under
zephyr/program
with the organization shown below.
Note that for this example, the new program is called "my_program", and the
reference project is called "my_reference_project".
Tip - Copy one the projects defined by the minimal program to start with the bare miminimum of features required to boot the Zephyr EC appliation. Then follow the steps in the detailed in Creating a New Zephyr EC Project.
zephyr/program/my_program/
├── my_reference_project/
│ ├── CMakeLists.txt
│ ├── project.conf
│ └── project.overlay
├── BUILD.py
├── CMakeLists.txt
├── Kconfig
└── program.conf
An in-depth example of each file is given below:
BUILD.py
is a Python-based config file for setting up your reference
board and the associated variants. The name BUILD.py
is important
and case-sensitive: zmake
searches for files by this
name.
When BUILD.py
is sourced, the following two globals are defined:
here
: Apathlib.Path
object containing the path to the directoryBUILD.py
is located in.register_project
: A function which informszmake
of a new project to be built. YourBUILD.py
file needs to call this function one or more times.
register_project
takes the following keyword arguments:
-
project_name
(required): The name of the project (typically the Google codename). This name must be unique amongst all projects known tozmake
, andzmake
will error if you choose a conflicting name. -
zephyr_board
(required): The name of the EC chip used. Note: the concept of a Zephyr board does not align with the ChromeOS concept of a board. The Zephyr build system requires a set of devicetree and Kconfig files under underboards/${ARCH}/${ZEPHYR_BOARD_NAME}
. For the Zephyr EC application, the EC chip is mapped onto the Zephyr board organization. Supportedzephyr_boards
include:mec1727
: Microchip MEC1727, 416 KiB RAM, 512 KiB flashnpcx7
: Nuvoton NPCX7m7FC, 384 KiB, 512 KiB flashnpcx9m3f
: Nuvoton NPCX9m3F, 320 KiB RAM, 512 KiB flashnpcx9m7f
: Nuvoton NPCX9m7F, 384 KiB RAM, 1 MiB flashit81202bx
: ITE IT81202, 60 KiB RAM, 1 MiB flashit81302bx
: ITE IT81302, 60 KiB RAM, 1 MiB flash
-
supported_toolchains
(required): A list of the toolchain names supported by the build. Valid values are:coreboot-sdk
: only supported in the chroothost
: used for unit and integration testsllvm
: only supported in the chrootzephyr
: only supported outside the chroot
-
output_packer
(required): An output packer type which defines which builds get generated, and how they get assembled together into a binary. -
modules
(optional): A list of module names required by the project. The default, if left unspecified, is to use all modules known byzmake
. Generally speaking, there is no harm to including unnecessary modules as modules are typically guarded by Kconfig options, so the only reason to set this is if your project needs to build in a limited environment where not all modules are available. -
dts_overlays
(optional): A list of files which should be concatenated together and applied as a Zephyr device-tree overlay. The recommended setting is to select the project specific devicetree overlay file.dts_overlays=[here / project_name / "project.overlay"]
-
kconfig_files
(optional): A list of files that contain the Kconfig settings for the project. The recommended setting is select the program configuration file followed by the project configuration file.kconfig_files=[here / "program.conf", here / <project> / "project.conf",]
-
project_dir
(optional): The path to whereCMakeLists.txt
andKconfig
can be found for the project, defaulting tohere
.
Note that most projects will not want to call register_project
directly, but instead one of the helper functions, which sets even
more defaults for you:
register_host_project
: Define a project which runs in the chroot (not on hardware).register_raw_project
: Register a project which builds a single.bin
file, no RO+RW packing, no FMAP.register_binman_project
: Register a project which builds RO and RW sections, packed together, and including FMAP.register_npcx_project
: Just likeregister_binman_project
, but expects a file generated namedzephyr.npcx.bin
for the RO section with Nuvoton's header.
You can find the implementation of these functions in
zephyr/zmake/zmake/configlib.py
.
BUILD.py
files are auto-formatted with black
. After editing a
BUILD.py
file, please run black BUILD.py
on it.
