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ARC Development System User's Guide

Manual Edition 1.0.1
Documents ARC version 1.4
Kernel version 0.986
May 6, 1996

Randy Sargent and Carl Witty
Newton Research Labs

Copyright (C) 1995, 1996 Newton Research Labs.
All rights reserved.


Installing ARC on your system

This section is intended to guide an administrator through the process of setting up a new ARC installation. If your project already has an ARC installation and you want to start using it, see section Getting started using ARC instead.

Create a main directory for ARC on your system

The first step in installing ARC on your system is to decide on a place in your directory structure for the arc binaries and libraries.

These suggestions are more for aesthetic purposes than functional ones. So long as your path is set up properly, proper functioning of the software is not affected by where the main ARC directory is located. However, it is good practice to keep software packages which are used by multiple people in a more central location than someone's home directory. On unix systems, `/usr/local' is a standard place to put such packages, so that will be the default in examples in the rest of the manual.

Once you have decided where the main `arc' directory should be, make the directory (ex. mkdir /usr/local/arc) and give it appropriate permissions (ex. chmod g+rw /usr/local/arc). This will be the directory in which subdirectories for ARC binaries, libraries, etc. will be placed.

Decide on which host and target packages you need

ARC contains pieces which depend on both the type of host (the computer you sit at and run compiles on) and the type of the target (the processor you are ultimately trying to program).

Host Platforms

Currently available host platforms are:

So long as it is possible to build a gcc cross compiler for your host platform, it is possible for us to build ARC for your needs. In general, any machine running UNIX will probably be acceptable as a host platform. Windows NT may work as a host platform soon. Macintosh, DOS, and Windows 3 are not likely to work as host platforms.

Target Platforms

Currently supported target platforms are the following:

If you have another board based on a processor in the Motorola CPU32 family, it should be possible for you to use ARC.

We have also started working on a port to 386, 486, and Pentium processors, but this system is not yet ready for distribution.

Copy the software to your site

ARC is distributed over the internet and can be copied using any web browser. The programs available over the network are initially disabled, and require a license key which must be purchased from us before the software will run.

Use your web browser to go to the arc home page at `http://www.newtonlabs.com/arc' . Links from that page will get you to the arc download site, as well as online version of this manual and other related information. Follow the link to the ARC download page.

Select an appropriate package for each of the host and target, as discussed above. Instructions on the download page will help you to get the most current version. You may also want to check this site periodically for upgrades. Your original key will work with such upgrades, and you can follow these same instructions to install upgrades as well as the initial installation.

Click on the appropriate packages, and tell the browser to copy them to your main `arc' directory see section Create a main directory for ARC on your system.

Extract the software from the tar archive files

The packages for the unix versions of ARC are compressed tar archive files. These should be extracted in the main `arc' directory (see section Create a main directory for ARC on your system). They will expand to create separate directories for each host and target package.

In the following example, `/usr/local/arc' is the main `arc' directory. You start out in the directory with the compressed tar files for the sparc executables and the 68332 libraries, version 0.919. You move the files, uncompress them, untar them, and remove the archived versions. At the end of this example, you would have created and filled the directories `/usr/local/arc/sparcbin' and `/usr/local/arc/332libs-0.919'.

mv arc_sparcbin-2.0.tar.Z /usr/local/arc
mv arc_332libs-0.919.tar.Z /usr/local/arc
cd /usr/local/arc
uncompress *.Z
tar xvpf arc_sparcbin-2.0.tar
tar xvpf arc_332libs-0.919.tar
rm arc_sparcbin-2.0.tar
rm arc_332libs-0.919.tar

Install the license key

Once you have installed the packages, you need to install the license key before the software is fully enabled. This procedure requires that you have write access in the host tools directory (ie. `sparcbin', `linuxbin', etc), and that you use a machine of the appropriate architecture. For example, it is not possible to install the key for the sparc version while running on a linux machine -- you would have to be on a sparc. If you do not have write permission in the directory, you may need to contact someone who does before continuing.

License keys have two parts: a string specifying the person or company which `arc' is licensed to, and a numeric sequence containing the actual key. Both parts must be entered correctly for the software to be fully enabled.

Go into the host tools directory and type arc -config. This will put you in arc configuration mode. There are many configuration parameters which may be set in this mode, including setting the license key information.

Press return until you are prompted with the line:

Person, Company ARC is licensed to:

Backspace to the start of the line and type the text part of the key. Then press return. You will next be prompted with the line:

License key:

Again, backspace to the start of the line and type the numeric part of the key. This will be a string of numbers separated by hyphens.

Other configuration options may be safely ignored for now. Hit return at each and they will retain their default values.

Run `arc' again, but this time without the -config flag. If the key was installed properly, it will say:

Single user license for: Joe the Robot
License key: XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-X

Port /dev/cua0, baud 38400
    Terminal port # 9041
Term socket = <fd 4>
arc>

If the license was not installed properly, or was not a valid `arc' licence, it will say something like:

Missing license key.  Please contact Newton Research Labs for key, and install
keys by typing "arc -config" from arc's home directory.

Then it will exit. If this happens, check that you typed both parts of the key accurately. If the problem persists, contact arc@newtonlabs.com.

Set up the default kernel

It is important to specify which kernel to compile against before trying to use the ARC system. This specification can be made at several different levels:

The options in this list are looked for and used in order. For example, if a command-line option is specified, the other options are not pursued.

In order for the ARC Development system to work for new users without individual customization, it is best to set up a `default' symbolic link to the most likely kernel in the file system.

Kernels are of the form:

`arc/332libs-x.xxx/vestaboot.xxx'
A Motorola 68332 kernel which will run on a Vesta SBC332 board
`arc/332libs-x.xxx/ttaleboot.xxx'
A Motorola 68332 kernel which will run on an Onset Tattletale 68332 board
`arc/386libs-x.xxx/pckernel.xxx'
An Intel 386, 468, Pentium kernel which will run on an IBM PC (not yet in distribution).

To discover which version a given board is running, look on the ROMs, or connect the board to arc, hit reset, and look at the boot line. It should have the version number in the boot message.

ARC Multitasking 68332 Kernel Version 0.919
Copyright Anne Wright 1993

Compiled May  3 1995 at 13:09:12

vestaboot.919>

In this example, the board is running version 0.919 of the 68332 kernel for Vesta boards, so you should do the following to set up the appropriate default:

cd /usr/local/arc/332libs-0.919
ln -s vestaboot.919 default

Be sure to only have one `default' symbolic link in any of the subdirectories of the main `arc' directory at a time. To find out if there are any other defaults, you can do the following:

cd /usr/local/arc
find . -name "default" -print

This will print out all the files named default. Delete all but one.

Delete old versions of the libraries

To avoid problems of version skew, each update of the kernel, libraries, and header files are distributed to install in a different directory. This allows some people using a given installation of ARC to use old versions, while others upgrade to newer versions. However, if you are sure that no one is using particular old versions, delete them. The newer versions are all autonomous of the old ones.


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