Pre-requisites
Before we can install the actual compiler we need to make sure all software needed for compiling is installed.
Miscellaneous
sudo apt-get install texinfo expect tk-dev
Install GCC 4.9
Compiling a cross compiling gcc 4.9 with a gcc other than gcc 4.9 proved to be a bit problematic. Since Ubuntu 14.04 ships with gcc 4.8 by default you need to install a 4.9 host compiler as well.
Add a repository with the compiler:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gcc-4.9
We now have the compiler installed, but it is not the default, let's change that. When we are finished we wil change it back so that version 4.8 is the default again.
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.9 40
Run the config utility:
sudo update-alternatives --config gcc
You will get a list of compilers available, enter the number for the correct compiler to set it as default.
Test if it works:
gcc --version
Should give:
gcc (Ubuntu 4.9.2-0ubuntu1~14.04) 4.9.2
Copyright (C) 2014 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.
Ok, it works, now we can install the MSP430 compiler.
Installation steps
We use the github repository located here.
git clone https://github.com/pabigot/msp430-elf
cd msp430-elf
git checkout sources
After git is finished we have a directory called tools.
It is not possible to build gcc in-tree so we are going to make a seperate directory
to build the compiler.
mkdir build
cd build
Personally I prefer to install everything into a seperate directory which allows me to maintain different versions at one system. Therefore I install the compiler and its tools in /opt/msp430-elf.
../tools/configure --target=msp430-elf --prefix=/opt/msp430-elf --enable-languages=c,c++ --with-multilib
Now compile it all:
make
On a multiprocessor system you could do a parallel build to speed up compilation. If you have a 4-core processor you can invoke make with the -j4 option to have it run 4 compilations at the same time.
Building can take a few minutes up to a few hours depending on you computer, so time enough to fry an egg or cook a nice beef broth...
Finished?
sudo make install
Now your freshly installed compiler should be in /opt/msp430-elf. Test it:
/opt/msp430-elf/bin/msp430-elf-gcc --version
Should print out something like:
msp430-elf-gcc (GCC) 4.9.1 20140707 (prerelease (msp430-14r1-98)) (GNUPro 14r1) (Based on: GCC 4.8 GDB 7.7 Binutils 2.24 Newlib 2.1)
Copyright (C) 2014 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
Install header and linker files
Go back to main git checkout directory:
cd ..
rm -rf tools
git checkout gcc_rh
When git is done we have a new directory named include. Copy everything from that directory over to
the msp430-elf device include directory:
sudo cp include/* /opt/msp430-elf/msp430-elf/include
Host compiler
The compiler is now installed successfully. We only have to switch back our main compiler back to version 4.8.
sudo update-alternatives --config gcc
Choose the first option and use gcc --version to check if you are back in version 4.8.2.
Update: as per the comments I added tk-dev as a prerequisite before installing GCC. However in my case it seems the installation seems to have built its own version of TCL/TK and installed it alongside the MSPGCC binaries. Add tk-dev should avoid this and let the build process use the system installed versions.
{{cat: programming, projects}} {{tags: programming, msp430, projects, gcc, compiler}}
Bartosz Wojciechowski
TS