Ubuntu installation of nRF Connect SDK + Visual Studio Code - toolchain question

RE: Ubuntu installation of nRF Connect SDK + Visual Studio Code - toolchain question

Håkon Alseth — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 07:29:23 GMT

Hi,

Its mentioned here:

https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/gs_installing.html#install-the-gnu-arm-embedded-toolchain

and here:

https://developer.nordicsemi.com/nRF_Connect_SDK/doc/latest/nrf/gs_installing.html#set-up-the-command-line-build-environment

But, I'll forward this internally, as we need to highlight it a bit better.

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Ubuntu installation of nRF Connect SDK + Visual Studio Code - toolchain question

fyfoh — Tue, 16 Nov 2021 22:48:53 GMT

Could this info be added to the installation docs? That would have saved me some headache. I've been having similar problems with other devkits where whoever is writing the installation docs for linux isn't regression testing them from scratch.

RE: Ubuntu installation of nRF Connect SDK + Visual Studio Code - toolchain question

Alex Fernandez — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 10:50:54 GMT

Thank you Håkon, will look into it.

Also, for the record, I had to change this line in my .zephyrrc file, just removed the final "/", it had a conflict at the time of building.

export PATH="/opt/gnuarmemb/bin":"$PATH"

Regards,

Alex.

RE: Ubuntu installation of nRF Connect SDK + Visual Studio Code - toolchain question

Håkon Alseth — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 08:17:51 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="Alex Fernandez"]I still have no idea how to make these environmental variables persist globally so that VSC has access to them when launched normally. If you ever figure this out, let me know! Or maybe someone from the Nordic Support team has the answer?[/quote]

A shortcut from the window manager does not take your local .bashrc settings when launching.

A wider discussion can be seen here on stack overflow on this topic:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43983718/set-global-path-environment-variable-in-vs-code

A more advanced approach is to edit the desktop shortcut to point to a script that sets up your environment before launching code. If using gnome, the "code" shortcut will be located in /usr/share/application/.

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Ubuntu installation of nRF Connect SDK + Visual Studio Code - toolchain question

Alex Fernandez — Sat, 06 Nov 2021 09:14:36 GMT

Hi Knut,

Indeed everytime I launch VSC for this purpose I need to launch it from the terminal after sourcing ncs/zephyrr/zephyr-env.sh.

I still have no idea how to make these environmental variables persist globally so that VSC has access to them when launched normally. If you ever figure this out, let me know! Or maybe someone from the Nordic Support team has the answer?

Regards,

Alex

RE: Ubuntu installation of nRF Connect SDK + Visual Studio Code - toolchain question

Knut — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 21:26:43 GMT

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the advise! This actually worked! The warning of incorrect toolchain installation disappeared. A KEY point for me is that starting Visual Studio Code in the terminal from the ncs-folder makes the error go away, while starting VSC from the Ubuntu launcher bar causes the problem to persist.

Really appreciate your good advise!

Regards, Knut

RE: Ubuntu installation of nRF Connect SDK + Visual Studio Code - toolchain question

Alex Fernandez — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 11:27:07 GMT

Hi Knut,

I was having the same problem until I added this last line to my .zephyrrc file. It ended up looking like this:

export ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT=gnuarmemb
export GNUARMEMB_TOOLCHAIN_PATH="/opt/gnuarmemb"
export PATH="/opt/gnuarmemb/bin":"$PATH"

After this, I opened a terminal and ran (inside my ncs folder):

source zephyr/zephyr-env.sh

THEN I opened VS Code from WITHIN the same terminal, this way VS Code is able to see these environmental variables. In the Quick Setup page I just set the nRF Connect SDK parameter to my *ncs* folder, and set nRF Connect Toolchain to PATH. This 'Invalid Toolchain Installation' message did not appear anymore.

Regards,

Alex

RE: Ubuntu installation of nRF Connect SDK + Visual Studio Code - toolchain question

Håkon Alseth — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 13:42:53 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="Morvitez"]"PATH": "/home/xxx/.local/bin:/home/xxx/bin:/home/xxx/bin/dita-ot-3.5.2/bin:/home/xxx/breadboard/zephyr/scripts:/home/xxx/.local/bin:/home/xxx/bin:/home/xxx/bin/dita-ot-3.5.2/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin",
"ZEPHYR_BASE": "/home/xxx../breadboard/zephyr",
"GNUARMEMB_TOOLCHAIN_PATH": "/home/xxx/gnuarmemb/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major",[/quote]

My apologies, we have a known issue at this time where it will not find components/programs that is outside of $PATH.

If you append the path to gcc to the $PATH var, it should work better. Note that this is a visual issue, rather than a functional issue.

Kind regards,

Håkon

RE: Ubuntu installation of nRF Connect SDK + Visual Studio Code - toolchain question

Morvitez — Fri, 15 Oct 2021 12:45:45 GMT

I do have the same problem here in Ubuntu 20.04: trying to set the "nRF Connect Toolchain" setting to "~/gnuarmemb/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major", also with "/bin" appended, or with the version part of the path removed, user expanded, etc., always results in "Invalid toolchain installation", without further info.

However, if I set the "nRF Connect Toolchain" setting to "PATH" then I get "Invalid toolchain installation" with an info pop-up on hovering over the message saying: "gnuarmemb is required but not found, gn is required but not found".

(Note that building with west (e.g. west build -b nrf52840dk_nrf52840 -p) works fine.)

Could you please disclose what checks are done exactly when changing the setting "nRF Connect Toolchain"? What does "gnuarmemb is required but not found" exactly mean? (The toolchain is there and referenced in the environment variables.) Or could you give a link to the source code of the extension? (I saw there was a version once on github somewhere, but cannot be found anymore.)

