I first want to thank David Cabanis for the e-mail that he sent me a few months ago. It forms the core of this page. David, You Rock!

Install Eclipse with C/C++ and GNU Support

To get started, you need to install Eclipse. To this you will add support for the GNU tool chain used by the Smoothie project. At the time this page was written, Eclipse 4.4 (Luna), was the current release.

• Eclipse is a Java application and requires at least version 6 of the Java Runtime Environment, JRE, be installed on your machine. On Windows and Linux, you will want to make sure that you have this Java requirement installed. On OS X, it will detect the Java requirement when you first attempt to run Eclipse and offer to install it for you if not already installed.
• Go to http://www.eclipse.org/downloads to download and decompress the Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers archive.
• Now startup that shiny new version of Eclipse by executing the Eclipse binary at the root of the decompressed Eclipse files. There is no separate install process required for Eclipse. If Eclipse fails to start, it is probably due to a missing JRE.
• On initial startup, it will ask where you want your workspace to be located. Select an empty directory where you want to place your Eclipse-C/C++ projects or select an old CDT workspace. If you use only one workspace, check the item to always use this as the default and not ask on every startup.
  • Keep the workspace directory in mind, you'll need it later. You can say if a directory is a workspace directory from it's sub-directory named ".metadata"
• Close the Welcome tab
• On the Help menu, select the Install New Software… option.
  • On the install dialog, press the Add… button near the upper right hand corner.
  • Set Name: to Eclipse for ARM.
  • Set Location: to http://gnuarmeclipse.sourceforge.net/updates
  • Click the Ok button.
  • There should now be a GNU ARM C/C++ Cross Development Tools item listed on the Install dialog. It may take several seconds to populate this item into the list. Once it appears, check it.
  • Now press the Next button.
  • At this point an install wizard appears. You can just keep clicking through this wizard to allow it to progress.
    • At some point it will complain about unsigned content. Ignore this warning by pressing the Ok button.
  • At the end of the install wizard, press the Restart Now button.
• [optional] If you like to use the GIT plugin for eclipse repeat the previous step with the following package source and package selection:
  • Luna - http://download.eclipse.org/releases/luna
  • Collaboration/Eclipse Git Team Provider, Collaboration/Java implementation of Git

Create Eclipse Project for Smoothie

• Open a shell and change into the workspace directory using cd
  • In this, check out the Smoothieware source repository as described in http://smoothieware.org/getting-smoothie
    • If you wish, you can switch between branches using the git eclipse plugin later
    • In the workspace directory there should be a directory named Smoothie now. It will be our the project directory
    • [optional] you might want to rename the project directory. At this time this can be done in your shell. If you decide to do so later, do it in eclipse.
  • Change into the project directory
  • Retrieve and install the tool chain as described in http://smoothieware.org/compiling-smoothie
  • Type make all to test, if the compiler works. The first build will take a while. To speed that up you might provide the parameter -j <number of cores + 1> to make (e.g. make -j 3 all)
• Go back to Eclipse
  • On the File menu select New > Makefile Project with Existing Code
    • Set Existing Code Location to the project directory.
    • If the Project Name field wasn't automatically filled in with the name of your project directory (e.g. Smoothie) then set it to that manually.
    • Leave the options C and C++ checked
    • Select Cross ARM GCC toolchain from the Toolchain for Indexer Settings list.
    • Click the Finish button.
  • Now you have to be quick: In the lower right corner there is the progress icon. Click it. If it isn't there, click Window->Show View->other and select General/Progress
    • When the C/C++ Indexer is running in the Progress view, stop it by clicking the red square icon.
    • The reason is that the CHECKSUM()-macro causes an out of memory-exception in the indexer.
    • To correct this, unfold the structure in the Project Explorer and open src/libs/checksumm.h
      • This change does not affect normal compilation or build in Eclipse. It only affects the Indexer of Eclipse.
      • Insert at line 54:
        • #ifdef __CDT_PARSER__
        • #define CHECKSUM(X) ((uint16_t)sizeof(X))
        • #else
      • Insert at the end of the file before the line #endif /* CHECKSUM_USE_CPP */:
        • #endif /* __CDT_PARSER__ */
      • Save and close checksumm.h
      • Mark this change as ignored for Git as the Dev Team does not like it:
        • Either by right click on the file in Project Explorer and select Team->Advanced->Assume unchanged
        • Or by executing the command git update-index --assume-unchanged src/libs/checksumm.h
  • Right-click on the Smoothie project in the Project Explorer pane.
    • Select Properties from the pop-up menu.
    • Select Index->Rebuild
      • This should complete in a short time, now.

