2025-12-03 –, Walnascar
Two major features have been added to Yocto Project in 2025: Configuration Fragments and the bitbake-setup command.
Configuration Fragments were introduced in Yocto Project 5.2 "Walnascar", allowing configuration changes to be organised into separate files which can easily be enabled or disabled via the OE_FRAGMENTS variable.
The bitbake-setup command will be introduced in Yocto Project 5.3 "Whinlatter", automating the initial setup of a build environment. This command will fetch required layers and enable configuration fragments based on user input. It makes use of a new conf/toolcfg.conf file to avoid clashing with any changes you wish to make in conf/local.conf.
After the introduction of bitbake-setup, the combined poky git repository is being retired - if you have been using this you will need to switch over to bitbake-setup or clone bitbake and openembedded-core directly.
This talk will introduce the new features described above and show how they can be used. It will also show how you can write your own Configuration Fragments and bitbake-setup configuration files, as well as where to place them in a layer. It will discuss the migration paths from the combined poky git repository or from other layer setup tools. The talk will finish with some ideas of how we can continue to improve these tools.
Paul Barker is an Embedded Linux & Open Source Specialist, working as a consultant via his company Beta Five Ltd.
He has been using and contributing to OpenEmbedded and the Yocto Project since 2013 and he is always keen to share what he has learned over the years.