PetaLinux

PetaLinux can be built for these reference designs by using the Makefile in the PetaLinux directory of the repository.

Requirements

To build the PetaLinux projects, you will need a physical or virtual machine running one of the supported Linux distributions as well as the Vitis Core Development Kit installed.

Attention

You cannot build the PetaLinux projects in the Windows operating system. Windows users are advised to use a Linux virtual machine to build the PetaLinux projects.

How to build

From a command terminal, clone the Git repository and cd into it.

git clone https://github.com/fpgadeveloper/fpga-drive-aximm-pcie.git
cd fpga-drive-aximm-pcie

Launch PetaLinux by sourcing the settings.sh bash script, eg:
```
source <path-to-petalinux-install>/2025.2/settings.sh
```

Launch Vivado by sourcing the settings64.sh bash script, eg:

source <path-to-xilinx-tools>/2025.2/Vivado/settings64.sh

Build the Vivado and PetaLinux project for your specific target platform by running the following commands and replacing <target> with one of the target design labels found in the build instructions.
```
cd PetaLinux
make petalinux TARGET=<target>
```

The last command will launch the build process for the corresponding Vivado project if that project has not already been built and it’s hardware exported.

Boot from SD card

These instructions only apply to the target boards that allow booting from SD card. This includes all Zynq-7000 boards, Zynq UltraScale+ boards and Zynq RFSoC boards.

Prepare the SD card

Once the build process is complete, you must prepare the SD card for booting PetaLinux.

The SD card must first be prepared with two partitions: one for the boot files and another for the root file system.
- Plug the SD card into your computer and find it’s device name using the dmesg command. The SD card should be found at the end of the log, and it’s device name should be something like /dev/sdX, where X is a letter such as a,b,c,d, etc. Note that you should replace the X in the following instructions.

Warning

Do not continue these steps until you are certain that you have found the correct device name for the SD card. If you use the wrong device name in the following steps, you risk losing data on one of your hard drives.

Run fdisk by typing the command sudo fdisk /dev/sdX
Make the boot partition: typing n to create a new partition, then type p to make it primary, then use the default partition number and first sector. For the last sector, type +1G to allocate 1GB to this partition.
Make the boot partition bootable by typing a
Make the root partition: typing n to create a new partition, then type p to make it primary, then use the default partition number, first sector and last sector.
Save the partition table by typing w
Format the boot partition (FAT32) by typing sudo mkfs.vfat -F 32 -n boot /dev/sdX1
Format the root partition (ext4) by typing sudo mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/sdX2

Copy the following files to the boot partition of the SD card: Assuming the boot partition was mounted to /media/user/boot, follow these instructions:

$ cd /media/user/boot/
$ sudo cp /<petalinux-project>/images/linux/BOOT.BIN .
$ sudo cp /<petalinux-project>/images/linux/boot.scr .
$ sudo cp /<petalinux-project>/images/linux/image.ub .

Create the root file system by extracting the rootfs.tar.gz file to the root partition. Assuming the root partition was mounted to /media/user/root, follow these instructions:
```
$ cd /media/user/root/
$ sudo cp /<petalinux-project>/images/linux/rootfs.tar.gz .
$ sudo tar xvf rootfs.tar.gz -C .
$ sync
```
Once the sync command returns, you will be able to eject the SD card from the machine.

Boot PetaLinux

Plug the SD card into your target board.
Ensure that the target board is configured to boot from SD card:
- PicoZed: DIP switch SW1 (on the SoM) is set to 11 (1=ON,2=ON)
- ZC706: DIP switch SW11 must be set to 00110 (1=OFF,2=OFF,3=ON,4=ON,5=OFF)
- UltraZed-EV: DIP switch SW2 (on the SoM) is set to 1000 (1=ON,2=OFF,3=OFF,4=OFF)
- ZCU10x: DIP switch SW6 must be set to 1000 (1=ON,2=OFF,3=OFF,4=OFF)
- ZCU111: DIP switch SW6 must be set to 1000 (1=ON,2=OFF,3=OFF,4=OFF)
- ZCU208: DIP switch SW2 must be set to 1000 (1=ON,2=OFF,3=OFF,4=OFF)
Connect one or more M.2 NVMe PCIe SSDs to the FPGA Drive FMC Gen4. Connect the FPGA Drive FMC Gen4 to the FMC connector of the target board.
Connect the USB-UART to your PC and then open a UART terminal set to 115200 baud and the comport that corresponds to your target board.
Connect and power your hardware.

Boot via JTAG

Tip

You need to install the cable drivers before being able to boot via JTAG. Note that the Vitis installer does not automatically install the cable drivers, it must be done separately. For instructions, read section installing the cable drivers from the Vivado release notes.

Warning

If you boot the Zynq-7000, Zynq UltraScale+ or Zynq RFSoC designs via JTAG, you must still first prepare the SD card. The reason is because these designs are configured to use the SD card to store the root filesystem. If you boot these designs via JTAG without preparing and connecting the SD card, the boot will hang during at a message similar to this: Waiting for root device /dev/mmcblk0p2...

