1. Purpose[edit source]
This article explains and describes the host PC hardware and software configuration required to activate and run the STM32 MPU platforms.
2. Recommended PC configurations[edit source]
The PC requirements depend on the Package you want to use.
The table below guides through the selection and configuration of the host PC environment according the targeted Package:
Host environment | Starter Package | Developer Package | Distribution Package |
---|---|---|---|
Windows® (64 bits) Tested with Windows 7 and Windows 10 Preferred version is Windows 10 |
native | Virtual machine | Virtual Machine |
Linux (64 bits) Tested with Ubuntu® 20.04 and 18.04 (with restrictions) |
Native | Native + additional packages (see Linux PC chapter ) Warning: 18.04 may not compatible |
native + additional packages (see Linux PC chapter ) |
There are no absolute minimal requirements regarding the PC hardware configuration. However ST recommends to meet or exceed the following hardware requirements when using the Developer Package or Distribution Package.
The table below corresponds to the minimal validated configuration:
Hardware item | Minimal validated configuration | Comments / Recommendations |
---|---|---|
CPU | core i5-2540M @ 2.6 GHz 2 cores (4 threads) 3-Mbyte cache |
64-bit instruction set is mandatory 8 cores/threads or more is a good configuration for Developer Package and Distribution Package. |
RAM | 8 Gbytes | 16 Gbytes or more are recommended especially for Virtual machine setup, Developer Package and Distribution Package. |
Hard drive | 320 Gbytes | 1 Tbytes is the best suited configuration for Distribution Package |
3. Linux® PC[edit source]
A Linux PC with recent Ubuntu LTS (20.04 or 18.04 with restrictions) is the recommended setup. Other Ubuntu revisions could also supported (refer to Yocto reference manual[1]) .
3.1. Checking Internet access[edit source]
- Internet access through http and https protocols
Required at least for Developer Package and Distribution Package.
The command below enables checking internet access through http/https protocols:
wget -q www.google.com && echo "Internet access over HTTP/HTTPS is OK !" || echo "No internet access over HTTP/HTTPS ! You might need to set up a proxy."
If an 'OK' message is returned, the network is well configured. In such case, skip the rest of this section and jump to Installing extra packages.
Any other situation likely indicates that a proxy is required for http/https protocols. The best solution to set a proxy for http/https protocols is via the shell variables http_proxy and https_proxy:
export http_proxy=http://<MyProxyLogin>:<MyProxyPassword>@<MyProxyServerUrl>:<MyProxyPort> export https_proxy=http://<MyProxyLogin>:<MyProxyPassword>@<MyProxyServerUrl>:<MyProxyPort>
Since your password (<MyProxyPassword>) might contain "special characters", translate it into ASCII hexacode. To do this, use the command below:
echo -n " <MyProxyPassword>" | od -A n -t x1 -w128 | head -1 | tr " " "%"
Check again the Internet access by using the following command:
wget -q www.google.com && echo "Internet access over HTTP/HTTPS is OK !" || echo "No internet access over HTTP/HTTPS ! You might need to set up a proxy."
- Internet access for sudo commands
Required for Distribution Package.
By default, sudo commands are executed in the root user environment; no Internet proxy settings are applied for root users.
Root users must be able to browse Internet after having created an alias passing the proxy settings on sudo commands:
alias sudo='sudo http_proxy=$http_proxy'
Check that the sudo commands are successful (requires Internet access):
sudo apt-get update
- Internet over git://, ssh:// and others specifics protocols
Required for Distribution Package.
In addition to http/https protocols (used in 90% of the Internet traffic), other protocols such as git:// or ssh:// might be required.
For example, in the context of the Distribution Package, some "git fetch" commands might require "git:// protocols".