This file, should at minimum contain the following:
cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.20.1)
find_package(Zephyr REQUIRED HINTS "${ZEPHYR_BASE}")
project(**project**)
If your program provides any C files, add them to your program CMake file
using zephyr_library_sources()
.
zephyr_library_sources("src/my_program_source.c")
For your project C files, create <project>/
CMakeLists.txt
and use
add_subdirectory()
to include the project CMake file.
add_subdirectory("my_reference_project")
Add the requires zephyr_library_souces()
calls to the
<project>/
CMakeLists.txt
file.
If your program or project provides a public header, make the include
directory visible to rest of the code using
cros_ec_library_include_directories()
.
cros_ec_library_include_directories("include")
If certain projects need project-specific C files or ifdefs, the only
way to do so is to create a Kconfig
file with the options schema you
want, and use it to toggle the inclusion of certain files.
The file must end with a single line that reads
source "Kconfig.zephyr"
. Note that this file is optional, so it's
recommended to only include it if you really need it.
program.conf
has default Kconfig settings for all projects defined for the
program. The format is KEY=VALUE
, as typical for Kconfig.
project.conf
has the Kconfig settings for a single project. The format is
KEY=VALUE
, as typical for Kconfig.
Kconfig settings in project.conf
take precedence over the Kconfig settings
from program.conf
.
project.overlay
is the main devicetree overlay for the project. The
project.overlay
contains the following components:
- One or more
#include
statements to add devicetrees defined by the program into project. /delete-node/
statements to remove specific devicetree nodes defined by the program devicetrees.- New devicetree nodes for project specific settings that are not provided by any program devicetrees.
Tip: After building your project, you can view the final devicetree in the file
build/zephyr/
<project>
/build-ro/zephyr/zephyr.dts
.
Unlike our legacy EC, there are no files or directories to copy and paste to setup a new variant in Zephyr code.
Simply add a register_project
-based call to the existing BUILD.py
for your reference board.
Below is an example of how programs may wish to structure this in
BUILD.py
:
# Copyright 2021 The ChromiumOS Authors
# Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
# found in the LICENSE file.
def register_variant(project_name, chip="it8xx2", extra_dts_overlays=()):
return register_binman_project(
project_name=project_name,
zephyr_board=chip,
dts_overlays=[
here / "base_power_sequence.dts",
here / "i2c.dts",
**extra_dts_overlays,
],
)
# Reference board
register_variant(
project_name="asurada",
extra_dts_overlays=[here / "reference_gpios.dts"],
)
# Variants
register_variant(
project_name="hayato",
extra_dts_overlays=[here / "hayato_gpios.dts"],
)
If a project is going to be a simple variant of another project (e.g.,
project bar
is exactly identical to project foo
but has just a few
device-tree/Kconfig changes), you can spin a new variant using the
return value of the register functions:
foo = register_variant(project_name="foo")
bar = foo.variant(
project_name="bar",
dts_overlays=[here / "bar_extras.dts"],
)
With this simple variant syntax, lists (like Kconfig files and DTS overlays) are concatenated. This means it's not possible to remove files during variant registration for this syntax, so it's only recommended for the simple case.
Below are the best practices for devicetree organization:
-
Split the devicetree across multiple files, organized by the functional block. This organization applies to the shared program devicetrees only.
- FW_CONFIG
- GPIOs
- I2C
- Interrupts
- Keyboard
- LEDs
- Sensors
- Thermal (fans and temperature sensors)
- USB-C
-
When creating program, usually with a single reference project, add the shared devicetree files in the program directory, separated by the functional area noted above.
