Software Development System Installation

Technical Programming
1

There have been numerous threads and posts concerning the new MPLAB, C18 compiler and problems with compiling default code. The purpose of this post/thread is to document my journey…

First of all, I am running XP home SP2 with the firewall ON in its default configuration. I am also running AVG 7.03 resident shield and Spybot 1.3 with inoculations resident.

First, I uninstalled old versions of MPLAB, C18 and IFI Loader, in that order. Uninstall of C18 was notable in that XP reported that C18 was already uninstalled and asked me if I wanted the icons removed. I said yes and moved on…

I downloaded the full version of MPLAB 7.00 from Microchip. I also downloaded C18 2.40 (via the FIRST link). I also downloaded IFI Loader 1.0.10 from IFI. Note that I did not use any files from the CDROM included in the 2005 kit.

I performed a full install of MPLAB 7.00 and answered NO to installation of ICD and ICE support. No issues.

I then performed a full install of C18 2.40 with, apparently, no issues. During the install, I checked all boxes involving the addition of C18 to my PATH, et cetera.

After the C18 install, XP complained “Application Has Failed to Start Because Framedyn.dll Was Not Found” when I started Spybot. I reinstalled Spybot which had no effect.

After reviewing information at http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;319114, I verified that framedyn.dll was not corrupted. However, I did find a problem in my PATH.

I corrected by PATH to be: C:\WINDOWS\system32;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem;C:\mcc18\mpasm;C:\mcc18\bin;<and more PATH variables not relevant to FIRST> and that problem went away.

The IFI Loader installation went uneventfully except for it complaining that there were shared files in use. I told it to continue and the rest of the installation was normal.

Whew!

After all of that, I was able to build Team 177’s 2004 robot code, FRC’s 2005 default code, Kevin Watson’s 2005 navigation demonstration code and FRC’s 2005 camera code with no errors.

I will not be able to test on a robot until this afternoon. If I have problems, I’ll let everyone know…

I hope this information saves some of you some grief and frustration. Please feel free to post your experiences.

Regards,

Mike

P.S.: Moderator, please make this thread a sticky for the next week or two… Thanks.

2

Somebody else reported on FIRST Q/A that the new compiler corrupted the PATH environment variable on XP (ID967).

This is definitely something people need to watch out for.

3

XP Home SP1

I uninstalled the old versions of MPLAB and C18. However the C18 icon did not go away in the add/remove programs list, but further attempts to remove only told me it couldn’t find it. This happens with some uninstallers, so I ignored it.

Then I rebooted.

Then I installed MPLAB 7.0, which went smoothly. Without rebooting I installed C18 2.4, checking all 6 of the check boxes when prompted, which also went smoothly. I then rebooted.

On boot my optical mouse didn’t work, it was all lit up but wouldn’t move the cursor. I rebooted and the same thing. Unplugging and replugging the mouse at the Welcome Screen fixed it.

Everything seems to be working perfectly.

4

We’ve installed IFI Loader 1.0.10 and attempted to download the new FRC_2005 default code. It says that it loads but the LED on thr controller that describes program failure/fault blinks. We tried the same 2005 FRC Default code with the 1.0.2 IFI Loader and it loaded and ran correctly. We also updated the Main FRX code (*.bin file) from Innovation First.

Has anyone else seen this issue?
Thanks!

5

I would most definately post this to IFI: http://www.ifirobotics.com/forum/

6

I think that these may be SP2 problems. I have setup the whole system on three SP1 machines running Pro, and had no problem, however, I am using a multipurpose loader/diagnostics tool that one of the IFI guys gave us at the nationals last year instead of the IFI loader.

7

Hey CJO, is there any way you can upload that “multipurpose loader/diagnostics tool”?

I would much appreciate it,

Thanks,

Dan

8

It is on a machine at school, but I’ll try tomorrow. The real beauty of it (and the reason we got it) is it allows you to read programs out of the memory . . . so, if you forget to backup beofre you re-compile, and you are in the middle of a match, you can always restore back to where you were.

9

Send me a PM if you need somewhere to upload it

10

Actually, I think I have it here, it is in a backup file, so, as soon as I finish restoring that particular disc, i’ll post.

11

I found the source, I cannot find an .exe so I am compiling, will post later.