Please find the output of my "nRF Connect: Generate Support Information" below.

Thanks!

Support Information:

{
"platform": {
"os": "linux",
"osVersion": "#41~20.04.2-Ubuntu SMP Fri Sep 24 09:06:38 UTC 2021",
"osKernel": "5.11.0-37-generic",
"vscode": "1.61.1",
"electron": "13.5.1",
"node": "v14.16.0"
},
"system": {
"date": "2021-10-15T12:28:54.092Z",
"vscodeRoot": "/snap/code/77/usr/share/code/resources/app",
"nrfConnectForDesktopInstalled": "unknown",
"vscodeUptime": "01:07:57",
"osUptime": "23:42:08",
"cpu": {
"model": "Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10510U CPU @ 1.80GHz",
"speed": "2300 MHz",
"count": 4
},
"memory": {
"total": "15.27 GB",
"free": "1.56 GB"
}
},
"workspace": {
"name": "Untitled (Workspace)",
"workspaceFile": "1634227193741",
"folders": [
"/home/xxx.../breadboard/breadboard_sw/applications/blinky_pwm"
]
},
"extensions": {
"internal": {
"nordic-semiconductor.nrf-connect": {
"version": "2021.10.103",
"path": "/home/xxx/.vscode/extensions/nordic-semiconductor.nrf-connect-2021.10.103",
"isActive": true
},
"nordic-semiconductor.nrf-terminal": {
"version": "2021.9.26",
"path": "/home/xxx/.vscode/extensions/nordic-semiconductor.nrf-terminal-2021.9.26",
"isActive": true
},
"nordic-semiconductor.devicetree": null,
"nordic-semiconductor.kconfig": null
},
"external": {
"marus25.cortex-debug": "0.4.7",
"ms-vscode.cpptools": "1.7.0",
"ms-vscode.js-debug": "1.61.0",
"ms-vscode.js-debug-companion": "1.0.15",
"ms-vscode.references-view": "0.0.81",
"ms-vscode.vscode-js-profile-table": "0.0.18",
"ms-python.python": "2021.10.1336267007",
"ms-python.vscode-pylance": "2021.10.0",
"ms-toolsai.jupyter": "2021.9.1001312534",
"ms-toolsai.jupyter-keymap": "1.0.0",
"ms-toolsai.jupyter-renderers": "1.0.3",
"ms-vscode.cmake-tools": "1.8.1",
"trond-snekvik.gnu-mapfiles": "1.1.0",
"twxs.cmake": "0.0.17"
}
},
"tools": {
"jlink": "Not found",
"/usr/bin/nrfjprog": "10.12.1",
"/usr/bin/cmake": "3.21.3",
"/home/xxx/.local/bin/west": "0.11.1",
"/usr/bin/python": "3.8.10",
"/usr/bin/ninja": "1.10.0",
"/usr/bin/gperf": "3.1",
"/usr/bin/dtc": "1.5.0",
"gnuarmemb": "Not found",
"gn": "Not found"
},
"config": {
"nordic-semiconductor.nrf-connect": {
"topdir": "/home/xxx.../breadboard",
"toolchain": {
"path": "PATH"
},
"ozonePath": "",
"applications": [
"/home/xxx.../breadboard/breadboard_sw/applications/blinky_pwm"
],
"jlink": {
"rtosPlugin": ""
},
"kconfig": {
"interface": null
},
"welcome": {
"showOnStartup": false
},
"west": {
"env": {
"$base": "terminal"
}
},
"boardRoots": []
},
"nordic-semiconductor.nrf-terminal": {
"terminalMode": "character"
},
"nordic-semiconductor.devicetree": {
"modules": [
"${zephyrBase}",
"${zephyrBase}/../nrf",
"."
],
"zephyr": "",
"ctxFile": "",
"defaultBoard": ""
},
"nordic-semiconductor.kconfig": {
"root": "",
"env": {},
"cfiles": true,
"disable": false,
"zephyr": {
"board": {},
"west": "",
"base": "",
"soc_roots": []
}
},
"marus25.cortex-debug": {
"armToolchainPath": null,
"armToolchainPrefix": "arm-none-eabi",
"gdbPath": null,
"JLinkGDBServerPath": null,
"openocdPath": null,
"pyocdPath": null,
"PEGDBServerPath": null,
"stutilPath": null,
"stlinkPath": null,
"stm32cubeprogrammer": null,
"enableTelemetry": true,
"flattenAnonymous": false,
"registerUseNaturalFormat": true,
"variableUseNaturalFormat": true
}
},
"environment": {
"westExe": "west",
"westEnv": {
"ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE": "1",
"HOME": "/home/xxx",
"PATH": "/home/xxx/.local/bin:/home/xxx/bin:/home/xxx/bin/dita-ot-3.5.2/bin:/home/xxx/breadboard/zephyr/scripts:/home/xxx/.local/bin:/home/xxx/bin:/home/xxx/bin/dita-ot-3.5.2/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin",
"ZEPHYR_BASE": "/home/xxx../breadboard/zephyr",
"GNUARMEMB_TOOLCHAIN_PATH": "/home/xxx/gnuarmemb/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2019-q4-major",
"ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT": "gnuarmemb",
"USER": "xxx"
},
"toolchainPath": "PATH"
},
"terminal": {
"shell": null,
"defaultProfile": null
}
}

RE: Ubuntu installation of nRF Connect SDK + Visual Studio Code - toolchain question

Håkon Alseth — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 11:27:55 GMT

Hi,

If you hover over it, does it state which component is missing?

Here's an example from my setup, where gn is missing (from generate-ninja package in ubuntu)

Kind regards,

Håkon