Windows installation

If you are running Windows 98, Me, NT, 2000 or XP you can download a one step installer program for mspgcc from the mspgcc web-site download page. Download it. Run it. Choose the default installation directory, unless you have a very good reason to do otherwise. In most cases the default option to install everything is the right choice. Once component - giveio - will automatically not install on Windows 98 or Me machines, as it is not needed. It provides raw access to the parallel port on machines using Windows NT, 2000 or XP. If you are running Windows 98 or Me you will be prompted to add the installation path for the mspgcc programs to your PATH environment variable. For Windows NT, 2000 or XP this will be done automatically for you.

The Windows mspgcc installer uses the library cygwin1.dll, which is part of the Cygwin package. You may only have one copy of this on your machine. The installer checks if this file exists, and will not install its own copy if it does. If you already have Cygwin installed, you may need to check it is up to date. Older versions of cygwin1.dll may not function correctly with mspgcc.

If you wish to debug MSP430 programs using the JTAG interface you will use a parallel port on your computer to communicate with the JTAG tool. If other software is using this interface (e.g. a print spooler) you may have trouble. If you have any diffculty communicating with the JTAG interface, check for conflicting uses of the parallel port.