Setup hardware

If you are using a Zynq-7000, Zynq UltraScale+ or Zynq RFSoC board, prepare the SD card according to the instructions above and plug the SD card into your target board.
Ensure that the target board is configured to boot from JTAG:
- KC705: DIP switch SW13 must be set to xx101 (1-2=DONTCARE,3=ON,4=OFF,5=ON)
- KCU105: DIP switch SW15 must be set to xxxx01 (1-4=DONTCARE,5=OFF,6=ON)
- VCU118: DIP switch SW16 must be set to x101 (1=DONTCARE,2=ON,3=OFF,4=ON)
- PicoZed: DIP switch SW1 (on the SoM) is set to 00 (1=OFF,2=OFF)
- ZC706: DIP switch SW11 must be set to 00000 (1=OFF,2=OFF,3=OFF,4=OFF,5=OFF)
- UltraZed-EV: DIP switch SW2 (on the SoM) is set to 1111 (1=ON,2=ON,3=ON,4=ON)
- ZCU10x: DIP switch SW6 must be set to 1111 (1=ON,2=ON,3=ON,4=ON)
- ZCU111: DIP switch SW6 must be set to 1111 (1=ON,2=ON,3=ON,4=ON)
- ZCU208: DIP switch SW2 must be set to 1111 (1=ON,2=ON,3=ON,4=ON)
Connect one or more M.2 NVMe PCIe SSDs to the FPGA Drive FMC Gen4. Connect the FPGA Drive FMC Gen4 to the FMC connector of the target board. Instructions for doing this can be found in the Getting started guide.
Connect the USB-UART to your PC and then open a UART terminal set to 115200 baud and the comport that corresponds to your target board.
Connect and power your hardware.

Boot PetaLinux

To boot PetaLinux on hardware via JTAG, use the following commands in a Linux command terminal:

Change current directory to the PetaLinux project directory for your target design:
```
cd <project-dir>/PetaLinux/<target>
```
Download bitstream to the FPGA:
```
petalinux-boot --jtag --kernel --fpga
```

An explanation of the above command is provided by the petalinux-boot command:

For microblaze, it will download the bitstream to target board, and
then boot the kernel image on target board.
For Zynq, it will download the bitstream and FSBL to target board,
and then boot the u-boot and then the kernel on target
board.
For Zynq UltraScale+, it will download the bitstream, PMUFW and FSBL,
and then boot the kernel with help of linux-boot.elf to set kernel
start and dtb addresses.

UART terminal

You will need to setup a terminal emulator to use the PetaLinux command line over the USB-UART connection. Connect with a baud rate of 115200.

In Windows

You will need to find the comport for the USB-UART in Windows Device Manager. As a terminal emulator, you can use the open source and free Putty.

In Linux

In Linux, you can find the USB-UART device by running dmesg | grep tty. Typically, the device will be /dev/ttyUSB0 or it could be followed by a different number. To open a terminal emulator, you can use the following command:

sudo screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

Setup the NVMe SSD in PetaLinux

Log into PetaLinux using the username petalinux. On the first time you boot, you will be forced to choose a password for this user. The password you choose will be required on all future boots, so choose a password that you will remember.
Check that the SSD has been enumerated using: lspci. Without any arguments, you get the output as shown in the image below. Use the -vv argument, to get a more detailed output with the link speed, number of lanes used, etc.
Use lsblk to make sure that the SSD has been recognized as a block device: lsblk.
Run fdisk to create a partition on the SSD: fdisk /dev/nvme0n1.
Type these options in fdisk:
- Type n to create a new partition
- Then type p, then 1 to create a new primary partition
- Use the defaults for the sector numbers
- Then type w to write the data to the disk
Get the name of the partition created by running lsblk again. In the example below, it is nvme0n1p1.
Create a file system on the new partition using: mkfs -t ext2 /dev/nvme0n1p1.

After a reboot, systemd auto-mounts the new partition under /run/media/nvme0n1p1. For example, on a dual-SSD board you’ll see:

uzev-fpgadrv-2025-2:~$ lsblk
NAME         MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
...
nvme0n1      259:0    0 931.5G  0 disk
`-nvme0n1p1  259:2    0 931.5G  0 part /run/media/nvme0n1p1
nvme1n1      259:1    0 931.5G  0 disk
`-nvme1n1p1  259:3    0 931.5G  0 part /run/media/nvme1n1p1

If you want to mount the SSD in the same session in which you formatted it (without rebooting), do it manually:

mkdir -p /media/nvme
mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /media/nvme

From this point you will be able to access the SSD from the Linux command line. You should be able to copy files to the mount point, create new files, delete files and use all the disk tools that are available in the PetaLinux build.

Patches and Known Issues

For a full description of each patch applied on top of the stock AMD BSPs, see advanced.