To support these protocols through a proxy, directly setup the proxy in the $HOME/.gitconfig file (core.gitproxy) and use a tool such as cockscrew[2] to tunnel the git:// flow into the http flow:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install corkscrew git config --replace-all --global core.gitproxy "$HOME/bin/git-proxy.sh" git config --add --global core.gitproxy "none for <MyPrivateNetworkDomain>" (optional, for example .st.com or localhost) echo 'exec corkscrew <MyProxyServerUrl> <MyProxyPort> $* $HOME/.git-proxy.auth' > $HOME/bin/git-proxy.sh chmod 700 $HOME/bin/git-proxy.sh echo '<MyProxyLogin>:<MyProxyPassword>' > $HOME/.git-proxy.auth chmod 600 $HOME/.git-proxy.auth
Use the command below to test the proxy settings:
git ls-remote git://git.openembedded.org/openembedded-core > /dev/null && echo OK || echo KO
The command returns 'OK' if the proxy settings are correct.
3.2. Installing extra packages[edit source]
Required for Developer Package and Distribution Package.
Additional Ubuntu packages must be installed to perform basic development tasks, basic cross-compilation (via Developer Package) or more complex cross-compilation such as OpenEmbedded does (via Distribution Package):
- Packages required by OpenEmbedded/Yocto (details here):
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install gawk wget git diffstat unzip texinfo gcc build-essential chrpath socat cpio python3 python3-pip python3-pexpect xz-utils debianutils iputils-ping python3-git python3-jinja2 libegl1-mesa libsdl1.2-dev pylint3 xterm python3-subunit mesa-common-dev zstd liblz4-tool sudo apt-get install make xsltproc docbook-utils fop dblatex xmlto sudo apt-get install libmpc-dev libgmp-dev
- Packages needed for some "Developer Package" use cases:
sudo apt-get install build-essential libncurses5 libssl-dev
- Package for repo (used to download the "Distribution Package" source code):
Please follow the installation instructions described in repo.
For Ubuntu 20.04, first set python3 as default: sudo apt install python-is-python3
- Useful tools:
sudo apt-get install coreutils bsdmainutils sed curl bc lrzsz corkscrew cvs subversion mercurial nfs-common nfs-kernel-server libarchive-zip-perl dos2unix texi2html diffstat libxml2-utils
3.2.1. Installing extra packages for AndroidTM[edit source]
Below information is related to the Android™ distribution
|
3.3. Additional configurations[edit source]
- Allowing up to 16 partitions per MMC
By default a maximum of 8 MMC partitions are allowed on Linux systems. All Packages (such as Starter Package) need more than 10 partitons for the storage device. To extend the number of partitions per device to 16, the following options must be added to modprobe:
echo 'options mmc_block perdev_minors=16' > /tmp/mmc_block.conf sudo mv /tmp/mmc_block.conf /etc/modprobe.d/mmc_block.conf
- Checking for locale setup
Required for Distribution Package.
The locale setting is used by some applications/commands (including by Distribution Package applications/commands).
Verify that the locale settings are as follows:
locale LANG=en-US.UTF-8
If the locale command returns a different configuration than the one shown above, reconfigure it as follows:
sudo update-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8
- Adding users in basics groups
The user login must belong to the basic Linux groups such as disk, tty, dialout or plugdev
Use the groups command to list groups for the current user:
groups
If needed, add user to the missing <groups>:
sudo adduser $USER <group>
Then reboot the PC.
3.4. Seting up Git user information[edit source]
Required for Developer Package and Distribution Package.
The user Information are needed by git[3] if commit and/or push commands are used:
git config --global user.name "Your Name" git config --global user.email "you@example.com"
4. Windows PC[edit source]
Starter Package may run on Windows.
Developer Package and Distribution Package require a Linux environment.
There are several ways to run Linux system on top of a Windows host PC. ST recommends to use a Virtual Machine System:
- Install a virtual machine such as VMWare [4]
- Setup a 64-bit Ubuntu image compatible with your virtual machine
ST, in an experimental way, has also run Developer Package and Distribution Package on WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux 2). Refer to WSL2 chapter.
