1. Development Environment Setup

This chapter will guide you through setting up the Pico development environment to prepare for compilation and development.

Note

If you only want to use the pre-compiled firmware, you don’t need to set up a development environment. Please refer to 1. Quick Start Guide

System Requirements

This tutorial supports the following Linux systems:

  • Ubuntu 20.04 / 22.04 or newer versions

  • Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit Bookworm version (recommended October 2024 or later)

Attention

Windows and macOS users please refer to the Pico Official Documentation to configure the development environment.

Prerequisites

Before starting, please ensure:

  • ✅ System can access apt package sources normally

  • ✅ System can access GitHub normally (for downloading SDK and source code)

  • ✅ Stable network connection (installation requires downloading approximately 500MB of files)

Ubuntu System Setup

Step 1: Update System and Install Dependencies

Open terminal and execute the following commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install cmake gcc-arm-none-eabi libnewlib-arm-none-eabi libstdc++-arm-none-eabi-newlib

Tip

If prompted for insufficient permissions during installation, please ensure your account has sudo privileges.

Step 2: Install Pico SDK

Use the official automatic installation script:

cd ~
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raspberrypi/pico-setup/refs/heads/master/pico_setup.sh
chmod a+x pico_setup.sh
./pico_setup.sh

Note

The installation script will automatically complete the following operations:

  • Download Pico SDK

  • Download necessary toolchains

  • Configure environment variables

  • Compile example programs

The entire process takes approximately 10-20 minutes, please be patient.

Step 3: Verify Environment Variables

Check if the Pico SDK path has been set correctly:

echo $PICO_SDK_PATH

If the output is empty or does not show a path, manually set the environment variable:

echo 'export PICO_SDK_PATH=~/pico/pico-sdk' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Step 4: Download Project Source Code

Clone the complete source code of this project (including submodules):

cd ~
git clone --recursive https://github.com/lafvintech/LAFVIN-PICO-Development-Kit.git

Attention

Be sure to add the --recursive parameter, which will download FreeRTOS and LVGL submodules at the same time.

Raspberry Pi OS System Setup

Step 1: Prepare Raspberry Pi System

  1. Prepare an SD card (recommended 16GB or larger)

  2. Use Raspberry Pi Imager to flash the system

  3. Select Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) Bookworm version

  4. Boot the Raspberry Pi and complete the initial setup

Step 2: Install Development Tools

Open terminal and execute:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install cmake gcc-arm-none-eabi libnewlib-arm-none-eabi libstdc++-arm-none-eabi-newlib

Step 3: Install Pico SDK

cd ~
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/raspberrypi/pico-setup/refs/heads/master/pico_setup.sh -O pico_setup.sh
chmod a+x pico_setup.sh
./pico_setup.sh

Wait for installation to complete (approximately 10-20 minutes).

Step 4: Download Project Source Code

cd ~
git clone --recursive https://github.com/lafvintech/LAFVIN-PICO-Development-Kit.git

Verify Installation

Check if all tools have been installed correctly:

# Check CMake version (should be >= 3.13)
cmake --version

# Check ARM GCC toolchain
arm-none-eabi-gcc --version

# Check Pico SDK environment variable
echo $PICO_SDK_PATH
../../_images/verify.png

If all commands execute correctly and display version information, the environment setup is successful!

Common Issues

Problem: apt install fails

  • Solution: Check network connection, try changing software sources

Problem: pico_setup.sh download fails

  • Solution: Check if GitHub access is normal, may need to configure proxy

Problem: git clone is very slow

  • Solution: Can use domestic mirrors or proxy acceleration

Problem: Cannot find PICO_SDK_PATH during compilation

  • Solution: Ensure source ~/.bashrc has been executed or reopen terminal

Problem: Cannot find arm-none-eabi-gcc

  • Solution: Reinstall with sudo apt install gcc-arm-none-eabi

Problem: Submodules not initialized

  • Solution: git submodule update –init –recursive

Next Steps

After completing the environment setup, you can: