Answer to QUESTION 1 (Read Comments section down below question)
The config.txt is read from the FAT32 partition!!! The config.txt I added has no effect indeed. It can't. Read Comment section below.
Partitions
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
root@raspberrypi2:/# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 7948 MB, 7948206080 bytes
4 heads, 32 sectors/track, 121280 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 128 * 512 = 65536 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1 * 65 384 20480 c Win95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 385 7104 430080 83 Linux
root
root@raspberrypi2:/# ls -al /
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 1024 Jan 1 1970 .
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 1024 Jan 1 1970 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 May 24 19:10 bin
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 May 24 19:18 boot
drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 13240 May 24 19:11 dev
drwxr-xr-x 33 root root 2048 Jan 1 1970 etc
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1024 May 24 19:09 home
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 2048 May 24 19:11 lib
drwx------ 2 root root 12288 May 24 19:11 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 May 22 14:35 media
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 May 22 14:35 mnt
dr-xr-xr-x 88 root root 0 Jan 1 1970 proc
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 380 May 24 19:11 run
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 May 24 19:10 sbin
dr-xr-xr-x 11 root root 0 Jan 1 1970 sys
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8 Jan 1 1970 tmp -> /var/tmp
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root 1024 May 22 15:21 usr
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 1024 May 22 18:43 var
boot folder
root@raspberrypi2:/boot# ls -al
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 May 24 19:18 .
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 1024 Jan 1 1970 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 May 24 19:10 Image -> /boot/Image-3.18.11
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8648032 May 22 20:15 Image-3.18.11
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1247 May 24 19:18 config.txt
Created /boot/rpi and mounted the FAT32 partition
root@raspberrypi2:/boot# mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot/rpi
root@raspberrypi2:/boot# ls -al
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1024 May 24 19:16 .
drwxr-xr-x 17 root root 1024 Jan 1 1970 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 19 May 24 19:10 Image -> /boot/Image-3.18.11
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8648032 May 22 20:15 Image-3.18.11
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1247 May 24 19:18 config.txt <=== DELETE THIS
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 16384 Jan 1 1970 rpi <===
root@raspberrypi2:/boot# cd rpi
root@raspberrypi2:/boot/rpi# ls -al
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 16384 Jan 1 1970 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 1024 May 24 19:16 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4702 May 24 12:12 bcm2708-rpi-b-plus.dtb
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 4423 May 24 12:12 bcm2708-rpi-b.dtb
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5690 May 24 12:12 bcm2709-rpi-2-b.dtb
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 0 May 24 12:12 bcm2835-bootfiles-20150206.stamp
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 17856 May 24 12:12 bootcode.bin
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 117 May 24 12:12 cmdline.txt
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32874 May 24 12:12 config.txt
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 6133 May 24 12:12 fixup.dat
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2345 May 24 12:12 fixup_cd.dat
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 9191 May 24 12:12 fixup_x.dat
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 54 May 24 12:12 image-version-info
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 8648032 May 24 12:12 kernel7.img
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 May 24 12:12 overlays
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2641752 May 24 12:12 start.elf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 554008 May 24 12:12 start_cd.elf
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3598760 May 24 12:12 start_x.elf
Answer to QUESTION 2 (not tested yet but should work)
In your own .bbappend
COMPATIBLE_MACHINE += "raspberrypi2"
In your image config file in IMAGE_INSTALL add the rpi-config module
In [PATH]/meta-rpi/recipes-bsp/bootfiles/rpi-config_git.bbappend create the function to add the additional variables:
do_deploy_append() {
echo "hdmi_force_hotplug=1" >>${DEPLOYDIR}/bcm2835-bootfiles/config.txt
echo "hdmi_group=2" >>${DEPLOYDIR}/bcm2835-bootfiles/config.txt
echo "hdmi_mode=1" >>${DEPLOYDIR}/bcm2835-bootfiles/config.txt
echo "hdmi_mode=87" >>${DEPLOYDIR}/bcm2835-bootfiles/config.txt
echo "hdmi_cvt 800 480 60 6 0 0 0" >>${DEPLOYDIR}/bcm2835-bootfiles/config.txt
echo "max_usb_current=1" >>${DEPLOYDIR}/bcm2835-bootfiles/config.txt
}