11. FAQ

11.1 Bitbake problems

• bitbake cannot find conf/bitbake.conf
  Most likely your BBPATH is not set or set incorrect. BBPATH has to be YourBuildDir:OpenEmbeddedDir. Note, that it is important to have a leading YourBuildDir. If OpenEmbeddedDir leads the path, this error may occur as well.
  
  Important NOTE : you have to set BBPATH explicitly (I am not sure why). If you choose to use your env_xxx scripts, the variable seems to be set (according to set), but bitbake complains with above error.
• ./setup.py complains "error: could not create '/usr/local/lib/python2.4/site-packages/bb': Permission denied"
  The python development package ("python-dev" for Debian) may be not installed.
• During build process, a package complains not to find shared libs for installation
  This occured e.g. with the readline package for opie image. I did not find out, why this happens. The possible solution (at least it works on my system) is a manual (non bitbake) make clean;./configure and afterwards a bitbake -b ../.../readline_x.y.bb -c build. It seems to have something to do with the configuration phase of bitbake for this package.
• Bitbake complains a missing global variable "bb"
  You most likely have to install bitbake new (because of a newer version).
• Bitbake does not successfully execute setup
  If this happens, you have most likely not installed python-dev package, or you are acting as NON superuser.
• Bitbake does complain bb file missing after python package upgrade
  

  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "/usr/local/bin/bitbake", line 715, in ?
      bb.event.fire(bb.event.BuildStarted(buildname, pkgs_to_build, make.cfg))
    File "/usr/local/lib/python2.3/site-packages/bb/event.py", line 49, in fire
      if tmpHandler(event) == Handled:
    File "tmpHandler(e)", line 30, in tmpHandler
  NameError: global name 'bb' is not defined
  

  If this happens, you most likley have updated your python package. In this case call your bitbakes ./setup install --prefix=/usr/local as superuser again.
• Several packages do not build after bitbake update to version 1.3.3.x
  That problem occurs, as bitbake uses the ASSUME_PROVIDED variables different.
  Assumed, that you have a line like

          ASSUME_PROVIDED = "virtual/arm-linux-gcc-2.95"
  

  in your local.conf you have to change the "=" to "+=" to get it working again. The result looks like

          ASSUME_PROVIDED += "virtual/arm-linux-gcc-2.95"
  

• Bitbake complains wrong python modules after updating to newer version
  This may be cause, if e.g. you had a Gentoo installation and afterwards updated the the latest bitbake version using "svn". In this case you may have different python module dirs end up in module loading jam. You can set $PYTHONPATH to solve that or just remove the old bitbake stuff.

11.2 Monotone problems

• Initial monotone pull takes day(s)
  For some reason, the first pull takes a very long time. Unfortunately it restarts from the very beginning once stopped, so you need to have a long and stable internet connection.
  
  A first work arround is to get the db snapshot http://ewi546.ewi.utwente.nl/tmp/OE.db.bz2. Unpack it, where you decided to place your database. A final monotone --db=oe.db co --branch=org.openembedded.dev will setup your box.
• After a pull, monotone suggests to do a monotone merge
  That monotone merge was never successfull for me. In this case you should start from the beginning by downloading the current snapshot. How to do so see here.

11.3 Config problems

• How can I build older version (than the acual one) ?
  An entry CVSDATE="yyyymmdd" in your local.conf file should do that. I did not yet find out, if that works really.
• How can I use my own packages tree ?
  Add an entry to the BBFILES variable in you local.conf.
• Target image does e.g. not contain pcmcia package. How is the dependency tree for an image build ?
  In principle bitbake searches through the BBPATH to find a matching machine *.conf entry (e.g. conf/machine/c7x0.conf). This file may (and will) inherit other *.conf files. In this case the BOOTSTRAP_DEPENDS where overwritten instead of appended to the inherited BOOTSTRAP_DEPENDS.
  
  BOOTSTRAP_DEPENDS = ... : NOK Overwrites all inherited BOOTSTRAP_DEPENDS. BOOTSTRAP_DEPENDS += ... : OK Appends to inherited BOOTSTRAP_DEPENDS. The same was wrong for BOOTSTRAP_RDEPENDS. See also here.

11.4 Build problems

• Qte snapshot does not build
  If the actual snapshot is fails to build, you can use an older version. The most easiest way is to do so is to rename the qte-for_xxx snapshot file.
• My own sources compile, but do not provide an ipk.
  You have to provide one or more FILES entries in your package file.
• glibc_2.3.5 build complains "cfi_endproc directive missing" (Assembler Message).
  This already occured several times for me. Reason is a missing
  

                          GLIBC_ADDONS = "nptl"
                          
  

  somewhere in your configuration (in my case a new target machine).
• Packages file of tmp/deploy/ipk does not update when adding a new ipk file.
  This directory is not meant to be a local repository. Nevertheless, it can easily be made to that. Just use my mkPackages.rc script to rebuild the Packages file in any ipkg directory. See also here.
• PXA openzauruskernel 2.4 or other Z kernels do not build. Complains "unmet dependencies for char.o"
  On my Debian Sarge, the program loadkeys does only run with superuser rights. This leads to an empty driver/char/corgi_keymap.c, which leads to the above mentioned error.
  
