Development Environment Setup

Before we can compile, we need to set up our development environment. Bear with it...there’s a few steps but you only have to do it once!

When you see $ it means this is a shell command - run the command after the $ but don’t include the $. The example shell commands may also be prefixed with a folder name, if it needs to be run from a particular location, e.g. foo/ $ ls means to run ls from the foo folder.

Windows

If you already use Cygwin for development in Windows and are comfortable with its command line its quirks that pop up occasionally, the 32-bit version of Cygwin is a fully supported build environment for the VI firmware.

If you do not use Cygwin for anything else, you might consider running an Ubuntu Linux virtual machine. Ubuntu is also a 100% supported build environment for the firmware, and it tends to be more straightforward and easy to set up. If debugging strange Cygwin errors isn’t something you feel like doing, we strongly recommend the Linux virtual machine method.

If you wish to use an Ubuntu Linux virtual machine, follow one of the many quickstart guides available online (a good example) to install VirtualBox, download an Ubuntu disc image, and install Ubuntu into a virtual machine. Once installed, jump down to the Linux section of this guide to wrap up.

If you still wish to use Cygwin, download 32-bit version of Cygwin (even if you’re on 64-bit Windows) and run the installer - during the installation process, select these packages:

make, gcc-core, patchutils, git, unzip, python, check, curl, libsasl2, python-setuptools

After it’s installed, open a new Cygwin terminal and configure it to ignore Windows-style line endings in scripts by running this command:

$ set -o igncr && export SHELLOPTS

Linux

Install Git with your Linux distribution’s package manager:

Ubuntu:

$ sudo apt-get install git

Arch Linux:

$ [sudo] pacman -S git

OS X

Open the Terminal app and install Homebrew by running this command:

$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSkL raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"

Once Homebrew is installed, use it to install Git:

$ brew install git

All Platforms

If we’re on a network that requires an Internet proxy (e.g. at work on a corporate network) set these environment variables.

$ export http_proxy=<your proxy>
$ export https_proxy=$http_proxy
$ export all_proxy=$http_proxy

Clone the vi-firmware repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/openxc/vi-firmware

Run the bootstrap.sh script:

$ cd vi-firmware
vi-firmware/ $ script/bootstrap.sh

If there were no errors, we are ready to compile. If there are errors, try to follow the recommendations in the error messages. You may need to manually install the dependencies if your environment is not in a predictable state. The bootstrap.sh script is tested in 32-bit Cygwin, OS X Mountain Lion and Mavericks, Ubuntu 13.04 and Arch Linux.