nvidia/skills · Official

jetson-init-source

>- Set up the BSP source workspace: Linux_for_Tegra overlay tracker, bsp_sources, Crosstool-NG toolchain. Use after jetson-init-image; not for fetching inputs.

All-time #9311 First seen Jun 22, 2026
8-week activity · all time api

Installation

$ npx skills add nvidia/skills --skill jetson-init-source

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Stars 3.2K
License LICENSE-APACHE
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Status Active

Skill metadata

Parsed from SKILL.md frontmatter.

Version0.0.1
LicenseApache-2.0
More metadata
data-classification
public
author
Jetson Team
tags
["bsp","workspace","kernel","bootstrap"]
domain
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Package contents

Files included with this skill beyond the listing page.

  • skill md SKILL.md 17,065 B
  • docs SUMMARY.md 182 B

History

  1. First seen on skills.sh
  2. First recorded snapshot · 1,100 installs

SKILL.md

Initialize BSP Customization Workspace

Overview

This skill bootstraps the source-side workspace that customize-* / build skills depend on: the LinuxforTegra overlay tracker (git repo for pristine + customization commits), the bspsources/ mono-tree (kernel, OOT, nvgpu, display, hwpm, hardware DTs), and a working NVIDIA Crosstool-NG cross-compile prefix. It owns only the source: block in the active profile and the on-disk source workspace under <source.rootpath> (default: <workspace>/Source).

Responsibilities:

  1. Optionally record a non-default source.root_path.
  2. Create or mount the LinuxforTegra overlay tracker.
  3. Materialize bsp_sources using the precedence in the "Materialize the BSP-sources baseline" step.
  4. Resolve and record source.toolchain.
  5. Clone extra user-defined repos from source.repos:.

When to invoke

  • The user asks to bootstrap, init, or sync the BSP customization

workspace.

  • A downstream customization skill refused with "no workspace

tracker at <source.rootpath>/Linuxfor_Tegra/".

  • After jetson-init-image (Setup's next step on a fresh target).

Procedure

Quick-start prefill mapping

Follow the shared [quickstartprefill contract](../../context/bsp-customization-workflow.md#quickstartprefill-contract). This skill has source-specific mappings:

  • quickstartprefill.source.publicsourcesarchive maps to the

Branch-A archive candidate.

  • quickstartprefill.source.repos maps to proposed source.repos:

entries; validate reserved keys and url: / archive: mutual exclusion before writing.

  • quickstartprefill.source.toolchain may be a cross-compile prefix,

a gcc path, a containing bin/ directory, an x-tools.tbz2 archive path, or skip.

This skill remains the only owner of source.root_path, source.repos:, and source.toolchain profile writes.

Resolve the active target + paths

Resolve the active profile + workspace defaults per the contract in [../../context/target-platform-contract.md](../../context/target-platform-contract.md).

  • Refuse if <bspimage.rootpath> does not contain

LinuxforTegra/ (BSP not extracted — route to /jetson-init-image).

  • If the profile has source.root_path:, use it. Otherwise

<source.rootpath> defaults to <workspace>/Source; use that default silently and do not write source.rootpath: to the profile. Ask only for an explicit custom path, unrelated content at the default path, or an unwritable parent.

Read source.repos: (if present) into a map keyed by entry name, each carrying optional url, ref, subdir, path. Reserved keys: LinuxforTegra (overlay tracker), bsp_sources (kernel-source repo). Every other key is an extra user-defined repo.

(Optional) prompt for source.root_path override

Only when source.root_path is absent from the profile and one of the override conditions above applies:

source.root_path: default = <workspace>/Source. Press Enter to
accept, or enter an absolute path to override.

  • On Enter — keep the default; do not touch the profile.
  • On override path — validate the closest existing parent is

writable; refuse and re-prompt if not. Edit target-platform/<active>.yaml in place to add/update source.root_path:. Preserve all other blocks, comments, and quoting — use a round-tripping YAML loader (e.g. ruamel.yaml).

Fires at most once per profile. Otherwise create <workspace>/Source as needed and continue without prompting.

Materialize LinuxforTegra

Mount path is canonical: <source.rootpath>/Linuxfor_Tegra/.

