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SDK Compilation

AIMORELOGY Ovis provides a complete SDK for application development and system customization. The SDK covers the full software stack, from boot firmware, operating systems, and device drivers to multimedia processing, AI inference, and Ovis applications. It also provides a unified workflow for configuration, compilation, and firmware packaging.

Get the SDK​

The Ovis SDK source code is hosted in the aimorelogy-ovis-sdk repository on GitHub. Clone the repository to your development machine:

git clone https://github.com/aimorelogy-ovis/aimorelogy-ovis-sdk.git
cd aimorelogy-ovis-sdk

The repository contains the platform source code, Ovis board configuration, cross-compilation toolchain, build scripts, and firmware packaging tools required for development. Unless otherwise stated, the commands in this guide should be run from the SDK root directory.

SDK Structure​

aimorelogy-ovis-sdk/
|-- build/                         # Board configuration, build entry points, and packaging scripts
|-- host-tools/                    # Cross-compilation toolchains and host utilities
|-- fsbl/                          # FSBL, ATF, and other early boot firmware
|-- u-boot-2021.10/                # U-Boot bootloader
|-- linux_5.10/                    # Linux 5.10 kernel
|-- ramdisk/                       # Root filesystem, initramfs, and system configuration
|-- rt-thread/                     # RT-Thread real-time operating system
|-- cvi_alios/                     # AliOS and dual-OS components
|-- osdrv/                         # Low-level SoC and peripheral drivers
|-- osal/                          # Operating system abstraction layer
|-- cvi_mpi/                       # Media Processing Interface libraries, samples, and tools
|-- cvi_rtsp/                      # RTSP streaming library and service components
|-- isp-tool-daemon/               # Device-side service for ISP debugging tools
|-- isp_tuning/                    # ISP image-quality tuning parameters and utilities
|-- ive/                           # Hardware-accelerated image processing library
|-- libsophon/                     # TPU driver, runtime libraries, and supporting tools
|-- tdl_sdk/                       # Turnkey deep-learning algorithms and development APIs
|-- ipcamera/                      # Video, audio, AI, peripheral, and protocol application
|-- ovis-manager/                  # Ovis device management and configuration service
|-- oss/                           # Open-source third-party packages used by the SDK
|-- include/                       # Shared generated configuration headers
`-- install/                       # Generated firmware images, upgrade packages, and staged files

The build/ directory is the main SDK entry point. It provides the ovis_spinand board target and orchestrates component builds and firmware image packaging. The ipcamera/ application integrates video capture, image processing, encoding, RTSP/UVC, peripheral control, and on-device AI features. The ovis-manager/ service handles device identification, runtime configuration, service control, and version reporting. Developers can modify individual components and use the SDK build system to integrate the resulting artifacts into Ovis firmware.

Prepare the Build Environment​

AIMORELOGY provides a preconfigured Docker image for building the Ovis SDK. Building inside the container keeps the toolchain and dependency versions consistent and reduces differences between host environments.

Install Docker​

Install Docker for your development host:

After installation, verify that Docker can start containers:

docker --version
docker run --rm hello-world

Pull the Build Image​

Pull the latest Ovis SDK build image from Docker Hub:

docker pull aimorelogy/ovis-build-docker:latest

The initial download time depends on your network connection. Run the same command again whenever you need to update the local image to the latest version.

Start the Build Container​

The following example uses Bash syntax and mounts the host ~/projects directory at /workspace inside the container. On Windows, run it from a WSL 2 terminal. Ensure that the Ovis SDK is located at ~/projects/aimorelogy-ovis-sdk, or adjust the -v argument to match its actual location:

docker run -it --rm --privileged -v /dev:/dev -v ~/projects:/workspace -w /workspace aimorelogy/ovis-build-docker:latest /bin/bash

After the container starts, change to the SDK root directory:

cd /workspace/aimorelogy-ovis-sdk

The --rm option removes the container when you exit, while the bind mount keeps the SDK source code and build artifacts on the host. The --privileged option and /dev mapping provide device access where supported; the available passthrough capabilities depend on the host operating system and Docker backend. Use this configuration only on a trusted development host. Unless otherwise stated, run subsequent build commands inside this container.

Build the SDK​

Use the following workflow to perform a complete clean build of the Ovis SDK. Run all commands in the same Docker container terminal:

cd /workspace/aimorelogy-ovis-sdk
source build/envsetup_soc.sh
defconfig ovis_spinand
export TPU_REL=1
clean_all
build_all

Each command performs the following task:

  1. cd /workspace/aimorelogy-ovis-sdk

    Changes to the SDK root directory. The build scripts use paths relative to the repository root, so run all subsequent commands from this directory.

  2. source build/envsetup_soc.sh

    Initializes the SDK build environment, sets the toolchain, source, and output path variables, and loads build functions such as defconfig, clean_all, and build_all into the current shell. Run this command again whenever you start a new container or terminal.

  3. defconfig ovis_spinand

    Selects the Ovis SPI NAND board configuration and generates the active build configuration and partition information. ovis_spinand is the public build target for the Ovis board, and its firmware is written to install/soc_ovis_spinand.

    Caution: defconfig refreshes the active build/.config from the board defaults. If you have custom options from menuconfig that have not been saved to the board defconfig, back them up or verify them before continuing.

  4. export TPU_REL=1

    Enables the TPU-related components, including the TPU kernel, IVE, IVS, and TDL SDK. These components are required by the on-device AI features in the complete Ovis firmware.

  5. clean_all

    Removes existing build outputs for the kernel, bootloader, drivers, middleware, AI components, and Ovis applications so stale files do not affect the full build. Use this step for a first build, after changing the board configuration, or when regenerating a complete firmware set. A component-only change usually does not require a full clean.

  6. build_all

    Builds the kernel, U-Boot and boot firmware, drivers, third-party libraries, multimedia and RTSP components, TPU/AI components, ISP tools, ipcamera, and ovis-manager. It then creates the partition images and packages the flashable firmware. Run this command only after clean_all completes successfully.

Locate the Build Outputs​

After a successful full build, the firmware and intermediate artifacts are available under:

install/soc_ovis_spinand/

This directory contains partition images such as fip.bin, boot.spinand, rootfs.spinand, system.spinand, cfg.spinand, and data.spinand. For normal Ovis flashing, use the following package:

install/soc_ovis_spinand/aimorelogy_ovis_firmware.zip

The ZIP package contains the required partition images, partition description, update scripts, and supporting tools. Before flashing, confirm that the file was generated and check its modification time:

ls -lh install/soc_ovis_spinand/aimorelogy_ovis_firmware.zip

Do not mix the top-level .spinand files, raw images under rawimages/, and the complete ZIP package unless a debugging or manufacturing workflow explicitly requires a specific image format.