RDK-B Emulator Users Guide

Copyright 2015 RDK Management, LLC. All rights reserved.

The contents of this document are RDK Management, LLC Proprietary and Confidential and may not be distributed or otherwise disclosed without prior written permission of RDK Management, LLC.

Document Status 

Table of Contents

Introduction

RDK (Reference Design Kit) is an integrated set of software components, tools and documentation that help in the development of the software stack for set-top box based on the standard Linux operating system which is designed to meet the requirements of the latest generation media servers and clients.

The RDK emulator is an x86 based implementation of the RDK software stack. It is primarily targeted towards the RDK development community (integrators, component developers and application developers) that attempts to simplify the process of working with the RDK software stack without the need for a reference hardware platform.  The key applications in the RDK Emulator are the rmfApp, Media streamer and the RDK-Browser. As RDK emulator runs on desktop computers, applications can be tested and debugged before trying to deploy them to real devices.

Purpose of this Document

The purpose of this document is to enable RDK users and developers to be able to bring up the RDK stack and emulator on the PC platform. The document also includes step-by-step procedures to setup & build RDK Emulator

Known Issues

• During video playback, performance issues are there due to video scaling.
• Also In rmfApp , while playing video through hnsource or qamsource , application may crash once EOS is reached.
• It has been seen that open source package mirror repos may go down temporarily or may be blocked by local corporate firewalls. Please try the build again at a later time or after resolving local firewall issues. One test would be to access the failing url on the web browser and see if the site is up. This can help isolate local issues.

Abbreviations and Acronyms

The following table describes the acronyms and abbreviations used in this document

Overview of RDK Emulator

• Executes on x86-based platforms including virtualization environments such as Virtual Box and QEMU.
• Built using Yocto and RDK build frameworks

Supported Build Types

RDK Emulator Dunfell

Build Setup Instructions

Setting up the Host Environment

How to Build#SettinguptheHostEnvironment

Downloading Source Code & Building

• RDK-B Emulator Dunfell Build Instructions

Bringing up the Emulator on Virtual Box

Host Requirements

Install Virtual Box and follow the following steps to bring up RDK Emulator on Virtual Box:

In the following steps, it is recommended to review the description and screenshot completely before proceeding with steps.

STEP 1: Create your new VM Instance:

• Open Virtualbox

• Select New [A popup will come up]

• Select Type as ‘Linux’

• Select Version as ‘Other Linux (32 Bit)’

• Click on “Next”

• Choose a Memory Size of 512 MB

• Use an existing virtual hard drive file which would be your newly built image in *.vmdk format and create your VM:

STEP 2: Configure your new VM Instance:

• Click on “Settings” tab to configure your new VM instance

• Configure your VMs network settings
• Choose “Bridged Adapter” mode as shown in the screenshot below

STEP 3: Run Emulator in Vbox :

• Boot up your VM by clicking on start
• Once you have the IP address you may SSH into your VM from your linux shell console. Use root as the ssh user.

Usage Instructions

Logging into your VM

As described in the previous section, you can log in to your emulator VM from your Host Machine using the ssh command.

Note: In order to learn the IP address of your VM, use the RDK Browser application “tab” key to navigate to "Device Info" which will provide you the IP address. Press "Enter" key to enter Device Info

Bringing up the Emulator on VMWare Player

Install VMplayer in Host Machine

Use the below Link download to install VMware Player on host

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/free#desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_player/5_0|PLAYER-504|product_downloads

After downloading

sudo ./VMware-Player-<Version>.bundle (LInux OS)

Run  VMware-Player-<Version>.exe  (Windows OS)

Reason for VMplayer: in Mesa Higher versions EGL-PLATFORM fbdev is not available as it is deprecated so we tried using DRM (Direct Rendering Manager driver for graphics)

for DRM driver is available only in vmware only (vmwgfx so we have gone for VMware Player)
 

Steps to bring up RDK Emulator on VMware Player

1        Once VMware Player is installed, open the VMWare Player  using the command

2       Click File --> Create a New Virtual Machine --> Select  'i will install my operating system later' --> click Next

3       Select 'Linux' --> Version  'Other Linux 3.x kernel' --> Click Next --> Give name --> Click Next

4       Maximum Disk Size : 8 Gb --> Select 'Store Virtual Disk as a Single File' --> Click Next --> Memory for this Virtual Machine '512 Mb' --> Click 'Close'  --> Click  'Finish'

5       Click 'Edit virtual machine settings' --> select Hard Disk (IDE) --> Click 'Remove'   -->Click  'Add'  --> Select Hard Disk  --> Select  'Use existing Virtual Hard disk'

6       File browse and set the path to the *.vmdk  file --> Click Finish --> Click 'Keep Existing Format'

7       Network Adapter select Bridge Adapter  --> Click Save

8       Click Play Virtual Machine

         Cannot connect the virtual device ide1:0 because no corresponding device is available on the host.
         Do you want to try to connect this virtual device every time you power on the virtual machine? [YES] [NO]

          You select [NO]