Is a pure Linux development environment possible for nRF52?

RE: Is a pure Linux development environment possible for nRF52?

Thomas Stenersen — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 17:24:41 GMT

If someone still needs any help. Here is an example project for building and flashing a blinky application using CMake with arm-none-eabi-gcc and nrftools. Should work on Windows, OS X and Linux.

github.com/.../nrf-blinky

RE: Is a pure Linux development environment possible for nRF52?

Gustavo Reynaga — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 17:12:00 GMT

Hi, maybe this article be useful for someone:

Setup nRF51 Development on Linux

Regards.

RE: Is a pure Linux development environment possible for nRF52?

Torsten Robitzki — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 06:30:27 GMT

Hi Ladasky, I'm using CMake. CMake is a make file generator. Writing cmake is much easier than writing make files.

RE: Is a pure Linux development environment possible for nRF52?

Ladasky — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:28:36 GMT

Thanks again for following up with me, Michael. If you look at my reply to Torsten above: I am now compilng, building and flashing programs manually.

I now have to make some decisions about automating the process for my code development. I'm not sure whether to use Eclipse (new to me, and very complex), Geany (my standard, lightweight IDE), or the command prompt.

I have come to understand that Eclipse lets you choose between basing a project around GNU makefiles and its own internal project files. I guess I should have realized that "Cross GCC" meant "cross-compile using the ARM instruction set", but it was a bit too cryptic for me.

Concerning the link to the tutorial you just shared, it is for Windows and MinGW, not for Linux. I may get some help from it, but perhaps not. And I can see I've already accomplished Part 1, installing the toolchain.

RE: Is a pure Linux development environment possible for nRF52?

Ladasky — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:18:13 GMT

Follow-up: Thanks again Torsten, I have followed your instructions through to a successful conclusion.

I succeeded in manually compiling Blinky using Nordic's provided Makefile (deeply nested inside the examples folders, I had to hunt for a while!).

I also found the SEGGER JLink package in the Linux repositories, and I have used JLinkExe to flash the chip. I have two versions of Blinky with different LED flash rates, so I know when the program changes.

Now, it's still going to be a challenge to write versions of the Nordic makefiles which can be moved to other folders. Many of the paths are hard-coded to match the folder structure of the SDK. Working on that next.

RE: Is a pure Linux development environment possible for nRF52?

Michael Dietz — Sat, 26 Sep 2015 12:03:09 GMT

here it is: this was the tutorial that helped me the most. just follow this one if your still struggling www.hertaville.com/gcc-arm-toolchain-stm32f0discovery.html

RE: Is a pure Linux development environment possible for nRF52?

Michael Dietz — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 07:34:57 GMT

I think Cross GCC is the correct toolchain (thats what I have selected). It looks like you have all the correct software installed. (Although you will probably need to install some eclipse plug ins if you havent already).

RE: Is a pure Linux development environment possible for nRF52?

Ladasky — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 21:41:12 GMT

Hi Torsten, Thanks for your reply. I am trying Michael Dietz's approach using Eclipse, but while I've gotten stuck, I will also try your command-line approach. (I've been using Geany. I'm overwhelmed by the complexity of Eclipse.)

RE: Is a pure Linux development environment possible for nRF52?

Ladasky — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 21:38:20 GMT

Thanks for your reply. I'm a little confused by steps 4 and 5. Does Eclipse actually use GNU make? Or does it perform the jobs that make would do, using information in its project files?

In case my system configuration matters: Ubuntu 15.04 x86_64, Eclipse 4.5.0, gcc-arm-none-eabi 4.8.3. I took care to download only 64-bit packages. I have also downloaded and extracted nRF5x_MDK_8_0_4_GCC, nRF52_SDK_0.9.1_3639cc9, and s132_nrf52_1.0.0-3.alpha.

I am building and executing C that runs on my host machine successfully from within Eclipse.

From the Eclipse main menu, if I click File > New > C Project, a dialog appears. On the right side of the window, the toolchain selector shows "Cross GCC" and "Linux GCC". If I uncheck the box at the bottom of the window, five more toolchains appear, but not the ARM Embedded toolchain. How do I add ARM Embedded to this list?

Thanks!

RE: Is a pure Linux development environment possible for nRF52?

Torsten Robitzki — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 12:34:32 GMT

I'm developing software for nrf51 on OS/X using gcc. I think its much more long time stable to use just a compiler and make (and maybe a tool like cmake) for a project and leave the decision for an optional IDE to the individual developers.

I prefere make files over some xml-like IDE-projects settings, because changes to a makefile can be tracked by version managment tools like git/svn very well. If someone changes a compiler setting in an IDE project setting, it usually results in some undocumented changes in a large xml file.

I've worked on a project where 4 different micro controllers where used from 3 different vendors. If we where using the vendors prefered IDE and compiler, we would have to use at least 2 different flavors of windows and 3 modified versions of eclipse ;-)

Here is a small example of a nrf51 project, that uses GCC and should work without any changes on OS/X, windows (with mingw of cause) and linux: github.com/.../nrf51

CMakeLIsts.txt: that's some kind of makefile
gcc_nrf51_common.ld, nrf51_xxaa.ld: slightly changed linker scripts from nordic
system_nrf51.h, system_nrf51422.c, gcc_startup_nrf51.s : startup filed provided by nordic
runtime.cpp: minimum runtime support for C++

In addition, you will need the SDK, that contains headers that decribe the layout of the registers.

hth Torsten

RE: Is a pure Linux development environment possible for nRF52?

Michael Dietz — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 09:49:06 GMT

1.) Download the arm-none-eabi compiler for linux. 2.) Download the Java JDK (needed by eclipse). 3.) Download eclipse for c/c++ development 4.) Get eclipse working with arm-non-eabi compiler. 5.) Create a makefile based project in eclipse and select existing code, use the nordic sdk base folder. 6.) Each project has an example makefile, look at these and use them as guidance. Also example linker scripts but you shouldnt have to touch these. 7.) get a project compiling with gcc. You'll have to build for the targets in the makefile.

-You can download some segger tool plugins for eclipse and debug from eclipse.

To flash from linux: download latest nRF5x tools (i think these are supported for linux). now use nrfjprog to flash hex files to your board. use pynrfjprog to write scripts and automate process. use mergehex to merge hex files (if you want to).

This is very undetailed - I know. but it might help. there are tutorials out there for each step but youll have to do some search.

figure a quick answer was better than nothing. maybe someone else can help more. good luck! -Mike