Compiling

Rivanna3 GitHub Link

Software Installation

  1. Install Git: Link
  2. Windows Users: Install Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL): Guide
    • the WSL command prompt can be activated by entering wsl into any command prompt
  3. Windows Users: update all packages on WSL by activating WSL (type wsl into a command prompt) and run sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
    • you will be prompted for your WSL password, not Windows password
  4. Install Docker: Link
    • Windows Users: enable the WSL integration setting: Settings >> Resources >> WSL Integration

Setting up the Compilation Environment

Windows Users: do these steps within WSL using a WSL command prompt (type wsl into a command prompt to enter WSL)

  1. Make a folder for Solar Car code on your machine, if not done already, and cd into it
  2. Clone Rivanna3 into that directory using git clone https://github.com/solarcaratuva/Rivanna3.git
  3. Change directory into the cloned directory (cd Rivanna3)
  4. Run the following command: docker run --name Rivanna3_compile -it -v $(pwd)/:/root/Rivanna2:Z ghcr.io/solarcaratuva/rivanna2-env
  5. Run cd Rivanna2 then mbed-tools deploy

Actually Compiling

  1. Attach the command prompt to the container by running docker attach Rivanna3_compile
    • Docker Desktop and the Rivanna3_compile container must be running
  2. Run cd Rivanna2 then ./compile.sh
    • compilation should take under a minute

Compiled files are stored in the cmake_build directory.
Remember that this compiles the current Git branch only.

What is Actually Happening

  1. A Docker container is an isolated space on your computer, only sharing foundational system files with the rest of the computer, as well as limited computational resources. The isolation of the container ensures that everyone has the EXACT same environment when compiling, which prevents phantom, often unsolvable errors from occurring.
  2. The compile.sh script runs mbed-tools compile -m UVA_SOLAR_CAR -t GCC_ARM, which uses MbedOS’s own compilation system to compile the code.
  3. The compiled code is stored, ready for upload, and reducing the number of files needed to be compiled in the future.

Uploading

Software Installation: Windows

  1. Download ST Tools. Note that you will install this on Windows, not WSL
    • Recommended: download stlink-1.7.0-x86_64-w64-mingw32.zip from version 1.7.0. Version 1.8.0 has dependency issues and doesn’t have any apparent features not in 1.7.0
  2. Unzip the zip file and copy the unzipped folder to Program Files (x86)
  3. Inside the unzipped folder there is a bin folder, add this to path

Verify: Open a new command prompt and enter st-flash --version. This should print the software version.

Software Installation: Mac

Run the command brew install stlink

Verify: Open a new command prompt and enter st-flash --version. This should print the software version.

Actually Uploading

  1. Open the Rivanna3 folder
    • Windows Users: this should be stored in WSL; open in WSL, not through the Windows file explorer
  2. In the Rivanna3 folder, run python3 upload.py board, replacing board with the name of the board you are uploading to

What is Actually Happening

  1. Windows Users: the WSL file system is added as a network drive, named W:, allowing a program running in Windows to easily access files stored in WSL
  2. The appropriate st-flash command is run
    • Windows Users: this is run in Windows, not WSL
  3. Windows Users: the network drive W: is deleted

Solar Car Team at UVA

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