About

This manual shows how to develop C/C++ Software for the Raspberry Pi Pico on a Windows-Machine using the WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) (in this specific example Ubuntu is used). Usually Raspberry's manual advises you to develop on a Raspberry Pi itself. But my Pi 3B Did not have cmake 3.13. Yes, I could've build it myself BUT, why shouldn't I use the power of my desktop-PC (which only has Windows installed and its WSL)?

This repository shows:

• How to install the Pico-SDK on your Desktop-PC using the Linux-Subsystem
• How to set up the project with CLion on Windows (not WSL)
• Develop a new project
• Remote-compile it on your WSL (not Raspberry)
• Transfer it on your Pico
• Debug it with another Pico

The content of this repository is only example code. If you want to get this running instead of following all these steps you also have to get the pico-sdk-submodule with:

• git submodule update --init
• cd pico-sdk
• git submodule update --init

As mentioned the Windows subsystem for linux is involved. You could lead out that part. This manual though deals too how to remote (and cross) compile programs using CLion.

1. Local compiling

1.2 Setup SDK

• In WSL follow all steps in step 2 of the manual.
• If your cmake-version is still < 3.13 (check with cmake --version). Follow these steps (it will install CMake 3.19, but that works too):
  1. wget http://www.cmake.org/files/v3.19/cmake-3.19.4.tar.gz
  2. tar -xvzf cmake-3.19.4.tar.gz
  3. ./configure
  4. make
  5. sudo make install

1.3 Make it blink

1.3.1 Compile

Follow step 3.1 of the manual

You may come into the situation that Python3 is not installed and therefore won't compile. To install it run sudo apt install python3

1.3.2 Copy

To finally copy the binary to your Raspberry Pi Pico, you have to copy blink.uf2 to a directory Windows can access.

1. E.g on your WSL: cp blink.uf2 /mnt/c/temp/. This copies your file to Windows C:\temp.
2. Now on your Windows system simply copy the binary by hand to your Raspberry Pi Pico's mass storage
3. After the copy was complete the raspberry will restart itself automatically and start blinking

Now you've got your first blinking.

1.3.3 Remount

If you want to remount your Pico to load another program:

1. Unplug your Pico
2. Press and hold the BOOTSEL-button
3. Plug in your Pico
4. Release the BOOTSEL-button

Your uf2-file will be removed when remounting!

2. Remote compiling

2.1 Make it blink

2.1.1 SSH (Communication between WSL and Windows)

The most common way to communicate with Linux systems over network is SSH. To setup a SSH-Server on your WSL, you need to edit the SSH-Daemon-configuration file at /etc/ssh/sshd_config: Change these value (may need to remove #)

• ListenAddress to 127.0.0.1. You can keep it like it is, but this way only your Windows can access it
• PasswordAuthentication to yes
• AllowUsers to <your_user_name>
• sudo ssh restart (sometimes sudo sshd restart)

2.1.2 Setup CLion

• Create a new project in CLion with File -> New Project -> C++ Executable
• Pico-SDK-Submodule
  • In project's directory add Pico-SDK as a git-submodule: git submodule add https://github.com/raspberrypi/pico-sdk pico-sdk
  • git submodule update --init
  • cd pico-sdk
  • git submodule update --init
• File -> Settings -> Build, Execution, Development -> ToolChains
  • + -> WSL
    • Credentials -> (gear ->) add your user name and password and maybe test the connection
    • Usually CLion automatically selects the correct cmake. In my case it was the old one. You can identify the correct cmake with whereis cmake and execute with either cmake --version (mine was located in /usr/local/bin/cmake)
    • The other ones should be detected without a problem.
    • There might be a warning that currently no cmake 3.19.4 is supported, it does work though
    • GDB is not needed since we do not debug the program via WSL
  • After adding your ToolChain, ensure that in the ToolChains-List your WSL-Toolchain is the first one
• File -> Settings -> Build, Execution, Development -> CMake
  • +
  • Set the name as you want
  • Build Type: Debug (will be needed if we want to debug is with another Raspberry Pi (non-Pico))
  • Environment: PICO_SDK_PATH=<sdk-path of step 2 in manual> (mentioned in "Setup SDK", mine was placed in /home/pi/pico/pico-sdk)
  • After adding your CMake-Profile, ensure that in the CMake-Profile-list your profile is the first one in the list
• Edit CMakeList.txt (see example in repository)
  • Include SDK: include(pico-sdk/pico_sdk_init.cmake)
  • Initialize it: pico_sdk_init()
  • Link SDK to your project: target_link_libraries(pico_example pico_stdlib)
  • Get your .uf2-file: pico_add_extra_outputs(pico_example)