Vitis PetaLinux build cant fetch required files while building an application project

Question

I want to build a PetaLinux Image for my Ultra96v2. I followed this guide up until building my application project in Vitis. It looks promising but then while building the application project for my custom platform, Vitis throws this error:

18:08:28 **** Incremental Build of configuration Debug for project dpu_appl_system ****
make all 
Generating bif file for the system project
Executing command '::scw::generate_bif -xpfm /media/user/6b04b610-ff80-4702-a575-b0b1a78fbafb/dpu_pkg/dpu_demo/export/dpu_demo/dpu_demo.xpfm -domains linux_domain -bifpath /media/user/6b04b610-ff80-4702-a575-b0b1a78fbafb/dpu_pkg/dpu_appl_system/Debug/system.bif' on XSCT
sdcard_gen --xpfm /media/user/6b04b610-ff80-4702-a575-b0b1a78fbafb/dpu_pkg/dpu_demo/export/dpu_demo/dpu_demo.xpfm --sys_config dpu_demo --bif /media/user/6b04b610-ff80-4702-a575-b0b1a78fbafb/dpu_pkg/dpu_appl_system/Debug/system.bif --bitstream /media/user/6b04b610-ff80-4702-a575-b0b1a78fbafb/dpu_pkg/dpu_appl/_ide/bitstream/dpu_hardware.bit --sd_file /media/user/6b04b610-ff80-4702-a575-b0b1a78fbafb/dpu_pkg/dpu_appl/Debug/dpu_appl.elf
creating BOOT.BIN using /media/user/6b04b610-ff80-4702-a575-b0b1a78fbafb/dpu_pkg/dpu_appl/_ide/bitstream/dpu_hardware.bit
Running /home/user/Xilinx/Vitis/2021.2/bin/bootgen -arch zynqmp -image /media/user/6b04b610-ff80-4702-a575-b0b1a78fbafb/dpu_pkg/dpu_appl_system/Debug/sd_card_temp/boot.bif -w -o i BOOT.BIN
ERROR:BootGen - syntax error
   Line #13, "/media/user/6b04b610-ff80-4702-a575-b0b1a78fbafb/dpu_pkg/dpu_appl_system/Debug/sd_card_temp/boot.bif".
... emo/sw/atf,dpu_demo/boot/bl31.elf
              ^
 
[ERROR]  : BIF file parsing failed with code 1
Error writing SD card data : Error when running '/home/user/Xilinx/Vitis/2021.2/bin/bootgen -arch zynqmp -image /media/user/6b04b610-ff80-4702-a575-b0b1a78fbafb/dpu_pkg/dpu_appl_system/Debug/sd_card_temp/boot.bif -w -o i BOOT.BIN'
make: *** [makefile:42: package] Error 1
 
18:08:36 Build Finished (took 7s.643ms)

It specifically shows me, that there is a comma in the path where it searches for the file. The files are available

• at the "normal" location, without the "atf,", "dtb,", etc

• at the "weird" location. I created the path so the requested path exists for every file that throws an error message, like

   /media/user/6b04b610-ff80-4702-a575-b0b1a78fbafb/dpu_pkg/dpu_appl_system/Debug/sd_card_temp/boot.bif". ... emo/sw/atf,dpu_demo/boot/bl31.elf
  

I created the path with the weird artefact "arf,dpu_demo", with the komma in the path, but still it wont work. Is this some kind of problem with Vitis, like some env variables not set correctly, or is the building mechanism just acting weird? I cant resolve this issue, because I am not able to change the paths it is supposed to look for the files. This hinders me in advancing my project. I work on Ubuntu 20.04.

Can anyone help me out here, please? I would really appreciate it! I asked this question in the Xilinx Community, too, but unfortunately there was no resonance at all.

Thank you so much in advance!

Answer 1

PLEASE READ THE WHOLE ANSWER FOR ACTUAL SOLUTION

I think I got it now, though I did not verify whether the image actually works on my Ultra96v2, yet.

I noticed, that the weird path with commata is inside of the boot.bif and system.bif. So the first time I tried to build it, the bif wasnt there, but got created (I assume). The bif was ready then but only had a weird path inside, so I took the makefile (you can find it in debug/sd_card), copied it, and just commented out the line GENERATE_BIF_XSCT_CMD = ${GENERATE_BIF} -xpfm ${XPFM_PATH} -domains ${DOMAINS} -bifpath ${BIF_PATH}.

Then I edited the boot.bif and system.bif and changed the atf,boot, uboot,boot, and dts,boot to just boot, so the BootGen wouldnt look into the directories with the commata anymore, but only the boot-directory which was specified.

Once that was set up, I executed the edited makefile in my console, by going into the sd_card-directory and executing the following command:

make -f <your_edited_makefile>

This means, that you cant press "build" in Vitis, it wont work. You build the content on your own and wont get a green check mark beside the project! Then the sd_card-directory was populated with (I assume) all necessary data to boot the Ultra96v2 from SD card. This was the content:

• boot.scr
• BOOT.BIN
• dpu_appl.elf (your application project name, I guess)
• README.txt
• system.dtb

The underlying issue seem to have been that the ::scw::generate_bif created a path to look after, which didnt exist. Really weird issue, in my opinion.

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UPDATE: I just made some changes to the PetaLinux config with the petalinux-config command and rebuilt everything. Once I go to the Vitis part, I changed the system.bif within Vitis itself, and the project compiled successfully, also populating the sd_card directory, as it seems.

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UPDATE 2: Everything failed, so I tried to get to the *.bif of the Application System project. I opened it (linux.bif) and edited the "atf,", "dtb," and "uboot," out of it. Since this is only created once and references by the following files, this fixed my issue and the build was completed successfully in Vitis. So just ignore my originial answer and update.

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I hope this is working and hope it will help some of you.