BeagleBoardEclipse

This page is about using Eclipse IDE for BeagleBoard. It is focused on JTAG debugging with e.g. OpenOCD, but can be extended to additional topics, e.g. C/C++ development. And, while the examples focus on Beagle, stuff shown here will most probably easily apply to other boards.

=Installation=

Here, installation of Eclipse for C/C++ development and embedded GDB/JTAG debugging will be described. This is done in three steps:


 * Install base Eclipse tooling, called 'Eclipse Classic'
 * Install plug in for C/C++ development, called 'CDT' (C/C++ Development Tooling)
 * Install some extensions for embedded development from Zylin (Zylin Embedded CDT)

Note: The file names and versions given here are based on October 2009. They may change.

Eclipse Classic

 * Download Eclipse Classic 3.5.x.

In October 2009 this was version 3.5.1. 32-bit Linux version download resulted in file eclipse-SDK-3.5.1-linux-gtk.tar.gz.


 * Installation is done by extracting downloaded (tar.gz) file (e.g. tar xvfz eclipse-SDK-3.5.1-linux-gtk.tar.gz).


 * Start Eclipse by calling

cd eclipse ./eclipse

You might want to add this to your path and/or add a start icon/shortcut on your desktop/start menue.

Starting Eclipse, you are asked for the directory where you want to have your workspace:



After doing this, Eclipse starts...



... and presents the start screen:



CDT

 * To install CDT, in Eclipse select

Help -> Install new software...


 * There, use

Add...

dialog and enter:


 * Name: CDT
 * Location: http://download.eclipse.org/tools/cdt/releases/galileo

Note: Check CDT download page for up to date link.



Press, OK, select both CDT components ...



... and click Next, accept license agreement and Finish. Then download and installation of CDT and dependencies starts.


 * Wait until CDT installation finished. Then, you are asked to restart. Do this.

Zylin Embedded CDT

 * To install Zylin Embedded CDT, in Eclipse select

Help -> Install new software...


 * There, use

Add...

dialog and enter:


 * Name: Zylin Embedded CDT
 * Location: http://opensource.zylin.com/zylincdt

Note: Check Zylin Embedded CDT page for up to date link.



Press, OK, select Zylin Embedded CDT ...



... click Next and Finish. Accept message about unsigned components and restart Eclipse again.

CDT perspective
Now, everything is installed. We can switch to C/C++ mode now. For this:


 * Switch to "Workspace" (clicking Workspace button)
 * Make sure you are in C/C++ mode. In upper right corner, C/C++ perspective has to be enabled. If this isn't enabled (e.g. Java is enabled), do Window -> Open Perspective -> Other ... and select "C/C++":



=Usage=

To demonstrate usage an example is the best way. Here a small stand alone program is used. It is downloaded to BeagleBoard which is running U-Boot prompt and then debugged using OpenOCD JTAG debugger. So in this example we do:


 * Get a small stand alone program (LEDblink) from internet and create an Eclipse project with it
 * Start OpenOCD and configure Eclipse debug environment
 * Download build example and debug it

Example project
First, we download source code and control files for a small stand alone program we can run on BeagleBoard. For this, we use Magnus' LEDblink program. While Beagle is running at U-Boot prompt, this can be downloaded by OpenOCD JTAG to Beagle and let Beagle's LEDs blink.

Note: You need ARM cross compiler installed for this (e.g. CodeSourcerys' 2009q1-203 version, or newer).


 * From Magnus code, we need four files:
 * crt0.S
 * LEDblink.c
 * ldscript
 * Makefile

Note: Depending on your tool chain, in Makefile edit "TYPE" variable


 * To be able to run Eclipse default configuration "make all" edit Makefile and add an "all" target. Result should look like

... CFLAGS=-g -Os -c -mcpu=cortex-a8 -mfpu=neon -mfloat-abi=hard all: LEDblink LEDblink: LEDblink.o Makefile $(LDSCRIPT) crt0.o ...


 * After we have the source now, we can start a new Eclipse C project:

File -> New -> C Project

and there create a new empty Makefile project "LEDblink":



If you click finish now, you have created your first Eclipse project.

In this new project, we have to re-configure three configurations, now.


 * First, disable automatic build:

Disable checkbox before Project -> Build Automatically


 * Second, in Project menu select Properties:

Project -> Properties

There, in Builders configuration disable Scanner Configuration Builder




 * Third, still in Properties window, in

C/C++ Build -> Settings

enable GNU Elf Parser:



Now, basic configuration is done! But the new project is still empty. We have to import the four downloaded files into our project, now:


 * Import LEDblink files into the new project:

File -> Import...


 * Select

General -> File System




 * Then click next, browse to the directory where you downloaded the four LEDblink files and select them:



and finish.

Now, at the left side, in the Project view, you should see the four files. Double clicking them opens them in the editor. With LEDblink.c opened this should now look like:



Before we can now build (compile) our small nice example, let us clean up everything (and configure clean dialog):


 * Select

Project -> Clean ...

and configure it as given:



("Clean projects selected below", select LEDblink, and disable "Start a build immediately"). By pressing OK make clean from Makefile should be called (it might give some errors the first time, because nothing is to be cleaned).


 * Last step is to build the example.

Project -> Build project

should call make all resulting in LEDblink executable:



Next step is to debug this.

Debugging
Here, we want to download and debug LEDbink binary on BeagleBoard using OpenOCD JTAG debugger controlled by Eclipse.


 * For this, open an additional terminal/console, and make sure OpenOCD is started and connected to Beagle running U-Boot. See how to configure OpenOCD for Beagle. This should look like:

> openocd -s lib/openocd/ -f interface/flyswatter.cfg -f board/ti_beagleboard.cfg Open On-Chip Debugger 0.3.0-in-development (2009-09-29-16:28) svn:2771M $URL: svn://svn.berlios.de/openocd/trunk/src/openocd.c $ For bug reports, read http://svn.berlios.de/svnroot/repos/openocd/trunk/BUGS RCLK - adaptive Warn : omap3530.dsp: huge IR length 38 Info : RCLK (adaptive clock speed) not supported - fallback to 6000 kHz Info : JTAG tap: omap3530.jrc tap/device found: 0x0b7ae02f (mfg: 0x017, part: 0xb7ae, ver: 0x0)

With OpenOCD running, back to Eclipse.


 * Switch to Debug perspective:

Window -> Open Perspective -> Debug

This results in switching to debug perspective, having an additional Debug button in the upper right corner:



This debug perspective needs some configuration.


 * Select

Run -> Debug configurations...


 * There, select

Zylin Embedded debug (native)


 * In tab Main do

Search project ...

and select LEDblink:




 * In tab Debugger add the gdb of your toolchain:




 * In Tab Commands in Initialize commands add

target remote localhost:3333 monitor omap3_dbginit monitor halt load LEDblink symbol-file LEDblink b main cont




 * After all this is done, press

Debug

button.

You should end up with



Congratulations! You can now debug, single step, disassemble etc.

=Reading=


 * Book: The Art of Debugging with GDB, DDD, and Eclipse

=Additional plug ins=


 * There is an Eclipse plug-in available which provides a graphical view of an Open Embedded tree.

=Links=


 * YAGARTO Eclipse installation how to