# Use pre-built PYNQ/boards base, logictools, etc? **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [December 12, 2019, 5:15am UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/use-pre-built-pynq-boards-base-logictools-etc/746 "2019-12-12T05:15:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rfdmod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/edb3f5/32.png) [@rfdmod](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/rfdmod)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2019, 5:15am UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/use-pre-built-pynq-boards-base-logictools-etc/746/1 "2019-12-12T05:15:35Z")
Support, I manually ran make for the base, logictools, etc for each board in the PYNQ/boards directories. When I ran PYNQ/sdbuild/make BOARDDIR=\ BOARDS=\ it once again had to re-build all the base, logictools, etc for each board. Is there a way to have the build process use all the pre-built overlays from the PYNQ/boards directories ? I assume the PYNQ/sdbuild/build/PYNQ/boards/\* are copied from the PYNQ/boards/\* directories however they do not copy the pre-built base overlays etc. regards ---
**Author:** ![patocarr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@patocarr](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/patocarr)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2019, 7:41am UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/use-pre-built-pynq-boards-base-logictools-etc/746/2 "2019-12-12T07:41:53Z")
Hi @rfdmod There’s a new feature that handles the build you’re looking for. It’s so recent it hasn’t made it to the documentation yet. Take a look at this post: [https://discuss.pynq.io/t/problems-getting-build-system-up-and-running/665/18](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/problems-getting-build-system-up-and-running/665/18) Thanks, -Pat ---
**Author:** ![gnatale](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.pynq.io/gnatale/32/11_2.png) [@gnatale](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/gnatale)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2019, 12:43pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/use-pre-built-pynq-boards-base-logictools-etc/746/3 "2019-12-12T12:43:20Z")
I’d recommend you use the fature @patocarr suggested and avoid building the bistreams yourself altogether. I also suggest you to use the prebuilt rootfs so you will save even more time. The two options are documented here: [PYNQ/sdbuild at master · Xilinx/PYNQ · GitHub](https://github.com/Xilinx/PYNQ/tree/master/sdbuild) and here (not yet updated on readthedocs): [PYNQ/pynq\_sd\_card.rst at master · Xilinx/PYNQ · GitHub](https://github.com/Xilinx/PYNQ/blob/master/docs/source/pynq_sd_card.rst) In particular: - [PYNQ/pynq\_sd\_card.rst at master · Xilinx/PYNQ · GitHub](https://github.com/Xilinx/PYNQ/blob/master/docs/source/pynq_sd_card.rst#re-use-the-pynq-source-distribution-tarball) - [PYNQ/pynq\_sd\_card.rst at master · Xilinx/PYNQ · GitHub](https://github.com/Xilinx/PYNQ/blob/master/docs/source/pynq_sd_card.rst#using-the-prebuilt-board-agnostic-image) The relevant excerpt from the sdbuild readme: * * * To use a board-agnostic image to build a board-specific image you can pass the `PREBUILT` variable: `make PREBUILT= BOARDS=` To use a previously built PYNQ source distribution tarball you can pass the `PYNQ_SDIST` variable. This will also avoid having to rebuild bitstreams (except for external boards) and MicroBlazes’ bsps and binaries. `make PYNQ_SDIST=` ---
**Author:** ![rfdmod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/edb3f5/32.png) [@rfdmod](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/rfdmod)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2019, 3:40am UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/use-pre-built-pynq-boards-base-logictools-etc/746/4 "2019-12-14T03:40:31Z")
Hi Gnatele, I used the two options mentioned, however it is still trying to re-build the bitstreams for the boards. When PYNQ/sdbuild/build/PYNQ/sdbuild/packages/pynq/pre.sh reaches line 41 overlays=`find . -maxdepth 2 -iname 'makefile' -printf '%h\n' | cut -f2 -d"/"` it will not find any overlays since the ‘makefiles’ are not present in the untarred pynq-2.5.tar.gz I downloaded pynq-2.5.tar.gz from [Releases · Xilinx/PYNQ · GitHub](https://github.com/Xilinx/PYNQ/releases) you can see this in my log file