Getting started with ARM Cortex M4 - setting up the work space

The next series of posts are targeted at beginners to the ARM family. We will first need to install the required tools to get started.

The first thing required to make everything working is Java. Make sure you get the latest tools and set automatic updates on for all software you use. Also, make sure to download a 64 bit version of Java, if your processor is 64 bit or a 32 bit version otherwise. Java can be downloaded from the following link.

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html

After Java is installed, download the latest version of MinGW tools for the gcc compiler. Also make sure the MSYS folder is inside the MinGW folder. Try to install all the software in their default paths. MinGW can be installed using the following setup.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/latest/download?source=files

Now, we will proceed with setting up the GNU tools for ARM embedded processors. Download the latest version of the executable file (.exe). I’ve downloaded the “gcc-arm-none-eabi-4_9-2015q1-20150306-win32.exe“ version, which is the current version at the time of this write-up. The tools can be downloaded from the below link.

https://launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded/+download

We will also need to install the OpenOCD (Open On Chip Debugger) required for debugging. This can be downloaded from the following link.

http://www.freddiechopin.info/en/download/category/4-openocd

And we need the eclipse plugin for the OpenOCD too, which can be downloaded from the following link.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuarmeclipse/

Next, we need to add the Java, GNU tools for ARM and compiler variables to the system path to let the system know their locations. Right click on “My Computer” and select properties. Click on the “Advanced system settings” on the left pane to open up “System Properties” window.  Click on the “Environment Variables” under the “Advanced” tab. Browse for “Path” under “System variables” in the “Environment Variables” window, select it and click the “Edit” button. Add the following text(without quotes) to the beginning of the Path.

“C:\ProgramData\Oracle\Java\javapath;C:\MinGW\bin\;C:\MinGW\msys\1.0\bin; C:\Program Files (x86)\GNU Tools ARM Embedded\4.9 2015q1\bin\;C:\openocd-0.8.0\bin;”

Finally, we need to install an IDE. I recommend Eclipse as it is relatively simple and widely used. Eclipse Luna is the C/C++ version for Windows OS and can be downloaded from the link below.

https://eclipse.org/downloads/packages/release/Luna/SR2

Now everything should work perfectly. Go ahead and make a sample C++ project for testing the installation. Additionally, you could Fork somebody’s GIT repository (that has a makefile) and test if it works too.

Cheers,

Vijay.