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QNX® Software Development Platform for x86 Targets 6.4.1: Installation Note — QNX® Neutrino® Hosts

QNX® Software Development Platform for x86 Targets 6.4.1: Installation Note — QNX® Neutrino® Hosts

Date of this edition: July 06, 2009

Target OS: This development suite produces software that's compatible with x86 targets that are running QNX® Neutrino® 6.4.1.

Host OS: You can install this package in an empty partition on your system.

You can also install the QNX Neutrino RTOS as a virtual machine on VMware Workstation 6.5, VMware Player 2.5 and Microsoft VirtualPC 2007. If you find problems with any virtualization environment, please let us know.

Caution: If you installed an alpha version of this software, uninstall it before installing the production version.
Note:
  • This is a special version of QNX SDP that's for x86 targets only. If you want to develop for other targets, install the full QNX Software Development Platform 6.4.1. You can't upgrade the x86 development suite into the full version.
  • We no longer support development for ARMBE targets, but we once again support it for MIPS.
  • If you've already installed an evaluation version of QNX SDP 6.4.1, and you've purchased and received a commercial QNX license, please go to “Commercializing your evaluation software,” below.
  • This installer does a fresh installation of QNX SDP 6.4.1. It can coexist with earlier versions of the QNX Momentics® development suite.
  • For information about using BSPs with QNX SDP 6.4.1, see the BSP Migration Guide in the BSPs and Drivers project on Foundry27.
  • For information about QNX SDP, including any host-specific issues, see the release notes. For the most up-to-date version of these notes, go to our website, www.qnx.com, log into your myQNX account, and then go to the Download Center.

Contents

System requirements

Minimum Recommended
Processor 2 GHz or more Intel Pentium 4 2 GHz or more Intel Pentium 4
RAM 512 MB 1 GB
Disk space 1.5 GB 1.5 GB
Monitor 1024×768 1280×1024

In order to install 6.4.1, you need 1200 MB of disk space, which includes the space required for backups and temporary space used in installing the files.

Caution: Some x86 systems can run in System Management Mode (SMM), where the BIOS installs special code that runs when a System Management Interrupt (SMI) occurs. SMI interrupts may be generated by the motherboard or peripheral hardware, and can't be masked by the operating system. When SMM is entered, normal operations — including the OS — are suspended, and the SMI handler runs at a high priority. Avoid using systems where SMM can't be disabled, because it can destroy QNX Neutrino's realtime performance. The OS can't do anything about the delays that SMM introduces, nor can the OS even detect that the system has entered SMM.

BIOS settings

We recommend you use the following BIOS settings:

  • Disable Plug and Play OS.
  • Set any parallel ports and onboard serial ports to specific addresses, if possible, instead of using an automatic setting.
  • Enable SATA if your system includes a SATA drive.
  • If you want to boot QNX Neutrino from the CD — either to try it without installing it, or for troubleshooting — make sure that the CD is the first boot device.
  • If your BIOS is has an option for booting from “Other USB devices,” enabling it could make the BIOS take a very long time to start.

Updating disk drivers

The Neutrino boot process can dynamically add block I/O (i.e. disk) drivers, letting you boot on systems with newer controllers. The mechanism is simple and not proprietary to QNX Software Systems, so third parties can offer enhanced block drivers without any intervention on our part. For more information, see “Updating disk drivers” in the Controlling How Neutrino Starts chapter of the Neutrino User's Guide.

Installing QNX SDP 6.4.1

Note:
  • You must do a fresh installation of this software.
  • For QNX Neutrino self-hosted development, it's possible to have QNX SDP 6.4.1 and earlier versions of QNX Momentics installed on your computer at the same time. If you want to retain an earlier released version of QNX Momentics, install QNX SDP 6.4.1 in a new partition.

    When you boot, you're asked to choose the partition by its number. If you're then prompted to choose from multiple .diskroot files, choose the one that corresponds to the partition that you already chose.

  • In text mode, we support only the US keyboard layout.
  • If you install Neutrino in a partition on a Windows machine and later use Windows software to create another partition, you'll lose your Neutrino partition.

This CD includes the runtime version of the QNX Neutrino RTOS, as well as the QNX Momentics Tool Suite.

