Open Source Linux

This page is deprecated and will not be updated. Please refer to Xilinx Open Source Linux for more information on the OSL flow. 


Xilinx Linux project combines the benefit of open source Linux operating system together with a customized solution geared towards developing software on its processing platform. This is a development project, not a commercial Linux distribution. Users that are not familiar with Linux (newbies) may want to consider a commercial Linux distribution.


Table of Contents

Xilinx Processing Platforms


Zynq-7000 System On Chip (SoC) combines a dual ARM® Cortex™-A9 processing system including hardened memory controllers and peripherals, along with Xilinx 7 series programmable logic.

The Zynq-7000 SoC Linux provides Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP) support for the dual Cortex-A9 ARM core , software drivers for all the peripherals on the processing system and Board Support Package (BSP) for the QEMU system model and Zynq emulation board (available only to Zynq beta customers).
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Developer Resources




Xilinx provides a Git repository which includes the Linux kernel to run on the Xilinx boards. The Linux tree will typically track the leading edge kernels from kernel.org (behind just a bit for some stability). The goal of the Xilinx Git Linux repository is to provide a kernel tree which is a staging area to get device drivers for new IP into the mainline kernel.org and to allow 3rd parties to build their Linux distributions for Xilinx products.

Users may use the kernel tree from kernel.org to build a kernel for Xilinx products also, but may find that it is a kernel that is still changing to incorporate kernel changes from the Xilinx tree.
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Xilinx provides tools to build and debug the software applications on Linux as well as for Linux kernel development. The GNU toolchain provided by Xilinx; includes C/C++ compilers, optimized C/C++ libraries and GDB debugger.

Xilinx also works with partners to provide commercial Linux solutions, which can be used for software development. These commercial solutions provide advanced debug, trace and profile capabilities that may not be available in the open source solution.
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Xilinx provides Open Source QEMU system model for running and debugging the software, without requiring a hardware. Currently it models Zynq-7000 AP SoC Processing System.
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Apart from the open source Linux mailing lists, Xilinx also provides forums to discuss and collaborate on Linux solutions for Xilinx embedded processing platforms. These forums are monitored by Xilinx technical support and engineers, so you can get your queries answered by experts in this area.
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Kernel Documentation

  • The first place to look is always in the Documentation directory of the kernel tree. The documentation is sort of random but can be very helpful.
  • More kernel documentation can be generated using an automated doc system built into the kernel. The following command will cause some html docs to be generated in the Documentation/DocBook directory of the kernel tree.

make htmldocs

Recommended Books

  • Embedded Linux Primer from Prentice Hall, by Hallinan
  • Building Embedded Linux Systems from OReilly, by Yaghmour ( this might be available for download as open source)

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