We will setup a Yocto build server with Jenkins. Lets not talk about it too much lets just get too work. I am using a Ubuntu 24.04 server and to resolve conflicts I will use Docker. Here is a post I made how to install docker.

We will use a Beagle Bone Black (BBB) as the hardware. Its easily available and relatively cheap and decently powerful. Its widely available as well.

What we will get:

Jenkins (controller) in Docker

Yocto build agent in Docker using scarthgap

Shared caches on host:

/yocto/sstate-cache

/yocto/downloads

/yocto/workspace

Here is a folder structure that you will see

/<path to your folder>/yocto/
   ├── docker-compose.yml
   ├── downloads/
   ├── sstate-cache/
   └── workspace/
        ├── sources/
        └── build/

Target: MACHINE = "beaglebone" on scarthgap with meta-beagle + meta-ti-bsp.

1. Host prep (once on VPS)

sudo mkdir -p yocto/{sstate-cache,downloads,workspace}
sudo chmod -R yocto
cd yocto
touch docker-compose.yml
nano docker-compose.yml

Once you are have the file open paste the content below in the compose file.

2. docker-compose.yml (scarthgap‑ready)

services:
  jenkins:
    image: jenkins/jenkins:lts
    container_name: jenkins-controller
    restart: unless-stopped
    user: root
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
      - "50000:50000"
    volumes:
      - jenkins_home:/var/jenkins_home
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock

  yocto-agent:
    image: ubuntu:22.04
    container_name: jenkins-yocto-agent
    restart: unless-stopped
    privileged: true
    shm_size: "16g"
    volumes:
      - ./yocto/sstate-cache:/sstate-cache
      - ./yocto/downloads:/downloads
      - ./yocto/workspace:/workspace
    command: tail -f /dev/null

volumes:
  jenkins_home:

Now you can start the docker container by using the command below

docker compose up -d

3. Inside the Yocto agent: toolchain + scarthgap checkout

Next lets get inside the docker container when it starts running with the command below. This will give us the containers terminal.

docker exec -it jenkins-yocto-agent bash

Let’s install all the build dependencies

apt update
apt install -y \
  gawk wget git diffstat unzip texinfo gcc-multilib build-essential \
  chrpath socat cpio python3 python3-pip python3-pexpect xz-utils \
  debianutils iputils-ping libsdl2-dev xterm locales sudo \
  openjdk-17-jre

Clone scarthgap + BBB layers into /workspace/sources:

cd /workspace
mkdir -p sources && cd sources

# Poky (scarthgap)
git clone -b scarthgap git://git.yoctoproject.org/poky

# OpenEmbedded
git clone -b scarthgap git://git.openembedded.org/meta-openembedded

# TI + Beagle
git clone -b scarthgap git://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-ti

4. First manual Yocto setup (to “bake in” config)

cd /workspace
source sources/poky/oe-init-build-env build-bbb

build-bbb/
   ├── conf/
   │     ├── bblayers.conf
   │     └── local.conf
   ├── tmp/
   ├── sstate-cache/ (if local)
   └── cache/

Edit conf/bblayers.conf to include:

BBLAYERS ?= " \
  /workspace/sources/poky/meta \
  /workspace/sources/poky/meta-poky \
  /workspace/sources/poky/meta-yocto-bsp \
  /workspace/sources/meta-openembedded/meta-oe \
  /workspace/sources/meta-openembedded/meta-python \
  /workspace/sources/meta-openembedded/meta-networking \
  /workspace/sources/meta-openembedded/meta-multimedia \
  /workspace/sources/meta-ti/meta-ti-bsp \
  /workspace/sources/meta-ti/meta-beagle \
"

Set conf/local.conf:

MACHINE ?= "beaglebone"

SSTATE_DIR ?= "/sstate-cache"
DL_DIR ?= "/downloads"

BB_NUMBER_THREADS = "44"
PARALLEL_MAKE = "-j44"

INHERIT += "ccache"
CCACHE_DIR = "/workspace/ccache"

Quick sanity build (optional but recommended):

cd /workspace/build-bbb
bitbake core-image-minimal

5. Jenkins: node + label

In Jenkins UI:

• Manage Jenkins → Nodes → New Node
• Name: yocto-agent
• Type: “Permanent Agent”
• Remote root dir: /workspace
• Launch method: “Launch agent via execution of command on the controller” or SSH (your choice)
• Label: yocto-bbb

If you use SSH, run an SSH server in the agent container; if you use JNLP, download the agent jar and run it inside the container.

6. Jenkinsfile for BBB + scarthgap

Create a Jenkinsfile in your Yocto platform repo (or a freestyle pipeline using this):

pipeline {
    agent { label 'yocto-bbb' }

    environment {
        YOCTO_TOP = "/workspace"
        BUILD_DIR = "${YOCTO_TOP}/build-bbb"
        MACHINE   = "beaglebone"
        TARGET    = "core-image-minimal"
    }

    stages {
        stage('Env info') {
            steps {
                sh 'uname -a'
                sh 'nproc'
            }
        }

        stage('Prepare build env') {
            steps {
                sh """
                    cd ${YOCTO_TOP}
                    source sources/poky/oe-init-build-env ${BUILD_DIR}
                    bitbake-layers show-layers
                """
            }
        }

        stage('Build image') {
            steps {
                sh """
                    cd ${YOCTO_TOP}
                    source sources/poky/oe-init-build-env ${BUILD_DIR}
                    bitbake ${TARGET}
                """
            }
        }

        stage('Archive artifacts') {
            steps {
                archiveArtifacts artifacts: "${BUILD_DIR}/tmp/deploy/images/${MACHINE}/*", fingerprint: true
            }
        }
    }
}

7. Where your BBB images will land

After a successful build:

/workspace/build-bbb/tmp/deploy/images/beaglebone/

You’ll see .wic, .tar.xz, u-boot, kernel, etc.—ready to flash.