This chapter shows how to build and install, from source code, a complete development environment for the AVR processors using the GNU toolset. There are two main sections, one for Linux, FreeBSD, and other Unix-like operating systems, and another section for Windows.
The default behaviour for most of these tools is to install every thing under the
/usr/local
directory. In order to keep the AVR tools
separate from the base system, it is usually better to install everything into
/usr/local/avr
. If the
/usr/local/avr
directory does not exist, you should
create it before trying to install anything. You will need
root
access to install there. If you don't have root
access to the system, you can alternatively install in your home directory, for example,
in $HOME/local/avr
. Where you install is a completely
arbitrary decision, but should be consistent for all the tools.
You specify the installation directory by using the
--prefix=dir
option with the
configure
script. It is important to install all the
AVR tools in the same directory or some of the tools will not work correctly. To ensure
consistency and simplify the discussion, we will use
$PREFIX
to refer to whatever directory you wish to
install in. You can set this as an environment variable if you wish as such (using a
Bourne-like shell):
$ PREFIX=$HOME/local/avr $ export PREFIX
Be sure that you have your PATH
environment
variable set to search the directory you install everything in
before you start installing anything. For example, if you use
--prefix=$PREFIX
, you must have
$PREFIX/bin
in your exported
PATH
. As such:
$ PATH=$PATH:$PREFIX/bin $ export PATH
If you have CC
set to anything other than
avr-gcc
in your environment, this will cause the
configure script to fail. It is best to not have CC
set at all.
It is usually the best to use the latest released version of each of the tools.
You can develop programs for AVR devices without the following tools. They may or may not be of use for you.
The binutils
package provides all the
low-level utilities needed in building and manipulating object files. Once installed, your
environment will have an AVR assembler (avr-as
), linker
(avr-ld
), and librarian
(avr-ar
and
avr-ranlib
). In addition, you get tools which extract
data from object files (avr-objcopy
), dissassemble object
file information (avr-objdump
), and strip information
from object files (avr-strip
). Before we can build the C
compiler, these tools need to be in place.
Download and unpack the source files:
$ bunzip2 -c binutils-<version>.tar.bz2 | tar xf - $ cd binutils-<version>
Replace <version>
with the version of the package you downloaded.
If you
obtained a gzip compressed file (.gz), use gunzip
instead of bunzip2
.
binutils
in a subdirectory so as not to pollute the source with the compiled files. This is
recommended by the binutils
developers.$ mkdir obj-avr $ cd obj-avr
The next step is to configure and build the tools. This is done by supplying arguments
to the configure
script that enable the AVR-specific
options.
$ ../configure --prefix=$PREFIX --target=avr --disable-nls
If you don't specify the --prefix
option, the tools
will get installed in the /usr/local
hierarchy (i.e. the
binaries will get installed in /usr/local/bin
, the info
pages get installed in /usr/local/info
, etc.) Since these
tools are changing frequently, It is preferrable to put them in a location that is easily
removed.
When configure
is run, it generates a lot of messages
while it determines what is available on your operating system. When it finishes, it will
have created several Makefile
s that are custom tailored
to your platform. At this point, you can build the project.
$ make
BSD users should note that the project's
Makefile
uses GNU
make
syntax. This means FreeBSD users may need to
build the tools by using gmake
.
root
access to install them. To install:$ make install
You should now have the programs from binutils installed into
$PREFIX/bin
. Don't forget to set your PATH environment variable
before going to build avr-gcc.
You must install avr-binutils and make sure your path is set properly before installing avr-gcc.
avr-gcc
are essentially same as for binutils:$ bunzip2 -c gcc-<version>.tar.bz2 | tar xf - $ cd gcc-<version> $ mkdir obj-avr $ cd obj-avr $ ../configure --prefix=$PREFIX --target=avr --enable-languages=c,c++ \ --disable-nls --disable-libssp --with-dwarf2 $ make $ make install
To save your self some download time, you can alternatively download only the
gcc-core-<version>.tar.bz2
and
gcc-c++-<version>.tar.bz2
parts of the gcc. Also,
if you don't need C++ support, you only need the core part and should only enable the C
language support. (Starting with GCC 4.7 releases, these split files are no longer
available though.)
