Programming/developing ARM applications using Windows platform

The traditional cross development platform for ARM embedded single board computer is typically Linux running on Intel x86 platforms. The evolution of cross development tools on Windows platform has made it possible to easily develop complex applications for ARM embedded computers on Windows platform. The setup described here is just one of the examples that is relatively easy to setup and use.

Step 1: setup the kernel to mount the Windows drive
The CIFS (Common Internet File System) allows Linux based system to mount and access Windows shared resource. The CIFS support configuration is in File Systems->Network File Systems->CIFS in the kernel configuration menu. Select it either as compiled in or a module(must install and load the module) then recompile the kernel. A pre-compiled version for GESBC-9260(B/S) is attached here.

Step 2: install Windows based cross development tools
The Windows based GNUARM cross development tools is avaiable from http://www.gnuarm.com/files.html. Download and install the cross tool chain.

Step 3: mount Windows shared resource
Configure one directory as shared resource and set up user access name/password pair. Make sure the shared resource is writable by the remote machine. Make a mounting point on the SBC or simply use the /mnt directory. Using the following Linux command to mount the Windows shared resource,

mount -t CIFS //<windows machine name>/<shared directory name> -o username=<username>,password=<password> /<mount point>

Now you can simply write and compile your application on the windows platform and run it directly on the SBC side from the mounted Windows directory.

Optional Step1: install Eclipse IDE and configure it to use the GNUARM tool chain just installed
The plug-in is available at http://gnuarmeclipse.sourceforge.net/index.html. Followed the instructions to install all necessary extensions. Now everything can be done in a nice graphic IDE.

Optional Step2: install GDB server on the SBC and use the Eclipse front end to run arm-linux-gdb.
The gdbserver tar file is attached here. Just un-tar it in the /usr directory. The typical debugging process is

a) start gdbserver on the SBC
gdbserver <SBC IP address>:1000 hello

The response similar to the following lines should appear,

Process /mnt/hello created: pid=80
Listening on port 1000

On the Windows machine in the shared directory,
arm-linux-gdb hello

(gdb) target remote <SBC IP address>:1000
Remote debugging using <SBC IP address>:1000
[New thread 80]
[Switching to thread 80]
0x40002a90 in ??()