Default (no source.repos.LinuxforTegra entry):

LFT="<source.root_path>/Linux_for_Tegra"
mkdir -p "$LFT"
[ -d "$LFT/.git" ] || git -C "$LFT" init

Empty tracker. Do not commit anything here — pristine imports happen file-by-file when customization skills run.

Override (url, ref, optional subdir):

# Clone the user's repo to a side location, then mount the
# expected tree (subdir or repo root) at the canonical path.
CLONE="<source.root_path>/.repos/Linux_for_Tegra"
git clone <url> -b <ref> "$CLONE"
ln -s "$CLONE/<subdir or .>" "<source.root_path>/Linux_for_Tegra"

If the mount already exists with valid git state, skip; refuse if it exists with unrelated content.

Materialize the BSP-sources baseline

Three branches, dispatched in precedence order against the profile entry source.repos.bsp_sources:

Order Profile state Branch
1 url: set C. Customer git clone (explicit override always wins)
2 archive: set, OR entry absent AND <workspace>/Downloads/public_sources.tbz2 exists A. Local archive extraction (default)
3 Entry absent AND no local archive B. source_sync.sh (fallback)

url: and archive: are mutually exclusive — refuse if both are set in the same entry.

Branch A is the preferred default because it sidesteps NVIDIA git egress entirely (the most common Setup failure mode). Branch B exists for fresh workspaces with no pre-downloaded tarball. Branch C is for customer forks of the whole BSP layout.

Branch A — Local archive extraction (default)

Default branch: extract a pre-downloaded publicsources.tbz2 into <source.rootpath>/bsp_sources/ as a single mono-repo (git init + pristine commit). See [references/branch-a-extraction.md](references/branch-a-extraction.md) for the full archive shape, path-resolution rules, and the extraction script (including the Tegra OOT Makefile force-replace workaround for R36.x).

Branches B and C may produce per-component repos instead; downstream build logic still walks the canonical sub-paths under <source.rootpath>/bspsources/.

Branch B — source_sync.sh (fallback)

Runs only when no local archive is found and no url: is set. Create the bspsources/ mount directory under <source.rootpath> and run source_sync.sh from the extracted BSP with two flags:

mkdir -p "<source.root_path>/bsp_sources"
bash "<bsp_image.root_path>/Linux_for_Tegra/source/source_sync.sh" \
     -d "<source.root_path>/bsp_sources" \
     -t "jetson_<major.minor>"
  • -d <source.rootpath>/bspsources — write clones into the

bsp_sources/ subdir of the workspace, so the on-disk folder matches the schema key. Without -d, the script writes under its own directory (the BSP itself) — wrong for the overlay model.

  • -t jetson_<major.minor> — pin the tag to the BSP release line.

Derive from bspimage.version by truncating to the first two dotted components: "38.4.0"jetson38.4. Tag-format fallback: if rejected, try jetson<bspimage.version> (older L4T sometimes uses the full form). If that also fails, surface the error and stop — never fall back to "latest" silently.

Refuse if sourcesync.sh does not exist: re-run /jetson-init-image to repopulate Linuxfor_Tegra/source/.

sourcesync.sh exits 0 even when every clone failed — verify by counting Failed to clone lines in its output and refuse if non-zero. The most likely cause of universal failure is blocked git egress to gitlab.com/nvidia/nv-tegra / nv-tegra.nvidia.com; surface that explicitly and route the user to download publicsources.tbz2 via /quick-start for Branch A.

Branch C — Customer git clone (url: override)

Triggered by an explicit url: field. Clone the customer repo once and expose its canonical kernel-side sub-paths under <source.rootpath>/bspsources/. The canonical sub-path list is read from sourcesync.sh's SOURCEINFO at runtime — do not hard-code it, so future NVIDIA additions/removals propagate automatically:

# Parse canonical sub-paths from source_sync.sh's SOURCE_INFO
# (only the kernel-side entries marked `k:` in the second field).
SUBPATHS=$(grep -oP '^\s*k:[^:]+:' \
  "<bsp_image.root_path>/Linux_for_Tegra/source/source_sync.sh" \
  | sed 's/^\s*k://; s/:$//')

mkdir -p "<source.root_path>/bsp_sources"
CLONE="<source.root_path>/.repos/bsp_sources"
git clone <url> -b <ref> "$CLONE"
ROOT="$CLONE/<subdir or .>"
for SUB in $SUBPATHS; do
  [ -d "$ROOT/$SUB" ] && \
    ln -s "$ROOT/$SUB" "<source.root_path>/bsp_sources/$SUB"
done

Report any canonical sub-path expected for the active chip family but not present inside the customer repo (warn, don't refuse — customer may legitimately not have all repos).

