The TMPDIR podcast

By TMPDIRTechnology

The TMPDIR podcast episodes

November 27, 2023What is new in the Yoe Distribution
Available on your favorite podcast platform.
In this episode, we discuss the latest features in the Yoe Distribution that can
help you build products more efficiently using Yocto.
New platforms:
Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano
VisionFive2 RISCV64 SBC
Yoe Projects - a better way to configure your project
Qt 6.6
switch to LLD linker
ptests can not be run inside Docker
Discuss this episode at our
community site.
28 min
November 09, 2023Living on Main
Available on your favorite podcast platform.
In this episode, we discuss the "living on main" philosophy so that you can
track the latest software developments more effectively, reduce technical debt,
and participate in the software projects you use.
Outline:
What do we mean by living on main?
Traditional view of stability
Advantages
Examples
How to do it
Discuss this episode at our
community site.
28 min
October 28, 2023Burkhard Stubert - Qt and Yocto
Available on your favorite podcast platform.
In this episode, Burkhard shares his experiences about using Qt and Yocto:
focus on HMIs in industrial equipment
Why use Yocto instead of Ubuntu for embedded devices
QML vs Qt C++ widgets
Qt vs Web platform
Hexagonal architecture
Tips for selecting a SOC/SOM
CI/CD
Discuss this episode at our
community site.
40 min
June 19, 2023Why Arch Linux?
Available on your favorite podcast platform.
Outline:
how we got started with Arch Linux
features useful for developers
latest packages of everything
pacman is the fast, low-friction package manager
documentation is the best
containers can be used to issolate tools for older projects
discussion on stability
Yay AUR helper -- we highly recommend this for
managing AUR packages.
Discuss this episode at our
community site.
32 min
May 26, 2023Zephyr - First Experiences
Available on your favorite podcast platform.
backstory
working on a project using freeRTOS on STM32H743
a lot of work integrating things like Ethernet/USB
code generation has tradeoffs
without one week, 1 engineer working part-time had Zephyr running with most drivers working
Build
Kconfig (very granular)
Device Tree -> C headers
extensive use of Macros
no C++
differences between other RTOS models
most MCU tooling takes RTOS, and MCU integrates and delivers
Zephyr does the opposite -- they take MCU HAL, and then integrate and deliver directly to developers
Support/Community
Discord
Github discussions
Shell
is amazing
proper terminal with tab completion, proper backspace support, etc
keeps what you are typing at bottom of screen even if there are logging messages
scrolling
list threads, memory used, %CPU, etc
Projects like Beagle Connect Freedom -- they are piping shell over radio connection
Logging
standard levels ERR, WRN, INF, DBG
easy to add a logging domain in any module
Macros automatically apply LOG_WRN() to current logging domain
can change log level of each domain at runtime in shell
Tooling
well-integrated flashing
debugging uses the command line GDB
Linux connections
Performance
challenges
configuration
tracing code through system calls
documentation is fairly good, but can be hard to find things
opinion
The Zephyr project is a sustainable approach as MCUs become more complex
Discuss this episode at our
community site.
35 min
May 15, 2023The Power of the Demo
Available on your favorite podcast platform.
Would like to know a great way to prove your ideas and then sell them?
The power of the demo
Why it works
what?
live demo
document camera
recording a video is effective -- managers like video as they can more
easily understand it
proposal document
How to do it
you need to become a media producer
use OBS to record screen casts
the more you do it, the better you'll become
KDENlive
OpenShot
Discuss this episode at our
community site.
26 min
May 12, 2023Release early and often
Available on your favorite podcast platform.
Show Notes:
which do you find more inspiring -- a stagnant pond covered in algae or a fast-flowing mountain stream?
why should you share your work early and often?
Two scenarios
everything done in private and then we try to integrate at the end
continuous stream of work done in a transparent way
can exist inside companies as well as OSS projects
stagnant pond vs fast flowing mountain stream
why
builds trust
get feedback early
people can watch the work go by and optionally take a closer look if they are interested.
spreads knowledge
we do better work in public
injects energy into the team
no status meetings are required
how do you do this?
work on a Git branch, rebase, squash commits, force push, delete, etc
do batches of work in a pull request
small commits/PRs -- monster commits/PR are exhausting to review (at least daily)
stream of commit messages tell a story how you got from point A -> B
lead your work with documentation
objections
My code is not perfect
I don't want to bother people
It is only an experiment and may get redone anyway
I'm not comfortable showing my work/process
See also: TMPDIR handbook
Discuss this episode at our
community site.
37 min
March 31, 2023Build Acceleration
Available on your favorite podcast platform.
How can you make your builds go faster? Some of the ideas we discuss in this
episode:
C/C++
the problem of headers
Clang CI tools
parallel builds
ccache/distc
linking technologies
get a new workstation (the easiest way to speed up builds)
Yocto
Yoe defaults to fast defaults where possible
sstate
Memory requirements per core -- 4G RAM/Physical Core
Discuss this episode at our
community site.
54 min
December 16, 2022 The Technology Trajectory
Available on your favorite podcast platform.
See also related
blog article.
In this episode, we discuss the trajectory that technology takes and how
understand this can help you make better technology predictions.
Discuss this episode at our
community site.
26 min
December 09, 2022 Why 64-bit?
Available on your favorite podcast platform.
In this episode, we discuss why you should consider a 64-bit processor for your
embedded Linux project.
Discuss this episode at our
community site.
29 min

About The TMPDIR podcast

From the publisher's feed

TMPDIR is a podcast about embedded Linux, Yocto/OpenEmbedded, Zephyr, and IoT product engineering. Cliff Brake and Khem Raj dig into BSPs, OTA updates, Linux kernel and device tree work, firmware and…