below: ++ ls /home/user/local/git/PYNQ/sdbuild/build/PYNQ/sdist\_untar/pynq-2.5/boards - boards=‘Pynq-Z1 Pynq-Z2 ZCU104’ - for bd\_name in ‘$boards’ - cd /home/user/local/git/PYNQ/sdbuild/build/PYNQ/sdist\_untar/pynq-2.5/boards/Pynq-Z1 ++ find . -maxdepth 2 -iname makefile -printf ‘%h\n’ ++ cut -f2 -d/ - overlays= - for bd\_name in ‘$boards’ - cd /home/user/local/git/PYNQ/sdbuild/build/PYNQ/sdist\_untar/pynq-2.5/boards/Pynq-Z2 ++ find . -maxdepth 2 -iname makefile -printf ‘%h\n’ ++ cut -f2 -d/ - overlays= - for bd\_name in ‘$boards’ - cd /home/user/local/git/PYNQ/sdbuild/build/PYNQ/sdist\_untar/pynq-2.5/boards/ZCU104 ++ find . -maxdepth 2 -iname makefile -printf ‘%h\n’ ++ cut -f2 -d/ - overlays= - rm -rf /home/user/local/git/PYNQ/sdbuild/build/PYNQ/sdist\_untar - cd /home/user/local/git/PYNQ/sdbuild/build/PYNQ - ./build.sh ./build.sh Script for building default overlays, microblaze bsp’s and binaries. skipping bitstream base.bit for SnickerdoodleBlack skipping bitstream logictools.bit for Pynq-Z2 building bitstream base.bit for Pynq-Z2 make[1]: Entering directory ‘/home/user/local/git/PYNQ/sdbuild/build/PYNQ/boards/Pynq-Z2/base’ vivado -mode batch -source build\_base\_ip.tcl -notrace ---
**Author:** ![gnatale](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.pynq.io/gnatale/32/11_2.png) [@gnatale](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/gnatale)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 11:45am UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/use-pre-built-pynq-boards-base-logictools-etc/746/5 "2019-12-16T11:45:17Z")
I am sorry, you are totally right! During testing, I happened to use an sdist that had the makefile in it so I introduced this bug. I’ll immediately file a PR to fix it. In the meantime, I suggest you change the incriminated line with what the PR will look like > into `overlays=`find . -maxdepth 2 -iname ‘\*.bit’ -printf ‘%h\n’ | cut -f2 -d"/"`` EDIT: PR submitted: [Fix bug in pynq pre.sh for external boards by giunatale · Pull Request #979 · Xilinx/PYNQ · GitHub](https://github.com/Xilinx/PYNQ/pull/979) Thanks again for pointing this out! ---
**Author:** ![rfdmod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/edb3f5/32.png) [@rfdmod](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/rfdmod)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2019, 6:14pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/use-pre-built-pynq-boards-base-logictools-etc/746/6 "2019-12-16T18:14:55Z")
I’m not sure if this will affect anyone else but I am using a vmware virtual machine and after patching the overlay line as suggested and restarting the build, I received the following error: rm -rf base \*.jou \*.log NA make[1]: Leaving directory ‘/home/user/local/git/PYNQ/sdbuild/build/PYNQ/boards/ZCU104/base’ - cd /home/user/local/git/PYNQ/sdbuild/build/PYNQ - python3 setup.py sdist Traceback (most recent call last): File “setup.py”, line 34, in from setuptools import setup, Extension, find\_packages, Distribution ImportError: No module named ‘setuptools’ - unmount\_special To fix this I had to do the following: sudo apt install python3-pip sudo pip3 install --upgrade “setuptools\>=24.2.0” After that the build completed fine. The entire build after a make clean now only takes about 27 minutes for my setup !! Thanks for all your work. ---
**Author:** ![gnatale](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.pynq.io/gnatale/32/11_2.png) [@gnatale](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/gnatale)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 11:09am UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/use-pre-built-pynq-boards-base-logictools-etc/746/7 "2019-12-17T11:09:30Z")
setup\_host.sh has this install at the bottom. > So this should not be a problem. Perhaps I am assuming you built the VM before I did the PR to fix the imagebuild (that’s when I added that line in setup\_host) ---
**Author:** ![gnatale](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.pynq.io/gnatale/32/11_2.png) [@gnatale](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/gnatale)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2019, 11:10am UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/use-pre-built-pynq-boards-base-logictools-etc/746/8 "2019-12-17T11:10:04Z")
btw, the PR mentioned above got merged yesterday 🙂 Again, thanks for reporting this out!