riscv-exploration

RISC-V Development environment setup

Disclaimer! This document is still very much in development. Kindly also refer the official documentation on the RISCV github repositories.

Notes for setting up the development environment for the RISC-V tools and libraries.

Prereqisites

1. The RISC-V tools and libraries require a C++11 compatible compiler for building the tools.
2. The process requires an active internet connection for downloading for dependency sources and libraries.

Steps

1. Clone the riscv-tools repository.

   git clone https://github.com/riscv/riscv-tools

2. Follow the steps for installing the prerequisites from the README.md.
   Note: Replicated here for convinience. It may be outdated also.

   sudo apt-get install autoconf automake autotools-dev curl libmpc-dev libmpfr-dev libgmp-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev gawk build-essential bison flex texinfo gperf libtool patchutils bc zlib1g-dev device-tree-compiler pkg-config libexpat-dev

3. After the cloning is finished, and the dependencies are installed. Fetch the git submodules.

   git submodule update --init --recursive

4. Setup the RISCV environment variable where you want the riscv tools and libraries to be installed.

   # For e.g.: export RISCV=$HOME/apps/riscv
   export RISCV=/path/to/install/riscv/toolchain

5. Run the Build Shell script to build the RISC-V spike reference simulator and the bare metal GNU Compiler Toolchain.
   Note: Go for a coffee break as this will take quiet a while.

   ./build.sh

   Tip: To Speed up the build you can set the environment variable $MAKEFLAGS=-j<ncpu>, where <ncpu> is the number of CPU cores available in the build system.
6. Once the build is completed without errors. Check the directory $RISCV provided earlier for the installed tools and libraries.

   # Sample directory structure
   $HOME/apps/riscv  #<---- Example configuration location.
   |-bin
   | |-openocd       #<---- OpenOCD Debugger Interface.
   | |-elf2hex
   | |-riscv64-unknown-elf-gcc #<---- The Bare metal GNU RISC-V Compiler Toolchain.
   | |-riscv64-unknown-elf-*   #<---- Multiple tools.
   | |-spike         #<----- The Golden Reference functional simulator.
   |-include
   |-lib
   |-libexec
   |-riscv64-unknown-elf
   |-share
   |-sysroot
   

7. Follow the instructions on the README.md for testing the compiler toolchain and the spike simulator.