Note

This is the documentation for the latest development branch and may refer to features that are not available in released versions. If you are looking for the documentation for a specific release, use the drop-down menu on the left and select the desired version.

Advanced - Custom Firmware

Note

This chapter introduces how to develop on K230 CanMV. If you do not have custom requirements, you may skip this chapter.

Overview

K230 CanMV is a Micropython + OpenMV application platform developed based on the K230 SDK, allowing users to call hardware resources through the Python language. This document provides two build methods:

• Build with Docker (recommended): No need to install any build dependencies, completes the build with a single command

• Build directly on host: Manually set up the environment on Ubuntu 20.04

Build with Docker (recommended)

Use the preconfigured k230-builder image, which includes the full toolchain, repo, genimage, and all build dependencies. The only prerequisite is to install Docker.

Prerequisites

• Install Docker

  # Ubuntu/Debian
  sudo apt install docker.io
  sudo usermod -aG docker $USER && newgrp docker
  

  For other systems, refer to the Docker official documentation.

• Configure Gitee SSH key (required for code download) Register an account on Gitee and add an SSH public key.

• Configure Git user information

  git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
  git config --global user.name "Your Name"
  

Install the k230 command

curl -fsSL https://www.kendryte.com/misc/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc

After installation, run k230 pull to pull the Docker image (the first time depends on the network, about 1GB+).

Quick Start

# 1) Create a working directory
mkdir -p ~/canmv_k230 && cd ~/canmv_k230

# 2) Pull the docker image
k230 pull

# 3) Download toolchains (only need to run once for the first time)
k230 download-toolchains TC1 TC3

# 4) Download code (repo is built into the container, host SSH key is auto-mounted)
# Download from Gitee (recommended for users in China, requires SSH key)
k230 repo init -u git@gitee.com:canmv-k230/manifest.git --repo-url=git@gitee.com:canmv-k230/git-repo.git

# Download from GitHub (international users)
# k230 repo init -u https://github.com/canmv-k230/manifest --repo-url=https://github.com/canmv-k230/git-repo.git --repo-branch stable

k230 repo sync -j$(nproc)

# 5) Select board configuration and build
k230 make list-def                      # View all board configurations
k230 make k230_canmv_01studio_defconfig # Select target board
k230 make

# 6) View output images
ls -lh output/k230_canmv_01studio_defconfig/images/

Common Commands

k230 list-toolchains                  # View available toolchain list
k230 make                             # Build (incremental build)
k230 make list-def                    # View all board configurations
k230 make menuconfig                  # Interactive configuration
k230 bash                             # Enter container terminal
k230 repo sync -j$(nproc)             # Update code
k230 pull                             # Update k230-builder image

Git and SSH

k230 automatically mounts the host ~/.ssh and ~/.gitconfig into the container, so repo init / git clone can be used directly without additional configuration.

Host Network Restricted

If ghcr.io is unreachable (common in China), k230 automatically switches to the registry.kendryte.com mirror source. Specify the version manually:

K230_BUILDER_TAG=dev k230 make

---

Direct Local Compilation

It is recommended to use Docker for compilation. Only when Docker cannot be used, refer to the following manual setup process.

System Requirements

• Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (x86_64)

• Memory: ≥ 2GB

• Disk: ≥ 10GB

Configure APT Sources (Optional, recommended for users in China)

sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources_bak.list
sudo sed -i "s/archive.ubuntu.com/mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/g" /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo sed -i "s/security.ubuntu.com/mirrors.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/g" /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo apt update

Install System Dependencies

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y --no-install-recommends \
    sudo vim wget curl git git-lfs openssh-client net-tools sed tzdata expect \
    mtd-utils inetutils-ping locales \
    make cmake binutils build-essential gcc g++ bash patch perl tar cpio unzip \
    rsync file bc dosfstools mtools bison flex autoconf automake \
    python3 python3-pip python3-dev python-is-python3 \
    lib32z1 scons libncurses5-dev fakeroot pigz tree doxygen gawk pkg-config \
    libyaml-dev libconfuse-dev libssl-dev libc6-dev-i386 libncurses5:i386
sudo apt clean

Configure Python Environment

pip3 config set global.index-url https://pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/simple
pip3 install -U pyyaml pycryptodome gmssl jsonschema jinja2

Install repo Tool

mkdir -p ~/.bin
curl https://storage.googleapis.com/git-repo-downloads/repo > ~/.bin/repo
chmod a+rx ~/.bin/repo
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Download Code and Compile

mkdir -p ~/canmv_k230 && cd ~/canmv_k230

# Download from Gitee (recommended for users in China, requires SSH key)
repo init -u git@gitee.com:canmv-k230/manifest.git \
  --repo-url=git@gitee.com:canmv-k230/git-repo.git

# Download from GitHub (international users)
# repo init -u https://github.com/canmv-k230/manifest \
#   --repo-url=https://github.com/canmv-k230/git-repo.git --repo-branch stable

repo sync -j $(nproc)

# Download toolchain (only once for the first time)
make dl_toolchain

# Select board-level configuration and compile
make k230_canmv_01studio_defconfig
time make

---

Build Output

After the build completes, the image files will be generated in the output/<defconfig>/images/ directory.

Common files:

• *.img: SD card flashing or command-line flashing

• *.kdimg: K230BurningTool USB flashing or OTA upgrade

---

Directory Structure

canmv_k230/
├── boards/          # Board Support Package (BSP)
├── configs/         # defconfig configuration entries
├── output/          # Build output (organized by defconfig)
├── src/
│   ├── applications # User-defined applications
│   ├── canmv/       # CanMV components
│   ├── opensbi/     # OpenSBI (secondary bootloader)
│   ├── rtsmart/     # RT-Smart kernel, drivers, MPP
│   └── uboot/       # U-Boot
└── tools/           # Build scripts, kconfig, etc.

Key Directories

Directory	Description
output/<defconfig>/images/	Final flashable image
configs/	Default configuration templates (run make list-def to view all)
src/canmv/	CanMV component source code
src/applications/	User-defined application entry

Frequently Asked Questions

k230 command not found

Run source ~/.bashrc or re-login to the terminal. Make sure ~/.local/bin is in $PATH.

repo sync failed

1. Check the network connection; domestic users should use the Gitee mirror

2. Retry: k230 repo sync -j4 --fail-fast

3. Make sure the Gitee SSH key is configured and the corresponding private key exists under ~/.ssh

Toolchain download failed

The toolchain is stored in the Docker volume k230_toolchains. The first download is large; when the network is unstable, you can download in batches:

k230 download-toolchains TC1     # Download TC1 first
k230 download-toolchains TC3     # Then download TC3