To install this software:

  1. Insert the QNX SDP 6.4.1 Neutrino Host CD in the CD drive.
  2. Boot from the CD and follow the instructions on your screen. Depending on your system, the installer may ask you to do the following:
    • Decide whether to run from the disk or install QNX Neutrino into a new disk partition. Press F3 to install, and then choose between normal and verbose modes.
    • Enter your license key. You can use lower- or uppercase for the letters, and it doesn't matter if you include or omit the hyphens.
    • Read the license agreement. To accept its terms and continue with the installation, press F1.
    • Choose which disk you'd like to install QNX Neutrino on.
    • If you system has more than one DVD or CD drive, choose which one you'd like to install QNX Neutrino from.
    • Choose the location for the new partition, and then the type:
      • 177, 178, or 179 for the new Power-Safe (fs-qnx6.so) filesystem — see the Filesystems chapter of the System Architecture guide for a description
      • 77, 78, or 79 for the QNX 4 (fs-qnx4.so) filesystem
      Note: If you're installing directly to a USB drive, choose one of the QNX 4 types (77, 78, or 79). The Power-Safe (fs-qnx6.so) filesystem can't guarantee that the filesystem is power-safe on devices that don't support synchronizing. (Ref# 61707)

      The default is 179. If there's already a partition of the type you chose, you're given the choice of deleting a partition or choosing another type.

    • Choose the size of the new partition.
    • The installer might ask you to choose a boot loader to use.
    • Choose where to install the software. We recommend you use the default location, /usr/qnx641.

    The installer will also ask if you wish to install a package of GNU Public License programs, such as tar and sed. We recommend that you do so for development machines.

    Note: If you encounter any I/O errors during the installation, disable DMA by restarting and pressing d when the system displays the “Hit space for options...” message. (Ref# 42044)
  3. When prompted, remove the CD from the drive and then reboot.
    Note:
    • If your EIDE doesn't support DMA:
      • If you're using the Power-Safe filesystem (fs-qnx6.so), boot using qnxbase.ifs.
      • If you're using the QNX 4 filesystem (fs-qnx4.so), boot with .altboot by pressing Esc when prompted.
    • If you've installed QNX Neutrino directly on a USB drive, and the system doesn't boot automatically, replace the partition boot loader; from a working system, run:

      dloader /dev/part pc2

      where part is the device name of the partition you need to boot. (Ref# 61707)

    If you have more than one partition on your disk, choose the one you installed QNX Neutrino in. Choose the appropriate boot loader. If you don't choose a partition or boot loader, the system uses the default ones.

  4. The first time you boot, a dialog asks you to choose the video driver, resolution, color depth, and refresh rate that are appropriate for your system. You can also select Global Options so you can choose whether to boot into text or graphical (Photon) mode.
    Note: When you start a QNX Neutrino system for the first time, it chooses a “safe” graphics driver (devg-svga.so or devg-vesabios.so, depending on the installed chipset). However, these generic VESA BIOS and SVGA drivers can negatively impact the timing of a system and affect realtime operations. We recommended you use an accelerated driver instead, if at all possible.
  5. Log in as root (or click Superuser in graphical mode). This account initially has no password; for instructions for setting the password and creating other accounts, see the Managing User Accounts chapter of the QNX Neutrino User's Guide. You'll find this manual in the online documentation, as well as on our website.
  6. Set the time zone, time, date, and so on in the Localization windows.
  7. Activate your software (see “Activating QNX SDP 6.4.1,” below.

Congratulations — you've completed the installation! You'll find a copy of the license agreements in base_dir/install/qnxsdp/6.4.1, where base_dir is where you installed SDP (see “Determining your base directory,” below).

Activating QNX SDP 6.4.1

The QNX SDP 6.4.1 development suite and certain related products require activation. If you don't activate the product within the specified timeframe, the product will cease to function until you activate it. No personal data is transferred during the activation process.

If your development host is connected to the Internet, you can activate QNX SDP 6.4.1 automatically; if your machine isn't connected to the Internet, you must activate your software manually from a machine that is, by doing the following:

  1. In the QNX SDP Activation dialog, click Activate Manually.

    The Manual Activation dialog appears with an activate-prompt key. This dialog has a button that you can use to save the activate-prompt key in a file, /etc/qnx/license/activate_prompt_key.txt. This can eliminate the need to retype the key, which can be error-prone.