Resolve cross-compile toolchain

The downstream jetson-build-source reads source.toolchain from this profile and exports it as CROSS_COMPILE. This step must land a valid prefix before init-source returns, or any subsequent kernel / OOT / DT build will refuse.

NVIDIA's official Crosstool-NG Toolchain gcc is the canonical toolchain for L4T. jetson-download-bsp owns any network fetch of x-tools.tbz2; this skill only discovers, extracts, validates, and writes the resolved prefix. Resolution follows a three-step ladder:

Auto-discover

Look under <workspace>/toolchain/x-tools/ for the Crosstool-NG layout — typically one of:

<workspace>/toolchain/x-tools/aarch64-none-linux-gnu/bin/aarch64-none-linux-gnu-gcc
<workspace>/toolchain/x-tools/aarch64-buildroot-linux-gnu/bin/aarch64-buildroot-linux-gnu-gcc

Glob: <workspace>/toolchain/x-tools/aarch64--linux-gnu/bin/aarch64--linux-gnu-gcc. If exactly one match, bind:

TC_PREFIX=<absolute path to that .../bin/<triple>->   # trailing dash mandatory

Skip to "Write to profile" below. If zero matches, fall through to "Auto-extract from Downloads/x-tools.tbz2" below. If multiple, refuse with the list and ask the user to remove the unwanted ones (we never pick one silently among ambiguous installs — different Crosstool-NG flavors produce ABI- incompatible binaries).

Auto-extract from Downloads/x-tools.tbz2

If <workspace>/Downloads/x-tools.tbz2 exists (mirrors the public_sources.tbz2 Branch-A pattern in the "Materialize the BSP-sources baseline" step — air-gapped / no-egress users drop archives there):

file -b "<workspace>/Downloads/x-tools.tbz2" | grep -q "bzip2 compressed" || \
  refuse "<workspace>/Downloads/x-tools.tbz2 is not a bzip2 tarball"
mkdir -p "<workspace>/toolchain"
tar xjf "<workspace>/Downloads/x-tools.tbz2" -C "<workspace>/toolchain"

Then re-run the "Auto-discover" pass above. Refuse if extraction succeeds but no x-tools/aarch64-*-linux-gnu/bin/ is produced (archive content doesn't match the Crosstool-NG layout).

Prompt the user

If both Auto-discover and Auto-extract came up empty, ask:

No Crosstool-NG toolchain found at <workspace>/toolchain/ or in
<workspace>/Downloads/x-tools.tbz2.

Reply with one of:
- absolute path to your aarch64-*-linux-gnu-gcc binary or its
containing bin/ directory,
- cancel to abort.

To fetch the archive instead, cancel this run, run
/jetson-download-bsp, then re-run /jetson-init-source.

For a path reply, validate via [ -f "${TC_PREFIX}gcc" ]. Refuse and re-prompt on failure.

Write to profile

Once $TCPREFIX resolves and ${TCPREFIX}gcc exists, write it into the active profile using a round-tripping YAML loader:

source:
  toolchain: <TC_PREFIX>   # absolute, with trailing dash

If source: is otherwise empty (no root_path override, no repos: entries), the source: block is now non-empty and stays in the profile. Future jetson-init-source runs skip the "Resolve cross-compile toolchain" step if source.toolchain is already set and points at a working gcc.

Clone extra user-defined repos

For each entry under source.repos: whose name is not LinuxforTegra or bsp_sources:

MOUNT="<source.root_path>/<entry.path or entry.name>"
if [ -n "<entry.subdir>" ]; then
  CLONE="<source.root_path>/.repos/<entry.name>"
  git clone <entry.url> -b <entry.ref> "$CLONE"
  ln -s "$CLONE/<entry.subdir>" "$MOUNT"
else
  git clone <entry.url> -b <entry.ref> "$MOUNT"
fi

Refuse if a mount path already exists with unrelated content.

Summary

Print:

  • Resolved <workspace>, <bspimage.rootpath>, and

<source.root_path>.

