A note on running CCS under Linux

The main point of this post is the problem of running Code Composer Studio under Linux. I think CCS is a fantastic IDE, open source or not, and it is our default platform for our code, but running it under anything but Windows is quite problematic. But, for Linux users, there's usually always a workaround, and for programming the microcontroller, this comes in the form of alternate output files.

CCS has predefined steps that allow you to create an Intel hex file or TI txt file, which can then be loaded onto the microcontroller using mspdebug like so:

> mspdebug rf2500
> prog file.hex

so, how do we accomplish this? Simply open up a project in CCS, then follow these commands:

1. Click the "Project" dropdown in the toolbar near the top of the window.

2. Click "Properties" (should be all the way at the bottom)

3. A new window will pop up. In the directory tree on the left, Click "Build"

4. Now you should see a screen with several tabs. click the one which says "Steps"

5. Now In the window at the bottom there is an option "Apply Predefined Step"

6. Now you can pick between an Intel Hex or TI txt image. The choice is yours, there's no difference is size or speed.

7. Now clean and build the project, and you will have a flash image to program.

8.your image is in the Debug folder of your project. Navigate to this folder, and use the mspdebug commands at the beginning of the post.

9. (Optional) Buy and consume hot fries, rosemary and olive oil triscuits or other snackitudinal accoutrements, because you're done.

And that's it for programming. I'm currently working on a reliable way to actively debug the microcontroller (look at the contents of the registers). That's another major hurdle.

Expect a more code-related post this week, I pretty much have my environment set up for Linux (Ubuntu definitely works, and I am working my way through getting it to work on openSUSE (which rocks, and you all should get it)). That's it for now, tune in next time.