MSP430 and Linux

I think - but don't quote me on it yet - that this is a solved problem. The ez430 appears as a USB-FET, and I believe there is Linux support for this. Don't give up on that.

The parallel JTAG adapters are supported directly, of course.

I believe that according the author, it works. I haven't had time to try it yet. Check on the mspgcc mailing list.

I looked on the mailing list and found this:

The version of msp430-gdbproxy which I was able to download for Linux does not have a --spy-bi-wire option. There are Windows files from

The Windows release notes for the latest version say:

It supports the parallel port interface an the USB box (on Windows only).

So I believe the answer is that it does not work with Linux; the Linux version of the MSPGCC toolchain appears rather neglected, with all the developers apparently using Windows.

According to this thread, it works:

Like I said, I haven't tried it, but I'll take Steve Underwood's word for it. Maybe I'll give it a shot while I'm on vacation.

All right, that's great! The file in that thread is newer than the one I got from the static web page. Thanks for the pointer.

Please let us know if this works! I'd love to have the option of using linux to develop msp430 software.

I've had no problems using Linux for developing msp430 software. There's only been an issue for people who require spy-by-wire support (which requires a USB adapter). The parallel port JTAG adapter has worked for ages.