Piklab

Installation on Debian-based Distributions

Including Ubuntu 17.10, 16.04 and Older

Piklab is a mature and extraordinarily well-designed IDE (integrated development environment) for Microchip's PIC series of microcontrollers. Piklab is more
convenient (and faster!) than Microchip's own MPLAB. Even better, Piklab is a Linux program. Microchip recently introduced MPLAB-X, apparently
recognizing the need for a cross-platform IDE. Piklab has one major advantage over MPLAB-X: it works.

Unfortunately, the KDE developers have moved on to a new version of QT (the underlying UI library) without maintaining backward compatibility.
Consequently, most Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu 11.04 and later, no longer support software that is based on QT version 3. This includes Piklab.

This guide is a list of steps it took me to install Piklab on Ubuntu 14.04 through 17.10 with a separate set of instructions for older Ubuntu 11.10 and 12.04. It is
likely going to work with Ubuntu 11.04, Mint 12, and similar distributions.

Acknowledgements: Adnan Mustafic contributed significantly to this list. Similar instructions can be found at the Big Bang blog.

Installation on Ubuntu 14.xx/15.xx/16.04/17.10

The instructions differ for Ubuntu 14.04 and older versions, because kdelibs4c2a is no longer installable starting with 14.04 -- it conflicts with kdelibs-bin.
Fortunately, there is now a new Piklab version (0.16.x) that is QT4 compatible. Presently, it is available only as rpm, so we'll convert it to a deb package. This
process has been tested on various Ubuntu platforms from 14.xx to 17.xx.

First, get your version of Piklab here.

Next, install the program alien, for example with

sudo apt-get install fakeroot alien

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We need fakeroot in the next step, that is, the creation of a deb package. Depending on the Piklab version you downloaded, the version numbers may differ.
Adjust the version numbers ("-0.16.1...") accordingly.
fakeroot alien --scripts -d piklab-0.16.1-6.fc20.x86_64.rpm

The result is a new package, piklab_0.16.1-7_amd64.deb. You can now use dpkg to install:
sudo dpkg -i piklab_0.16.1-7_amd64.deb

Click on this link to download the .deb file that I created by following the above steps. No warranty, and ... YMMV.

To install the command-line utilities related to the PIC family: Install gputils and sdcc. Look for related stuff you may like, such as JAL. This can be done
with Aptitude. Alternatively, use

sudo apt-get install sdcc gputils

To install the bootloaders: Download MPLAB 8 from the Microchip web site and install it, for example, under WINE. Choose a suitable location for the hex8
files, for example with

sudo mkdir /usr/share/kde4/apps/piklab/hex8

Use the WINE desktop to copy all files from C:\Program Files\Microchip\MPLAB IDE\ICD2 to the new directory /usr/share/kde4/apps/piklab/hex8. Next, open
Piklab, choose "settings" and "configure programmers". Select the ICD2 programmer, set to USB port, and select the "specific" tab. There, enter
/usr/share/kde4/apps/piklab/hex8 in the Firmware Directoy entry field.

Now, ensure that the new files in .../hex8/ are world-readable:

sudo chmod -R a+r /usr/share/kde4/apps/piklab/hex8

To enable non-privileged USB access: Create a new file in /etc/udev/rules.d as follows:

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-microchip_icd2.rules

and copy and paste the folowing two lines into the file:
SUBSYSTEM=="usb" ATTR{idVendor}=="04d8" ATTR{idProduct}=="8000" GROUP="plugdev" SYMLINK+="mcidc2"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb" ATTR{idVendor}=="04d8" ATTR{idProduct}=="8001" GROUP="plugdev" SYMLINK+="mcidc2"

for your convenience, you may download the file 99-microchip_icd2.rules by right-clicking on this link. Just copy the file into /etc/udev/rules.d

Finally, add your login name to the group "plugdev" in /etc/group. Start Piklab and try to connect to the ICD-2.

