Skip to main content

Dev Env Mac

Raffaele Rossi

MacOS Development Environment

The following instructions set up a PX4 development environment for macOS. This environment can be used to build PX4 for:

:::tip This setup is supported by the PX4 dev team. To build other targets you will need to use a different OS (or an unsupported development environment). :::

Video Guide

Base Setup

The "base" macOS setup installs the tools needed for building firmware, and includes the common tools that will be needed for installing/using the simulators.

Environment Setup

:::details Apple M1 Macbook users! If you have an Apple M1 Macbook, make sure to run the terminal as x86 by setting up an x86 terminal:

  1. Locate the Terminal application within the Utilities folder (Finder > Go menu > Utilities)
  2. Select Terminal.app and right-click on it, then choose Duplicate.
  3. Rename the duplicated Terminal app, e.g. to x86 Terminal
  4. Now select the renamed x86 Terminal app and right-click and choose *Get Info
  5. Check the box for Open using Rosetta, then close the window
  6. Run the x86 Terminal as usual, which will fully support the current PX4 toolchain :::

First set up the environment

  1. Enable more open files by appending the following line to the ~/.zshenv file (creating it if necessary):

sh echo ulimit -S -n 2048 >> ~/.zshenv

::: info If you don't do this, the build toolchain may report the error: "LD: too many open files" :::

  1. Enforce Python 3 by appending the following lines to ~/.zshenv

sh # Point pip3 to MacOS system python 3 pip alias pip3=/usr/bin/pip3

Common Tools

To setup the environment to be able to build for Pixhawk/NuttX hardware (and install the common tools for using simulators):

  1. Install Homebrew by following these installation instructions.
  2. Run these commands in your shell to install the common tools:

sh brew tap PX4/px4 brew install px4-dev

  1. Install the required Python packages:

sh # install required packages using pip3 python3 -m pip install --user pyserial empty toml numpy pandas jinja2 pyyaml pyros-genmsg packaging kconfiglib future jsonschema # if this fails with a permissions error, your Python install is in a system path - use this command instead: sudo -H python3 -m pip install --user pyserial empty toml numpy pandas jinja2 pyyaml pyros-genmsg packaging kconfiglib future jsonschema

Gazebo Classic Simulation

To setup the environment for Gazebo Classic simulation:

  1. Run the following commands in your shell:

sh brew unlink tbb sed -i.bak '/disable! date:/s/^/ /; /disable! date:/s/./#/3' $(brew --prefix)/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core/Formula/tbb@2020.rb brew install tbb@2020 brew link tbb@2020

::: info September 2021: The commands above are a workaround to this bug: PX4-Autopilot#17644. They can be removed once it is fixed (along with this note). :::

  1. To install SITL simulation with Gazebo Classic:

sh brew install --cask temurin brew install --cask xquartz brew install px4-sim-gazebo

  1. Run the macOS setup script: PX4-Autopilot/Tools/setup/macos.sh The easiest way to do this is to clone the PX4 source, and then run the script from the directory, as shown:

sh git clone https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot.git --recursive cd PX4-Autopilot/Tools/setup sh macos.sh

Next Steps

Once you have finished setting up the command-line toolchain:

:::tip The daily build includes development tools that are hidden in release builds. It may also provide access to new PX4 features that are not yet supported in release builds. :::

Comments

0 comments

Please sign in to leave a comment.