4.1. Virtual machine system[edit source]
4.1.1. Installing the virtual machine[edit source]
ST has selected VMWare as Linux virtual machine solution.
VMWare is a commercial company specialized in virtualization solutions. The available solutions to support a virtual Linux machine on a Windows PC are:
- VMWare Workstation Player (paid solution) for commercial use (download here [5])
- VMWare Workstation Player (free solution) for home use (download here [6])
Please proceed with the installation of the virtual machine.
Before running the virtual machine, make sure the virtualization is activated in the BIOS (it should be activated by default for any retail PC).
4.1.2. Downloading the Ubuntu image for the virtual machine[edit source]
The "osboxes.org" [7] website provides virtual machine images compatible with VMWare(*.vmdk).
ecosystem release v4.0.0 : Setup have been validated and tested on Ubuntu 20.04 (64bits).
Download the 64-bit Ubuntu image available at [8], then:
- Unzip the downloaded file
- In VMware, create a virtual machine using the Ubuntu virtual disk downloaded from osboxes.org.
The recommended usage is to dedicate, at least, half of the host machine to the virtual machine:
- CPU: 2 cores at least, - RAM: 6 Gbytes or more is a good choice (the more RAM allocated to Virtual Machine the better - the RAM allocated to Virtual Machine must be at least 4 Gbytes), - Network: NAT is a good easy way to benefit from a network connection within the virtual machine.
The virtual size of the virtual disk downloaded from osboxes.org is about 500 Gbytes. Even if, at beginning, the real size of the file of the virtual disk is less, the size can grow up to 500 Gbytes over distribution package compiling or package development.
4.1.3. Launching Ubuntu image[edit source]
Default 'Ubuntu Credentials' are set to "osboxes.org" for both login and password.
For a better experience with the VMware virtual machine, install "vmware-tools" in order to be able to use the clipboard to drag-and-drop and copy/paste files between VMware and Windows. A step-by-step installation procedure of vmware-tools is available in PreRequisite-Vmware-tools.pdf.
The virtual machine is now up and running!
The Ubuntu setup must be finalized according recommendations provided in Linux PC chapter
4.2. WSL2 (experimental)[edit source]
Even if STMicroelectronics strongly recommends to use a Linux® environment, the Developer Package and Distribution Package work on WSL2 (Windows Sub-system Linux 2) environment. WSL is a feature provided by Windows 10®.
WSL2 is a new version of the architecture that powers the Windows subsystem for Linux to run ELF64 Linux binaries on Windows (more details on aka.ms/wsl2). It is available on Windows 10 since build 18917.
The Developer Package successfully runs on WSL2 but unsuccessfully on WSL.
- Installing WSL2 :
- To install WSL2, read https://docs.microsoft.com/fr-fr/windows/wsl/wsl2-install
- Once WSL2 is installed, jump to #Linux_PC to make your WSL2 ready to run Developer Package and/or Distribution Package.
- WSL2 limitations :
- Up to now (March 2021), WSL2 does not support hardware such as USB or serial devices (more details).
- This means that STM32CubeProgrammer must be used through native Windows.
- WSL2 files are not browsable from Windows native file explorer.
- To share files between WSL2 and Windows, it is recommend to use the mount point /mnt/c from WSL2 and perform copies.
- Up to now (March 2021), WSL2 does not support hardware such as USB or serial devices (more details).
- Tips for using WSL2 :
- Launching graphical application : on wiki.ubuntu.com, go to WSL page and read the chapter Running Graphical Applications.
4.3. References[edit source]
- ↑ Supported Linux Distributionsl
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corkscrew_(program)
- ↑ Git
- ↑ http://vmware.com
- ↑ https://my.vmware.com/en/web/vmware/free#desktop_end_user_computing/vmware_workstation_player/15_0
- ↑ https://www.vmware.com/products/workstation-player/workstation-player-evaluation.html
- ↑ http://osboxes.org
- ↑ https://www.osboxes.org/ubuntu/#ubuntu-20-04-4-vmware