Unable to use avr-gcc

[gesturbjarkason]

I'm unable to build the following trivial AVR example:

## main.c
#include <avr/sleep.h>

int main()
{
    sleep_mode();
}

On other Linux distros, after installing the AVR dependencies (e.g. apt-get install build-essential gcc-avr binutils-avr avr-libc), the source can simply be built with avr-gcc -mmcu=atmega8 main.c.

On NixOS, the following fails because of missing include and library paths:

nix-shell -p avrgcc avrlibc --run 'avr-gcc -mmcu=atmega8 main.c'

After manually setting the extra paths,

nix-shell -p avrgcc avrlibc --run '
  libc=$(nix-build --no-out-link "<nixpkgs>" -A avrlibc)
  avr-gcc -mmcu=atmega8 -I ${libc}/avr/include -L${libc}/avr/lib/avr4 main.c
'

I'm still getting an error:

/nix/store/22ds38v5pj07wg21gargk3pbrm02zicy-avr-binutils-2.31.1/bin/avr-ld: cannot find crtatmega8.o: No such file or directory

Note that crtatmega8.o exists in the libpath: ls ${libc}/avr/lib/avr4/crtatmega8.o

How can I build this example? Would it be possible to make the NixOS build process as painless as in other distros?

Environment

I'm using version 18.09.git.8cfce96 (the current 18.09 channel version)

[acowley]

I don't know if this does enough, but you could try adding something like,

avrgcc-wrapper = pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
      name = "avrgcc-wrapper-${version}";
      version = pkgs.stdenv.lib.strings.getVersion pkgs.avrgcc.name;
      nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgs.makeWrapper ];
      builder = pkgs.writeText "builder.sh" ''
        source $stdenv/setup
        mkdir -p $out/bin $out/lib
        for exe in gcc g++; do
          makeWrapper "${pkgs.avrgcc}/bin/avr-$exe" "$out/bin/avr-$exe" --add-flags "-B${pkgs.avrlibc}/avr/lib -isystem ${pkgs.avrlibc}/avr/include"
        done
        ln -s ${pkgs.avrgcc}/lib/* $out/lib/
      '';
    };

to your config.nix. If I do that, I can compile your test program but I haven't tried running it.

If this does work, we should add it to nixpkgs as I agree with your assessment that the status quo seems incomplete.

[gesturbjarkason]

Thanks a lot, by adding -B${pkgs.avrlibc}/avr/lib the build now succeeds!

You wrapper derivation can probably be simplified to:

avrgcc-wrapper = pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
  name = "avrgcc-wrapper-${version}";
  version = pkgs.stdenv.lib.strings.getVersion pkgs.avrgcc.name;
  nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgs.makeWrapper ];
  buildCommand = ''
    mkdir -p $out/bin
    for exe in gcc g++; do
      makeWrapper "${pkgs.avrgcc}/bin/avr-$exe" "$out/bin/avr-$exe" --add-flags "-B${pkgs.avrlibc}/avr/lib -isystem ${pkgs.avrlibc}/avr/include"
    done
    ln -s ${pkgs.avrgcc}/lib $out
  '';
};

But I don't feel competent to add it to nixpkgs, so I'm leaving this issue open for now.

[acowley]

Awesome! Do you know if we need to wrap more of the avr- executables, or is it enough to have gcc and g++ (along with a tool for flashing the chip)?

[gesturbjarkason]

It's enough for all AVR-related workflows I can think of.

[acowley]

The little bits of ceremony of having a file for builder (rather than a string) and sourcing $stdenv/setup to get coreutils on $PATH are needed (I think) when building as part of nixpkgs.

[gesturbjarkason]

Great, thanks for the patch! buildCommand is a shorthand for running a custom command in a stdenv environment, it perfectly fits your use case. Another nit: Why are you linking the contents of $avrgcc/lib and not the lib dir itself?

[stale[bot]]

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[Luflosi]

I think this issue can be closed. Executing nix-shell -p pkgsCross.avr.buildPackages.gcc --run 'avr-gcc -mmcu=atmega8 main.c' with the above main.c file on Linux creates an a.out file. This was probably fixed in #48286. Reopen if this is still an issue.

[pennae]

is still an issue; while compiling for mega devices works fine it's currently not possible to compile for tiny devices without adding a -B argument as described earlier.

[WizardUli]

Can confirm that attinys are broken, atmegas are not.

[chfour]

still an issue (fails when trying -mmcu=attiny2313a), the -B fix still works

[rwese]

Still happening:

$ nix-shell --pure -p pkgsCross.avr.buildPackages.gcc --run 'avr-gcc'
avr-gcc: error: unrecognized command-line option '-iframework'

my setup:

 - system: `"aarch64-darwin"`
 - host os: `Darwin 23.5.0, macOS 14.5`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `no`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.18.4`
 - channels(root): `"nixpkgs"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixpkgs`

version:

 nix-shell --pure -p pkgsCross.avr.buildPackages.gcc --run 'avr-gcc -v'
Using built-in specs.
Reading specs from /nix/store/6kipcsjy6ypm8xl1h2sp0b2s8pwssfcc-avr-gcc-13.2.0/lib/gcc/avr/13.2.0/device-specs/specs-avr2
COLLECT_GCC=/nix/store/6kipcsjy6ypm8xl1h2sp0b2s8pwssfcc-avr-gcc-13.2.0/bin/avr-gcc
COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/nix/store/6kipcsjy6ypm8xl1h2sp0b2s8pwssfcc-avr-gcc-13.2.0/libexec/gcc/avr/13.2.0/lto-wrapper
Target: avr
Configured with: ../gcc-13.2.0/configure --prefix=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-avr-gcc-13.2.0 --with-gmp-include=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-gmp-with-cxx-6.3.0-dev/include --with-gmp-lib=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-gmp-with-cxx-6.3.0/lib --with-mpfr-include=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-mpfr-4.2.1-dev/include --with-mpfr-lib=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-mpfr-4.2.1/lib --with-mpc=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-libmpc-1.3.1 --with-native-system-header-dir=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-avr-libc-avr-2.1.0/avr/include --with-build-sysroot=/ --with-gxx-include-dir=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-avr-gcc-13.2.0/include/c++/13.2.0/ --program-prefix=avr- --enable-lto --disable-libstdcxx-pch --without-included-gettext --with-system-zlib --enable-static --enable-languages=c,c++ --enable-multilib --disable-libquadmath --disable-shared --enable-plugin --disable-libcc1 --with-as=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-avr-binutils-wrapper-2.41/bin/avr-as --with-ld=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-avr-binutils-wrapper-2.41/bin/avr-ld --with-headers=/nix/store/eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-avr-libc-avr-2.1.0/avr/include --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-long-long --enable-threads=single --enable-nls --with-avrlibc --build=aarch64-apple-darwin --host=aarch64-apple-darwin --target=avr
Thread model: single
Supported LTO compression algorithms: zlib