As there is an existing github repo https://github.com/balena-os/balena-radxa, should I start my work by cloning this repo?
I maybe wrong but I think the latest Yocto layer Radxa is working on cannot build becase there’s some problems with Rust building for a target which chromium depends on which I’m looking into. I can build if I avoid building their browser.conf and strip away a few more things… But their aim is different from BalenaOS (Building a minimal Yocto with no devtools, web browser + all drivers for the hardware like WiFi/BT/USB3/HDMI/GPU/NPU/GPIO) while Radxa as a manufacturer aims to provide a full GUI experience etc.
I have read the docs for Balena Customer Device Support, maybe I have missed it, but how can I test my build works with BalenaOS?
Do I have to create a BalenaOS instance somewhere myself as a test environment?
As for the overall steps, I think I will first create a Yocto build for Radxa Rock5b, test the functionalities / drivers etc. Once it’s functional, I shall then follow the CDS docs.
As for the Yocto releases, from all the work Rockchip / Radxa / communities have done, it seems to me nanbield is the one that makes everything sort of work. Does BalenaOS has any requirement on the Yocto release codename (reference here)?
As my use case is to use Radxa Rock5b as a computer-vision enabled NVR running Frigate in Docker, hooking up a bunch of RTSP cameras and use the object detection feature in Frigate to segment out videos that has movements and use Frigate’s API to feed it to other cloud services for analysis / annotation, while also keeping the original footages in 1920x1080 h264 in the Radxa’s nVME drive. Would also throw some standard IoT server stacks like NodeRed and InfluxDB in, running on Docker. Secured connection will implement Tailscale.
As a result, I don’t think I will spend a lot of effort testing the Yocto build’s HDMI IN / OUT, audio, BT and GPIO / SPI / I2C etc.
So I wonder if it’s possible at all to use BalenaCloud but not to have a ‘open to public’, ‘official supported’ device type? I am more than happy to share my work to the community but I may not have the capacity to deliver a fully functional Yocto build for the all round BalenaCloud use case.