Frequently Asked Build Questions

This page covers questions about building QMK. If you haven't yet done so, you should read the Build Environment Setup and Make Instructions guides.

Can't Program on Linux

You will need proper permissions to operate a device. For Linux users, see the instructions regarding udev rules, below. If you have issues with udev, a work-around is to use the sudo command. If you are not familiar with this command, check its manual with man sudo or see this webpage.

An example of using sudo, when your controller is ATMega32u4:

$ sudo dfu-programmer atmega32u4 erase --force
$ sudo dfu-programmer atmega32u4 flash your.hex
$ sudo dfu-programmer atmega32u4 reset

or just:

$ sudo make <keyboard>:<keymap>:dfu

Note that running make with sudo is generally not a good idea, and you should use one of the former methods, if possible.

Linux udev Rules

On Linux, you'll need proper privileges to access the MCU. You can either use sudo when flashing firmware, or place these files in /etc/udev/rules.d/.

/etc/udev/rules.d/50-atmel-dfu.rules:

# Atmel ATMega32U4
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="03eb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2ff4", MODE:="0666"
# Atmel USBKEY AT90USB1287
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="03eb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2ffb", MODE:="0666"
# Atmel ATMega32U2
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="03eb", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2ff0", MODE:="0666"

/etc/udev/rules.d/52-tmk-keyboard.rules:

# tmk keyboard products     https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="feed", MODE:="0666"

WINAVR is Obsolete

It is no longer recommended and may cause some problem. See TMK Issue #99.

USB VID and PID

You can use any ID you want with editing config.h. Using any presumably unused ID will be no problem in fact except for very low chance of collision with other product.

Most boards in QMK use 0xFEED as the vendor ID. You should look through other keyboards to make sure you pick a unique Product ID.

Also see this. https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/issues/150

You can buy a really unique VID:PID here. I don't think you need this for personal use.

  • http://www.obdev.at/products/vusb/license.html
  • http://www.mcselec.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=92&option=com_phpshop&Itemid=1

Cortex: cstddef: No such file or directory

GCC 4.8 of Ubuntu 14.04 had this problem and had to update to 4.9 with this PPA. https://launchpad.net/~terry.guo/+archive/ubuntu/gcc-arm-embedded

https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/issues/212 https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/wiki/mbed-cortex-porting#compile-error-cstddef https://developer.mbed.org/forum/mbed/topic/5205/

clock_prescale_set and clock_div_1 Not Available

Your toolchain is too old to support the MCU. For example WinAVR 20100110 doesn't support ATMega32u2.

Compiling C: ../../tmk_core/protocol/lufa/lufa.c
avr-gcc -c -mmcu=atmega32u2 -gdwarf-2 -DF_CPU=16000000UL -DINTERRUPT_CONTROL_ENDPOINT -DBOOTLOADER_SIZE=4096 -DF_USB=16000000UL -DARCH=ARCH_AVR8 -DUSB_DEVICE_ONLY -DUSE_FLASH_DESCRIPTORS -DUSE_STATIC_OPTIONS="(USB_DEVICE_OPT_FULLSPEED | USB_OPT_REG_ENABLED | USB_OPT_AUTO_PLL)" -DFIXED_CONTROL_ENDPOINT_SIZE=8  -DFIXED_NUM_CONFIGURATIONS=1 -DPROTOCOL_LUFA -DEXTRAKEY_ENABLE -DCONSOLE_ENABLE -DCOMMAND_ENABLE -DVERSION=unknown -Os -funsigned-char -funsigned-bitfields -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -fno-inline-small-functions -fpack-struct -fshort-enums -fno-strict-aliasing -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wa,-adhlns=obj_alps64/protocol/lufa/lufa.lst -I. -I../../tmk_core -I../../tmk_core/protocol/lufa -I../../tmk_core/protocol/lufa/LUFA-git -I../../tmk_core/common -std=gnu99 -include config.h -MMD -MP -MF .dep/obj_alps64_protocol_lufa_lufa.o.d  ../../tmk_core/protocol/lufa/lufa.c -o obj_alps64/protocol/lufa/lufa.o
../../tmk_core/protocol/lufa/lufa.c: In function 'setup_mcu':
../../tmk_core/protocol/lufa/lufa.c:575: warning: implicit declaration of function 'clock_prescale_set'
../../tmk_core/protocol/lufa/lufa.c:575: error: 'clock_div_1' undeclared (first use in this function)
../../tmk_core/protocol/lufa/lufa.c:575: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
../../tmk_core/protocol/lufa/lufa.c:575: error: for each function it appears in.)
make: *** [obj_alps64/protocol/lufa/lufa.o] Error 1

BOOTLOADER_SIZE for AVR

Note that Teensy2.0++ bootloader size is 2048byte. Some Makefiles may have wrong comment.

# Boot Section Size in *bytes*
#   Teensy halfKay   512
#   Teensy++ halfKay 2048
#   Atmel DFU loader 4096       (TMK Alt Controller)
#   LUFA bootloader  4096
#   USBaspLoader     2048
OPT_DEFS += -DBOOTLOADER_SIZE=2048

avr-gcc: internal compiler error: Abort trap: 6 (program cc1) on MacOS

This is an issue with updating on brew, causing symlinks that avr-gcc depend on getting mangled.

The solution is to remove and reinstall all affected modules.

brew rm avr-gcc
brew rm dfu-programmer
brew rm gcc-arm-none-eabi
brew rm avrdude
brew install avr-gcc
brew install dfu-programmer
brew install gcc-arm-none-eabi
brew install avrdude