Early versions of these tools did not support C++.
The stdc++ libs are not included with C++ for AVR due to the size limitations of the devices.
You must install avr-binutils, avr-gcc and make sure your path is set properly before installing avr-libc.
If you have obtained the latest avr-libc from cvs, you will
have to run the bootstrap
script before using either
of the build methods described below.
$ gunzip -c avr-libc-<version>.tar.gz | tar xf - $ cd avr-libc-<version> $ ./configure --prefix=$PREFIX --build=`./config.guess` --host=avr $ make $ make install
Optionally, generation of debug information can be requested with:
$ gunzip -c avr-libc-<version>.tar.gz | tar xf - $ cd avr-libc-<version> $ ./configure --prefix=$PREFIX --build=`./config.guess` --host=avr \ --with-debug-info=DEBUG_INFO $ make $ make install
where DEBUG_INFO
can be one of
stabs
, dwarf-2
, or
dwarf-4
.
The default is to not generate any debug information, which is suitable for binary distributions of avr-libc, where the user does not have the source code installed the debug information would refer to.
It has been ported to windows (via MinGW or cygwin), Linux and Solaris. Other Unix systems should be trivial to port to.
avrdude
is part of the FreeBSD ports system.
To install it, simply do the following:# cd /usr/ports/devel/avrdude # make install
Installation into the default location usually requires
root permissions. However, running the program only requires access permissions to the
appropriate ppi(4)
device.
configure
system, as such:$ gunzip -c avrdude-<version>.tar.gz | tar xf - $ cd avrdude-<version> $ mkdir obj-avr $ cd obj-avr $ ../configure --prefix=$PREFIX $ make $ make install
GDB also uses the configure
system, so to build and
install:
$ bunzip2 -c gdb-<version>.tar.bz2 | tar xf - $ cd gdb-<version> $ mkdir obj-avr $ cd obj-avr $ ../configure --prefix=$PREFIX --target=avr $ make $ make install
SimulAVR also uses the configure
system, so to build
and install:
$ gunzip -c simulavr-<version>.tar.gz | tar xf - $ cd simulavr-<version> $ mkdir obj-avr $ cd obj-avr $ ../configure --prefix=$PREFIX $ make $ make install
You might want to have already installed avr-binutils, avr-gcc and avr-libc if you want to have the test programs built in the simulavr source.
These install notes are not applicable to avarice-1.5 or older. You probably don't want to use anything that old anyways since there have been many improvements and bug fixes since the 1.5 release.
configure
system, so to build and
install:$ gunzip -c avarice-<version>.tar.gz | tar xf - $ cd avarice-<version> $ mkdir obj-avr $ cd obj-avr $ ../configure --prefix=$PREFIX $ make $ make install
AVaRICE uses the BFD library for accessing various binary file formats. You may
need to tell the configure script where to find the lib and headers for the link to
work. This is usually done by invoking the configure script like this (Replace
<hdr_path>
with the path to the
bfd.h
file on your system. Replace
<lib_path>
with the path to
libbfd.a
on your system.):
$ CPPFLAGS=-I<hdr_path> LDFLAGS=-L<lib_path> ../configure --prefix=$PREFIX
Building and installing the toolchain under Windows requires more effort because all of the tools required for building, and the programs themselves, are mainly designed for running under a POSIX environment such as Unix and Linux. Windows does not natively provide such an environment.
There are two projects available that provide such an environment, Cygwin and MinGW. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Cygwin provides a very complete POSIX environment that allows one to build many Linux based tools from source with very little or no source modifications. However, POSIX functionality is provided in the form of a DLL that is linked to the application. This DLL has to be redistributed with your application and there are issues if the Cygwin DLL already exists on the installation system and different versions of the DLL. On the other hand, MinGW can compile code as native Win32 applications. However, this means that programs designed for Unix and Linux (i.e. that use POSIX functionality) will not compile as MinGW does not provide that POSIX layer for you. Therefore most programs that compile on both types of host systems, usually must provide some sort of abstraction layer to allow an application to be built cross-platform.
