MSP430 and Linux

Anybody know which MSP430 programmers work well with Linux?  I was
thinking of getting the ez430, which is almost free, but I read in an
earler thread here that the USB interface was proprietary and Windows XP
only.  Nobody's paying me for this one, so it has to be fun, and that
means not dragging out the Windows box. :)  I'd rather pay more in
dollars upfront for some hardware that works than pay later in
headaches.  Support for a restricted subset of the available parts is
fine; this is a learning experience and not for a real design.  Any
advice or thoughts appreciated; thanks.

Terran Melconian wrote:
> Anybody know which MSP430 programmers work well with Linux?  I was
> thinking of getting the ez430, which is almost free, but I read in an
> earler thread here that the USB interface was proprietary and Windows XP

I think - but don't quote me on it yet - that this is a solved problem.
The ez430 appears as a USB-FET, and I believe there is Linux support
for this. Don't give up on that.

The parallel JTAG adapters are supported directly, of course.

larwe wrote:
> The ez430 appears as a USB-FET, and I believe there is Linux support
> for this. Don't give up on that.

I know it was planned, but I don't think it was ever completed. The
WinXP GNU tools do work with the USB-FET.

Eric

On 2006-09-15, Eric <englere_geo@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> larwe wrote:
>> The ez430 appears as a USB-FET, and I believe there is Linux support
>> for this. Don't give up on that.
>
> I know it was planned, but I don't think it was ever completed.

I believe that according the author, it works.  I haven't had
time to try it yet. Check on the mspgcc mailing list.

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow!  I was making donuts
                                  at               and now I'm on a bus!
                               visi.com            

On 2006-09-16, Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com> wrote:
> I believe that according the author, it works.  I haven't had
> time to try it yet. Check on the mspgcc mailing list.

I looked on the mailing list and found this:

    http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=15719376

The version of msp430-gdbproxy which I was able to download for Linux
does not have a --spy-bi-wire option.  There are Windows files from
2006, but I cannot find a Linux version of msp430-gdbproxy which claims
to be newer than 2003:

    http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=42303

The Windows release notes for the latest version say:

    It supports the parallel port interface an the USB box (on Windows only).

So I believe the answer is that it does not work with Linux; the Linux
version of the MSPGCC toolchain appears rather neglected, with all the
developers apparently using Windows.

On 2006-09-16, Terran Melconian <te_rem_ra_ove_an_forspam@consistent.org> wrote:

> So I believe the answer is that it does not work with Linux; the Linux
> version of the MSPGCC toolchain appears rather neglected, with all the
> developers apparently using Windows.

According to this thread, it works:

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=27023498
http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=27144713

Like I said, I haven't tried it, but I'll take Steve Underwood's
word for it.  Maybe I'll give it a shot while I'm on vacation.

-- 
Grant Edwards
grante@visi.com

On 2006-09-16, Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com> wrote:
> According to this thread, it works:
>
> http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=27023498
> http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=27144713

All right, that's great!  The file in that thread is newer than the one
I got from the static web page.  Thanks for the pointer.

Terran Melconian wrote:
> On 2006-09-16, Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com> wrote:
> > According to this thread, it works:
> >
> > http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=27023498
> > http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=27144713
>
> All right, that's great!  The file in that thread is newer than the one
> I got from the static web page.  Thanks for the pointer.

Please let us know if this works! I'd love to have the option of using
linux to develop msp430 software.

On 2006-09-17, Eric <englere_geo@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Terran Melconian wrote:
>> On 2006-09-16, Grant Edwards <grante@visi.com> wrote:
>> > According to this thread, it works:
>> >
>> > http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=27023498
>> > http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=27144713
>>
>> All right, that's great!  The file in that thread is newer than the one
>> I got from the static web page.  Thanks for the pointer.
>
> Please let us know if this works! I'd love to have the option
> of using linux to develop msp430 software.

I've had no problems using Linux for developing msp430
software. There's only been an issue for people who require
spy-by-wire support (which requires a USB adapter).  The
parallel port JTAG adapter has worked for ages.

-- 
Grant Edwards
grante@visi.com