STM32IDE with ST-Link Debug in a Docker Container

This setup will allow you to spin up a docker container where you can use:

• The STMCubeIDE, run and debug your hardware from the container on the IDE.
• Do a headless build.
• Open your project in a dev container on VSC.

Requirements

1. Download STM32CubeIDE for Linux from the ST website and place it in the docker-data/linux-stm32-ide directory of this repository.

   The installer should be the amd64.deb_bundle version. For example:

   en.st-stm32cubeide_1.15.0_20695_20240315_1429_amd64.deb_bundle.sh.zip

2. Install the STLink GDB Server on the host (STM32CubeCLTxxx), depending on whether you are on Windows or Linux.

Setup Windows Host

Setup Linux Host

Build the Docker Image

Run the helper script

`./dev-scripts/build-docker-img`

Start the GDB Server (Optional).

If you have an STLink then connect it now, otherwise skip this step.

• Make a note of the host IP address.

For WSL2: /mnt/c/Windows/System32/ipconfig.exe

Note that there will be IP addresses for your Windows host, WSL and Docker. You need the IP address of Windows, not WSL or Docker.

For Linux: ip addr show

Note that there will be IP addresses for your Linux host and for Docker. You need the IP address of your host not Docker.

• Start the GDB Server with the following script.

  ./dev-scripts/gdbs-host

• Leave the server running (to close it, use Ctrl+C).

Copy Helper Scripts to your project

Open a Linux terminal (or WSL). Navigate to the desired path on the host from where your project files will be accessible, one level up from your sources. From that location run the bring-scripts script.

For example for an STM32 project in ~/projects/stm32/blinky

cd ~/projects/stm32
/the/path/for/this/repo/dev-scripts/bring-scripts

This will create a directory with helper scripts on the host dev-scripts.

Here, helper scripts will be available for:

• Starting the GDB server on the host ./dev-scripts/gdbs-host
• Running the container on the host ./dev-scripts/run-container

Run the container

$ ./dev-scripts/run-container

From the Docker container

Launch the STM32 IDE

stm32cubeide&

Log into your st.com account. Tick Remember me on this computer

Setup the Debugger

For this to work the GDB server needs to be running on your host see here.

• Run -> Debug Configurations -> Debugger
• Host name or IP address: IP address of the Host connected to the hardware
• Connect to remote GDB server Port number: 61234
• Debug probe: ST-LINK (ST-LINK GDB server)
• Interface: SWD

Visual Studio Code and dev containers

For example for an STM32 project in ~/projects/stm32/blinky

Copy scripts and .devcontainer to your project tree, for this example.

cd ~/projects/stm32
/the/path/for/this/repo/dev-scripts/bring-scripts
cp -r /the/path/for/this/repo/.devcontainer ./blinky/

Run the container.

./dev-scripts/run-container

Launch Visual Studio Code and open your project directory. For this example:

~/projects/stm32/blinky

Now attach to the running container.

VSC -> F1 -> Dev Containers -> Attach to Running Container

Select the container stm32_tchain:latest.

Note you can assign a shortcut to Attach to Running Container by clicking on the cog that appears next to the command. I like to use Ctrl + F7

This will now launch a new instance of VSC. Here you can open a terminal and you'll notice that you are in the container where you can do a headless build.

As this is a new shell you'll need to add the path to the binary or you can source the helper script.

source ../dev-scripts/source-me.sh  # adds /opt/st/stm32cubeide_xxx to your path
headless-build.sh -data ~/ -importAll ../blinky -cleanBuild blinky/Debug

The commands above are also available via a template script you can adapt to suit your needs. See project-build-headless-template for details.

You will still able to debug from the ST IDE by launching it from the container terminal, or from the VSC terminal.