Introduction - Introduction - 2023.1 English - UG1144

PetaLinux Tools Documentation: Reference Guide (UG1144)
Document ID
UG1144
Release Date
2023-05-16
Version
2023.1 English

PetaLinux is an embedded Linux Software Development Kit (SDK) targeting FPGA-based system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs. This guide helps familiarize you with the tool and overall usage of PetaLinux.

You are expected to possess fundamental proficiency in Linux, including the ability to execute Linux commands. You should also know the OS and host system functionalities, such as the OS version, Linux distribution, security privileges, and elementary concepts of Yocto.

The PetaLinux tool contains the following:

  • Yocto Extensible SDK (eSDK)
  • XSCT (Xilinx Software Command-Line Tool) and toolchains
  • PetaLinux Command Line Interface (CLI) tools
Note: AMD Vitis™ unified software platform is the integrated design environment (IDE) for creating embedded applications on AMD microprocessors. For more details, refer to Vitis Unified Software Platform Documentation: Embedded Software Development (UG1400).

PetaLinux SDK is an AMD development tool that contains everything necessary to build, develop, test, and deploy embedded Linux systems.

Yocto Extensible SDK

The following table details the three extensible SDKs installed.

Table 1. Extensible SDKs
Path Architecture
PETALINUX/components/yocto/source/aarch64 AMD Zynq™ UltraScale+™ MPSoC and AMD Versal™ adaptive SoC
PETALINUX/components/yocto/source/arm Zynq 7000 devices
PETALINUX/components/yocto/source/microblaze MicroBlaze™ platform
Note: MicroBlaze lite design is not supported from 2022.1 onwards.
Note: Earlier, the eSDKs were extracted in the specified path, but now they are in self-extractable TAR files. From the 2021 release onwards, your eSDK scripts have the same names. They are extracted into <plnx-proj-root>/components/yocto when you run the petalinux-config or the petalinux-build command in the PetaLinux project. The project extracts the corresponding eSDK; for example, if you create a Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC project, only the aarch64 eSDK is extracted into the <plnx-proj-root>/components/yocto project.

XSCT and toolchains

PetaLinux tool uses the XSCT underneath for all the embedded software applications configuration tool.

PetaLinux Command Line Interface (CLI) tools

This contains all the PetaLinux commands that you require. The CLI command tools are:

  • petalinux-create
  • petalinux-config
  • petalinux-build
  • petalinux-util
  • petalinux-package
  • petalinux-upgrade
  • petalinux-devtool
  • petalinux-boot