zmk/docs/docs/dev-setup.md

id	title	sidebar_label
dev-setup	Basic Setup	Basic Setup

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Prerequisites

A unix-like environment with the following base packages installed:

• Git
• Python 3
• pip
• wget
• devicetree compiler
• CMake
• dfu-util
• Various build essentials, e.g. gcc, automake, autoconf

On Debian and Ubuntu, we'll use apt to install our base dependencies:

First, if you haven't updated recently, or if this is a new install, you should update to get the latest package information:

sudo apt update

With the latest package information, you can now install the base dependencies:

sudo apt install -y \
	git \
	wget \
	autoconf \
	automake \
	build-essential \
	ccache \
	device-tree-compiler \
	dfu-util \
	g++ \
	gcc \
	libtool \
	make \
	ninja-build \
	cmake \
	python3-dev \
	python3-pip \
	python3-setuptools \
	xz-utils

:::note Ubuntu 18.04 LTS release packages a version of CMake that is too old. Please upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS or download and install CMake version 3.13.1 or newer manually. ::: On Raspberry OS, we'll use apt to install our base dependencies:

First, if you haven't updated recently, or if this is a new install, you should update to get the latest package information:

sudo apt update

With the latest package information, you can now install the base dependencies:

sudo apt install -y \
	git \
	wget \
	autoconf \
	automake \
	build-essential \
	ccache \
	device-tree-compiler \
	dfu-util \
	g++ \
	gcc \
	libtool \
	make \
	ninja-build \
	cmake \
	python3-dev \
	python3-pip \
	python3-setuptools \
	xz-utils

On Fedora, we'll use dnf to install our base dependencies:

DNF Update

First, if you haven't updated recently, or if this is a new install, you should update to get the latest package information:

sudo dnf update

Install Dependencies

With the latest package information, you can now install the base dependencies:

sudo dnf install -y \
	git \
	wget \
	autoconf \
	automake \
	ccache \
	dtc \
	dfu-util \
	g++ \
	gcc \
	libtool \
	make \
	ninja-build \
	cmake \
	python3-devel \
	python3-pip \
	python3-setuptools \
	xz

:::note Use cmd.exe with these instructions rather than PowerShell. :::

Chocolatey is recommended and used for the following instructions. You can manually install each of these applications and add them to your PATH if you don't want to use Chocolatey.

1. Install Chocolatey
2. Open cmd.exe as Administrator
3. Run the following choco commands:

   choco install cmake --installargs 'ADD_CMAKE_TO_PATH=System'
   choco install ninja gperf python git
   

Homebrew

Homebrew is required to install the system dependencies. If you haven't done so, visit Homebrew for instructions. Once installed, use it to install the base dependencies:

brew install cmake ninja python3 ccache dtc git wget

Setup

West Build Command

west is the Zephyr™ meta-tool used to configure and build Zephyr™ applications.

West can be installed by using the pip python package manager.

pip3 install --user -U west

:::tip pip user packages If you haven't done so yet, you may need to add the Python Pip user package directory to your PATH, e.g.:

echo 'export PATH=~/.local/bin:"$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

:::

Toolchain Installation

The toolchain provides the compiler, linker, etc necessary to build for the target platform.

Zephyr™ ARM SDK

To build firmwares for the ARM architecture (all supported MCUs/keyboards at this point), you'll need to install the Zephyr™ ARM SDK to your system:

export ZSDK_VERSION=0.11.2
wget -q "https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/sdk-ng/releases/download/v${ZSDK_VERSION}/zephyr-toolchain-arm-${ZSDK_VERSION}-setup.run" && \
	sh "zephyr-toolchain-arm-${ZSDK_VERSION}-setup.run" --quiet -- -d ~/.local/zephyr-sdk-${ZSDK_VERSION} && \
	rm "zephyr-toolchain-arm-${ZSDK_VERSION}-setup.run"

The installation will prompt with several questions about installation location, and creating a default ~/.zephyrrc for you with various variables. The defaults shouldn normally work as expected.

Because Raspberry OS (Raspbian) runs on the same architecture (but different ABI) as the keyboard MCUs, the operating system's installed cross compilers can be used to target the different ABI.