MinGW does provide somewhat of a POSIX environment, called MSYS, that allows you to
build Unix and Linux applications as they woud normally do, with a
configure
step and a
make
step. Cygwin also provides such an environment.
This means that building the AVR toolchain is very similar to how it is built in Linux,
described above. The main differences are in what the PATH environment variable gets set
to, pathname differences, and the tools that are required to build the projects under
Windows. We'll take a look at the tools next.
These are the tools that are currently used to build an AVR tool chain. This list may change, either the version of the tools, or the tools themselves, as improvements are made.
Run mingw-get-inst-20100909.exe
In the installation wizard, keep the default values and press the "Next" button for all installer pages except for the pages explicitly listed below.
In the installer page "License Agreement", select the "I accept the agreement" radio button, and press the "Next" button
C compiler (default checked)
C++ compiler
Ada compiler
MinGW Developer Toolkit (which includes "MSYS Basic System").
Install.
Install everything, all users, UNIX line endings. This will take a *long* time. A fat internet pipe is highly recommended. It is also recommended that you download all to a directory first, and then install from that directory to your machine.
GMP, MPFR, and MPC are required to build GCC.
GMP is a prequisite for building MPFR. Build GMP first.
MPFR is a prerequisite for building MPC. Build MPFR second.
Latest Version
./configure 2>&1 | tee gmp-configure.log make 2>&1 | tee gmp-make.log make check 2>&1 | tee gmp-make-check.log make install 2>&1 | tee gmp-make-install.log
GMP headers will be installed under /usr/local/include and library installed under /usr/local/lib.
Latest Version
./configure --with-gmp=/usr/local --disable-shared 2>&1 | tee mpfr-configure.log make 2>&1 | tee mpfr-make.log make check 2>&1 | tee mpfr-make-check.log make install 2>&1 | tee mpfr-make-install.log
MPFR headers will be installed under /usr/local/include and library installed under /usr/local/lib.
Latest Version
./configure --with-gmp=/usr/local --with-mpfr=/usr/local --disable-shared 2>&1 | tee mpfr-configure.log make 2>&1 | tee mpfr-make.log make check 2>&1 | tee mpfr-make-check.log make install 2>&1 | tee mpfr-make-install.log
MPFR headers will be installed under /usr/local/include and library installed under /usr/local/lib.
Version 1.7.2
Download and install.
Version 10.27.0
From the GNUWin32 project: <http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html>
Download and install.
Version 3.2 patchlevel 5c
From WinFig 4.62: <http://www.schmidt-web-berlin.de/winfig/>
Download the zip file version of WinFig
Unzip the download file and install fig2dev.exe in a location of your choice, somewhere in the PATH.
You may have to unzip and install related DLL files for fig2dev. In the version above, you have to install QtCore4.dll and QtGui4.dll.
Version 2.9
Download and install.
Version 9.00
Download and install.
In the \bin subdirectory of the installaion, copy gswin32c.exe to gs.exe.
Set the TEMP and TMP environment variables to c:\temp or to the short filename version. This helps to avoid NTVDM errors during building.
All directories in the PATH enviornment variable should be specified using their short filename (8.3) version. This will also help to avoid NTVDM errors during building. These short filenames can be specific to each machine.
Build the tools below in MinGW/MSYS.
Open source code pacakge and patch as necessary.
Configure and build in a directory outside of the source code tree.
<ghostscript executables>
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/mingw/bin
c:/cygwin/bin
<install directory>/bin
CFLAGS=-D__USE_MINGW_ACCESS \ ../$archivedir/configure \ --prefix=$installdir \ --target=avr \ --disable-nls \ --enable-doc \ --datadir=$installdir/doc/binutils \ --with-gmp=/usr/local \ --with-mpfr=/usr/local \ 2>&1 | tee binutils-configure.log
make all html install install-html 2>&1 | tee binutils-make.log
Manually change documentation location.
Open source code pacakge and patch as necessary.
Configure and build in a directory outside of the source code tree.
