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Socketcan CAN-bus drivers added to OpenEmbedded

I just added a recipe to OpenEmbedded to build the Socketcan kernel modules from the socketcan SVN.  So if you are using the latest OpenEmbedded metadata, you can:

  • bitbake socketcan-modules
  • scp <oedir>/build/angstrom-2008.1/tmp/deploy/glibc/ipk/<machine>/socketcan-modules_0.0+svnr917-r0_cm-x270.ipk  root@<target IP address>:

and then on the target system:

  • opkg install socketcan-modules_0.0+svnr917-r0_cm-x270.ipk
  • opkg files socketcan-modules
Package socketcan-modules (0.0+svnr917-r0) is installed on root and has the following files:
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/net/can/can-bcm.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/drivers/net/can/sja1000/ems_pci.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/net/can/can-raw.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/drivers/net/can/sja1000/sja1000.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/drivers/net/can/softing/softing.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/drivers/net/can/sja1000/ems_pcmcia.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/drivers/net/can/sja1000/sja1000_platform.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/drivers/net/can/can-dev.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/drivers/net/can/softing/softing_cs.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/drivers/net/can/sja1000/pipcan.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/drivers/net/can/mcp251x.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/net/can/can.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/net/can/can-isotp.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.27/extra/drivers/net/can/vcan.ko

Then to use the modules:

  • depmod
  • modprobe mcp251x
  • modprobe can-bcm

What is CAN?  Can stands for Controller-area network and is popular in industrial and automotive applications.  A convenient way to add CAN to your Embedded Linux system is with the Microchip MCP2515.  This device connects to a SPI bus which means it can be interfaced with a number of popular SOC’s such as the PXA270, OMAP3, 91SAM9xxx, etc.

More on Socketcan later …

BTW, this recipe really illustrates how easy it is to compile kernel modules outside a kernel in OpenEmbedded:

DESCRIPTION = "Socketcan kernel modules"
HOMEPAGE = "http://developer.berlios.de/projects/socketcan/"
SECTION = "kernel/modules"
LICENSE = "GPL"
DEPENDS = "virtual/kernel"
PV = "0.0+svnr${SRCREV}"

SRC_URI = "svn://svn.berlios.de/socketcan/trunk;module=kernel;proto=svn"

S = "${WORKDIR}/kernel/2.6"

inherit module

This recipe tells OE to download the source, cross-compile it against your target kernel build dir, and then package it for easy install on the device.  This is the way things should work — no messing around figuring out make options, kernel source paths, compiler env variables, etc.

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