STANDARD WINDOWS IDE FOR STM32

[EV_Builder]

I would like to ask to include into all github repo's the default STM32CubeIDE configurations to build and debug the code with the supported ST-LINK.

The V5 Charger software can be imported easily.

is this doable?

[arturk]

EV_Builder I think this is great idea. As much as I would love to see it for exiting projects I suspect it will probably not happen. I am not expert in STM32 development but I spent some time reviewing templates used for OpenInverter development including ZombieVerter and I think it would be very difficult at best to port them into STM32CubeIDE.

I am also running Windows and I like to get involved STM32 development. Being able to debug code is one the key features for me.
I have taken slightly different approach and decided to setup Windows based development environment which would allow to build projects like ZombieVerter and debug them as they are.

I have successfully setup and tested environment with Visual Studio Code as editor with intellisensing capability and debugger using appropriate plugins additional components like OpenOCD. Projects can be open without modifications and build using Make for Windows. In order to allow debugging very small update is needed in the Makefile. Debugger allows you to setup breakpoints anywhere in the code, step through and view all register values and periferals for any SMT32 chip thanks to SVD files.

It took some effort to figure out all the puzzles but in the end it is not very difficult.
If you or others are interested I can put together guide explaining how to set it up.

[johu]

Sounds good. I could add the necessary project file to github, provided it's not tons of files. Then there is more freedom of choice in dev tools.

[davefiddes]

Damien merged my Visual Studio Code project files for the Stm32_vcu project last week. They set up build tasks, launch tasks to allow debugging and C/C++ extension configuration to allow Intellisense. I use VS Code on Linux but they should work unmodified on Windows. It would be useful to get a write up of how you set things up on Windows. I'd be happy to test them on a Windows box and reconcile any differences with my Linux config. IMHO VS Code is a nice IDE and much lighter weight than the Eclipse based IDEs like STM32 Cube that want to take over everything.

[arturk]

Sounds good. I could add the necessary project file to github, provided it's not tons of files. Then there is more freedom of choice in dev tools.

Johannes, there is not to many file at all. Let us work out some kinks and once we have solid solution you will be able to incorporate it in your projects.

Dave, I an glad you were able to get it to work on Linux, I found your VS Code configuration in "ACDC_LIM" branch, I wish I knew about it earlier

I tried it on Windows and run into few small issues, let's try to address them so we can come up with cross-platform solution. Unfortunately I do not have have Linux machine and I am not able to test my updates on Linux.

In "c_cpp_properties.json" currently hardcoded "compilerPath" will not work on all systems specially Windows, I propose to use Environment Variable for the Toolchain bin folder (in my case "C:/Program Files (x86)/gcc-arm-none-eabi-10-2020-q4-major/bin"). Hopefully it can be replicated on Linux. Please see my comments in modified file below.
Param "intelliSenseMode": "linux-gcc-arm" did not work for me, will "gcc-arm" work on Linux?

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{
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Linux", //no big deal but shouldn't this reflect project name? Like "STM32-VCU"
            "includePath": [
                "${workspaceFolder}/include",
                "${workspaceFolder}/libopeninv/include",
                "${workspaceFolder}/libopencm3/include"
            ],
            "defines": [
                "STM32F1"
            ],
            "compilerPath": "${env:ARMGCC_DIR}/arm-none-eabi-gcc", //"/usr/lib64/ccache/arm-none-eabi-gcc" use env variable to specify compiler path, hopefully this will work on Linux as well 
            "cStandard": "c11",
            "intelliSenseMode": "gcc-arm", //"linux-gcc-arm" is not acceptable value on Windows, hopefully this will work on Linux as well
            "cppStandard": "c++17",
            "configurationProvider": "ms-vscode.cmake-tools"
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}

I am not familiar with your configuration for Debug ("launch.json"). I am getting weird error (screenshot attached). For some reason path is being messed up by removing slash characters.
Am I missing some component? Do I need to do something before hitting F5?

I am using "Cortex-Debug" plugin for VS Code and OpenOCD.
Here is my config file:

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{
    // Use IntelliSense to learn about possible attributes.
    // Hover to view descriptions of existing attributes.
    // For more information, visit: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=830387
    "version": "0.2.0",
    "configurations": [
        {
            "name": "Cortex Debug",
            "cwd": "${workspaceRoot}",
            "executable": "./build/F105RB.elf",
            "request": "launch",
            "type": "cortex-debug",
            "servertype": "openocd",
            "device": "STM32F105xC",
            "configFiles": [
                "interface/stlink.cfg",
                "target/stm32f1x.cfg"
            ],
            "svdFile": "./STM32F107.svd"
        }
    ]
}

SVD file can be downloaded from ST website, I am attaching latest one for STM32F1* family.

