Linux Installation Instructions for Arch and CentOS

USB Device Configuration

Linux users need to explicitly allow access to the USB bus for JTAG programming adapters.

Note For Archlinux: replace the group plugdev with uucp in the following commands

Run a simple ls in sudo mode to ensure the commands below succeed:

sudo ls

Then with sudo rights temporarily granted, run this command:

cat > $HOME/rule.tmp <<_EOF
# All 3D Robotics (includes PX4) devices
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="26AC", GROUP="plugdev"
# FTDI (and Black Magic Probe) Devices
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="0483", GROUP="plugdev"
# Olimex Devices
SUBSYSTEM=="usb",  ATTR{idVendor}=="15ba", GROUP="plugdev"
_EOF
sudo mv $HOME/rule.tmp /etc/udev/rules.d/10-px4.rules
sudo /etc/init.d/udev restart

User needs to be added to the group plugdev:

sudo usermod -a -G plugdev $USER

Installation Instructions for Uncommon Linux Systems

CentOs

The build requires Python 2.7.5. Therefore as of this writing Centos 7 should be used. (For earlier Centos releases a side-by-side install of python v2.7.5 may be done. But it is not recommended because it can break yum.)

The EPEL repositories are required for openocd libftdi-devel libftdi-python

wget https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/7/x86_64/e/epel-release-7-5.noarch.rpm
sudo yum install epel-release-7-5.noarch.rpm
yum update
yum groupinstall “Development Tools”
yum install python-setuptools
easy_install pyserial
easy_install pexpect
yum install openocd libftdi-devel libftdi-python python-argparse flex bison-devel ncurses-devel ncurses-libs autoconf texinfo libtool zlib-devel cmake

Note:You may want to also install python-pip and screen

Additional 32 bit libraries

Once the arm toolchain is installed test it with:

arm-none-eabi-gcc --version

If you receive the following message

bash: gcc-arm-none-eabi-4_7-2014q2/bin/arm-none-eabi-gcc: /lib/ld-linux.so.2: bad ELF interpreter: No such file or directory

Then you will also need to install other 32-bit libraries glibc.i686 ncurses-libs.i686

sudo yum install glibc.i686 ncurses-libs.i686

Note Pulling in ncurses-libs.i686 will pull in most of the other required 32 bit libraries. Centos 7 will install most all the PX4 related devices without the need for any added udev rules. The devices will be accessible to the predefined group ' dialout'. Therefore any references to adding udev rules can be ignored. The only requirement is that your user account is a member of the group 'dial out'

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S base-devel lib32-glibc git-core python-pyserial zip python-empy

Install yaourt, the package manager for the Arch User Repository (AUR).

Then use it to download, compile and install the following:

yaourt -S genromfs

Permissions

The user needs to be added to the group "uucp":

sudo usermod -a -G uucp $USER

After that, logging out and logging back in is needed.

Note Log out and log in for changes to take effect! Also remove the device and plug it back in!**

Toolchain Installation

Execute the script below to either install GCC 4.9 or 5.4:

GCC 4.9:

pushd .
cd ~
wget https://launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded/4.9/4.9-2015-q3-update/+download/gcc-arm-none-eabi-4_9-2015q3-20150921-linux.tar.bz2
tar -jxf gcc-arm-none-eabi-4_9-2015q3-20150921-linux.tar.bz2
exportline="export PATH=$HOME/gcc-arm-none-eabi-4_9-2015q3/bin:\$PATH"
if grep -Fxq "$exportline" ~/.profile; then echo nothing to do ; else echo $exportline >> ~/.profile; fi
. ~/.profile
popd

GCC 5.4:

pushd .
cd ~
wget https://launchpad.net/gcc-arm-embedded/5.0/5-2016-q2-update/+download/gcc-arm-none-eabi-5_4-2016q2-20160622-linux.tar.bz2
tar -jxf gcc-arm-none-eabi-5_4-2016q2-20160622-linux.tar.bz2
exportline="export PATH=$HOME/gcc-arm-none-eabi-5_4-2016q2/bin:\$PATH"
if grep -Fxq "$exportline" ~/.profile; then echo nothing to do ; else echo $exportline >> ~/.profile; fi
. ~/.profile
popd

If using Debian Linux, run this command:

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
sudo apt-get update

and Install the 32 bit support libraries (this might fail and can be skipped if running a 32 bit OS):

sudo apt-get install libc6:i386 libgcc1:i386 libstdc++5:i386 libstdc++6:i386
sudo apt-get install gcc-4.6-base:i386

Ninja Build System

Ninja is fast than Make and the PX4 CMake generators support it. Unfortunately Ubuntu carries only a very outdated version at this point. To install a recent version of Ninja, download the binary and add it to your path:

mkdir -p $HOME/ninja
cd $HOME/ninja
wget https://github.com/martine/ninja/releases/download/v1.6.0/ninja-linux.zip
unzip ninja-linux.zip
rm ninja-linux.zip
exportline="export PATH=$HOME/ninja:\$PATH"
if grep -Fxq "$exportline" ~/.profile; then echo nothing to do ; else echo $exportline >> ~/.profile; fi
. ~/.profile

Troubleshooting

Version Test

Enter:

arm-none-eabi-gcc --version

The output should be something similar to:

arm-none-eabi-gcc (GNU Tools for ARM Embedded Processors) 4.7.4 20140401 (release) [ARM/embedded-4_7-branch revision 209195]
Copyright (C) 2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

If you get:

arm-none-eabi-gcc --version
arm-none-eabi-gcc: No such file or directory

make sure you have the 32bit libs installed properly as described in the installation steps.

Advanced Linux