Adding layer on the eSDK is better be done with bitbake-layer than manually. There is little or no explanation about adding a layer to the eSDK and the main suggestion is to change the bblayers.conf. I found the eSDK wiki[1] and openembedded faq[2]. Also this bug about adding layer functionality to the eSDK[3]. I made the eSDK with: source poky/oe-init-build-env bitbake core-image-weston -c populate_sdk_ext tmp/deploy/sdk/poky-glibc-x86_64-core-image-weston-aarch64-toolchain-ext-2.4.3.sh -y -d ~/poky_sdk For adding the layer I used: . /home/build/poky_sdk/environment-setup-aarch64-poky-linux ../build/poky/bitbake/bin/bitbake-layers add-layer ../build/meta-openembedded/meta-python devtool modify python-flask The problem is that the eSDK can be used in an environment without bitbake-layers, this means that bitbake-layers need to be in the standalone eSDK. I use bitbake-layers on eSDK using BBPATH=~/poky-sdk/ bitbake-layers add-layer layers/test-layer/meta-python In this way bitbake-layers can be used for adding layers on different eSDK. [1] https://wiki.yoctoproject.org/wiki/Extensible_SDK [2] http://www.openembedded.org/wiki/Layers_FAQ [3] https://bugzilla.yoctoproject.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11677
So the original design of the eSDK was that the build system integrated into it is shipped with a "locked-down" configuration and it was not intended that it be modified after installation - the locked signatures functionality that we are using within the eSDK can make adding new layers or modifying configuration problematic. My recommendation if you want to be making these kinds of changes is to use a proper installation of the full build system; I understand this may not be as convenient but it does ensure that it will behave properly. (It's possible we might address this limitation in future but for now it's working as designed.)
We probably would change the eSDK to work more like this if we can get development time....
Still worth doing when we have the people available. -- YP bug review.