Using LInux as a developing platform

[Kryten]

Hi

Im interested in using Linux as a platform for developing.
Can anyone suggest software (if there are any) for compiling, programming (pref so i can use my ICD2 clone) PIC uCs ??

 

[Sceadwian]

Downloads - VirtualBox
Will let you run Windows on your Linux box so you can run the PC tools for PIC's.

Linux PIC development - Google Search
A simple google provides plenty of results for native linux development for a PIC.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Hi

Im interested in using Linux as a platform for developing.
Can anyone suggest software (if there are any) for compiling, programming (pref so i can use my ICD2 clone) PIC uCs ??

It's really a bad idea, there's very little Linux software out there, and none from the chip manufacturers - Windows still rules the world I'm afraid.

 

[jimlovell777]

I've used the following with great success
sdcc - Compiler SDCC - Small Device C Compiler
gpsim - PIC MCU Simulator SourceForge.net: gpsim - The gnupic Simulator
picasm - PICASM Assembler - For the Microchip PIC
piklab - Full IDE Supports ICD2 Piklab Homepage - Home
picprog - Jaakko Hyvtti Picprog 1.9.0 documentation
simulpic - Couldn't find the homepage but it's in the repos of Debian and Ubuntu
gputils - GPUTILS - GNU PIC Utilities
odyssey - VASCO website
pikdev - PiKdev, An IDE for the development of PIC based applications under KDE
HTSOFT PICC Lite - Has a Linux version HI-TECH C PRO for the PIC10/12/16 MCU Family compiler and embedded software tools for the Microchip PICMicro

And finally as a last resort you could try running your favorite Win32 EXE under Linux using WINE - WineHQ - Run Windows applications on Linux, BSD and Mac OS X

You have a lot of options, personally though I stick to piklab, sdcc and gpsim. Those three packages give me all the functionality I need.

 

[blueroomelectronics]

I've just installed Windows 7 RC 1 (it's free to try for a year)

I've yet to find out if it's MPLAB & PK2 compatible.

 

[arhi]

forget about win7 ... it is incompatible with almost everything ....

as for the linux .. I use linux in every day life, on job, for job .. it is my primary OS .. I had to make one windoze box for the elco stuff ... in general you "can" use linux but it is pain in the ....

if your uC of choice is PIC

the mplab 7.1 works under wine 1.0, I think 8.x works too but I never tried.

piklab (native linux app) have support for pickit 2 both with firmware 1.x and 2.x as long as for many other programmers. you have pic asm as native linux and piklab will help you install all the compilers under wine ...

so you can use boostbasic, boostc, boostc++, c18, ccs c, c30, picc lite, jal ... and programm directly from linux if you have pickit2 or compatible device ...

you have geda/gspice/pcbdesigner/eagle for the hw design .. it is not as nice a some windoze tools but it is free.

that's about it ..

I heard AVR is much better support but I never tried..

If you want TI MSP430, it works perfectly under linux (eclipse + mspgcc)

I personally found doing elco dev on linux to be pain so I moved that to windoze ..

 

[Sceadwian]

If it works on Vista it'll should work on Windows 7. I saw a blurb the other day on a news site that if you have a processor that supports the hardware virtualization instruction set windows 7 will actually let you go into an XP emulation mode for older applications. Not sure if it's in RC1 or not.

 

[Sceadwian]

Again it's really not an issue, if you need to run windows for a particular app all you have to do is download Sun's free virtualization software.

 

[arhi]

If it works on Vista it'll should work on Windows 7. I

should being to operative word ...

most of low level net apps do not work (and they do work on vista)
most of tunneling apps do not work (and they do work on vista)
many hw dependant apps do not work (and they do work on vista)

etc etc etc ....
virtual box works like a charm so ... if you do not have a spare box, that's perfect solution

 

[blueroomelectronics]

MPLAB currently supports Vista. Vista sucks, can't stand it myself. Win7 seems snappy (on a Phenom quad core anyway).

I'll install mplab 8.3 pk2 2.6 & pk2cnd.exe tonight and report my findings.

 

[Sceadwian]

My biggest complaint about Vista is it's not intuitive to use, they really screwed up the control panel something fierce.

