Installing the Toolchains from outside icestudio

Contents

• Introduction
• Ubuntu 20.04
  • System setup
  • Installing the virtual environment
  • Installing apio within the virtual environment
  • Installing the toolchain
  • Run Icestudio
• Windows 10
  • System setup
  • Installing the virtual environment
  • Installing apio within the virtual environment
  • Installling the Toolchain
  • Run Icestudio
• Links

Introduction

Icestudio will install all the toolchains needed the first time it is executed. Or you can do it anytime from the Tools/Toolchain/Install menu option.

But it may ocurr that for whatever the reason (a bug or an uninstalled dependency) the toolchain cannot be installed

These are the steps you should follow in order to install the toolchains from the command console, outside icestudio

Ubuntu 20.04

Follow these steps for installing the FPGA toolchains for icestudio from the command line in Ubuntu 20.04

System setup

• Install python3:

sudo apt install python3

• Install the python virtual environment (venv)

sudo apt install python3-venv

Installing the virtual environment

• Go to your home folder and enter into the .icestudio directory. That folder is created the first time icestudio is executed and it stores the configuration and the installed toolchains

cd ~/.icestudio

• Remove all the files and folders within the .icestudio directory. You can do it graphically form the file manager or in the command line:

rm -r *

• Install the python virtual environment with this command:

python3 -m venv venv

Installing Apio within the virtual environment

• Execute the command pip from the virtual environment for installing the latest stable apio package

venv/bin/pip install apio

• (Optional) If you need a specific apio version execute the previous command adding the version number:

venv/bin/pip install apio==0.5.4

Installing the toolchain

We will use Apio for downloading the toolchains needed. We want it to install the packages inside the .icestudio/apio folder

• Set the APIO_HOME_DIR variable with the target folder for installing the toolchains:

export APIO_HOME_DIR=~/.icestudio/apio

• Install all the toolchains

venv/bin/apio install -a

Run icestudio

Launch icestudio. It will ask you to select your board and then you are done!

Windows 10

Follow these steps for installing the FPGA toolchains for icestudio from the command line in Windows 10

System setup

• Install python3:

Before installing anything, check if you already have python 3.6 or greather installed. Just open a windows command line (cmd) and execute this command python --version

C:\Users\Obijuan> python --version
Python 3.8.2

If the version is greather or equal to python 3.6, everything is fine. If you have another version or python is not installed, download the latest version from this site: Python downloads and install it

Once it is installed, open the command line and check again the version with the previous command: python --version

Installing the virtual environment

Icestudio uses the a virtual python environment for installing packages without conflicting with the packages already installed in your system.

• Go to your home folder and enter into the .icestudio directory. That folder is created the first time icestudio is executed and it stores the configuration and the installed toolchains

C:\Users\Obijuan>cd .icestudio

C:\Users\Obijuan\.icestudio>

• Remove the venv and apio folders if they exist. You can do it graphically form the file manager or in the command line:

C:\Users\Obijuan\.icestudio>rmdir /s venv
C:\Users\Obijuan\.icestudio>rmdir /s apio

• Install the python virtual environment with this command:

C:\Users\Obijuan\.icestudio>python -m venv venv

Installing Apio within the virtual environment

• Execute the command pip from the virtual environment for installing the latest stable apio package

C:\Users\Obijuan\.icestudio> venv\Scripts\pip install apio

• (Optional) If you need a specific apio version execute the previous command adding the version number:

C:\Users\Obijuan\.icestudio> venv\Scripts\pip install apio==0.5.4

Installing the toolchain

We will use Apio for downloading the toolchains needed. We want it to install the packages inside the .icestudio/apio folder

• Set the APIO_HOME_DIR variable with the target folder for installing the toolchains:

C:\Users\Obijuan\.icestudio> set APIO_HOME_DIR=%USERPROFILE%\.icestudio\apio

• Install all the toolchains

C:\Users\Obijuan\.icestudio>venv\Scripts\apio install -a

Run icestudio

Launch icestudio. If you go to the Tools/Toolchain menu you will see the apio version that has been installed

You are ready to go!

Links

• venv — Creation of python virtual environments

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