PyAvrOCD Installation

Arduino IDE 2 (not implemented yet)

If you want to use PyAvrOCD as part of Arduino IDE 2, you do not need to install it explicitly. It is sufficient to add an "additional boards manager URL" and install the respective core. It will then by installed as a tool for this core. As a Linux user, you may also need to set some permissions and provide udev rules.

If you want to use PyAvrOCD stand-alone or as part of another IDE, you need to install the PyAvrOCD package explicitly.

Downloading binaries (not implemented yet)

Go to the GitHub page (if you are not already there), select the latest release (located on the right-hand side of the page), download the archive containing the binary for your architecture, and then untar the archive. It includes the executable pyavrocd, a folder pyavrocd-util, and additionally avr-gdb, the GDB debugger for AVR chips. Store pyavrocd and pyavrocd-util somewhere in the same folder and include this folder in your PATH variable. The avr-gdb debugger has version 16.ƒ3, which is relatively recent, and has been compiled for your architecture with only a minimal amount of references to dynamic libraries. It is up to you to decide whether you want to use this version or the one that is already installed on your system.

Since the binaries were generated on very recent versions of the respective operating systems (Windows 11, macOS 15.4, Ubuntu 24.04), it can happen that the binary is not compatible with your operating system. In this case, use one of the methods below.

PyPI (not implemented yet)

I assume you already installed a recent Python version (>=3.9).

Although it is possible to install PyAvrOCD using pip, it is recommended to use pipx. Pipx installs packages in a way so that they are completely isolated from the rest of your Python installation, and you are able to install them in a way so that they can be invoked as an ordinary binary executable. So, if you haven't done so already, install pipx following the instructions on the pipx website. Then proceed as follows.

Linux

pipx install pyavrocd
pipx ensurepath
sudo ~/.local/bin/pyavrocd --install-udev-rules

The last command will install the necessary udev rules. This can also be done manually by following the instructions in the pyedbglib README.

After unplugging and replugging the debugger and restarting your shell, you can invoke the GDB server by simply typing pyavrocd into a shell. The binary is stored under ~/.local/bin/

Windows and macOS

pipx install pyavrocd
pipx ensurepath

After restarting the shell, you should be able to start the GDB server. The binary is stored under ~/.local/bin/

GitHub

Alternatively, you can download or clone the GitHub repository. Additionally, you need to install the Python package manager poetry:

pipx install poetry

With that, you can start executing the script inside the downloaded folder as follows:

poetry install
poetry run pyavrocd ...

Furthermore, you can create a binary standalone package as follows (after having installed the pyinstaller package):

poetry run pyinstaller pyavrocd.spec

After that, you find an executable pyavrocd (or pyavrocd.exe) in the directory dist/pyavrocd/ together with the folder pyavrocd-util. You can copy those to a place in your PATH. If you want to generate a binary on a Mac that can be shipped to other Macs, you should use arm64-apple-pyavrocd.spec or intel-apple-pyavrocd.spec in order to include the right libusb for the host architecture. Note that fat binaries cannot be generated.