KDS in CentOS

[williamely]

So I decided to install KDS RPM version on a fresh Linux VM today and I have a few tips that might help.

You will need a x64 version of CentOS with 32 bit libraries. I don't think this is a great idea but maybe things have changed since I last looked in to using 32 bit libs on 64 bit.

I followed the answer in this forum post to install the 32 bit libs https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/9556/how-do-i-install-32bit-libraries-on-a-64-bit-fedora/

You will also need these:

PackageKit-gtk-module.i686

libcanberra-gtk2.i686

gtk2-engines.i686

FYI: I used the CentOS 6.5 Live DVD with the "Development Tools" package group.

There's probably a better way to do this but it works for me.

Update: KDS also works in Fedora 20 x64 edition. I hope that the GA version will have the dependencies setup so that the package can be installed easier. I wonder if the DEB version of the installer works better.

[BlackNight]

Hi William,

thanks for sharing!

Erich

[williamely]

Hi Erich,

I downloaded the DEB and had KDS running in Ubuntu 14.04 32 bit edition with much less hassle than the RPM version.

I think the problems with the RPM install will go away once the package and binaries are both 64 bit.

[BlackNight]

Hi Ely,

Yes, agreed. I believe today nearly everyone is using 64bit Linux. I think I should start a survey on this.

Erich

[davekw7x]

New to Freescale and this forum;  I just downloaded kinetis-design-studio-1.0.1-1.i686.rpm to install in my Centos 6.5 (32-bit) workstation.

With "i686" in the name, it seems to me that it should be a 32-bit distribution.  That's the way it's usually done, right?

Alas, when I tried to install, I got the message (among other stuff):

Preparing packages for installation...

D: computing file dispositions

D: opening  db index       /var/lib/rpm/Basenames create mode=0x42

D: 0x00000801     4096     21030841     15929512 /

    package kinetis-design-studio-1.0.1-1.x86_64 is intended for a x86_64 architecture

Very disappointing!  It may be true that "nearly everyone is using 64bit Linux," but I don't use it because of lots of problems with drivers for other tools.

Is there any way that I can get a 32-bit package to install?  Any way at all?

Bottom line: I am looking to use a chip from KL26 family, and I really like the availability of free, unrestricted Linux tools, but I really don't want to have to make a separate 64-bit Centos installation just for this.

Regards,

Dave

[BlackNight]

Hi Dave,

it is a 32bit distribution.

Erich

[davekw7x]

To the Original Poster, William Ely: Thank you for the information.  After installing 64-bit Centos 6.5 on a spare workstation and installing the 32-bit libraries that you listed, I was able to install KDS version 1.0.1 and am now ready to explore the wonderful world of Freescale and Kinetis.

To Eric Styger:

Here's the thing:  The rpm has  ".i686" in its name, but the package inside the RPM is for the 64-bit architecture, x86_64.  The bottom line is that the rpm is for a 64-bit distribution and won't install on a 32-bit system.  Period.  Full stop.

I note that other vendors (Microchip for example, with MPLABX, Adobe for Acrobat Reader) support builds that work for 32-bit Linux and 64-bit Linux.  To run on 64-bit distributions, they need certain 32-bit libraries, as Freescale does for KDS.  Why the heck do they (and you) need 32-bit libraries for 64-bit distributions? Well, because there are a number of things about the various 64-bit Linux distributions that just don't work.  Maybe it's xorg stuff.  Maybe its gtk library stuff.  Whatever.  Anyhow that's why I have stuck with 32-bit Linux for my main workstations all these years, even though all of my recent platforms have 64-bit CPUs.

Anyhow...

If the KDS team doesn't want to support a 32-bit distribution, that's unfortunate from my perspective, but that's not my call.  (It's more than a little annoying, but not fatal.  Not yet.  I'm still in the preliminary evaluation phase.)  If the team can see its way clear to provide a 32-bit package, I'll (gladly) wipe out my 64-bit installation and go back to my main workstation with it.

At the very least, I respectfully suggest that it would be better to name the existing rpm kinetis-design-studio-1.0.1-1.x86_64.rpm or some such thing so that people with some experience in "normal" ways of doing things won't waste their time (and board bandwidth) trying to make things happen according to convention.

Regards,

Dave

[williamely]

Glad that I could help.

I have not had time to play around with KDS since my original post. I intend to keep my CodeWarrior subscription for another year so KDS will have some time to mature before I migrate over to it.

If you are serious about using 32 bit only then you might want to try Ubuntu. I had a much easier time getting KDS installed on Ubuntu than an RPM based distribution. I didn't do any testing with it other than making sure that the application opened though.

[davekw7x]

Actually, once I realized it's really a 32-bit application, I had no problems copying the entire installation tree from the 64-bit Centos system back to my 32-bit Centos workstation.  (I also copied /etc/profile.d/kds.sh, which sets KSDK_PATH even though I can't use KSDK at this time---it doesn't support my chip.)  Whoever packaged KDS into the rpm could have made it so that it could load with either 32-bit or 64-bit systems.  Oh, well...

Anyhow...

I am now testing beginner-level bare-metal and pex builds on my 32-bit Linux system.  So far, so good, but I have a lot to learn.  A whole lot.

(Did you hear the one about the guy who fell out of a tenth floor window?  As he passed the fifth floor we heard him say, "So far, so good!")

Bottom line: My fallback is KDS on the 64-bit Centos installation.  If KDS turns out to be unsatisfactory, I can go all the way back to CodeWarrior Special Edition (free) on my Windows workstation.  Very clunky; agonizingly slow compared to either of my very modest Linux systems running Kinetis Development Studio.  A big hit on productivity.  Really big.

Redhat/Centos has become my Linux system of choice for a number of reasons.

Thanks again.

Regards,

Dave

[davekw7x]

But the package will not install.

I hate to repeat myself, but on my 32-bit Centos 6.5 system:

[quote=davekw7x]

Alas, when I tried to install, I got the message (among other stuff):

Preparing packages for installation...

D: computing file dispositions

D: opening  db index       /var/lib/rpm/Basenames create mode=0x42

D: 0x00000801     4096     21030841     15929512 /

    package kinetis-design-studio-1.0.1-1.x86_64 is intended for a x86_64 architecture

[/quote]

The package "is intended for x86_64".  x86_64 is a 64-bit distribution, and rpm refuses to install it on my 32-bit distribution.  (But I already said that.)

I mean, if I have to install 64-bit Centos just to run KDS, well, I'll do it (beats the crap out of reviving my Windows machine just for this), but...

Regards,

Dave