Installing TinyOS 2.0
Last updated 5 November 2006
If you already have a 1.x tree or an existing 2.x tree, you are better off
following the upgrade instructions at
upgrade-tinyos.html.
Currently, the TinyOS Core Working Group supports TinyOS on two platforms: Cygwin (Windows)
and Linux. There have been some successful efforts to getting TinyOS environments working
on Mac OSX, but OSX is not supported by the Core WG.
Installing a TinyOS enviromnent has five basic steps; Windows requires an extra step,
installing Cygwin, which is a UNIX-like environment. The steps are:
- Installing a Java 1.5 (Java 5) JDK. Java is the most common way of interacting
with mote base stations or gateways that are plugged into a PC or laptop.
- Windows only. Install Cygwin. This gives you a shell
and many UNIX tools which the TinyOS environment uses, such as perl and shell
scripts.
- Installing native compilers. As you're compiling code for low-power
microcontrollers, you need compilers that can generate the proper assembly code.
If you using mica-family motes, you need the AVR toolchain; if you're using
telos-family motes, you need the MSP430 toolchain.
- Installing the nesC compiler. TinyOS is written in nesC, a dialect
of C with support for the TinyOS concurrency model and component-based
programming. The nesC compiler is platform-independent: it passes its output
to the native compilers, so that it can take advantage of all of the effort
put into their optimizations.
- Installing the TinyOS source tree. If you want to compile and
install TinyOS programs, you need the code.
- Installing the Graphviz visualization tool. The TinyOS
environment includes nesdoc, a tool that automatically
generates HTML documentation from source code. Part of this process
involves drawing diagrams that show the relationships between
different TinyOS components. Graphviz
is an open source tool
that nesdoc uses to draw the diagrams.
Step 1: Install Java 1.5 JDK
Windows
Download and install Sun's 1.5 JDK from http://java.sun.com.
Linux
Download and install IBM's 1.5 JDK from http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/.
Step 2: Install Cygwin
This step is required for Windows installations only. If you are installing
on Linux, skip to step 3.
We have put online the cygwin packages that we've confirmed to be
compatible with TinyOS. The instructions below use those packages. You
can also upgrade your cygwin environment according to the instructions
at www.cygwin.com and your environment will most likely work. A large
number of TinyOS users, upgrade their cygwin packages at least monthly
from cygnus. However, since we can't test what packages are compatible
as they become available daily, we can't confirm that today's set will
work.
- Download the confirmed-compatible cygwin packages from the tinyos web site here.
- In a cygwin shell, unzip the above package into some directory. In these instructions the directory is /cygdrive/c/newcygpkgs.
$ cd /cygdrive/c/newcygpkgs
$ tar zxvf cygwin-1.2a.tgz
This unzips the packages.
- In Windows Explorer, navigate to /cygdrive/c/newcygpkgs and click on the file setup.exe. Setup.exe is the setup program distributed by Cygnus Solutions.
- Follow these steps when the Cygwin Setup windows appears:
- Opt to disable the virus scanner (it will be enabled when you're finished).
- Opt to Install from Local Directory.
- Specify the Root directory to be where your current cygwin installation is. This would be the directory that directories like 'opt' and 'usr' are in. For example, mine is rooted at c:\tinyos\cygwin, so I enter that.
- Select to Install for All Users
- Select the Unix file type (very important!)
- For the Local Packages Directory, specify where you unzipped the cygwin packages tarfile. For example, I would specify c:\newcygpkgs. (The setup.exe program will probably select the right default directory.)
- The next window will allow you to select packages to install. You should see that most of the packages have an X-ed box next to them; these are the packages that are to be installed.
- Click install. Some notes:
- You might see a message explaining that you need to reboot because some files are in use. This most likely means that your cygwin DLL is loaded and in-use and, therefore, cannot be replaced. When you reboot, the new DLL will be loaded.
- Related to the above warnings, if you see warnings about the cygwin1.dll not being found, don't worry. All will be well once you reboot and the right DLL is loaded.
