AVR Studio 4 Installation

Daniel Haehn

11/22/2006

1 Abstract
This article describes the installation and setup of Atmel AVR Studio 4 to perform
Assembler and C/C++ programming of microcontrollers.

AVR Studio is a free Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for writing and
debugging AVR applications in MS Windows environments. It includes an assembler and
simulator for ASM and in combination with WinAVR, AVR Studio supports C/C++
development.

Another subject of this article is the possibility to run AVR Studio within a VM-Ware
environment on a linux host.

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2 Downloading the needed files
First all needed files should be available on the local system. Beside AVR Studio 4, which
is available at http://atmel.com/avrstudio/, the most recent service pack for AVR
Studio should be downloaded.

The free WinAVR tool is required to program microcontrollers using C. WinAVR is

available for download at http://winavr.sourceforge.net/download.html.

3 Installation of WinAVR and AVR Studio

After completing the three downloads, installation may begin.

At first WinAVR has to be installed to ensure that AVR Studio recognizes the Gnu
C-compiler as a plugin. After running the file WinAVR-20060421-install.exe the se-
tup of WinAVR starts. While selecting the installation features be sure to activate Add
Directories to PATH, to let AVR Studio easily find the Gnu C-compiler without kno-
wing the exact installation path.

Abbildung 1: Selection of features during WinAVR installation

After completing the WinAVR installation, AVR Studio installation may now start.
To start setup, run aStudio4b460.exe.

ATTENTION: AVR Studio setup requires administration rights.

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 Abbildung 2: Error on installation without administration rights

While choosing the features to be installed, be sure to activate the USB driver by
selecting Install/upgrade USB Driver.

Abbildung 3: Selecting the USB driver

When the installation has finished, start to install the most recent service pack for
AVR Studio by running aStudio412SP4b498.exe. While updating be sure to activate
the USB driver again by selecting Install/upgrade USB Driver.

The properness of the AVR Studio installation in connection with WinAVR can be
easily verified by creating a new AVR GCC project using AVR Studio. If WinAVR is
correctly installed, a notification of successfully loading the AVR GCC plugin appears
at the Message console.

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 Abbildung 4: Successfully installed the AVR GCC plugin (WinAVR)

3.1 AVR Studio within VM-Ware running Linux

AVR Studio may run without problems and good performance within a VM-Ware envi-
ronment using linux or any other host operating system.

An easy guide for installing a MS Windows XP guest system within a free VM-Ware
environment is available at https://wiki.mi.hs-heilbronn.de/index.php/VMWare.
As soon MS Windows runs within VM-Ware, the AVR Studio may be installed along
the usual setup.

Because VM-Ware loops all connected USB devices through the guest system, AVR
Studio even works with microcontrollers connected via USB – for example the Mini-
MEXLE (http://minimexle.de).