Debugging AVR code in Linux with simavr

I recently started programming AVR chips, namely the ATTiny85.  They can be programmed using C, compilers are readily available in Ubuntu, and you can do a LOT with them - just search for avr on this site!  Anyway, I was having some trouble with my project today - the LED wouldn't flash!  I couldn't figure out what was going on, as debugging these things is non-trivial.  That is, until I discovered simavr.

It's a simulator for AVR in Linux that can take your ELF or HEX code and run it as if it's actually on-chip, but gives you hooks and the possibility of dumping trace files.  I'll go through a simple example.

Step 1 Git it

There are a few dependencies on Ubuntu (which is what I use all the time):

sudo apt-get install avr-libc libelf-dev \
   libglut3-dev gtkwave git build-essential

I had to remove some crappy Mesa symlink for OpenGL in 10.10.  Only do this if you have problems compiling related to -lGL,

sudo rm /usr/lib/libGL.so
cd /usr/lib
sudo ln -s libGL.so.1 libGL.so
cd

Finally, use git to download the source code:

git clone git://gitorious.org/simavr/simavr.git

Now, build it.

cd simavr
make

If you get any errors, leave me a comment.  I'd be happy to help.  You should have a new program called run_avr in the simavr subdirectory once that completes.

Comments

[celem]

Quite amazing! Thank you. I have just started working with ATtiny85 and this may come in handy.

[nevdull]

Great instructable. Gave me just the handle I needed to begin wrapping my head around this pretty cool AVR simulator. Super job!

Thanks!