• Cheatsheet - Linux, Yocto & Git
    • FitImage
      • GPIO handling at i.MX8M Mini
        • PHYTEC VM
          • RAM Configuration at PHYTEC i.MX8M Mini
            • Setup qbee Device Management on phyBOARD-Polis
              • Using phyLinux to build a yocto BSP with a build-container
                • Using thingsboard.io to connect phyBOARD-Polis to the Cloud

                  Setup qbee Device Management on phyBOARD-Polis

                  01 22, 2026 10:52

                  Set up the qbee device management solution (https://qbee.io/) on the phyBOARD-Polis (https://www.phytec.de/produkte/single-board-computer/phyboard-polis-imx8m-mini/). This tutorial uses a Linux workstation for our setup, but of course, you can also do this via WSL in Windows. We will install an operating system on the Pollux (or use the preinstalled one) and afterward go through the steps to configure qbee.io on the device.

                  Hardware and Software used at this Tutorial

                  Hardware: phyBOARD-Polis i.MX8MM

                  Software: PD23.1.0

                  Yocto: 4.0.13 kirkstone

                  Kernel: Linux NXP Vendor Kernel

                  Bootloader: U-boot v2022.04_2.2.2-phy5

                  Build Environment: Ubuntu 20.04 64-bit

                  Preparing the BSP

                  The phyBOARD-Polis comes equipped with the PHYTEC BSP preinstalled on an SD card. You can either use this or create a fresh one by following these steps:

                  Download yocto-fsl BSP image from here: https://download.phytec.de/Software/Linux/BSP-Yocto-i.MX8MM/BSP-Yocto-NXP-i.MX8MM-PD23.1.0/images/ampliphy-vendor/phyboard-polis-imx8mm-4/phytec-headless-image-phyboard-polis-imx8mm-4.wic (at the time of writing, PD23.1.0 is the most current version)

                  Insert an SD card into your workstation and write the downloaded image onto the disk. Be careful to choose the correct device handle! In our setup it is /dev/mmcblk0:

                  sudo dd if=phytec-headless-image-phyboard-polis-imx8mm-4.wic of=/dev/mmcblk0 status=progress conv=sync

                  Connect to the Board and Boot

                  Run minicom (or any other terminal emulation) on your workstation.

                  Insert the SD card into the phyBOARD, connect the board via MicroUSB from X30 to your workstation's USB port, connect LAN and power, and wait for boot-up.

                  The default network configuration is a fixed IP address (192.168.3.11) which we need to change for the board to connect to the qbee servers. We changed it to DHCP by editing the network configuration:

                  vi /lib/systemd/network/10-eth0.network

                  Find the line with the fixed IP address, place a comment in front of the IP address, save, and reboot

                  Check the IP address with:

                  networkctl status

                  The external IP address is 172.25.32.89, write this down for later use.

                  Connect to qbee

                  Register a free account

                  Register a free account at https://qbee.io/. The free trial version features up to two devices with unlimited functionality. Your account should be ready shortly.

                  To set up and register the phyBOARD, you need a secret code, called a "bootstrap" key. Click the menu in the top right corner, select "Bootstrap keys" and write them down: https://www.app.qbee.io/#/bootstrapkeys

                  Install qbee client on your board and connect the board

                  The easiest way to start using qbee on your phyBOARD-Polis is to download the binary image and configure it manually. If you later decide to use it in production, the usual way is to include qbee as a layer in your yocto BSP image.

                  Download the latest qbee binary from here https://github.com/qbee-io/qbee-agent/releases/download/2024.23/qbee-agent-2024.23.tar.gz and copy the downloaded file onto your Polis board using the IP address you wrote down earlier:

                  scp qbee-agent-2024.23.tar.gz root@172.25.32.89:/root

                  Extract the archive and prepare the keys for the connection by copying the example setup:

                  tar -xvf qbee-agent-2024.23.tar.gz

cd qbee-agent-2024.23

mkdir /etc/qbee

mkdir /etc/qbee/ppkeys

cp share/ssl/ca.cert /etc/qbee/ppkeys/

                  Now yoiu can start the board registration process by providing the Bootstrap key we obtained from the qbee Dashboard and run the agent:

                  ./qbee-agent-arm bootstrap -k <YourBootstrapKeyHere>

nohup ./qbee-agent-arm start &

                  Voilà, we should see our phyBOARD-Polis in qbee's dashboard in the device list.

                  Using the "Open Console" button we can connect to our device and issue commands. Of course, you can now explore qbee's UI and check out the features provided.