I can test it further on Windows if you have any suggestions. I can create guide but it is probably better to wait until we have solid solution worked out.

[davefiddes]

My launch config expects an openocd process to be running. I found it easier to keep an eye on openocd. Using Cortex Debug is probably a much better way to go. Apologies for the hard coded paths, I'll need to do a bit more digging and see if we can't come up with a neater cross-platform config. I have Linux and Windows PCs to test with.

[arturk]

I have tried to start OpenOCD before initiating Debug session:

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Licensed under GNU GPL v2
libusb1 09e75e98b4d9ea7909e8837b7a3f00dda4589dc3
For bug reports, read
        http://openocd.org/doc/doxygen/bugs.html
Info : auto-selecting first available session transport "hla_swd". To override use 'transport select <transport>'.
Info : The selected transport took over low-level target control. The results might differ compared to plain JTAG/SWD
Info : DEPRECATED target event trace-config
Info : Listening on port 6666 for tcl connections
Info : Listening on port 4444 for telnet connections
Info : clock speed 1000 kHz
Info : STLINK V2J29S7 (API v2) VID:PID 0483:3748
Info : Target voltage: 3.197404
Info : stm32f1x.cpu: hardware has 6 breakpoints, 4 watchpoints
Info : starting gdb server for stm32f1x.cpu on 3333
Info : Listening on port 3333 for gdb connections

and I still got the same popup error. I am lost on this one.

As far as environment variables I run another test removing compiler path and leaving just the name of executable. Since I have Toolchain bin directory in PATH Variable it worked just fine. If we can do it the same way on Linux it would simplify configuration process.

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{
    "configurations": [
        {
            ...
            "compilerPath": "arm-none-eabi-gcc",
            ...
        }
    ],
    "version": 4
}

Not much progress but just wanted to share.

It would be great if you could try to test Cortex Debug plugin configuration in Linux. Perhaps this method will work on both platforms.

[zilion]

You could look at "Cortex Builder" plugin.
It was tested only on Win10, but it may run on Linux.

[zilion]

Intrigued by this topic I started to experiment myself with VSC IDE, but I'm bumped over compiling under WIN10.
How did you guys managed to compile arm code if there is no "make" under powershell?
I'm managed to install with chocolatey some gnu-make version, but it throws `LoopFillZerobss' error.

[zilion]

Found this while looking for another

[jon volk]

Intrigued by this topic I started to experiment myself with VSC IDE, but I'm bumped over compiling under WIN10.
How did you guys managed to compile arm code if there is no "make" under powershell?

By running it all on Ubuntu within Virtualbox

[arturk]

Found this while looking for another

This is great guide, It is essentially how I setup my environment. I like to be able to develop under Windows, all works very well.

[zilion]

By running it all on Ubuntu within Virtualbox

Well, I have bare metal with linux, so no problem there.
The real challenge is to setup all of this under windows

And by running virtual linux just to have compiler it's some kind of overkill, or the ultimate windows solution XD

[EV_Builder]

Woww I lost track of this thread but seems it catched some fire!
Nice work guys gonna check the link from zillion hopefully I can then ditch my efforts to get it running unther ST32CubeIDE. Which somehow tries to build everything it can find instead of what is 'linked' through the project main.c file ....

[EV_Builder]

If you or others are interested I can put together guide explaining how to set it up.

XXX; I count three yesses!

[EV_Builder]

Intrigued by this topic I started to experiment myself with VSC IDE, but I'm bumped over compiling under WIN10.
How did you guys managed to compile arm code if there is no "make" under powershell?

By running it all on Ubuntu within Virtualbox

I think we should go this way if we want all an easy live... in the makefile there are linux commands used not available on windows.
test and printf to name 2.

[arturk]

I think we should go this way if we want all an easy live...

I am happy with Windows, sure sometimes things are little more difficult being in minority. VM is an option for sure but I like to work in native OS specially dealing with external hardware connected to VM. Sure there is virtual USB, serial but it can be tricky sometimes.
I researched options I reported earlier in this thread. Setting up fully featured IDE with debug capability for our projects in native Windows is perfectly doable and not difficult.

... in the makefile there are linux commands used not available on windows.
test and printf to name 2.

This is not exactly true, all of these command are available in Git package for Windows.

Earlier I was thinking about creating guide but then Zilion posted lint to excellent video by Embedded Geek, it covers subject in very comprehensive way, anything else would be just duplicating it.

[EV_Builder]

mhhh ok can you post your json files then?
and where do we find that GIT package?

p.s. i followed movie 1 and 2. 3 is pending now...

[arturk]

Here is Git package I am using:
https://git-scm.com/download/win

Files for ZombieVerter project attached.

