Building the Linux Yocto Image for Raspberry pi zero

Harshdixit

4 min read

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Jul 20, 2026

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For building newer IoT or DIY projects if you want to build your own yocto image you can follow this tutorial to the end .

for setting up the yocto we will going to use the poky-scratchgap for installing the system files and making the enivornment .

Remember how to access the Raspberry pi zero you will need some tool like there UART Signals :

You can use the FTDI Serial Logger:

For Hardware Setup:

you will need FTDI and RPI 0 V1.3

FTDI GND → RPI 0 V1.3 GND

FTDI RX → RPI 0 V1.3 GPIO14 (TXD)

FTDI TX → RPI 0 V1.3 GPIO15 (RXD)

Press enter or click to view image in full size

and 1 SD Card to flash the Image :

To Install the environment poky-scratch gap I installed:

Let’s start so first things first you will need the packages :

sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y \
gawk wget git diffstat unzip texinfo gcc build-essential chrpath socat \
cpio python3 python3-pip python3-pexpect xz-utils debianutils iputils-ping \
python3-git python3-jinja2 libegl1-mesa libsdl1.2-dev pylint xterm \
zstd liblz4-tool file locales

Then you can add packages :

mkdir ~/yocto_project
cd ~/yocto_project

now Create the Repository I used Kirkstone so you can also use same :

cd ~/yocto_project

git clone <https://git.yoctoproject.org/poky.git>
cd pokygit branch -a
git checkout scarthgap
git branch

Now the next step is to clone the RaspberryPi zero BSP layers

cd .. 
echo "To reach the directory to poky-scratchgap"
git clone <https://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-raspberrypi.git>

cd meta-raspberrypigit checkout scarthgapcd ..

The last and most important to get building the scratchgap and making the build directory successfully :

poky/
├── bitbake/
├── meta/
├── meta-poky/
├── build/
│ └── conf/
│ ├── bblayers.conf
│ └── local.conf
└── …

source oe-init-build-env
bitbake-layers add-layer ../meta-raspberrypi
bitbake-layers show-layers

Add the layers

bash

bitbake-layers add-layer../../meta-raspberrypibitbake-layers add-layer../../meta-openembedded/meta-oebitbake-layers add-layer../../meta-openembedded/meta-multimediabitbake-layers show-layers

You should see meta, meta-poky, meta-yocto-bsp, meta-raspberrypi, meta-oe, and meta-multimedia listed.

Configure local.conf for the Pi Zero

Open conf/local.conf and set the machine. A Raspberry Pi Zero v1.3 has no onboard Wi-Fi, so use:

conf

MACHINE ?= "raspberrypi0"

(If you ever move to a Pi Zero W, use raspberrypi0-wifi instead.)

Also enable the serial console, since that’s your only way in without HDMI/keyboard:

conf

ENABLE_UART = "1"

Optional but useful additions:

conf

IMAGE_INSTALL:append = " openssh"

(gives you SSH if you later bring up networking — irrelevant for a plain Zero v1.3 without Wi-Fi, but handy if you add a USB-Ethernet gadget).

Build the image

bash

bitbake core-image-minimal

core-image-minimal is the smallest option if you just want a boot-to-shell system; core-image-base adds a bit more hardware-enablement tooling. Either works fine on the Zero. Expect the first build to take a while (an hour or more depending on your machine) since it's compiling the whole toolchain and base system from source.

The finished image lands at:

~/yocto_project/poky/build/tmp/deploy/images/raspberrypi0/core-image-base-raspberrypi0.wic.bz2

Flash the SD card

Find your SD card device first (be very careful with this — picking the wrong device will overwrite your disk):

bash

lsblk

Then decompress and write:

bash

bzip2 -dk core-image-base-raspberrypi0.wic.bz2sudoddif=core-image-base-raspberrypi0.wicof=/dev/sdXbs=4Mstatus=progressconv=fsyncsync

Replace /dev/sdX with your actual SD card device (e.g. /dev/sdb, never a partition like /dev/sdb1).

Wire up the FTDI adapter

As you noted:

FTDI RPi Zero v1.3 GND GND RX GPIO14 (TXD) TX GPIO15 (RXD)

Don’t connect the FTDI’s 5V/3.3V line — power the Pi separately over micro-USB. Sharing power through the FTDI can brown out or damage the board.

Open the serial console

Insert the SD card, power on the Pi, then from your host machine:

bash

sudoaptinstall -yscreenscreen /dev/ttyUSB0115200

(Substitute /dev/ttyUSB0 with whatever dmesg | grep tty shows after plugging in the FTDI.)

You should see the kernel boot log, followed by a login prompt. Poky’s default image logs in as:

login: root

with no password.

To exit screen: Ctrl-A then K, confirm with y.

Quick troubleshooting notes

• Nothing on the serial console: double-check RX/TX aren’t swapped — a common mistake is wiring RX-to-RX instead of RX-to-TX.
• add-layer fails with a dependency error: it's almost always a missing meta-oe/meta-python layer — meta-raspberrypi leans on meta-openembedded more in scarthgap than in older releases.
• Build fails on linux-raspberrypi: make sure MACHINE is set before the first bitbake invocation — changing it after tmp/ has been populated requires a bitbake -c cleanall virtual/kernel or a fresh build dir.