I have long wanted to become more well acquainted with the Linux kernel and finally decided to bite the bullet. I ordered an
iMX233-OLinuXino-MAXI from
Olimex to tinker with. The Freescale i.MX23 processor is noteworthy because it is available in an LQFP-128 package which means it can be installed on a PCB by hand with inexpensive tools and a steady hand. It is also a great platform to learn with because it is well supported by the upstream kernel and has documentation available without signing an NDA.
The first thing I did was modify the device tree (DTS files) to enable the LCD controller and tuned it to generate a VGA signal. I built a simple R/R2 DAC on a breadboard and was able to view the image on an LCD monitor.
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| The projected image next to my workstation |
All of this was completed under Arch Linux ARM which provides a minimal base image and root filesystem upon which a large number of packages have been ported to run on ARM. This has been a great learning experience and I plan to continue working with this chip more.
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| Hackaday, it doesn't quite like the 640 width |
Continue reading to see the very minor changes I made to the kernel and how I wired it all up.
