Provided by: avr-libc_1.8.0-4.1_all 
NAME
install_tools - Building and Installing the GNU Tool Chain
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.
Building and Installing under Linux, FreeBSD, and Others
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
Note:
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
Warning:
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.
Note:
It is usually the best to use the latest released version of each of the tools.
Required Tools
• GNU Binutils
http://sources.redhat.com/binutils/
Installation
• GCC
http://gcc.gnu.org/
Installation
• AVR LibC
http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/avr-libc/
Installation
Optional Tools
You can develop programs for AVR devices without the following tools. They may or may not be of use for
you.
• AVRDUDE
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/avrdude/
Installation
Usage Notes
• GDB
http://sources.redhat.com/gdb/
Installation
• SimulAVR
http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/simulavr/
Installation
• AVaRICE
http://avarice.sourceforge.net/
Installation
GNU Binutils for the AVR target
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>
Note:
Replace <version> with the version of the package you downloaded.
If you obtained a gzip compressed file (.gz), use gunzip instead of bunzip2.
It is usually a good idea to configure and build 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 Makefiles that are custom tailored to
your platform. At this point, you can build the project.
$ make
Note:
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.
If the tools compiled cleanly, you're ready to install them. If you specified a destination that isn't
owned by your account, you'll need 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.
Note:
The official version of binutils might lack support for recent AVR devices. A patch that adds more
AVR types can be found at http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/devel/avr-binutils/files/patch-
newdevices
GCC for the AVR target
Warning:
You must install avr-binutils and make sure your path is set properly before installing avr-gcc.
The steps to build 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.
Note:
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.
The official version of GCC might lack support for recent AVR devices. A patch that adds more AVR
types can be found at http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/ports/devel/avr-gcc/files/patch-
newdevices
AVR LibC
Warning:
You must install avr-binutils, avr-gcc and make sure your path is set properly before installing avr-
libc.
Note:
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.
To build and install avr-libc:
$ gunzip -c avr-libc-<version>.tar.gz | tar xf -
$ cd avr-libc-<version>
$ ./configure --prefix=$PREFIX --build=`./config.guess` --host=avr
$ make
$ make install
AVRDUDE
Note:
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
Note:
Installation into the default location usually requires root permissions. However, running the
program only requires access permissions to the appropriate ppi(4) device.
Building and installing on other systems should use the 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 for the AVR target
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
Note:
If you are planning on using avr-gdb, you will probably want to install either simulavr or avarice
since avr-gdb needs one of these to run as a a remote target backend.
SimulAVR
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
Note:
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.
AVaRICE
Note:
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.
AVaRICE also uses the 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
Note:
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 under Windows
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.
Tools Required for Building the Toolchain for Windows
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.
• MinGW
Download the MinGW Automated Installer, 20100909 (or later)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/Automated%20MinGW%20Installer/mingw-get-inst/mingw-get-
inst-20100909/mingw-get-inst-20100909.exe/download
• 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 'Repository Catalogues', select the 'Download latest
repository catalogues' radio button, and press the 'Next' button
• In the installer page 'License Agreement', select the 'I accept the agreement' radio button, and press
the 'Next' button
• In the installer page 'Select Components', be sure to select these items:
• C compiler (default checked)
• C++ compiler
• Ada compiler
• MinGW Developer Toolkit (which includes 'MSYS Basic System').
• Install.
Install Cygwin
• 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.
Note:
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.
• Build GMP for MinGW
• Latest Version
• http://gmplib.org/
• Build script:
./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.
• Build MPFR for MinGW
• Latest Version
• http://www.mpfr.org/
• Build script:
./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.
• Build MPC for MinGW
• Latest Version
• http://www.multiprecision.org/
• Build script:
./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.
Note:
Doxygen is required to build AVR-LibC documentation.
• Install Doxygen
• Version 1.7.2
• http://www.stack.nl/~dimitri/doxygen/
• Download and install.
NetPBM is required to build graphics in the AVR-LibC documentation.
• Install NetPBM
• Version 10.27.0
• From the GNUWin32 project: http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html
• Download and install.
fig2dev is required to build graphics in the AVR-LibC documentation.
• Install fig2dev
• 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.
MikTeX is required to build various documentation.
• Install MiKTeX
• Version 2.9
• http://miktex.org/
• Download and install.
Ghostscript is required to build various documentation.
• Install Ghostscript
• Version 9.00
• http://www.ghostscript.com
• 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.
Building the Toolchain for Windows
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.
• Binutils
• Open source code pacakge and patch as necessary.
• Configure and build in a directory outside of the source code tree.