[EV_Builder]

Here is Git package I am using:
https://git-scm.com/download/win

Files for ZombieVerter project attached.

did you modify the makefile itself?

[SciroccoEV]

I used the Platform IO plugin for Visual Studio Code to generate some test code for an STM32 dev board. I found it easy to use and it worked directly with an STM-Link, but it would not generate binary or hex files as standard output so that I could upload via the Wifi interface. I tried to follow examples of how to add these as output filles, but the files I was supposed to edit, did not match up with those I was seeing in the IDE.

[arturk]

did you modify the makefile itself?

Not much to changed but you need to be aware of few aspects.
First of all, for debugging you need .elf file, in Makefile from Johannes based projects it is disguised, basically it is generated but with no extension. This is why in launch.json file I have:

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"executable": "./stm32_vcu"

instead "./stm32_vcu.elf". Keeping that in mind you do not have to change Makefile but account for that in VSC configuration files.
Also to allow debugging additional information has to be included in .elf files. This information is generated by adding additional compiler flag "-g". In my attached Makefile for ZombieVerter project (I had to add .txt) look at lines 33 and 36. This is really the only change I found necessary in the Makefile.

Make a note of SVD file which is very handy for debugging:

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"svdFile": "./STM32F107.svd"

Those can be downloaded directly from ST website. I have attached zip for F1 family.

[zilion]

While I was on a short vacation I see that here something happened

Here I put some short tutorial on arming Win10 and VSC to do some STM. (lol, lots of acronyms)

First you install chocolatey -it's a kinda packet installer project for windows.
Run powershell (as admin) and paste (from chocolatey homepage):

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Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))

Then some packets. Put in powershell:

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choco install vscode -y
choco install openocd -y
choco install gcc-arm-embedded -y
choco make -y
choco install git -y

List all installed packets:

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choco list --local-only

add to system path:

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C:\Program Files\Git\bin
C:\Program Files\Git\usr\bin

Under VSC install "Cortex Builder" and "Cortex Debuger"
In Crotex Builder Settings -> Debug set your hardware for debug, and under General paste:
For GCC path

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C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\gcc-arm-embedded\tools\gcc-arm-none-eabi-10-2020-q4-major\bin\arm-none-eabi-gcc-10.2.1.exe

For OpenOCD path

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C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\lib\openocd\tools\OpenOCD-20190828-0.10.0\share\openocd\scripts

I was on the line with Semyon Ivanov, creator of "Cortex Builder" to point him some issues with buttons under Windows.
But it seams that he is not into this extension at the moment. At least not for Linux testing...
It's a good addition to VSC because it configures STM environment in a simple way. It's bad because buttons for flashing, erasing and etc are now invoked by powershell -so it's windows specific.

If anyone wants to deal with this subject, here is a path to file:

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%USERPROFILE%\.vscode\extensions\semyon-ivanov.cortex-builder-1.0.5\out

Buttons are in terminalCommands.js

Anyway, I added some lines to Makefile to invoke them manually from console:

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OCD_SCRIPTS = 	C:/ProgramData/chocolatey/lib/openocd/tools/OpenOCD-20190828-0.10.0/share/openocd/scripts
OCD_INTERFACE = $(OCD_SCRIPTS)/interface/stlink.cfg
OCD_TARGET = 	$(OCD_SCRIPTS)/target/stm32f1x.cfg

#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#	Actions
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
all: $(OUTPUT_PATH)/$(TARGET).elf $(OUTPUT_PATH)/$(TARGET).hex $(OUTPUT_PATH)/$(TARGET).bin
	@echo.
	@echo "Build Completed."
	@echo.

flash: all
	openocd -f $(OCD_INTERFACE) -f $(OCD_TARGET) -c "program $(OUTPUT_PATH)/$(TARGET).hex verify reset exit"
	@echo.
	@echo "Write Completed."
	@echo.

erase:
	openocd -f $(OCD_INTERFACE) -f $(OCD_TARGET) -c "init; reset halt; flash erase_sector 0 0 1; exit"
	@echo.
	@echo "Erase Completed."
	@echo.

reset:
	openocd -f $(OCD_INTERFACE) -f $(OCD_TARGET) -c "init; reset; exit"
	@echo.
	@echo "Reset Completed."
	@echo.

clean:
	rm -r $(OUTPUT_PATH)/*
	rm -r $(BUILD_PATH)/*
	@echo.
	@echo "Clean Completed." 
	@echo.
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#	End of Actions
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All of this is for an empty project.
There is some work to be done to adopt an exiting project, like stm32-sine.

[EV_Builder]

I'm still on windows 7 will it work on that?

[EV_Builder]

ok in order to try to get this stuff building in vscode my next issue is that libopencm3 doesn't build it errors out because i don't have python.
i thought including de .h and pointing to the source would be enough?