  • For each materialized component: created, reused, skipped, or refused.
  • For bsp_sources: branch selected plus key evidence (archive path,

source_sync.sh failure count, or clone URL/ref).

  • Toolchain prefix, resolution source, and ${TC_PREFIX}gcc --version

first line.

  • Reminder that customize-* skills stage future BSP edits in

<source.rootpath>/LinuxforTegra/; promote is what later copies committed overlay changes into bspimage.

If a downstream skill triggered this run, tell the user to re-issue their original request.

Gotchas

  • LinuxforTegra and bsp_sources mount paths are canonical.

path: applies only to extra user-defined repos.

  • The default LinuxforTegra tracker is intentionally empty; do not

pre-populate it.

  • bsp_sources precedence is url:archive: → auto-discovered

Downloads/publicsources.tbz2sourcesync.sh. url: and archive: are mutually exclusive.

  • Branch A auto-discovery does not prompt and is not written back to the

profile. Persist it only with source.repos.bsp_sources.archive:.

  • Branch A $DEST/Makefile collision. Inner tarballs in

publicsources.tbz2 ship two files named Makefile: the Tegra orchestrator (kernelootmodulessrc.tbz2) and the dGPU/OpenRM proprietary Makefile (nvidiakerneldisplaydriversourcewithout rootdir.tbz2). Alphabetical extraction order lets the dGPU one win on R36.x; downstream arm64 cross-builds then fail with '-mlittle-endian' unrecognized. Step 3a force-replaces from <bspimage>/LinuxforTegra/source/Makefile when the Tegra modules: hwpm nvidia-oot nvgpu nvidia-display signature is missing. R38+ extractions already match; the check is a no-op there.

  • Branch C customer repos must expose the canonical source_sync.sh

sub-path layout, optionally shifted by subdir:.

  • Derive the sourcesync.sh tag from bspimage.version as

jetson_<major.minor> first; never fall back to an unpinned latest.

  • jetson-download-bsp owns network downloads of public_sources.tbz2

and x-tools.tbz2; this skill consumes local archives only.

  • source.toolchain must be an NVIDIA Crosstool-NG prefix with trailing

dash and a working ${prefix}gcc. Never silently use $PATH.

  • Use a round-tripping YAML writer for profile edits.

Prerequisites

  • Active target profile resolved per

../../context/target-platform-contract.md.

  • /jetson-init-image already run so bsp_image.version is recorded

(Branch B source_sync.sh tag derives from it).

  • For Branch A: a local public_sources.tbz2 (and optionally

x-tools.tbz2) staged under Downloads/.

  • For Branch C: customer Git access to the override repo URL.

Limitations

  • Owns only the source: block; never edits bsp_image,

referencedevkit, customcarrier, or documents.

  • Network egress only for Branch B (source_sync.sh) and Branch C

(customer Git clone); Branch A is fully offline.

  • Refuses to silently substitute a system toolchain — the NVIDIA

Crosstool-NG prefix must be present or extractable.

Troubleshooting

  • ${toolchain}gcc not found — re-stage x-tools.tbz2 under

Downloads/ and rerun, or pass a verified absolute prefix path.

  • sourcesync.sh cannot resolve jetson<major.minor> tag — the

recorded bsp_image.version is wrong; re-run /jetson-init-image to refresh it.

  • LinuxforTegra/.git shows uncommitted hand-edits — abort and

ask the user to commit or stash; this skill expects a clean tracker.

  • Branch C clone missing canonical sub-paths — repo layout doesn't

match source_sync.sh; set subdir: to the right sub-root or fall back to multi-repo overrides under source.repos:.

References

  • [../../references/platformtemplate.yaml](../../references/platformtemplate.yaml) — source: schema, including the repos: map.
  • [../../context/target-platform-contract.md](../../context/target-platform-contract.md) — target-platform contract.
  • [../../context/bsp-customization-workflow.md](../../context/bsp-customization-workflow.md#workflow-invariants) — Workspace edit protocol.
  • [../jetson-init-target/SKILL.md](../jetson-init-target/SKILL.md) — authors the profile this skill consumes.
  • [../jetson-init-image/SKILL.md](../jetson-init-image/SKILL.md) — extracts the BSP and back-fills bsp_image.version; run before this skill.