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 Installation on Ubuntu 11.04 Through 13.10
These instructions are valid for all distributions that allow concurrent installation of the QT4 and QT3 libraries, and the main challenge is to get all required
QT3 libraries installed.

1. Install the command-line utilities related to the PIC family:

gputils
sdcc
This can be done with Aptitude. Alternatively, use "sudo apt-get install sdcc gputils"
2. Install several packages that are available in the Ubuntu repositories:
libreadline6
libusb
libstdc++
kdelibs5-data
liblua50
liblualib50
libqt3-mt
launchpad-integration
Once again, this can be done with Aptitude. Aptitude has the advantage that is selects packages compatible with your architecture and distribution.
3. Next, obtain packages that are not in the repositories. Links are provided here for the amd64 architecture. You can search for the i386 versions by
subsituting i386 for amd64 in the file names.
kdelibs-data_3.5.10.dfsg.1-5ubuntu2_all.deb
libavahi-qt3-1_0.6
This completes the installation of package dependencies for Piklab
4. Obtain a Piklab Debian package. One valid name to search for is "piklab_0.15.7-1_amd64.deb".
Get Piklab here
Alternatively, get a rpm (Redhat) package from the OpenSUSE repositories. This link may help you.
See below how to convert a rpm package to a deb package with alien.
5. Now install Piklab: "sudo dpkg -i piklab-0-15.xxx-xxx.xxx.deb", where you need to replace the xxx by whatever version you downloaded
6. Start Piklab by typing "piklab" in a shell.

If you got to this point, Piklab is ready and needs to be configured for the programmer or debugger that you use. For the ICD-2 debugger, two steps are
necessary. The proprietary bootloaders from Microchip needs to be installed, and a rule to access the ICD-2 via USB needs to be created.

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To install the bootloaders: Download MPLAB 8 from the Microchip web site and install it, for example, under WINE. Choose a suitable location for the hex8
files, for example with

sudo mkdir /usr/share/apps/piklab/hex8

Use the WINE desktop to copy all files from C:\Program Files\Microchip\MPLAB IDE\ICD2 to the new directory /usr/share/apps/piklab/hex8. Next, open
Piklab, choose "settings" and "configure programmers". Select the ICD2 programmer, set to USB port, and select the "specific" tab. There, enter
/usr/share/apps/piklab/hex8 in the Firmware Directoy entry field.

To enable non-privileged USB access: Create a new file in /etc/udev/rules.d as follows:

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-microchip_icd2.rules

and copy and paste the folowing two lines into the file:
SUBSYSTEM=="usb" ATTR{idVendor}=="04d8" ATTR{idProduct}=="8000" GROUP="plugdev" SYMLINK+="mcidc2"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb" ATTR{idVendor}=="04d8" ATTR{idProduct}=="8001" GROUP="plugdev" SYMLINK+="mcidc2"

Finally, add your login name to the group "plugdev" in /etc/group. Start Piklab and try to connect to the ICD-2.

Compiling from Srouce (all Distributions)

Compiling Piklab from source is straightforward, provided that you install the necessary development files and cmake. Specifically, you'll need

cmake (or the cmake QT GUI)

libusb-dev
libreadline-dev
... (more to follow)

Get the source tarball and unpack it as usual:

tar xzvf piklab-0.16.2.tar.gz
cd piklab-0.16.2/

(...)

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Compiling from source was particularly important for me when I wanted to add a microcontroller that was not supported. I knew that the family was supported,
but the PIC18f13k50 was not. Quite importantly, the gputils toolchain supports the 18f13k50, and it is sufficient to explain to Piklab that this chip is a valid
option. This chip needs to be added to a series of files:

coff/xml/gpprocessor.cpp
coff/base/coff_data.cpp
coff/base/coff.xml
devices/pic/xml_data/18F13K50.xml
progs/icd2/base/icd2_data.cpp
progs/icd2/base/icd2.xml

Recompiling gave me a Piklab binary that was able to program the PIC18F13k50 via ICD-2 programmer.

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