RDFM Linux Device Client¶

Introduction¶

The RDFM Linux Device Client (rdfm-client) integrates an embedded Linux device with the RDFM Server. This allows for performing robust Over-The-Air (OTA) updates of the running system and remote management of the device.

rdfm-client runs on the target Linux device and handles the process of checking for updates in the background along with maintaining a connection to the RDFM Management Server.

Getting started¶

In order to support robust updates and rollback, the RDFM Client requires proper partition layout and integration with the U-Boot bootloader. To make it easy to integrate the RDFM Client into your Yocto image-building project, it’s recommended to use the meta-rdfm Yocto layer when building the BSPs.

Installing from source¶

Requirements¶

• C compiler

• Go compiler

• liblzma-dev, libssl-dev and libglib2.0-dev packages

Steps¶

To install an RDFM client on a device from source, first clone the repository and build the binary:

git clone https://github.com/antmicro/rdfm.git && cd devices/linux-client/
make

Then run the install command:

make install

Installation notes¶

Installing rdfm this way does not offer a complete system updater. System updates require additional integration with the platform’s bootloader and a dual-root partition setup for robust updates. For this, it’s recommended to build complete BSPs containing rdfm using the meta-rdfm Yocto layer.

Building using Docker¶

All build dependencies for compiling the RDFM Client are included in a dedicated Dockerfile. To build a development container image, you can use:

git clone https://github.com/antmicro/rdfm.git && cd devices/linux-client/
sudo docker build -t rdfmbuilder .

This will create a Docker image that can be later used to compile the RDFM binary:

sudo docker run --rm -v <rdfm-dir>:/data -it rdfmbuilder
cd data/devices/linux-client
make

Developer Guide¶

Running tests¶

Use the test make target to run the unit tests:

make test

Additionally, run the scripts available in the scripts/test-docker directory. These scripts test basic functionality of the RDFM client.