You now have a new created project named like the project directory in the left pane, Project Explorer. Let's now create a build configuration that can build Smoothie sources under Eclipse uses the existing makefile.

• Right-click on the Smoothie project in the Project Explorer pane.
• Select Properties from the pop-up menu.
  • Click the arrow to left of C/C++ Build item in left pane to expand its sub-items.
    • Select the Settings sub-item.
      • Click the Manage Configurations… button towards the upper right hand corner of the dialog.
        • Click the New… button.
          • Set Name: to Release
          • You should be able to accept the default of Copy settings from > Existing configuration > Default.
          • Click the Ok button.
        • Select Release configuration from the list of the small configurations dialog and then press the Set Active button.
        • Click the Ok button.
      • At the top of the properties dialog set Configuration: to Release
      • In the "Toolchains" tab, uncheck Use global tool chain path
      • Behind the Per project path, click Browse…
        • Select the gcc-arm-none-eabi subdirectory of your project directory

If the Indexer does not find the Types of the mbed system (e.g. SDCard, USB, DFU, SDFAT, … in main.cpp), try this:
[This seems to be not necessary any more, i keep it here for testing]

• Goto project properties
  • Click the arrow to left of C/C++ General item in left pane to expand its sub-items.
  • Select the Paths and Symbols sub-item.
    • Select the Includes tab
      • Click the Add.. button. This will pop-up the Add directory path dialog.
        • Set Directory: to ${ProjDirPath}/mbed/drop/LPC1768
        • Check both Add to all configurations and Add to all languages.
        • Click the Ok button.
      • Add another directory and set it to ${ProjDirPath}/mbed/drop using the same steps as before.
    • Select the Symbols tab.
      • Click the Add… button. This will pop-up the Add Symbol dialog.
        • As name, insert __LPC17XX__.
        • Check both Add to all configurations and Add to all languages.
        • Click the Ok button.
• At this point you can click the Ok button on the Properties dialog.

Clean and Build the Project

• To clean select Project->Clean..: from the main menu. Make your selection and click ok.
  • The Console should should show:

<Time> **** Clean-only build of configuration Debug for project Smoothie ****
make clean 
Cleaning mbed
make[1]: Betrete Verzeichnis '/home/stth/daten/programmieren/eclipse_smt/Smoothie/mbed'
Cleaning src
[...]
Cleaning up all build generated files
make[2]: Verlasse Verzeichnis '/home/stth/daten/programmieren/eclipse_smt/Smoothie/src'
make[1]: Verlasse Verzeichnis '/home/stth/daten/programmieren/eclipse_smt/Smoothie/src'

<Time> Build Finished (took 416ms)

• Click on the hammer icon in the main tool bar
  • the Console view should show:

<Time> **** Build of configuration Debug for project Smoothie ****
make all 
make[1]: Betrete Verzeichnis '/home/stth/daten/programmieren/eclipse_smt/Smoothie/mbed'
Building src
[...]
Compiling modules/utils/panel/panels/ST7565/AK4183.cpp
Compiling ../build/mbed_custom.cpp
Linking ../LPC1768/main.elf
Extracting ../LPC1768/main.hex
Extracting ../LPC1768/main.bin
Extracting disassembly to ../LPC1768/main.disasm
   text       data        bss        dec        hex    filename
 313188        544      10144     323876      4f124    ../LPC1768/main.elf

make[2]: Verlasse Verzeichnis '/home/stth/daten/programmieren/eclipse_smt/Smoothie/src'
make[1]: Verlasse Verzeichnis '/home/stth/daten/programmieren/eclipse_smt/Smoothie/src'

