Getting Started with Kubos Linux and the Kubos SDK

This is intended to be a quick guide to creating a new Kubos Linux project using the Kubos SDK.

Prerequisites

Install the Kubos SDK

Creating your Project

Method 1: Kubos Init

The simplest way to create a new Kubos Linux project is by using the Kubos CLI. The kubos init --linux command takes a project name and creates the project files and folders.

Note: Inside of the build system there are several reserved words, which cannot be used as the name of the project. The most common of these are test, source and include.

Note: Yotta, the build system the Kubos CLI is based upon, requires project names to be hyphen-delimited or underscore-delimited. CamelCased project names will cause warnings.

$ kubos init -l myproject

The init command creates a new directory with the kubos-linux-example included so you can get started right away. The -l or --linux command tells the CLI that a Kubos Linux project should be created.

Method 2: Cloning a Project

We have also created several different example Kubos projects which can be used as starting points.

If you would like to use one of our projects, you will need to clone the main repo and then link the necessary files. For example:

$ git clone https://github.com/kubos/kubos myproject
$ cd myproject/examples/kubos-linux-example
$ kubos link --all

Note: It is unnecessary to run the kubos init command in this case

Editing the project

Whether you have cloned your Kubos project or created it with the Kubos CLI, the default source code entry point is at {project directory}/source/main.c.

There may be additional source files in the {project directory}/source directory, depending on the specific project that you are working with. Each of our example applications have a main.c source file as the entry point of the project.

Choosing a Target

Once you have created a project you will need to select a target. The target defines which hardware your project will run on and how the peripherals are configured.

You can see a list of available projects by running the following command:

$ kubos target --list

For this example we will set the x86-native-linux target:

$ kubos target x86-linux-native

For more information, see our documentation on Selecting a Target

Building and Flashing

Now that the target is set you can begin building. This command will build the current project:

$ kubos build

You should see the Build Succeeded message! You are now ready to run your project:

$ kubos flash

Using the x86-linux-native target will cause the project to execute within your Kubos Vagrant image. All output will be routed to your console.

The output should look like this:

Initializing CSP
Starting example tasks
Ping result 44 [ms]
Packet received on MY_PORT: Hello World
Ping result 8 [ms]
Packet received on MY_PORT: Hello World
Ping result 86 [ms]
Packet received on MY_PORT: Hello World

Press CTRL+C to stop execution

Congratulations! You have just created, built, and run a basic Kubos project.

Using Hardware

If you would like to run this project on a physical board, you’ll follow this same process, except you’ll select a different hardware target and the target board will need to be connected to your computer and powered before running the kubos flash command.

More information about the available targets can be found in the SDK Cheatsheet.

Note

If you build a project and then change its target, you will need to rebuild the project for the new target with the kubos build command in order to create a new compatible binary to use with kubos flash