Step 3: Install native compilers
Install the appropriate version of the following (Windows or Linux,
avr or msp430 or both) with the rpm command 'rpm -ivh '.
On
windows, if you get an error claiming that the rpm was build for an NT
computer and you're on a windows NT computer, bypass the erroneous
error by using 'rpm -ivh --ignoreos rpmname'.
(We have xscale
compiler tools online at
http://www.tinyos.net/dist-1.2.0/tools/
but they have not yet been extensively tested by a large community.)
Atmel AVR Tools
†If you receive an rpm error that indicates that you have a newer version already installed, try rpm -Uvh --force
TI MSP430 Tools
Step 4: Install TinyOS toolchain
The TinyOS-specific tools are the NesC compiler and a set of tools
developed in the tinyos-2.x/tools source code repository. They are
also installed using rpms. If you using the Cygwin version recommended
in these install
instructions, you should install the "Recommended" Windows/Cygwin
nesC RPM.
Try installing it and if it does not work (e.g., you
get strange errors when you try to execute it), this may be due
to a Cygwin version incompatibility: try the "Other" Windows/Cygwin
RPM (1.2.7a). If you are using Cygwin and installing the nesC RPM
causes an error that the RPM was built for Cygwin,
add the --ignoreos option.
TinyOS-specific Tools
Step 5: Install the TinyOS 2.x source tree
Now that the tools are installed, you need only install the tinyos 2.x
source tree and then set your environment variables.
Install the appropriate version of the following (Window or Linux)
with the rpm command 'rpm -ivh '.
As with the previous rpms, if you get an error claiming that the rpm
was build for an NT computer and you're on a windows NT computer,
bypass the erroneous error by using 'rpm -ivh --ignoreos
rpmname'.
- Install tinyos-2.x
TinyOS 2.x
- Configure your environment
Ideally, you'll put these environment variables in a shell script that will run when your shell starts, but you needn't
put such a script under /etc/profile.d.
The example
settings below assume that the tinyos-2.x installation is in /opt/tinyos-2.x.
Change the settings to be correct for where you've put your tinyos-2.x tree. Note
that the windows CLASSPATH must be a windows-style path, not a cygwin path. You can
generate a windows style path from a cygwin-style path using 'cygpath -w'. For example:
export CLASSPATH=`cygpath -w $TOSROOT/support/sdk/java/tinyos.jar`
export CLASSPATH="$CLASSPATH;."
TinyOS 2.x
| Environment Variable |
Windows |
Linux |
| TOSROOT |
/opt/tinyos-2.x |
same as in Cygwin |
|
| TOSDIR |
$TOSROOT/tos |
same as in Cygwin |
|
| CLASSPATH |
C:\tinyos\cygwin\opt\tinyos-2.x\support\sdk\java\tinyos.jar;. |
$TOSROOT/support/sdk/java/tinyos.jar:. |
|
| MAKERULES |
$TOSROOT/support/make/Makerules |
same as in Cygwin |
|
| PATH† |
/opt/msp430/bin:$PATH |
same as in Cygwin |
|
†Only necessary if you're using the MSP430 platform/tools.
In addition to the above environment variables, do the following on Linux machines:
- Change the ownership on your /opt/tinyos-2.x files:
chown -R <your uid> /opt/tinyos-2.x
- Change the permissions on any serial (/dev/ttyS<N>), usb
(/dev/tts/usb<N>, /dev/ttyUSB<N>), or parallel (/dev/parport) devices you
are going to use:
chmod 666 /dev/<devicename>
Step 6: Installing Graphviz
Go to download page of the Graphviz project
and download the appropriate RPM. You only need the basic graphviz RPM (graphviz-);
you don't need all of the add-ons, such as -devel, -doc, -perl, etc.
If you're not sure what version of Linux you're running,
uname -a
might give you some useful information. Install the rpm with rpm -i rpm-name.
In the case of Windows, there is a simple install program, so you don't need to deal with RPMs.