<ghostscript executables>
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/mingw/bin
c:/cygwin/bin
<install directory>/bin
LDFLAGS='-L /usr/local/lib -R /usr/local/lib' \ CFLAGS='-D__USE_MINGW_ACCESS' \ ../gcc-$version/configure \ --with-gmp=/usr/local \ --with-mpfr=/usr/local \ --with-mpc=/usr/local \ --prefix=$installdir \ --target=$target \ --enable-languages=c,c++ \ --with-dwarf2 \ --enable-doc \ --with-docdir=$installdir/doc/$project \ --disable-shared \ --disable-libada \ --disable-libssp \ 2>&1 | tee $project-configure.log
make all html install 2>&1 | tee $package-make.log
Open source code package.
Configure and build at the top of the source code tree.
/usr/local/bin
/mingw/bin
/bin
<MikTex executables>
<install directory>/bin
<Doxygen executables>
<NetPBM executables>
<fig2dev executable>
<Ghostscript executables>
c:/cygwin/bin
./configure \ --host=avr \ --prefix=$installdir \ --enable-doc \ --disable-versioned-doc \ --enable-html-doc \ --enable-xml-doc \ --enable-pdf-doc \ --enable-man-doc \ --mandir=$installdir/man \ --datadir=$installdir \ 2>&1 | tee $package-configure.log
make all install 2>&1 | tee $package-make.log
Manually change location of man page documentation.
Move the examples to the top level of the install tree.
Convert line endings in examples to Windows line endings.
Convert line endings in header files to Windows line endings.
Open source code package.
Configure and build at the top of the source code tree.
<MikTex executables>
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/mingw/bin
c:/cygwin/bin
<install directory>/bin
export CPPFLAGS="-I../../libusb-win32-device-bin-$libusb_version/include" export CFLAGS="-I../../libusb-win32-device-bin-$libusb_version/include" export LDFLAGS="-L../../libusb-win32-device-bin-$libusb_version/lib/gcc"
./configure \ --prefix=$installdir \ --datadir=$installdir \ --sysconfdir=$installdir/bin \ --enable-doc \ --disable-versioned-doc \ 2>&1 | tee $package-configure.log
make -k all install 2>&1 | tee $package-make.log
Convert line endings in avrdude config file to Windows line endings.
Delete backup copy of avrdude config file in install directory if exists.
Open source code pacakge and patch as necessary.
Configure and build in a directory outside of the source code tree.
<MikTex executables>
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/mingw/bin
c:/cygwin/bin
<install directory>/bin
CFLAGS=-D__USE_MINGW_ACCESS \ LDFLAGS='-static' \ ../$archivedir/configure \ --prefix=$installdir \ --target=avr \ --with-gmp=/usr/local \ --with-mpfr=/usr/local \ --enable-doc \ 2>&1 | tee insight-configure.log
make all install 2>&1 | tee $package-make.log
Open source code package.
Configure and build at the top of the source code tree.
<MikTex executables>
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
/mingw/bin
c:/cygwin/bin
<install directory>/bin
./configure \ --prefix=$installdir \ --infodir=$installdir/info \ --mandir=$installdir/man \ 2>&1 | tee $package-configure.log
make all install 2>&1 | tee $package-make.log
Build the tools below in Cygwin.
Open source code package.
Configure and build in a directory outside of the source code tree.
<MikTex executables>
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
<install directory>/bin
export CPPFLAGS=-I$startdir/libusb-win32-device-bin-$libusb_version/include export CFLAGS=-I$startdir/libusb-win32-device-bin-$libusb_version/include export LDFLAGS="-static -L$startdir/libusb-win32-device-bin-$libusb_version/lib/gcc "
../$archivedir/configure \ --prefix=$installdir \ --datadir=$installdir/doc \ --mandir=$installdir/man \ --infodir=$installdir/info \ 2>&1 | tee avarice-configure.log
make all install 2>&1 | tee avarice-make.log
Open source code package.
Configure and build in a directory outside of the source code tree.
<MikTex executables>
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/bin
<install directory>/bin
export LDFLAGS="-static" ../$archivedir/configure \ --prefix=$installdir \ --datadir=$installdir \ --disable-tests \ --disable-versioned-doc \ 2>&1 | tee simulavr-configure.log
make -k all install 2>&1 | tee simulavr-make.log make pdf install-pdf 2>&1 | tee simulavr-pdf-make.log