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Installing AVR Toolchain on MAC OS X

I am a big fan of Apple and MAC OS X. I develop most of my embedded applications on my PowerBook 15''. The following instructions are useful in setting up a toolchain for AVR on MAC OS X. The actual versions of the various tools are the ones that I am using. You may want to try your luck with the newer releases. Good Luck !!

1. Avr Binutils

  • Download binutils-2.15.tar.gz from the GNU Binutils FTP Server.
  • tar xvzf binutils-2.15.tar.gz
  • cd binutils-2.15
  • ./configure --target=avr
  • make
  • sudo make install

If you are planning to use AVaRICE, you need to build the libbfd.a from binutils else you can move to the next section.

  • cd binutils-2.15/bfd
  • ./configure --target=avr --disable-nls --enable-install-libbfd
  • make
  • sudo make install

2. Avr-gcc - C Compiler

  • Download gcc-core-3.4.3.tar.bz2 from the GNU GCC FTP Server.
  • bunzip2 gcc-core-3.4.3.tar.bz2
  • tar -xvf gcc-core-3.4.3.tar
  • cd gcc-3.4.3
  • ./configure --target=avr --enable-languages=c
  • make CC="cc -no-cpp-precomp"
  • sudo make install

3. Avr-libc - Standard C Library

  • Download avr-libc-1.2.3.tar.bz2 from the Savannah AVR-LIBC FTP Server.
  • bunzip2 avr-libc-1.2.3.tar.bz2
  • tar -xvf avr-libc-1.2.3.tar
  • cd avr-libc-1.2.3
  • ./doconf --target=avr
  • ./domake
  • sudo ./domake install

4. Avr-gdb - Debugger

  • Download gdb-6.0.tar.bz2 from the GNU GDB FTP Server.
  • bunzip2 gdb-6.0.tar.bz2
  • tar -xvf gdb-6.0.tar
  • cd gdb-6.0
  • ./configure --target=avr
  • make
  • sudo make install

5. Avarice - In-circuit Emulator

  • Download avarice-2.4.tar.bz2 from the AVARICE Sourceforge Website.
  • bunzip2 avarice-2.4.tar.bz2
  • tar -xvf avarice-2.4.tar
  • cd avarice-2.4
  • ./configure "LDFLAGS=-L/usr/local/powerpc-apple-darwinX.X.X/avr/lib -lbfd" "CPPFLAGS=-I/usr/local/powerpc-apple-darwinX.X.X/avr/include" (here X.X.X can vary depending upon your MAC OS X version. Its 8.4.0 for my MAC OS X 10.4.4)
  • make
  • sudo make install

6. Uisp - Programmer

  • Download uisp-20040311.tar.bz2 from the Savannah UISP FTP Server.
  • bunzip2 uisp-20040311.tar.bz2
  • tar -xvf uisp-20040311.tar
  • cd uisp-20040311
  • ./configure
  • make
  • sudo make install

MSP430 Toolchain for MAC OS X

I have pre-compiled binaries for the MSP430 toolchain on MAC OS X.

  • Download the msp430toolchain.tar.gz from here.
  • Copy it to /usr/local
  • tar -xvzf msp430toolchain.tar.gz

Enjoy developing Embedded applications from your favourite MAC !