I was in sort of 'get proof of concept mode' and wanted to get results that evening (so not enough reading) and also was convinced that picotool could do its work independent of the producing a binary (.elf). That is usually the case for decades already and as indicated, for ESP there is a esptool.py that I keep somewhere on the LAN and runs on both x86-64 and aarch64. I use that to flash Tasmota*bin (complete 'RTOS') but also my own created binaries from C-code for things that need custom own code.If you want to make 'picotool' a system-wide utility you can either link '/usr/local/bin/picotool' to the executable or copy the executable there. I recommend the first as there will never be any mismatch between what gets used at the command line and by Pico SDK if the 'picotool' installation ever gets updated.
There is a highlighted note that "You cannot just copy the binary into your PATH, else the Pico SDK will not be able to locate it'. That's under manually building but also applies to using the asset bundle.
I now read more and it is easy to push code into the waveshare_rp2040_zero board, although the BOOT and RESET buttons made me think I really need those. My approach now is that I do build on fast computer and push the binary into the pico board on the computer where it is USB-connected and doing its work. It is all aarch64 so not a situation as with the Pi1B where you need ARMv6 tooling, although discussed here on forum that a fast aarch64 computer with systemd-nspawn on a armhf roottree is also a good option.
I put all SDK stuff now in a Btrfs subvolume, so it is rather easy to move/clone that to other computers and not polluting the roottree. In future maybe RPL could just make a .DEB package, signed by RPL key and in their repo or even generic distros. And maybe a user and additional/optional -dev package. I am just thinking a bit how Android adb tool and various others.
Using the copied picotool from build computer to target computer did not work as that is not Trixie yet (GLIBC version mismatch). So for simple reflashing the pico board as is my use-case, I do not need the latest tool version and would have been OK if a sudo apt install picotool would be enough. But glad I had the downloaded 2.1.1. around, that is Bookworm capable.
Statistics: Posted by redvli — Sat Aug 02, 2025 1:06 pm