Installation

NOTE

If the installation instruction asks/selects whether to have the tool installation path added to the PATH variable, agree/select the choice. This option ensures that the tool can be used in any terminal in any path. Verify the installation after each tool installation.

Install Prerequisites with MCUXpresso Installer

The MCUXpresso Installer offers a quick and easy way to install the basic tools needed. The MCUXpresso Installer can be obtained from https://github.com/nxp-mcuxpresso/vscode-for-mcux/wiki/Dependency-Installation. The MCUXpresso Installer is an automated installation process, simply select MCUXpresso SDK Developer from the menu and click install. If you prefer to install the basic tools manually, refer to the next section.

mcuxpresso installer

Alternative: Manual Installation

Basic tools

Git

Git is a free and open source distributed version control system. Git is designed to handle everything from small to large projects with speed and efficiency. To install Git, visit the official Git website. Download the appropriate version(you may use the latest one) for your operating system (Windows, macOS, Linux). Then run the installer and follow the installation instructions.

User git --version to check the version if you have a version installed.

Then configure your username and email using the commands:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "youremail@example.com"

Python

Install python 3.10 or latest. Follow the Python Download guide.

Use python --version to check the version if you have a version installed.

West

Please use the west version equal or greater than 1.2.0

# Note: you can add option '--default-timeout=1000' if you meet connection issue. Or you may set a different source using option '-i'.
# for example, in China you could try: pip install -U west -i https://pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/simple
pip install -U west

Build And Configuration System

CMake 

It is strongly recommended to use CMake version equal or later than 3.30.0. You can get latest CMake distributions from the official CMake download page.

For Windows, you can directly use the .msi installer like cmake-3.31.4-windows-x86_64.msi to install.

For Linux, CMake can be installed using the system package manager or by getting binaries from the official CMake download page.

After installation, you can use cmake --version to check the version.

Ninja 

Please use the ninja version equal or later than 1.12.1.

By default, Windows comes with the Ninja program. If the default Ninja version is too old, you can directly download the ninja binary and register the ninja executor location path into your system path variable to work.

For Linux, you can use your system package manager or you can directly download the ninja binary to work.

After installation, you can use ninja --version to check the version.

Kconfig 

MCUXpresso SDK uses Kconfig python implementation. We customize it based on our needs and integrate it into our build and configuration system. The Kconfiglib sources are placed under mcuxsdk/scripts/kconfig folder.

Please make sure python environment is setup ready then you can use the Kconfig.

Ruby 

Our build system supports IDE project generation for iar, mdk, codewarrior and xtensa to provide OOBE from build to debug. This feature is implemented with ruby. You can follow the guide ruby environment setup to setup the ruby environment. Since we provide a built-in portable ruby, it is just a simple one cmd installation.

If you only work with CLI, you can skip this step.

Toolchain

MCUXpresso SDK supports all mainstream toolchains for embedded development. You can install your used or interested toolchains following the guides.

Toolchain	Download and Installation Guide	Note
Armgcc	Arm GNU Toolchain Install Guide	ARMGCC is default toolchain
IAR	IAR Installation and Licensing quick reference guide
MDK	MDK Installation
Armclang	Installing Arm Compiler for Embedded
Zephyr	Zephyr SDK
Codewarrior	NXP CodeWarrior
Xtensa	Tensilica Tools
NXP S32Compiler RISC-V Zen-V	NXP Website

After you have installed the toolchains, register them in the system environment variables. This will allow the west build to recognize them:

Toolchain	Environment Variable	Example	Cmd Line Argument
Armgcc	ARMGCC_DIR	`C:\armgcc` for windows `/usr` for Linux. Typically `arm-none-eabi-*` is installed under `/usr/bin`	–toolchain armgcc
IAR	IAR_DIR	`C:\iar\ewarm-9.60.3` for Windows `/opt/iarsystems/bxarm-9.60.3` for Linux	–toolchain iar
MDK	MDK_DIR	`C:\Keil_v5` for Windows. MDK IDE is not officially supported with Linux.	–toolchain mdk
Armclang	ARMCLANG_DIR	`C:\ArmCompilerforEmbedded6.22` for Windows `/opt/ArmCompilerforEmbedded6.21` for Linux	–toolchain mdk
Zephyr	ZEPHYR_SDK_INSTALL_DIR	`c:\NXP\zephyr-sdk-<version>` for windows `/opt/zephyr-sdk-<version>` for Linux	–toolchain zephyr
CodeWarrior	CW_DIR	`C:\Freescale\CW MCU v11.2` for windows CodeWarrior is not supported with Linux	–toolchain codewarrior
Xtensa	XCC_DIR	`C:\xtensa\XtDevTools\install\tools\RI-2023.11-win32\XtensaTools` for windows `/opt/xtensa/XtDevTools/install/tools/RI-2023.11-Linux/XtensaTools` for Linux	–toolchain xtensa