  If you do not want to modify your /dev/console
  A cd kernel/linux/driver/char, followed by sudo loadkeys --mktable corgi_keymap.map | sed -e 's/^static *//' > corgi_keymap.c creates the file. A kernel/temp/run.do_compile.xxx recompiles without configuring. This creates the kernel.
  
  If you want to modify your /dev/console
  Become superuser and call chmod 644 /dev/console. This will make loadkeys work also as a normal user. But be carefull. From now on, any normal user can modify the kernels keymap. This is probably a high risk security item. Read man loadkeys also.
• konqE does not build. "-lpcre : library not found"
  This is not yet solved, but I found a workarround.
  
  Remove tmp/staging/arm-linux/lib/libpcreposix.* and reconfigure / build konqE again. This helps to build konqE, but I am not sure, whether libpcreposix is needed in the target image.
• bitbake does not find any package to build
  A similar message like

  [OE-BOXER]sc@schomep4:~/scdev/oe/build-boxer2$ bitbake opie-image
  NOTE: Psyco JIT Compiler (http://psyco.sf.net) not available. Install it to increase performance.
  NOTE: Using cache in '/home/sc/scdev/oe/build-boxer2/tmp/cache'
  ERROR: no files to build.
  NOTE: Parsing finished. 0 cached, 0 parsed, 0 skipped, 0 masked.
                          
  

  is printed out.
  
  You most probably do not have the build/conf/local.conf file there (dir or file not existing) or configured wrong (no package dir found).
• Patch file (or other addon file) is not available at build time.
  This happened in my case with corgi_power-r22.patch. The reason was a file corgi_power-r22.patch.md5 in the sources dir. This was created obviously by a buggy (self edited) patch line entry in the bb file.
  To help out of that, just clear the md5 file from the sources dir.
• Some packages do not build, because during installation phase some directories are not builded (linux-hotplug, e.g.)
  You possibly are using the wrong shell. I had that phenomenon on my Debian Sarge installed office PC, while my home box (also Debian Sarge) worked.
  Some packages (linux-hotplug) and some target (package_rpm) do use a special feature, which is provided by bash, but not by e.g. dash. A mkdir -p {SPECS,RPM/{i386,i586,noarch},SRMPS} should lead to a directory structure ./SPECS, ./RPM/i386, ./RPM/i586, ./RPM/noarch, .SRPMS. Means that the bracket term will be expanded during runtime.
  My problem was even more tricky. The expansion worked in a terminal, while it did not during bitbake execution. The reason was a link /bin/sh leading to /bin/dash instead of /bin/bash.
• How can I add a customized /etc/fstab ?
  Files like the mentioned are provided by the packages basefiles. The easiest way if to manipulate the org.openembedded.dev/packages/base-files/base-files/fstab but this will potentially be lost, after the next monotone update call. So a better way is to create a private copy using the mechanisms described in the customize dir.
• A "nothing provides libx11" (example) error occurs building an XServer (e.g.) but the package file is available
  This is most like an unwanted BBMASK entry (e.g. to reduce opie build time). In my case I had set BBMASK = "gpe|x|matchbix", so it could not find it, though the package file was there.

11.5 Adding packages problems

• How do I add one or more new package(s) to bootstrap-image ?
  Add the package name to BOOTSTRAP_EXTRA_DEPENDS and BOOTSTRAP_EXTRA_RDEPENDS to do so. This variable is expanded in task-bootstrap package to add the list of required packages. You can do that e.g. in org.openembedded.dev/conf/distro/yourdistro.conf.
• How do I build a customized bootstrap image
  See here.
• I added a package to the distro file (BOOTSTRAP_EXTRA_(R)DEPENDS), but rebuild (e.g.) bootstrap-image did not insert that package.
  In case of bootstrap-image the packages list is provided by task-bootstrap package. If you did not rebuild this package, the target image will not contain the package. To be sure tio have the new package in the image, follow the hints below.
  • Force bitbake to reload the cache. To do so call touch conf/local.conf in your build dir.
  • Force bitbake to rebuild task-bootstrap. To do so call
    bitbake -b whereYourPackageDirIs/meta/task-bootstrap.bb -f -c clean
    
  • Force bitbake to rebuild bootstrap-image. To do so call
    bitbake -b whereYourPackageDirIs/meta/bootstrap-image.bb -f -c clean
    and
    bitbake -b whereYourPackageDirIs/meta/bootstrap-image.bb.
• How can I e.g. prepend a script call before the configure call, if autotools is used
  Either you could provide a do_configure_prepend(){ my Code in here } method or you write your own method ( e.g. do_autogen_sh(){ my Code in here } and just add "addtask do_autogen_sh before do_configure".
• How can I add additional parameters to the a configure call if autotools is used
  Add EXTRA_OECONF += "your params" to your bitbake file.

11.6 Usage problems

• First calibration of OPIE does not work on target machine
  There maybe is a problem with the qte tslib patch. Just disable the file line in the qte package file and rebuild qte.
• During startup Z complains to have the wrong (old) kernel
  The OE group did not want to have reports for wrong kernel / image relations. So the kernel has to match the image datetime string.
  
  To build a new kernel, you have to modify the yourKernel*.bb file (until the bug is solved). Insert the 3 lines of bitbake.conf beginnig with "DATE :=", into your kernels bb file. After that call bitbake virtual/kernel -c clean;bitbake virtual/kernel.
  
  Note, that a bitbake opie-image would again lead to the old kernel image (I do not yet know why).