June 14, 2006, 09:40 PM

This serves as a reference guide for installing the AVR toolchain on Red Hat 9 and is part of the development process for AVR Microcontrollers. I hope you find this handy. --Thomas Ng

Hardware Requirements:
Computer with RedHat 9 or Fedora Core 4/5 installed on it and 'root' access to the system.

Software Downloads:
GNU Binutils - (version 2.16.1) - http://sources.redhat.com/binutils/
GCC - (version 3.4.6, older stable version) - http://gcc.gnu.org/
AVR Libc - (version 1.4.4) - http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/avr-libc/
UISP - Programmer (20050207) - http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/uisp/

NOTE: Always install the latest software packages to ensure you have the latest bug fixes (unless otherwise noted)

Installation Steps

Setup your path and environment variables

Setup your $PATH variable to include "/usr/local/avr" and "/usr/local/avr/bin." You will be installing the AVR toolchain to this directory, so if it doesn't already exist, make a folder called avr in /usr/local/

Install GNU Binutils:

Download the GNU binutils package from http://sources.redhat.com/binutils/
Untar/ungzip/unbzip the file and cd into the directory

# bunzip2 -c binutils-2.16.1.tar.bz2 | tar xf -
# cd binutils-2.16.1
Make a directory called obj-avr and CD into it. This is a good idea and helps you keep your source tree clean.
Next, configure the installation for the AVR platform and set your target directory:

# ../configure --target=avr \
--prefix= /usr/local/avr \
--disable-nls
Next, compile and install the binutils:

# make && make install
If all went well the installation will complete and the binutils are installed. This step must be completed before you continue. If there was a bug or some error, search google for potential answers or check the binutil support forums.

Install GCC:

Download the GCC package from http://gcc.gnu.org/. The "core" package should work out just fine. You can download the larger package to support C++ in addition to C and obj-C++.
First, decompress the image and cd into the gcc directory.

#bunzip2 -c gcc- core-3.4.6.tar.bz2 | tar xf -
The remainder of the install process is similar to the binutil process:

# mkdir obj-avr
# cd obj-avr
# ../configure --prefix=/usr/local/avr \
    --target=avr \
    --enable-languages=c \
    --disable-nls \
    --with-dwarf2
# make && make install
Besure to note any errors that occur between steps and fix them before you issue the next command. If all went well, avr-gcc will be available to your system when the make process is complete.

Install AVR libc:

Download the AVR libc package from http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/avr-libc/. .
Similar instructions as previous:

# gunzip -c avr-libc-1.4.4.tar.gz | tar xf -
# cd avr-libc-1.4.4
# ./configure --build=`./config.guess` \
--host=avr \
--prefix=/usr/local/avr
# make && make install
NOTE: I had to make a change to the configure script to make it install the AVR C libraries in the correct place. Here is the diff output incase you need to make the same change:

#diff configure configure.orig
257c257
< ac_default_prefix=/usr/local
---
> ac_default_prefix=/usr/local/avr
If the make process is clean, the install will occur and you are almost there!

Install UISP (programmer):

Download the UISP package from http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/uisp/ . .
Now issue the following commands to setup and install the UISP:

# gunzip -c uisp-20050207.tar.gz | tar xf -
# cd uisp-20050207
# mkdir obj-avr
# cd obj-avr
# ../configure --prefix=/usr/local/avr
# make && make install
Once again, look for errors in the build process. If there are none, UISP should be successfully installed.

Makefiles

Use the following sample Makefile to build your projects:
PRG = demo # Change "demo" above to the name of your project with NO extension.

# You should not have to change anything below here, but go ahead and
# try to understand what is going on.

OBJ = $(PRG).o
MCU_TARGET = atmega128
OPTIMIZE = -O2 # options are 1, 2, 3, s

DEFS =
LIBS =

CC = avr-gcc

# Override is only needed by avr-lib build system.

override CFLAGS = -g -Wall $(OPTIMIZE) -mmcu=$(MCU_TARGET) $(DEFS)
override LDFLAGS = -Wl,-Map,$(PRG).map

OBJCOPY = avr-objcopy
OBJDUMP = avr-objdump

all: $(PRG).elf lst text eeprom

$(PRG).elf: $(OBJ)
$(CC) $(CFLAGS) $(LDFLAGS) -o $@ $^ $(LIBS)

clean:
rm -rf *.o $(PRG).elf *.eps *.png *.pdf *.bak
rm -rf *.lst *.map $(EXTRA_CLEAN_FILES) *~

program: $(PRG).hex
uisp -dprog=stk200 -dpart=atmega128 -dlpt=/dev/parport0 --erase --upload if=$(PRG).hex

lst: $(PRG).lst

%.lst: %.elf
$(OBJDUMP) -h -S $< > $@

# Rules for building the .text rom images

text: hex bin srec

hex: $(PRG).hex
bin: $(PRG).bin
srec: $(PRG).srec

%.hex: %.elf
$(OBJCOPY) -j .text -j .data -O ihex $< $@

%.srec: %.elf
$(OBJCOPY) -j .text -j .data -O srec $< $@

%.bin: %.elf
$(OBJCOPY) -j .text -j .data -O binary $< $@

# Rules for building the .eeprom rom images

eeprom: ehex ebin esrec

ehex: $(PRG)_eeprom.hex
ebin: $(PRG)_eeprom.bin
esrec: $(PRG)_eeprom.srec

%_eeprom.hex: %.elf
$(OBJCOPY) -j .eeprom --change-section-lma .eeprom=0 -O ihex $< $@

%_eeprom.srec: %.elf
$(OBJCOPY) -j .eeprom --change-section-lma .eeprom=0 -O srec $< $@

%_eeprom.bin: %.elf
$(OBJCOPY) -j .eeprom --change-section-lma .eeprom=0 -O binary $< $@

# Every thing below here is used by avr-libc's build system and can be ignored
# by the casual user.

FIG2DEV = fig2dev
EXTRA_CLEAN_FILES = *.hex *.bin *.srec

dox: eps png pdf

eps: $(PRG).eps
png: $(PRG).png
pdf: $(PRG).pdf

%.eps: %.fig
$(FIG2DEV) -L eps $< $@

%.pdf: %.fig
$(FIG2DEV) -L pdf $< $@

%.png: %.fig
$(FIG2DEV) -L png $< $@

MAKE: Installing the AVR Toolchain for RH9