Toolchain installation on Linux

We recommend using the Contiki-NG Docker image for easy setup of a consistent development environment: doc:docker.

Alternatively, you can install the toolchains natively on your system. This page describes how to do so, for a Linux development environment.

Install development tools for Contiki-NG

Start by installing some necessary packages:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install build-essential doxygen git curl wireshark python-serial srecord rlwrap

On recent Ubuntu releases, you may get an error ifconfig: not found and netstat: not found when trying to run tunslip6. If this is the case, use apt to install net-tools.

While installing Wireshark, select enable the feature that lets non-superuser capture packets (select “yes”). Now add yourself to the wireshark group:

$ sudo usermod -a -G wireshark <user>

Then you will - if you intend to develop or re-configure examples - also need to install an code/text editor. There are many alternatives so we leave that up to you!

Install ARM compiler

An ARM compiler is needed to compile for ARM-based platforms such as CC2538DK and Zoul.

You should download it from https://developer.arm.com/open-source/gnu-toolchain/gnu-rm/downloads or you can grab an older version from launchpad.net.

$ wget https://armkeil.blob.core.windows.net/developer/Files/downloads/gnu-rm/9-2020q2/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2020-q2-update-x86_64-linux.tar.bz2
$ tar -xjf gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2020-q2-update-x86_64-linux.tar.bz2

This will create a directory named gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2020-q2-update in your current working dir. Add <working-directory>/gcc-arm-none-eabi-9-2020-q2-update/bin to your path.

Install MSP430 compiler

A compiler for MSP430 is needed to use the MSPSim emulator in Cooja. It is possible to install a GCC compiler for MSP430 from the Ubuntu package repository (sudo apt install gcc-msp430) but that version is too old to support the full memory of newer versions of MSP430.

The preferred version of MSP430 gcc is 4.7.2. To install it on /usr/local if you’re using 64-bit Linux, run:

$ wget -nv http://simonduq.github.io/resources/mspgcc-4.7.2-compiled.tar.bz2 && \
  tar xjf mspgcc*.tar.bz2 -C /tmp/ && \
  cp -f -r /tmp/msp430/* /usr/local/ && \
  rm -rf /tmp/msp430 mspgcc*.tar.bz2

If desired, instructions to compile MSP430 GCC 4.7.2 from source can be found here. Currently the instructions do not seem to be updated for newer versions of Ubuntu but it is possible to compile in an older version of Ubuntu and copy the binaries. Binaries for 32-bit Ubuntu can be downloaded and installed following this script.

Installing JN compiler

See the JN page for instruction on setting up the JN compiler: Set up JN516x

Installing NRF sdk

To get the NRF52dk platform to work you will need to add SDK and programming tools, see Platform-nrf52dk.

Install Java for the Cooja network simulator

$ sudo apt install default-jdk ant

Cooja needs to have the environment variable JAVA_HOME set to work with native Contiki nodes.

$ update-alternatives --config java
There is only one alternative in link group java (providing /usr/bin/java): /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/jre/bin/java
Nothing to configure.

Set JAVA_HOME with the path found above in .profile:

$ echo 'export JAVA_HOME="/usr/lib/jvm/default-java"' >> ~/.profile

Install JTAG software for CC2538 (optional)

Many platforms such as Zolertia Zoul can be programmed via builtin USB but for programming a device using a JTAG dongle, Segger J-Link has been verified to work well with CC2538. The software for Segger J-Link can be downloaded from Segger. Download the installation file for Debian Linux.

$ sudo dpkg --install jlink_4.98.5_i386.deb

Install a CoAP client (optional)

Optionally and if you want to use CoAP examples, you can install the CoAP client coap-cli:

$ sudo apt-get install -y npm \
  && sudo apt-get clean \
  && sudo npm install coap-cli -g \
  && sudo ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node

Install the Mosquitto MQTT broker and accompanying clients (optional)

Install Mosquitto, if you need MQTT:

$ sudo apt-get install -y mosquitto mosquitto-clients

User access to USB

To be able to access the USB without using sudo, the user should be part of the groups plugdev and dialout.

$ sudo usermod -a -G plugdev <user>
$ sudo usermod -a -G dialout <user>

Improve stability for CC2538

The modem manager might interfere with the USB for CC2538. Update the configuration with:

echo 'ATTRS{idVendor}=="0451", ATTRS{idProduct}=="16c8", ENV{ID_MM_DEVICE_IGNORE}="1"' >> /lib/udev/rules.d/77-mm-usb-device-blacklist.rules

After configuration

Reboot the system after all configurations have been made.

Clone Contiki-NG

$ git clone https://github.com/contiki-ng/contiki-ng.git
$ cd contiki-ng
$ git submodule update --init --recursive

Note: we recommend cloning and then initializing the submodules rather than using git clone --recursive. The latter results in submodules that use absolute paths to the top-level git, rather than relative paths, which are more flexible for a number of reasons.