First, the cross compiler should be installed:

sudo apt install gcc-arm-none-eabi

Next, we'll configure Zephyr™ with some extra environment variables needed to find the cross compiler by adding the following to ~/.zephyrrc:

export ZEPHYR_TOOLCHAIN_VARIANT=cross-compile
export CROSS_COMPILE=/usr/bin/arm-none-eabi-

Zephyr™ ARM SDK

To build firmwares for the ARM architecture (all supported MCUs/keyboards at this point), you'll need to install the Zephyr™ ARM SDK to your system:

export ZSDK_VERSION=0.11.2
wget -q "https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/sdk-ng/releases/download/v${ZSDK_VERSION}/zephyr-toolchain-arm-${ZSDK_VERSION}-setup.run" && \
 sh "zephyr-toolchain-arm-${ZSDK_VERSION}-setup.run" --quiet -- -d ~/.local/zephyr-sdk-${ZSDK_VERSION} && \
 rm "zephyr-toolchain-arm-\${ZSDK_VERSION}-setup.run"

The installation will prompt with several questions about installation location, and creating a default ~/.zephyrrc for you with various variables. The defaults shouldn normally work as expected.

GNU ARM Embedded

Since the Zephyr™ SDK is not available for Windows, we recommending following the steps to install the GNU ARM Embedded.

Zephyr™ ARM SDK

To build firmwares for the ARM architecture (all supported MCUs/keyboards at this point), you'll need to install the Zephyr™ ARM SDK to your system:

export ZSDK_VERSION=0.11.2
wget -q "https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/sdk-ng/releases/download/v${ZSDK_VERSION}/zephyr-toolchain-arm-${ZSDK_VERSION}-setup.run" && \
 sh "zephyr-toolchain-arm-${ZSDK_VERSION}-setup.run" --quiet -- -d ~/.local/zephyr-sdk-${ZSDK_VERSION} && \
 rm "zephyr-toolchain-arm-\${ZSDK_VERSION}-setup.run"

The installation will prompt with several questions about installation location, and creating a default ~/.zephyrrc for you with various variables. The defaults shouldn normally work as expected.

Source Code

Next, you'll need to clone the ZMK source repository if you haven't already:

git clone https://github.com/zmkfirmware/zmk.git

Initialize & Update Zephyr Workspace

Since ZMK is built as a Zephyr™ application, the next step is to use west to initialize and update your workspace. The ZMK Zephyr™ application is in the app/ source directory:

Step into the repository

cd zmk

Initialize West

west init -l app/

:::note If you encounter errors like command not found: west then your PATH environment variable is likely missing the Python 3 user packages directory. See the West Build Command section again for links to how to do this :::

Update To Fetch Modules

west update

Export Zephyr™ Core

west zephyr-export

Install Zephyr Python Dependencies

pip3 install --user -r zephyr/scripts/requirements-base.txt

Environment Variables

By default, the Zephyr™ SDK will create a file named ~/.zephyrrc with the correct environment variables to build ZMK. We suggest two main options for how to load those settings.

Per Shell

To load the Zephyr environment properly for just one transient shell, run the following from your ZMK checkout directory:

source zephyr/zephyr-env.sh

source zephyr/zephyr-env.sh

source zephyr/zephyr-env.sh

source zephyr/zephyr-env.sh

source zephyr/zephyr-env.cmd

All Shells

To load the environment variables for your shell every time, append the existing ~/.zephyrrc file to your shell's RC file and then start a new shell.

<Tabs groupId="shell" defaultValue="bash" values={[ {label: 'bash', value: 'bash'}, {label: 'zsh', value: 'zsh'}, {label: 'cmd.exe', value: 'cmd'}, ] }>

cat ~/.zephyrrc >> ~/.bashrc

cat ~/.zephyrrc >> ~/.zshrc

cmd.exe instructions coming soon!

Build

From here on, building and flashing ZMK should all be done from the app/ subdirectory of the ZMK checkout:

cd app

To build for your particular keyboard, the behaviour varies slightly depending on if you are building for a keyboard with an onboard MCU, or one that uses a MCU board addon.

Keyboard (Shield) + MCU Board

ZMK treats keyboards that take a MCU addon board as shields, and treats the smaller MCU board as the true board

Given the following:

• MCU Board: Proton-C
• Keyboard PCB: kyria
• Keymap: default

You can build ZMK with the following:

west build -b proton_c -- -DSHIELD=kyria -DKEYMAP=default

Keyboard With Onboard MCU

Keyboards with onboard MCU chips are simply treated as the board as far as Zephyr™ is concerned.

Given the following:

• Keyboard: Planck
• Keymap: default

you can build ZMK with the following:

west build -b planck -- -DKEYMAP=default

Flashing

Once built, the previously supplied parameters will be remember, so you can simply run the following to flash your board, with it in bootloader mode:

west flash