DESK-MX6UL-AN-0002: Getting started with Qt Creator

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This application note has been validated using the kit version in the History table.

History

Version	Date	Development Kit version
1.0.1	Jun 2021	DESK-MX6UL-L 1.0.1

Introduction

This application note details QT Creator setup and configuration in DESK MVM

Setting up Qt Creator to build for DESKK

Note: The version of Qt Creator may differ from images below. The version provided from DESK 1.0.1 release is Qt Creator 4.11.0

Qt versions

The qt-opensource-linux installer will install the 5.12.7 Qt library version which are not aligned with the 5.10.1 Qt version included in the DESK-MX6UL-L BSP. This is because NXP BSP includes Qt 5.10.1 version while Qt Company does not provide the Qt Creator 5.10.1 installer anymore.

This is not an issue for creating and compiling Qt application for the target: the binary version deployed into the target will be created starting from the Qt included into the SDK. Only the Qt Creator IDE is configured and used for creating Qt application for the target.

In any case, the Qt x86 libraries installed in the MVM can be used for Qt application creation and debugging.

Qt Creator Installation

To install Qt Creator launch a terminal emulator and run the qt-opensource-linux installer.

dvdk@vagrant:~$ cd desk-mx-l/

dvdk@vagrant:~/desk-mx-l$ ./qt-opensource-linux-x64.run 

An installation wizard will appear. Clik Next to proced with the installation.

Fill the form with your information and properly activate your account on Qt web site.

Select Next.

Select the install directory or click Next.

Select Next.

After carefully reading the License Agreement, if you agree, accept it and then press Next again.

And then click Install and complete the installation.

Then Finish to exit the setup wizard.

Manual configuration

In this section we details all the step required for configuring the SDK toolchain.

Devices

Go to Tools -> Options menu

Select Devices and click Add

Choose the Generic Linux device

Insert the IP address of your device, root as username and leave password empty (this is the default configuration of DESK root file systems). Make sure that the device is connected to the network and your virtual machine networking is correctly configured (see this article for more details).

Then click Next.

QtCreator asks you to create a deployment key for the target connection:

If the target data was inserted correctly (IP address, login username) then the key will be correctly deployed into the target:

If everything went ok pressing Finish button you should see a dialog like the image below.

And finally this is how the Devices window should look like.

GCC & Cross Compilation

Next you need to configure the cross compilation tool inside Kits -> Compiler.

Click Add -> GCC, add the compiler path and set (for example) the DESK-MX-GCC compiler name.

/home/dvdk/desk-mx-l/sdk/latest_desk-mx6ul-l/sysroots/x86_64-pokysdk-linux/usr/bin/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gcc

And click Apply.

Do the same for the C++ cross compilation tool (DESK-MX-GCC+)

/home/dvdk/desk-mx-l/sdk/latest_desk-mx6ul-l/sysroots/x86_64-pokysdk-linux/usr/bin/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-g++

Debugger GDB

Now it is necessary to add a debugger. In order to do this go to the Debuggers tab and click Add.

And then select the GDB debugger at the location

/home/dvdk/desk-mx-l/sdk/latest_desk-mx6ul-l/sysroots/x86_64-pokysdk-linux/usr/bin/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi/arm-poky-linux-gnueabi-gdb

and click Apply.

Qt Version

Next you need to add the Qt Version installed on your device. Go to Qt Version click Add and select the following qmake file.

home/dvdk/desk-mx-l/sdk/latest_desk-mx6ul-l/sysroots/x86_64-pokysdk-linux/usr/bin/qt5/qmake

Kits

The last step is to add a new kit. Go to Kits and click Add and complete the information as shown below.

Pay attention that in Qt mkspec you need to write

linux-oe-g++

After this your setup is complete and you can proceed and create your Qt applications.

Qt application example

Now that the setup is finished, you can create your first application

Open a new terminal and source the environment variables with the command.

dvdk@vagrant:~/desk-mx-l$ source desk-mx6ul-l-1.0.1_env.sh 

In the same terminal type the following command (we assume you didn't change the default installation directory)

dvdk@vagrant:~/desk-mx-l$ /home/dvdk/Qt5.12.7/Tools/QtCreator/bin/qtcreator

It is important to repeat the previous two step every time you start QTCreator