NXP S32Compiler RISC-V Zen-V	RISCVLLVM_DIR	`C:\riscv-llvm-win32_b298_b298_2024.08.12` for Windows `/opt/riscv-llvm-Linux-x64_b298_b298_2024.08.12` for Linux	–toolchain riscvllvm

The <toolchain>_DIR is the root installation folder, not the binary location folder. For IAR, it is directory containing following installation folders:
MDK IDE using armclang toolchain only officially supports Windows. In Linux, please directly use armclang toolchain by setting ARMCLANG_DIR. In Windows, since most Keil users will install MDK IDE instead of standalone armclang toolchain, the MDK_DIR has higher priority than ARMCLANG_DIR.

For Xtensa toolchain, please set the XTENSA_CORE environment variable. Here’s an example list:

Device Core	`XTENSA_CORE`
RT500 fusion1	`nxp_rt500_RI23_11_newlib`
RT600 hifi4	`nxp_rt600_RI23_11_newlib`
RT700 hifi1	`rt700_hifi1_RI23_11_nlib`
RT700 hifi4	`t700_hifi4_RI23_11_nlib`
i.MX8ULP fusion1	`fusion_nxp02_dsp_prod`

In Windows, the short path is used in environment variables. If any toolchain is using the long path, you can open a command window from the toolchain folder and use below command to get the short path: for %i in (.) do echo %~fsi

Tool installation check

Once installed, open a terminal or command prompt and type the associated command to verify the installation.

If you see the version number, you have successfully installed the tool. Else, check whether the tool’s installation path is added into the PATH variable. You can add the installation path to the PATH with the commands below:

Windows: Open command prompt or powershell, run below command to show the user PATH variable.
```
reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment /v PATH
```
The tool installation path should be C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Programs\Git\cmd. If the path is not seen in the output from above, append the path value to the PATH variable with the command below:
```
reg add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Environment /v PATH /d "%PATH%;C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Programs\Git\cmd"
```
Then close the command prompt or powershell and verify the tool command again.
Linux:
1. Open the $HOME/.bashrc file using a text editor, such as vim.
2. Go to the end of the file.
3. Add the line which appends the tool installation path to the PATH variable and export PATH at the end of the file. For example, export PATH=”/Directory1:$PATH”.
4. Save and exit.
5. Execute the script with source .bashrc or reboot the system to make the changes live. To verify the changes, run echo $PATH.
macOS:
1. Open the $HOME/.bash_profile file using a text editor, such as nano.
2. Go to the end of the file.
3. Add the line which appends the tool installation path to the PATH variable and export PATH at the end of the file. For example, export PATH=”/Directory1:$PATH”.
4. Save and exit.
5. Execute the script with source .bash_profile or reboot the system to make the changes live. To verify the changes, run echo $PATH.

Get MCUXpresso SDK Repo

Establish SDK Workspace

To get the MCUXpresso SDK repository, use the west tool to clone the manifest repository and checkout all the west projects.

# Initialize west with the manifest repository
west init -m https://github.com/nxp-mcuxpresso/mcuxsdk-manifests/ mcuxpresso-sdk

# Update the west projects
cd mcuxpresso-sdk
west update

# Allow the usage of west extensions provided by MCUXpresso SDK
west config commands.allow_extensions true

Install Python Dependency(If do tool installation manually)

To create a Python virtual environment in the west workspace core repo directory mcuxsdk, follow these steps:

Navigate to the core directory:
```
cd mcuxsdk
```
[Optional] Create and activate the virtual environment: If you don’t want to use the python virtual environment, skip this step. We strongly suggest you use venv to avoid conflicts with other projects using python.
```
python -m venv .venv

# For Linux/MacOS
source .venv/bin/activate

# For Windows
.\.venv\Scripts\activate
# If you are using powershell and see the issue that the activate script cannot be run.
# You may fix the issue by opening the powershell as administrator and run below command:
powershell Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
# then run above activate command again.
```
Once activated, your shell will be prefixed with (.venv). The virtual environment can be deactivated at any time by running deactivate command.

Remember to activate the virtual environment every time you start working in this directory. If you are using some modern shell like zsh, there are some powerful plugins to help you auto switch venv among workspaces. For example, zsh-autoswitch-virtualenv.

Install the required Python packages:

# Note: you can add option '--default-timeout=1000' if you meet connection issue. Or you may set a different source using option '-i'.
# for example, in China you could try: pip3 install -r mcuxsdk/scripts/requirements.txt -i https://pypi.tuna.tsinghua.edu.cn/simple
pip install -r scripts/requirements.txt