So here I am, trying to (again) help (another) customer whose previous cons ultant didn't leave complete sources and tools, and who cannot reproduce th eir production firmware. Aarrgggg...
In past, we've required customers to install the tools and do the builds fr om our delivered sources, but that is time-consuming for them and doesn't y ield repeatable results for certain toolchain installations that wander off and fetch mysterious components from the net (and make it impossible to ba ck up an installation snapshot).
So, to avoid further repeats, I'm going to do development in a (windows 7 3
2-bit) VM with EVERYTHING required. Deliveries will be copies of the VM and I will ensure the customer actually rebuilds their production releases in the delivered VM. No more confusion about which version of tools, libraries , sources, etc....I've avoided doing this in past because of VM problems:
- USB bugginess and/or performance interfering with JTAG dongles, and
- VM performance
- annoying 100GB delivery files
What VMs have you guys used successfully? The tools for this customer's projects include:
- Microchip MPLABX with ICD-3 debug adapter
- TI CCS for MSP430 (GCC version) using TI MSP-FET430UIF
- (phasing out) Rowley Crossworks for MSP430 using TI adapter
Host for the VM will be Win7 32-bit, and later Linux and Win7 64-bit.
I've used QEMU in past for developing inside a Linux VM, and VMware player for a WinXP machine. I tried VirtualBox but was stymied by USB issues. But all of these were at least a couple years ago...
Any advice, suggestions, warnings much appreciated! Thanks, Best Regards, Dave