[avr-gcc-list] Re: Using multiple versions of AVR Studio (was Re: crosstool-NG)

[David Brown]

On 04/03/11 20:53, Graham Davies wrote:
> I wrote:
>
> > > Since you can have only one version of AVR Studio installed at a time
> > > and
> > > AVR Studio does not uninstall reliably, this means that I have to
> > > re-install
> > > the operating system to switch versions.
>
> and then Trevor Woerner wrote:
>
> > Wow, that's crazy!
>
> It may seem crazy, I admit. But, once you've realized that this is the
> way you're going to have to work you can actually get it down to a
> couple of hours from the start to being productive again. My
> installation is stripped down with nLite, for a start, and I have saved
> off a disk image after the second reboot during the installation process
> that I just restore. All I really have to do is reinstall all my drivers
> and the applications I need. There are other benefits to frequently
> reinstalling a stripped-down Windows, such as blazing speed and great
> stability, that you don't get if you use the same install for a year or
> so. Also, I avoid installing any Microsoft products.
>
> > As a possible work-around have you considered using VMs?
>
> Oh, yes. I have invested scores of hours in trying to get VirtualBox to
> work properly. But I just can't seem to get it to play with USB devices,
> such as the AVR Dragon and JTAGICE Mk II using the Jungo driver. I even
> tried throwing out Windows as the host and starting from Linux and
> running Windows in a VM under that. This didn't work because I couldn't
> find a Linux driver for my video hardware that has asymmetric
> dual-monitor support, which I have grown dependent on.

I find VirtualBox invaluable for all sorts of purposes (with both 
Windows and Linux hosts, and Windows and Linux guests) - but USB devices 
using a Windows host is still a mystery.  Sometimes it works fine, but 
most of the time it's unreliable.  I find it is very much easier and 
more reliable when using a Linux host.

Another advantage of using VirtualBox is that you can have snapshots in 
a tree structure.  So you can make a basic Windows install, then take a 
snapshot.  Install a version of AS, then snapshot it.  Go back to the 
basic install snapshot and start again - install a different version of 
AS, and snapshot that.  Then moving between versions of AS is just a 
matter of restarting your snapshot virtual machine.

There will almost certainly be a solution to your dual-monitor problem 
(I have asymmetric dual monitors running with Fedora here), but it's way 
off-topic for this list.  You can email me directly if you want, but I'm 
off on holiday for a week so don't expect a quick answer!


> > Of course I'm ignoring licensing issues here.
>
> To a certain extent, so am I. I have a legal copy of Windows to do all
> the above, but I never activate it. I just reinstall every 30 days. I
> have a second legal copy, that *is* activated, dual-booting on the same
> PC, that I use for hardware design. I am really, really careful what I
> install on that and so far that still flies. Having a very fast and
> stable computer is worth a couple of hours of drudgery every month to me.
>
> Graham.