12

Ok, here you go,

un-tar and run.

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK

[size=2]I’ll post the source tomorrow. I also have source for the PIC18 firmware uploader, I am building that right now. I just put out the exe, I do not think that you will need any other files if you are running XP pro full install, I have tried it out on one machine. If it is the case that I am missing .dll’s etc, I post, and I will include them. IFI loader should install all neccessary files.

Also, DO NOT HIT THE RUN BUTTON
[/size]

P1618QP.zip (68.8 KB)


P1618QP.zip (68.8 KB)

13

[size=2][size=7][/size][/size]Ok, upon the advice of a couple of people I have decided not to post the bootstrap, firmware uploader, etc. because as someone put it “it is too much like leaving a loaded gun lying around.” Also it is big. If anyone wants source/the other stuff, PM and I will e-mail you a link.

14

Just a question, is there a helpfile for this anywhere?
Wondering what:

RD PRG and RD EE do, BLK ERASE, will that wipe the program code or everything

Also, whats going to happen if I hit the run button? If its going to screw stuff up, I’m taking the button out with resource editor

15

I too am having issues with MPLAB. At school when we tried to install v 7.00 on our laptop it flashed up a bunch of error messages right as it finished the install, so I just hit ok on all of them, then tried to run it. It flashed up another error message, but we had to leave then. Another guy took the laptop home and is trying everything he can think of to get it to work, but he is currently installing it for the third time and it still isnt working. So meanwhile I came home to try to compile the rev-3 camera code (I havent compiled anything at home yet) and it said it couldnt find about a million things, so I changed some settings and fixed that, but now the only error left is this:

MPLINK 3.90, Linker
Copyright (c) 2004 Microchip Technology Inc.
Error - could not find file ‘clib.lib’.
Errors : 1

I reinstalled the IDE and C18 both and it still flashes up this message. Anyone have any ideas? I have located this clib.lib file but I cannot find any way to tell MPLAB where it is.

16

You didn’t set up the include paths properly… this is pretty easy to fix.
Open the workspace.
Project Menu->Build Options->Project
$INCDIR is compilerroot\h
$LIBDIR is compilerroot\lib
$LKRDIR is compilerroot\lkr
where compilerroot is the directory you installed the 2.40 compiler to. The IDE’s pretty good about detecting the paths once you do one. It might be easier to set these in the suite defaults place

Project->Set Language Tool Options-> C18 Toolset->Search Paths and Directories.

17

Bad news. I tried what you suggested and had a few problems. It already had paths to all of those except $LKRDIR, so I set that one. However it still doesnt have paths to $AINDIR, $BINDIR, or $TMPDIR. The box for $AINDIR is all grey so you cannot fill it in, but the other two are not. I am not sure those two are necessary but whatever. The build still failed with the same message. And when I try to change it the other way you described I get to the C18 Toolset, and it shows each of them as already having paths (I gave all of them paths yesterday).
:confused: :confused: :confused:

18

The only required paths are the LIB and INC.

Are these the paths for the toolsuite you have defined?
MPASM Assembler (mpasmwin.exe) (default location C:\Microchip\MPASM Suite\…)
MPLINK Object Linker (mplink.exe) (location C:\Microchip\MPASM Suite\…)
MPLAB C18 C Compiler (mcc18.exe) (location C:\mcc18\bin\mcc18.exe)
MPLIB Librarian (mplib.exe) (location C:\Microchip\MPASM Suite\…)

19

I have things kind of strewn about. My C drive is getting full so software now goes on D drive.

MPASM Assembler (mpasmwin.exe) C:\Program Files\Microchip\MPASM Suite\MPASMWIN.EXE
MPLINK Object Linker (mplink.exe) D:\mcc18\bin\mplink.exe
MPLAB C18 C Compiler (mcc18.exe) D:\mcc18\bin\mcc18.exe
MPLIB Librarian (mplib.exe) D:\mcc18\bin\mplib.exe

I dont remember installing this mpasm thingy, but I formatted both my hard drives since last year so I must have done it in the last few weeks…? In any case all of the .exes are actually in the locations stated above. The problem seems to be this clib.lib. Any idea how I specify it’s path?

20

I suggest you switch to the locations I specified above for the Linker and Librarian. There are two versions of those files and they probably make the difference.