Building a binary

This page tells you to prepare a development environment on your host computer.

If you want to use docker instead, see Docker.

Prerequisites

Ruby

You need CRuby (MRI) because "Static type checking" by Steep will be invoked in the build process.

See the page below and install CRuby if you don't have it yet:

https://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/

Raspberry Pi Pico C/C++ SDK

The following material includes everything you need:

https://datasheets.raspberrypi.com/pico/getting-started-with-pico.pdf

You need both pico-sdk cloned and toolchain for your platform.

Linux (WSL2)

• Follow the instruction on "Chapter 2. The SDK" of the material

macOS

• Follow the instruction on "9.1.1. Installing the Toolchain"
• In addition to that, you probably need to read "Chapter 2. The SDK" to grab the overall
• Preparing VSCode is optional. You don't need it if you just want to build PRK Firmware

Windows

• Follow the instruction on "9.2.1. Installing the Toolchain"
• In addition to that, you probably need to read "Chapter 2. The SDK" to grab the overall

Checkpoints

Regardless of your platform, confirm that you have these requirements:

• Submodules of pico-sdk. Make sure to run git submodule update --init in pico-sdk directory

  • You will sometimes need to upgrade the SDK due to inconsistency between the SDK and the newest PRK Firmware:

    git pull origin master --recurse-submodules

• PICO_SDK_PATH environment variable. Read the material above again if you are not sure

PRK Firmware

• Clone the prk_firmware wherever you like

  (be sure to add --recursive)

  git clone --recursive https://github.com/picoruby/prk_firmware.git

  If you forgot to add --recursive, you can recover it by git submodule update --init

• Setup for the first time

  cd prk_firmware/
  rake setup

• Upgrading the PRK

  git pull origin master
  rake deep_clean
  rake setup

Binary without keymap

A binary that doesn't include a keymap is the same format as the releases of PRK.

• Build

  rake

  Now you should have prk_firmware-[version]-[date]-[hash].uf2 file in prk_firmware/build/ directory.

• Clean the build

  rake clean

Binary with keymap (without mass storage)

You may want PRK Firmware not to be a mass storage device in case that your employer doesn't allow you to bring a USB memory 🙈

If so, you can build a binary including your keymap.rb in this way:

• Clone a keymap repository, for example, "meishi2" which is a 2x2 matrix card-shaped keyboard in prk_firmware/keyboards directory

  cd keyboards
  git clone https://github.com/picoruby/prk_meishi2.git

• Build

  cd .. # back to prk_firmware/
  rake build_with_keymap[prk_meishi2]

  Now you should have prk_firmware-[version]-[date]-no_msc.uf2 file in prk_firmware/keyboards/prk_meishi2/build/ directory which includes your keymap in code.

• Clean the build

  rake clean_with_keymap[prk_meishi2]

Files you should learn

You are likely having problems while developing PRK.

These files may give you a clue regarding PRK build system:

prk_firmware
 ├── CMakeLists.txt
 ├── Dockerfile      # If you want to use docker
 ├── Rakefile
 ├── compose.yml     # If you want to use docker
 └── lib
      └── picoruby
           └── Rakefile

Resources

• CMake: https://cmake.org/documentation/
• Rake: https://ruby.github.io/rake/