One of the key components of getting really serious about developing on the crazyflie, is time to dive into the C-based firmware. If you really want to do some major changes to the intrinsic of the code, it is essential to have proper tools to be able to debug the code (place breakpoints, read real-time values ect…). On this page, we will put a few examples how to do this with IDE's and different environments.

First install GDB and openOCD:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gdb
sudo apt-get install openocd

Then install java:

sudo apt install default-jre

Then install eclipse itself: Go to their download page: eclipse 20

and then go into you download folder in the terminal en type

tar -zxvf eclipse-cpp-2019-03-R-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz

and start up eclipse:

cd EXTRACT FOLDER/eclipse/cpp-2019-03/eclipse/
./eclipse

Install the c++ development tools and GNU MCU plugin by following the instructions on this website. We used the following instructions to set it up ourselves:

• C++ development tools: Go to header 'CDT'
• GNU MCU plugin: Go to header 'Plug-ins install/update' and 'The Eclipse Marketplace way'

First import the crazyflie-firmware into eclipse:

• File>import…
• C/C++ > Existing Code as Makefile Project
• Existing Code Location > Browse… > Look for the firmware folder
• Finish

• Go to: Run>Debug Configurations…
• Double click 'GDB OpenOCD Debugging'

Now input the following settings in the debug configurations:

check the following settings: OpenOCD setup → Config options: -f interface/stlink-v2.cfg -f target/stm32f4x.cfg -c init -c targets GDB Client Setup → Commands: set mem inaccessible-by-default off

If you don't see any errors, eclipse should go to an dedicated debugging environment automatically and it automatically halts the crazyflie's firmware before it goes into the main function of src/init/main.c. Press F8 or Run > Resume to let it continue and place a breakpoints anywhere in the code (double clicking just in front of the line in the gray area or press Shift+Ctrl+B). Now you should be able to read out the values of the defined variables at that very position.