-
Each project creates a
project.overlay
file, and uses#include
statements to add shared devicetree files from the program directory. An example project.overlay for the skyrim project is shown below./* Copyright 2021 The ChromiumOS Authors * Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be * found in the LICENSE file. */ /* Skyrim program common DTS includes */ #include "../adc.dtsi" #include "../fan.dtsi" #include "../gpio.dtsi" #include "../i2c.dtsi" #include "../interrupts.dtsi" #include "../keyboard.dtsi" #include "../motionsense.dtsi" #include "../usbc.dtsi" /* Skyrim project node overrides */ /* ... */
When the project needs to make changes to the shared devicetree files, there are two strategies:
- For small changes, add the
/delete-node/
attribute to theproject.overlay
file to remove the specific devices and devicetree nodes from the project final devicetree. - For larger changes, remove the corresponding
#include
statements from theproject.overlay
file. Then,dDirectly add any required nodes to theproject.overlay
file.
In both cases, the shared devicetree file in the program directory is not changed.
Examples of small devicetree changes include:
- Change the I2C peripheral address of a device.
- Changing USB-C related chips.
- Changing motionsense properties, such as the odr and ec-rate properties.
- Overriding a specific property of a node - for instance modifying the
pinctrl-0
property to adjust the EC pins connected to a device driver.
The example below demonstrates how to define a device in a program
devicetree file and then override the setting in the project.overlay
file.
-
The herobrine program defines the TCPC at I2C address
0xb
in the filezephyr/program/herobrine/i2c.dtsi
. This I2C address is valid for the herobrine, evoker, and villager projects while the hoglin project needs to change the I2C address to0x1b
./* zephyr/program/herobrine/i2c.dtsi */ &i2c1_0 { status = "okay"; /* ... */ tcpc_port0: ps8xxx@b { compatible = "parade,ps8xxx"; reg = <0xb>; }; };
-
The hoglin
project.overlay
file deletes the TCPC node at address0xb
and creates a new node at address0x1b
. The node name “tcpc_port0” is kept the same, so any references to this node name do not change, such as the USB-C port configuration./* zephyr/program/herobrine/hoglin/project.overlay */ #include “../i2c.dtsi” &i2c1_0 { /delete-node/ ps8xxx@b; tcpc_port0: ps8xxx@1b { compatible = "parade,ps8xxx"; reg = <0x1b>; }; };
While it is also possible to change a device’s I2C address by directly
overriding the reg
property, this should not be done. Changing only the reg
property causes a mismatch between the node name, ps8xxx@b
, and the actual
device address, 0x1b
.
Your project.overlay
file can also directly override properties defined by the
program devicetree files.
- The skyrim program sets the I2C clock frequency for first I2C bus to fast
(400 KHz).
/* zephyr/program/skyrim/i2c.dtsi */ &i2c0_0 { status = "okay"; label = "I2C_TCPC0"; clock-frequency = <I2C_BITRATE_FAST>; pinctrl-0 = <&i2c0_0_sda_scl_gpb4_b5>; pinctrl-names = "default"; };
- Override the I2C clock frequency to fast-plus (1 MHz) in the winterhold
project.overlay
./* zephyr/program/skyrim/winterhold/project.overlay */ #include "../i2c.dtsi" &i2c0_0 { clock-frequency = <I2C_BITRATE_FAST_PLUS>; };
For large devicetree changes, the preference is to copy the relevant devicetree
fragment into the project.overlay
file and edit the fragment directly.
Examples of large devicetree changes (or changes that don’t benefit from using the /delete-node/ attribute) include:
- GPIOs - specifically the “named-gpios” node. This integrates better with the arbitrage and the pinmap utility, which auto-generates the EC GPIO settings based on schematic data.
- Changes to the motionsense sensor types. Currently x86 architectures impose a
fixed ordering for the accelerometers and gryoscopes when accessed through the
LPC memory map (see the
EC_MEMMAP_ACC_DATA
). Deleting nodes changes the order of the children under the motionsense-sense node and causes the testhardware.SensorAccel
to fail. Copy the motionsense nodes into the project.overlay file and modify as required. - LED policies - generally each OEM/ODM defines unique LED policies for their designs to establish differentiation for their brand. There is little value to creating common LED policies for all projects in the program.
- Batteries - batteries also are generally specific to the OEM/ODM. Define the
project batteries directly in the
project.overlay
file.