Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Building usrp module and firmware

[Eric Blossom]

On Tue, Nov 09, 2004 at 02:43:24AM +1030, Berndt Josef Wulf wrote:
> G'day,
> 
> The autoconf system of the usrp module fails to find usb.h declaration file 
> which is part of the libusb package. Although set correctly in the Makefiles 
> created by autoconf, it fails to use the CFLAGS and LDFLAGS environment 
> variables at compile and link time. 

It should use CCFLAGS (not CFLAGS) and I'm pretty sure configure stores
the values in effect at configure time for use in the Makefiles.  Be
sure that you either export them explicitly, or export them on the
command line:

  $ CCFLAGS=-I/my/path/to/includes ./configure

You may also want to test with CPPFLAGS for the -I options.

> I also noted that usrp depends on packages libusb, boehm-gc and sdcc.

Yes on libusb and sdcc.  

Our code doesn't depend on boehm-gc.  What's the source of the dependency?

> The  building process progressed successfully after the installation of all 
> missing dependencies and manual manipulation of the relevant Makefiles. No 
> warnings were given to notify the user about missing packages.

Please fix config/usrp_libusb.m4 and submit a patch.  It looks like
AC_CHECK_HEADERS([usb.h]) should have AC_MSG_ERROR in the
action-if-not-found case.

In configure.ac replace...

dnl check for firmware cross compilation tools
dnl check for SDCC 2.4.0 (FIXME, actually check!)
XCC='sdcc -mmcs51 --no-xinit-opt'
XAS='asx8051 -plosgff'

... with code to perform the check and submit a patch.
You'll probably want to write a new m4 macro [GR_CHECK_SDCC(version)] that uses
AC_CHECK_PROG and also something that parses the output of "sdcc -v"
for the version number.

> Would it be possible force autoconf to use the CFLAGS and LDFLAGS environment 
> during the configuration process or even better extend the configure option 
> arguments to include --with-extra-includes and --with-extra-libs, and also 
> check for all dependencies, such as sdcc and boehm-gc raising an appropriate 
> warning message informing users of the missing dependency?

I'm pretty sure configure stores the values of CCFLAGS, CPPFLAGS, CFLAGS (which
we don't use) and LDFLAGS at configure time.  See comments above about
exporting them.

> Are "usrp" and "gr-usrp" the only modules required for the USRP Board 
> specific 
> part of GnuRadio? If so, I'm ready and set to go. All I need now is a 
> board... :)

Yes.  Though there may be some usb hacking required to get full
performance under NetBSD (the equivalent to
usrp/host/lib/fusb_linux.{h,cc} for NetBSD.)  Of course you won't know
until you get a board...


Matt, can you give us an update on board availability, por favor?


> Well, not quite! I still will have to find and read all relevant 
> documentation.

Documentation outside of that in the code is pretty sparse on usrp and
gr-usrp.  If you're going to start code reading, I suggest that you
start with usrp/host/lib/usrp_standard.h  It's the top level interface, and
for most users the only thing they'll have to worry about.

In gr-usrp take a look at gr-usrp/src/usrp1*.{h,cc}
It's a thin wrapper that glues usrp_standard into GNU Radio.

Eric