  2. Transfer the activate-prompt key to the machine that's connected to the Internet.
  3. Go to our website, www.qnx.com, log into your myQNX account, and choose Manual Product Activation (6.3.x or 6.4.x).
  4. Enter the activate-prompt key into the form that appears, and then click Generate Response Key. This will return an activate-response key.
  5. Copy the activate-response key and paste it in a file.
  6. Transfer the file into /etc/qnx/license/activate_response_key.txt on your QNX SDP development host.
  7. If you closed the QNX SDP Activation dialog, open it again by selecting Configure-->Activate License from the Launch menu, or by entering the following at a terminal prompt: 
    /etc/qnx/bin/qnxactivate -a
  8. Choose Activate Manually, and use the Load Response from File button to load the activate-response key, and then click Activate.

If you choose not to activate at the time of installation, you can activate later by selecting Configure-->Activate License from the Launch menu, or by entering the following at a terminal prompt: 

/etc/qnx/bin/qnxactivate -a

Commercializing your evaluation software

If you installed an evaluation copy of QNX SDP 6.4.1, and you've now received a commercial QNX license, do the following to add your commercial license:

  1. Choose Configure-->Add License from the Launch menu.
  2. Enter the license-key information.
  3. Read the displayed End User License Agreement (EULA) and accept its terms if you wish to continue.

Creating a bootable floppy

We recommend that you install QNX SDP 6.4.1 on a machine that can boot from a CD-ROM. If your machine can't do this, you can create a bootable floppy.

The root directory of the QNX SDP 6.4.1 installation CD contains an image of a bootable floppy, named instflop.dat. To copy this file to a boot disk:

  • On UNIX-style machines (including QNX Neutrino), use the dd utility to copy this image to a boot disk: 
    dd if=instflop.dat of=/dev/fd0
  • On Windows, you need a raw-copy utility. Although we don't support any such utilities, we recommend you use rawwrite, which you can find at:

    http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/rawwrite.htm

    Download this utility and extract it to a folder.

    To create a bootable floppy:

    1. Start rawwrite.
    2. Make sure the Floppy Drive combo box refers to your floppy drive.
    3. Under the Write tab, specify the location of instflop.dat in the Image File field, and click Write.

Uninstalling QNX SDP 6.4.1

Note: You should uninstall QNX products in the reverse order in which you installed them. To determine this order, use a command like this:

ls -lt `find base_directory -name "*uninstall*.sh"`

where base_directory is where you installed the QNX Software Development Platform.

To completely uninstall QNX SDP 6.4.1, simply erase or delete the partition you installed it in.

Determining your base directory

To determine the base directory for QNX SDP 6.4.1, open a command shell and use the qconfig command. For example: 

$ qconfig
QNX Installations

  Installation Name: QNX Software Development Platform 6.4.1
            Version: 6.4.1
     Base Directory: /usr/qnx641/
           QNX_HOST: /usr/qnx641/host/qnx6/x86/
         QNX_TARGET: /usr/qnx641/target/qnx6/

The base directory in this example is /usr/qnx641/, but it could be different on your machine, depending on where you installed QNX SDP 6.4.1.

Getting started with the docs

After you've installed QNX SDP 6.4.1, you'll find an extensive set of HTML documentation:

  • On Linux and Windows development hosts, you can read it in the Integrated Development Environment's help system. On Linux, use the qde command to start the IDE; on Windows, use the desktop icon.
  • On self-hosted QNX Neutrino systems, you can read it in the Photon helpviewer, or you can use a web browser to display:

    ${QNX_TARGET}/usr/help/product/momentics/bookset.html

The “roadmap” page contains links to the various HTML booksets that accompany the OS (e.g. System Architecture, QNX Neutrino Programmer's Guide, Library Reference, Utilities Reference, etc.).

Note: The online documentation also includes the installation and release notes. For the most up-to-date version of these notes, go to our website, www.qnx.com, log into your myQNX account, and then go to the Download Center.

You can install and work with multiple versions of QNX Neutrino. Whether you're using the command line or the IDE, you can choose which version of the OS to build programs for. For more information, see the IDE User's Guide or the QNX Neutrino Programmer's Guide.

Note: Coexistence of 6.3 and 6.2.1 is supported only on Windows hosts.

Technical support

If you have any questions, comments, or problems with a QNX product, please contact Technical Support. For more information, see the How to Get Help chapter of the Welcome to QNX Momentics guide or visit our website, www.qnx.com.