This document describes how to build and run an Android system image targeting the ARM Fixed Virtual Platform.

Building userspace

. build/envsetup.sh
lunch fvp-eng # or fvp-userdebug
m

Note that running m requires that the kernel is built first following the instructions below.

Building the kernel

mkdir android-kernel-mainline
cd android-kernel-mainline
repo init -u https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/manifest -b common-android-mainline
repo sync
BUILD_CONFIG=common/build.config.fvp build/build.sh

The resulting kernel image and DTB must then be copied into the product output directory:

mkdir -p $ANDROID_PRODUCT_OUT/boot
cp out/android-mainline/dist/Image out/android-mainline/dist/initramfs.img $ANDROID_PRODUCT_OUT/boot/
cp out/android-mainline/dist/fvp-base-revc.dtb $ANDROID_PRODUCT_OUT/boot/devtree.dtb

Building the firmware (ARM Trusted Firmware and U-Boot)

First, install dtc, the device tree compiler. On Debian, this is in the device-tree-compiler package. Then run:

mkdir platform
cd platform
repo init -u https://git.linaro.org/landing-teams/working/arm/manifest.git -m pinned-uboot.xml -b 20.01
repo sync

mkdir -p tools/gcc
cd tools/gcc
wget https://releases.linaro.org/components/toolchain/binaries/6.2-2016.11/aarch64-linux-gnu/gcc-linaro-6.2.1-2016.11-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.xz
tar -xJf gcc-linaro-6.2.1-2016.11-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.xz
cd ../..

build-scripts/build-test-uboot.sh -p fvp all

These components must then be copied into the product output directory:

cp output/fvp/fvp-uboot/uboot/{bl1,fip}.bin $ANDROID_PRODUCT_OUT/boot/

Obtaining the model

The model may be obtained from ARM's website (under “Armv8-A Base Platform FVP”).

Running the model

From a lunched environment, first set the value of the MODEL_BIN environment variable to the path to the model executable. Then run the following command to launch the model:

device/generic/goldfish/fvpbase/run_model

Additional model parameters may be passed by appending them to the run_model command.

To terminate the model, press Ctrl-] Ctrl-D to terminate the telnet connection.

MTE support

WARNING: The kernel MTE support patches are experimental and the userspace interface is subject to change.

To launch the model with MTE support, the following additional parameters must be used:

-C cluster0.has_arm_v8-5=1 \
-C cluster0.memory_tagging_support_level=2 \
-C bp.dram_metadata.is_enabled=1

MTE in userspace requires a patched common kernel with MTE support. To build the kernel, follow the kernel instructions above, but before running the build.sh command, run:

cd common
git fetch https://github.com/pcc/linux android-experimental-mte
git checkout FETCH_HEAD
cd ..

Then replace the prebuilt binutils with binutils 2.33.1:

cd binutils-2.33.1
./configure --prefix=$PWD/inst --target=aarch64-linux-gnu
make
make install
for i in $PWD/inst/bin/*; do
  ln -sf $i /path/to/android-kernel-mainline/prebuilts/gcc/linux-x86/aarch64/aarch64-linux-android-4.9/bin/$(basename $i)
  ln -sf $i /path/to/android-kernel-mainline/prebuilts/gcc/linux-x86/aarch64/aarch64-linux-android-4.9/bin/$(basename $i | sed -e 's/gnu/android/g')
done

Accessing the model via adb

To connect to the model on the host:

adb connect localhost:5555