<Time> Build Finished (took 1m:16s.206ms)

If you get many error markers when you open a file even when the project builds without complaints, try this:
[This seems to be not necessary any more, i keep it here for testing]

• Goto project properties
  • Click the arrow to left of C/C++ General item in left pane to expand its sub-items.
    • In the left pane, select the Code Analysis sub-item.
      • Select Project Settings
      • Uncheck all entries in the list below

Configure and build a debug configuration

• Right-click on the Smoothie project in the Project Explorer pane.
• Select Properties from the pop-up menu.
  • Select C/C++ Build item in left pane.
    • Click the Manage Configurations… button towards the upper right hand corner of the dialog.
      • Click the New… button.
        • Set Name: to Debug
        • You should be able to accept the default of Copy settings from > Existing configuration > Release.
        • Click the Ok button.
      • Select Debug configuration from the list of the small configurations dialog and then press the Set Active button.
      • Click the Ok button.
    • At the top of the properties dialog set Configuration: to Debug
    • Select the Behaviour sub-tab in the properties dialog.
      • Change Build (Incremental Build) from all to all upload ENABLE_DEBUG_MONITOR=1
        • These makefile rules will build the Smoothie project with debugger support and upload the binary to the device. You may need to change these make arguments if your deploy requirements are different.
        • Also note that if you compile with ENABLE_DEBUG_MONITOR=1 a breakpoint will be set at startup, which may look like smoothie isn't starting at all

If you change Build configurations, alway perform a make clean (Project->Clean) and make all (Project->Build), before you use the binaries

Run Smoothie under the Debugger

Now comes the really fun part. Not only can we build Smoothie in Eclipse, we can also run it under its debugger UI.

• Right-click on the Smoothie project in the Project Explorer pane.
• Select Debug as > Debug Configurations… from the pop-up menu. This will bring up the Debug Configurations dialog.
• In the left pane, right-click the C/C++ Remote Application item and select the New item from the pop-up menu. This will create us a new remote debugging configuration.
• At the bottom of this dialog, there is a link named Select other…. Click it to pop up the Select Preferred Launcher dialog.
• Check the Use configuration specific settings check-box.
• Select the GDB (DSF) Manual Remote Debugging Lancher.
• Click Ok to return to the debug configurations dialog.
• Set C/C++ Application: to LPC1768/main.elf
• Select the Disable auto build option.
• Click on the Debugger tab.
• Change GDB debugger: from gdb to arm-none-eabi-gdb
• Click on the Connection sub-tab.
• Set Type: to Serial
• Set Device: to a value appropriate for your environment. This will be the serial port on your PC which is connected to UART0 of your Smoothieboard.
• Click on the Common tab.
• In the Display in favorites menu, check the Debug option if not already checked.
• Click the Close button to dismiss the Debug Configurations

Now that you have the debug configuration setup, you are ready to try running Smoothie under the debugger.

• Reset your device to make sure that the debug build done earlier is up and running on your device.
• In the toolbar at the top of Eclipse, there is a button that looks like a bug which has a small down pointing arrow to its right. Click the arrow with your mouse and select the Smoothie Debug configuration that was just created.
• You should now be in the debugger at the top of the main() function.

Thanks

Thanks again to David Cabanis for his help. Also thanks to the Smoothie users that helped me with Eclipse and testing.

One source of inspiration on setting this toolchain it's the page from MBED site :
https://github.com/adamgreen/gcc4mbed/blob/master/notes/eclipse.creole