Favorite VM for development?

Dave Nadler · 2014-07-12T18:20:13+00:00

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

Jul 12, 2014 20 Replies

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Hi All - First, thanks for your suggestions and comments.

First I tried VirtualBox - it was an unmitigated disaster. I initially tried an older release:

- didn't work at all until the "Windows XP compatibility flag" was set

- didn't even connect to USB device until all descriptions of device were cleared in the "USB device filter" Disappointingly, both above are long-standing bugs (years) which the developers haven't fixed, and there are numerous incorrect solutions sprinkled about the web, good for copious time-wastage. Finally, though the TI tools work AOK, Microchip's ICD3 device driver failed to start. The current VirtualBox release doesn't even install, see:

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OK, enough time wasted on VirtualBox...

VMware seems to work! I converted the above image, de-installed VirtualBox helpers, and installed VMware helpers. Unfortunately the driver changes provoked the Windows Activation nightmare, but I'll sort that out with a new OEM license for the client.

So, VMware it is for now, Thanks again, Best Regards, Dave