• Set PATH, in order:
• <MikTex executables>
• <ghostscript executables>
• /usr/local/bin
• /usr/bin
• /bin
• /mingw/bin
• c:/cygwin/bin
• <install directory>/bin
• Configure
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
make all html install install-html 2>&1 | tee binutils-make.log
• Manually change documentation location.
• GCC
• Open source code pacakge and patch as necessary.
• Configure and build in a directory outside of the source code tree.
• Set PATH, in order:
• <MikTex executables>
• <ghostscript executables>
• /usr/local/bin
• /usr/bin
• /bin
• /mingw/bin
• c:/cygwin/bin
• <install directory>/bin
• Configure
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
make all html install 2>&1 | tee $package-make.log
• avr-libc
• Open source code package.
• Configure and build at the top of the source code tree.
• Set PATH, in order:
• /usr/local/bin
• /mingw/bin
• /bin
• <MikTex executables>
• <install directory>/bin
• <Doxygen executables>
• <NetPBM executables>
• <fig2dev executable>
• <Ghostscript executables>
• c:/cygwin/bin
• Configure
./configure --host=avr --prefix=$installdir --enable-doc --disable-versioned-doc --enable-html-doc --enable-pdf-doc --enable-man-doc --mandir=$installdir/man --datadir=$installdir 2>&1 | tee $package-configure.log
• Make
make all install 2>&1 | tee $package-make.log
• Manually change location of man page documentation.
• Move the examples to the top level of the install tree.
• Convert line endings in examples to Windows line endings.
• Convert line endings in header files to Windows line endings.
• AVRDUDE
• Open source code package.
• Configure and build at the top of the source code tree.
• Set PATH, in order:
• <MikTex executables>
• /usr/local/bin
• /usr/bin
• /bin
• /mingw/bin
• c:/cygwin/bin
• <install directory>/bin
• Set location of LibUSB headers and libraries
export CPPFLAGS="-I../../libusb-win32-device-bin-$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
./configure --prefix=$installdir --datadir=$installdir --sysconfdir=$installdir/bin --enable-doc --disable-versioned-doc 2>&1 | tee $package-configure.log
• Make
make -k all install 2>&1 | tee $package-make.log
• Convert line endings in avrdude config file to Windows line endings.
• Delete backup copy of avrdude config file in install directory if exists.
• Insight/GDB
• Open source code pacakge and patch as necessary.
• Configure and build in a directory outside of the source code tree.
• Set PATH, in order:
• <MikTex executables>
• /usr/local/bin
• /usr/bin
• /bin
• /mingw/bin
• c:/cygwin/bin
• <install directory>/bin
• Configure
CFLAGS=-D__USE_MINGW_ACCESS LDFLAGS='-static' ../$archivedir/configure --prefix=$installdir --target=avr --with-gmp=/usr/local --with-mpfr=/usr/local --enable-doc 2>&1 | tee insight-configure.log
• Make
make all install 2>&1 | tee $package-make.log
• SRecord
• Open source code package.
• Configure and build at the top of the source code tree.
• Set PATH, in order:
• <MikTex executables>
• /usr/local/bin
• /usr/bin
• /bin
• /mingw/bin
• c:/cygwin/bin
• <install directory>/bin
• Configure
./configure --prefix=$installdir --infodir=$installdir/info --mandir=$installdir/man 2>&1 | tee $package-configure.log
• Make
make all install 2>&1 | tee $package-make.log
Build the tools below in Cygwin.
• AVaRICE
• Open source code package.
• Configure and build in a directory outside of the source code tree.
• Set PATH, in order:
• <MikTex executables>
• /usr/local/bin
• /usr/bin
• /bin
• <install directory>/bin
• Set location of LibUSB headers and libraries
export CPPFLAGS=-I$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-$libusb_version/lib/gcc "
• Configure
../$archivedir/configure --prefix=$installdir --datadir=$installdir/doc --mandir=$installdir/man --infodir=$installdir/info 2>&1 | tee avarice-configure.log
• Make
make all install 2>&1 | tee avarice-make.log
• SimulAVR
• Open source code package.
• Configure and build in a directory outside of the source code tree.
• Set PATH, in order:
• <MikTex executables>
• /usr/local/bin
• /usr/bin
• /bin
• <install directory>/bin
• Configure
export LDFLAGS="-static"
../$archivedir/configure --prefix=$installdir --datadir=$installdir --disable-tests --disable-versioned-doc 2>&1 | tee simulavr-configure.log
• Make
make -k all install 2>&1 | tee simulavr-make.log
make pdf install-pdf 2>&1 | tee simulavr-pdf-make.log
Version 1.8.0 Thu Apr 10 2014 install_tools(3)