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Getting Started - Software

This document describes how to install all software tools for a brand-new development environment. It assumes that you’re familiar with a command-line interface for your development system (Linux, macOS, or Windows).

This document may also help if you have an existing environment, and you want to make sure it has all of the project dependencies. If this document conflicts with the documentation or references it points to, trust the other reference, and let us know about the discrepancy.

TL;DR

If you’re on Linux or macOS, run first-time-setup.sh from a Bash-like shell:

$ cd docs
$ ./first-time-setup.sh

If you’d like to help us automate the Windows setup, let us know!

Step by Step

The step-by-step instructions tell you how to manually install all software and dependencies. The instructions should work for most Linux, macOS, and Windows development systems. Follow these steps in order.

Install Rust

Much of the project’s embedded system software is written in Rust. Install Rust by following the instructions in The Rust Programming Language book. We assume that your installation will include rustup for managing Rust toolchains.

Make sure that you have all additional dependencies. If you’re on Linux /macOS, you might need to install a linker. If you use Windows, you may need to install the Build Tools for Visual Studio 2019. Read the relevant sections of The Rust Programming Language (section 1.1) for more information.

Success: All of these commands succeed:

$ rustup --version
$ rustc --version
$ cargo --version

Install embedded targets

The embedded system is built on an ARMv7 microcontroller. Install the following Rust target to cross-compile code for the embedded system:

$ rustup target add thumbv7em-none-eabihf

Success: Run rustup target list, and show that thumbv7em-none-eabihf is identified as “installed.”

Install llvm-tools-preview

Once you’ve installed Rust, run the following command to install llvm-tools-preview. We need these tools for the next tool.

$ rustup component add llvm-tools-preview

Success: This command succeeds:

$ rust-objcopy --version

Install cargo binutils

We use cargo binutils throughout our build system to simplify program creation for the embedded system. Run the following command to install cargo binutils

$ cargo install cargo-binutils

Success: This command succeeds:

$ cargo objcopy --version

To learn more about cargo binutils, see here.

Install Python

We use Python for cross-platform scripting, and for tooling and testing on our host systems. Make sure that your system has at least a Python 3.7 installation. For more information, follow the Python installation instructions for your system.

Success: You can run python (or python3) from the command line. The version is at least Python 3.7.

$ python --version

Install a Teensy Loader

Our first embedded system uses a Teensy 4.0. In order to upload programs to the Teensy 4, we need a Teensy Loader program. Either

The Teensy Loader Application should be available with the Teensyduino add-ons for Arduino.

Some of our automation assumes that you have the teensy_loader_cli available. But, that’s only for convenience. You may use the graphical application to load your programs.

Next Steps

By this point, you have the base software installation for embedded and development tools. But, there may be other, tool-specific dependencies that are not covered by this documentation. Consult each tool’s documentation for more information.