# What Linux distro and setup should I use for RiscV hardware development?

**URL:** <https://forums.sifive.com/t/what-linux-distro-and-setup-should-i-use-for-riscv-hardware-development/806>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [October 15, 2017, 10:24am UTC](https://forums.sifive.com/t/what-linux-distro-and-setup-should-i-use-for-riscv-hardware-development/806 "2017-10-15T10:24:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![frohic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8dc957/32.png) [@frohic](https://forums.sifive.com/u/frohic)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 10:24am UTC](https://forums.sifive.com/t/what-linux-distro-and-setup-should-i-use-for-riscv-hardware-development/806/1 "2017-10-15T10:24:40Z")

</div>

I want to build and run rocket-chip ([https://github.com/freechipsproject/rocket-chip](https://github.com/freechipsproject/rocket-chip)) but I’m hitting incompatibility issues. I’ve experienced similar issues on a number or RiscV implementations and tools, and I’ve been pointed to this forum to ask for help.

I can use a completely virgin installation of the distro, and I’ve tried these and I hit issues with all of them.  
Fedora 24  
Fedora 25  
Fedora 26  
CentOS 7  
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS

So what Linux distribution should I be using and what packages should I install?

Many thanks

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brucehoult](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.sifive.com/brucehoult/32/24_2.png) [@brucehoult](https://forums.sifive.com/u/brucehoult)\
**Post date:** [October 15, 2017, 4:08pm UTC](https://forums.sifive.com/t/what-linux-distro-and-setup-should-i-use-for-riscv-hardware-development/806/2 "2017-10-15T16:08:09Z")

</div>

I’d use Ubuntu out of those. In my experience more people and projects use it as their reference than anything else. But if you are more familiar with another distro then there shouldn’t be any problem.

What problems are you seeing?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dgrubb](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.sifive.com/dgrubb/32/23_2.png) [@dgrubb](https://forums.sifive.com/u/dgrubb)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2017, 7:35pm UTC](https://forums.sifive.com/t/what-linux-distro-and-setup-should-i-use-for-riscv-hardware-development/806/3 "2017-10-16T19:35:50Z")

</div>

> [@frohic](#):
>
> I can use a completely virgin installation of the distro […] what packages should I install?

The README.md links to a list of [prerequisite packages](https://github.com/riscv/riscv-tools/blob/priv-1.10/README.md#quickstart) for Ubuntu.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![frohic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8dc957/32.png) [@frohic](https://forums.sifive.com/u/frohic)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2017, 7:19am UTC](https://forums.sifive.com/t/what-linux-distro-and-setup-should-i-use-for-riscv-hardware-development/806/4 "2017-10-17T07:19:18Z")

</div>

Thanks for the responses.

Using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and installing all of those packages I get this:

Configuring project riscv-isa-sim  
configure: error: device-tree-compiler not found

I’m genuinely interested to know what distros active RiscV developers are using though.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![brucehoult](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forums.sifive.com/brucehoult/32/24_2.png) [@brucehoult](https://forums.sifive.com/u/brucehoult)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2017, 11:34am UTC](https://forums.sifive.com/t/what-linux-distro-and-setup-should-i-use-for-riscv-hardware-development/806/5 "2017-10-17T11:34:59Z")

</div>

device-tree-compiler is the 4th thing listed in the prerequisites, so you should have it.

```
sudo apt-get install autoconf automake autotools-dev curl device-tree-compiler libmpc-dev libmpfr-dev libgmp-dev gawk build-essential bison flex texinfo gperf libtool patchutils bc zlib1g-dev

```

Actually, that list is a bit heavy. The following should be enough to automatically install the others as dependencies:

```
sudo apt-get install automake curl device-tree-compiler libmpc-dev gawk build-essential bison flex texinfo gperf libtool patchutils bc zlib1g-dev
```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![frohic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8dc957/32.png) [@frohic](https://forums.sifive.com/u/frohic)\
**Post date:** [October 19, 2017, 8:37am UTC](https://forums.sifive.com/t/what-linux-distro-and-setup-should-i-use-for-riscv-hardware-development/806/6 "2017-10-19T08:37:58Z")

</div>

Thanks for your help. This unblocked me. I had installed a set of packages for a different project that hadn’t included device-tree-compiler. I haven’t completed building successfully yet, but since it’s taking a while, I wanted to thank you.