Getting started¶

Pre-requisites
Setting Up Zephyr environment
Getting EC FW framework code
Building and flashing

This project is based on Zephyr RTOS, so a Zephyr development environment is required.

Pre-requisites ¶

GitHub account
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or later.

Note

Alternatively Ubuntu shell installed on Windows can be used.

Note

If working in VPN or intranet environment need to set-up company proxy correctly for the command line tools which may include but not limited to apt-get wget, pip, git.

Setting Up Zephyr environment ¶

Refer to the official Zephyr’s Getting Started Guide while reviewing considerations below during each step.

Note

Latest EC FW Open source project is based on Zephyr v3.2 so need to refer to Zephyr v3.2 documentation and use Zephyr SDK 0.15.1.

1) OS selection ¶

Recommended OS is Ubuntu since environment setup is simpler and Zephyr SDK is not available in Windows.

2) Install dependencies ¶

Steps 2.1 and 2.2 from Zephyr guide are mandatory.

Note

If the tool is already present in the Ubuntu host, uninstall it and get the latest from a third-party Ubuntu repository as indicated.

3) Get Zephyr and Python dependencies ¶

Steps 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 and 3.7 from Zephyr guide are mandatory. This will retrieve a copy Zephyr RTOS and install all python dependencies.

Note

Zephyr copy cloned during this step is the latest kernel version under development and is not used as part of EC FW project.

4) Install Zephyr SDK and toolchain ¶

Steps 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3 from Zephyr guide are mandatory. Step 4.4 is only required if flashing HW via command line instead of using Dediprog.

Note

A toolchain is needed in some cases to compile for a specific EC SoC. Zephyr SDK already contains several toolchains. This project uses Microchip MEC15xx/MEC172x which is an arm-based microcontroller, so gnu arm-eabi toolchain included in SDK can be used.

5) EC SoC vendor-specific setup ¶

Currently only MEC15xx and MEC172x are supported. Perform steps 1 to 3 from Setup section in MEC15xx EVB Setup guide and steps 2 to 4 from Setup section in MEC172x EVB Setup guide

Note

GitHub repo root folder is MEC SPI generator tools

Getting EC FW framework code ¶

1) Clone main repository ¶

Create a folder sandbox and clone ecfw-zephyr project

mkdir ~/sandbox
cd ~/sandbox
git clone https://github.com/intel/ecfw-zephyr

2) Obtain the dependencies ¶

Navigate to west manifest location inside ecfw-zephyr and re-initialize west

cd ecfw-zephyr
west init -l

See EC FW’s dependencies

west list

repo	destination	revision	external repository
zephyr	zephyr_fork	v3.2.0	https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/zephyr
cmsis	modules/hal/cmsis	093de61	https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/cmsis
hal_microchip	modules/hal/microchip	5d079f1	https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/hal_microchip

Retrieve all external project dependencies

west update

Your directory structure should look like this:

sandbox
|____ecfw-zephyr               This repository
|____ecfwwork/modules          Zephyr RTOS modules includes EC SoC HAL
|____ecfwwork/zephyr_fork      Snapshot from Zephyr RTOS

3) Apply back-ported fixes ¶

Some additional patches are required to be applied to the Zephyr kernel for building the open source EC FW application. The latest release is based out of Zephyr v3.2 and hence these patches need to be applied on that branch.

These patches are expected to be part of the future Zephyr releases (if they are not already integrated).

Note: Below steps assume environment has been setup as indicated in the main Intel Open source EC FW documentation.

Check out the main branch

cd ecfw-zephyr
git checkout master

Apply zephyr patches on to the kernel branch

cd ../ecfwwork/zephyr_fork
git am ../../ecfw-zephyr/zephyr_patches/patches_v3.2.patch

Troubleshoot ¶

If west init throws an error during the step above, it means it detected a previous west installation. It’s safe to delete/backup pre-existing “.west” folder

For other problems refer to west documentation.

Building and flashing ¶

1) Set zephyr environment variables ¶

Run the following command to indicate to Zephyr SDK tool active Zephyr path.

cd ~/sandbox/ecfwwork/zephyr_fork
source zephyr-env.sh

Note

Multiple zephyr trees can coexist under same environment, setting ZEPHYR_BASE environment variable through this script allows to switch between them.

2) Build EC FW ¶

Go back to ecfw-zephyr main folder and build the application and all its dependencies. Below commands indicate details for each board. See Supported hardware section for more details.

cd ~/sandbox/ecfw-zephyr
# Building for MTL-S (on-board EC)
west build -c -p auto -b mec172x_mtl_s

# Building for MTL-P (on-board EC)
west build -c -p auto -b mec1501_mtl_p

# Building for TGL + MECC card (deprecated)
west build -c -p always -b mec1501modular_assy6885 -- -DCONFIG_MEC15XX_AIC_ON_TGL=y

# Building for MTL-P + MECC card (i.e. mec172x)
west build -c -p always -b mec172xmodular_assy6930

Note

Additional EC vendors are enabling their MECC cards in Zephyr. Similar build is possible replacing -b <modular board>.

If build is successful, zephyr.bin and ksc.bin will be generated.

Note

For modular cards this steps generates spi_image.bin instead.

ls  ~/sandbox/ecfw-zephyr/build/zephyr/*.bin

Troubleshoot ¶

1) If build command gives error indicating no ZEPHYR_BASE or no zephyr repository, make sure that step 1) is executed correctly.

printenv | grep ZEPHYR_BASE

If spi_image.bin is not generated, revisit EC vendor-specific setup.
1. Ensure SPI generator is available
printenv | grep SPI_GEN
1. Confirm the file is executable
ls -l /usr/local/bin/everglades_spi_gen_lin64
If file is not executable, make it executable.
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/everglades_spi_gen_lin64

Flash EC FW ¶

Flash EC FW as indicated in Official Intel documentation in RVP user guide using Dediprog. Refer to Intel documentation.