 

[Leftyretro]

A limited number of the AVR chips are supported by the multi-platform Arduino IDE, which includes Linux support and using the open Gcc compiler. http://www.arduino.cc/

 

[gabeNC]

Again it's really not an issue, if you need to run windows for a particular app all you have to do is download Sun's free virtualization software.

VMware's server is free too. I use that when I HAVE to have outlook or IE running native. I dual-boot my laptop with Fedora and run XP in a vm.

 

[arhi]

gabenc, vmware server is free but have issues with 64bit linux, and have issue with many linux distro's ... every time you upgrade kernel you have to spend time fixing it ... and often it does not work at all (especially on 64bit fedora)...

on the other hand, virtualbox works fine, without any glitches and is 5-15% faster then vmware (that is not measured but just a feeling)

 

[Sceadwian]

One particular release of it is gabe. The Sun XVM is only about 30 meg total, excluding the drive image for the guest OS.
64 bit OS's in general are still buggy as hell, too much code hasn't been ported yet, and won't be for several years.

 

[felis]

I use vmware player with MPLAB 8.20. Works well.

 

[Kryten]

Bill. To the best of my knowledge MPlab works great in W7 (atleast build 7000 or the beta version)

but im going to use a old laptop as development computer and it runs XP (wich i think sucks after trying out W7) So i was thinking about putting ubuntu on the laptop. I dont want to use the computer that my wife uses for everything else. Dont know what gets on it and not

 

[Torben]

Bill. To the best of my knowledge MPlab works great in W7 (atleast build 7000 or the beta version)

but im going to use a old laptop as development computer and it runs XP (wich i think sucks after trying out W7) So i was thinking about putting ubuntu on the laptop. I dont want to use the computer that my wife uses for everything else. Dont know what gets on it and not

Hi Kryten,

You should be fine using Linux for this. For anything which is Windows-only, try wine first. If that doesn't work for you (it handles an amazing number of Windows programs just fine) then as already mentioned, there are a number of free VMs available.

How old is that laptop? More to the point, what kind of specs does it have? If it's really old you might want to try Xubuntu, which is Ubuntu with a lower-demand desktop environment than Ubuntu. If you're planning on running mostly on the command line then you could try Debian. Ubuntu is just a gussied-up Debian with a bunch of stuff preconfigured for you, but Debian is just fine out of the box as well and is an excellent environment in its own right.

The folks who say you need Windows to get anything done are stuck on old data, I think. That's not to say that there isn't a learning curve, but honestly, when I have to go back and use Windows for almost anything these days, I always end up swearing about how slow, unstable, and unconfigurable it is. When somebody smugly states that "you need Windows to do X, Y, and Z", it's usually pretty easy to prove them wrong.


Regards and good luck,

Torben

 

[Kryten]

Well its not that old (just 4years) (sometnig like 512 MB ram, 80 gig disk 1,2 gHz cpu) but it dosent run vista or W7.
pluss I have started a development company (at least until I have a sale able product ) and dont want to have to pay for licenses for everything......

Im actually thinking of using Xubuntu because its a small OS with all the benefits of Ubuntu( an i belive all Linux) with the download and easy install packages

 

[gabeNC]

gabenc, vmware server is free but have issues with 64bit linux, and have issue with many linux distro's ... every time you upgrade kernel you have to spend time fixing it ... and often it does not work at all (especially on 64bit fedora)...

on the other hand, virtualbox works fine, without any glitches and is 5-15% faster then vmware (that is not measured but just a feeling)

You guys have me interested in virtualbox, going to download it and play. I used to be a Slow-aris admin on a variety of sun hardware years ago (sure miss dtrace). I thought Sun over the years has had some good stuff. Wonder how the recent aquisition from Oracle will work out.

Anyway, I've had very few issues running vmware server on 64bit linux (fedora core 10, opensuse 11, ubuntu). Yes, everytime you patch the kernel you have to run vmware-config.pl and it usually takes about 60 seconds. I've been pretty happy with it, wish I didn't NEED it but we are unfortunately stuck in a windows world (for now). I'm always open to ideas and tips from other people. These guys have come along way with wine.

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