CLI Development Environment Setup

Video Resources

Introduction

Ameba SDK supports two development environments: the CLI environment and the VS code extension environment. When developing through the VS code extension , the environment will be checked and automatically installed. For more information, please refer to VS Code User Guide .

The development environment of Ameba SDK consists of two parts:

Software suite: including essential tools such as cmake, ninja.
Cross-compilation toolchain: SDK supports automatic installation

This chapter introduces how to set up the CLI environment. Both Windows and Linux platforms will be covered.

For Windows: Windows 10 64-bit is used as a platform.
For Linux server: Ubuntu 22.04 64-bit is used as a platform.

Install the Software Suite

The required softwares and version requirements are as shown in the following table.

Software	Version
cmake	3.20 or later
ninja	1.10.1 or later
make	3.82 or later
ccache	4.5.1 or later
python3	Recommended 3.10 or later
wget	Recommended latest
7zip	Recommended latest

Manually installing the above softwares directly into the operating system may pollute the existing software environment or cause version compatibility issues.

To address this, Realtek provides a software suite that contains all the necessary softwares and supports running in an independent environment.

Once configured, the Ameba SDK development environment is isolated within the current terminal session. The system environment outside this terminal remains unaffected, effectively avoiding software version compatibility issues.

The detailed steps for configuring the software environment on Linux and Windows are described below.

Download the compressed package and extract it to the /opt/rtk-toolchain folder.
```
mkdir /opt/rtk-toolchain
cd /opt/rtk-toolchain
wget https://github.com/Ameba-AIoT/ameba-toolchain/releases/download/prebuilts-v1.0.3/prebuilts-linux-1.0.3.tar.gz
tar -xzf prebuilts-linux-1.0.3.tar.gz
```
If you encounter network issues when downloading, try to use the aliyun url:
```
wget https://rs-wn.oss-cn-shanghai.aliyuncs.com/prebuilts-linux-1.0.3.tar.gz
```
Note

The compressed package needs to be extracted to the default /opt/rtk-toolchain path. If need to change the path, refer to change toolchain path .
Install Python manually since a portable version of Python cannot be provided under Linux.
```
sudo apt install python3 python3-pip python3-venv
```
Note
- Run python --version to check version of Python, recommended to use version greater than 3.10.
- If pip version is outdated, it’s recommended to update using the command: pip install --upgrade pip.
- If there are multiple versions of Python on the host, you can use the command update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/ bin/python3.x 1 to select a specific version of Python, where x in python3.x 1 represents the desired version number.
- If you encounter the error command 'python' not found, try running the following command to solve the issue: ln -s /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/python

Install dependencies

sudo apt install libssl-dev libncurses-dev

Enter into the root directory of SDK and run source ameba.sh, which will automatically configure the environment variables.

source ameba.sh

PIP CHECK... All packages are installed correctly!
========================================================
|  First choose IC platform: cd [IC]_gcc_project
|  Configure command: menuconfig.py
|  Build command: build.py
========================================================
(.venv)

Note

The environment variables will be reset after terminal closed. Therefore, the scripts need to be run again when you open a new terminal.

Create a new folder C:\rtk-toolchain under Disk C.
Download the compressed package and extract it to the C:\rtk-toolchain folder.
Download Link

Users in mainland China are advised to use the aliyun link.
- Download from GitHub
- Download from aliyun
Note

The compressed package needs to be extracted to the specified C:\rtk-toolchain path. If you need to change the path, refer to change toolchain path.
Navigate to the SDK root directory and double-click the ameba.bat script. This will automatically configure the environment variables, then you can type commands in this opened terminal.
```
PIP CHECK... All packages are installed correctly!
========================================================
|  First choose IC platform: cd [IC]_gcc_project
|  Configure command: menuconfig.py
|  Build command: build.py
========================================================
(.venv) C:\sdk>
```
Note

If users want to use a Unix-like command-line environment such as Git Bash or MSYS2 on Windows, open a new terminal in the SDK root directory and run source ameba.sh.

Tip

This method relies on Python virtual environment. If you encounter Python system errors, such as messages indicating that a DLL dynamic library missing, try to remove the .venv folder in the root directory of the SDK and then run the ameba.bat script again. This will automatically reinstall the Python virtual environment.

Install Toolchain

The installation and update of the cross-compilation toolchain are handled automatically.

When building an SoC project for the first time, the required toolchain will be automatically installed to the following default paths:

Linux：/opt/rtk-toolchain
Windows：C:\rtk-toolchain

Please note that different MCUs may require different toolchain versions. The system will automatically check for updates and upgrade the toolchain with every build.

If an error message pops up, please resolve the issue according to the message and try to build again.

After the installation is complete, the following files will be present under the rtk-toolchain directory:

|--- prebuilts-[win/linux]-1.x.x
|
|--- asdk-1x.3.1-xxxx     # for ARM
|
|--- [vsdk-10.3.1-xxxx]   # for RISC-V (if required)

Note

If you already have a downloaded toolchain archive, move the archive to the installation path and run build.py again.
If you encounter the error Download Failed, check your network connection. If the issue persists, refer to change download source.
If you encounter the error Create Toolchain Dir Failed. May Not Have Permission, try creating the folder manually. If the issue persists, refer to change the default installation path.

Alternative Download Source

The toolchain compressed package is available on GitHub, and the system will attempt to download the toolchain from GitHub by default before the first build. If you encounter download issues or slow speeds, please try changing the download source using the following command:

build.py -D USE_ALIYUN_URL=True

After executing this command, the toolchain will be downloaded from Aliyun, and compilation will proceed.

Modify Installation Path

If you do not wish to install the toolchain in the default path mentioned above, you can modify the installation path by setting the environment variable RTK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR. The setting method is as follows:

Open the ~/.bashrc file and add the following line at the end:
export RTK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR="/path/to/your/toolchain/dir"
To make the environment variable take effect immediately, please run:
source ~/.bashrc
Click Settings > System Properties > Environment Variables to create a new variable named RTK_TOOLCHAIN_DIR with the value set to the desired installation path.

To make the environment variable take effect, please reopen the terminal.

After modifying the installation path, please extract the Realtek software suite to this directory. The toolchain will be automatically installed into this directory when building.