Compatibility ARDUINO 1.6.6 IDE

[sebilativi]

Hello,
thanks for the great bootloader.

I wish optiboot would be cleaned up and be compatible with the new 1.6.6 IDE. This means I just have to generate a directory named 'hardware' in my Sketchbook, extract the optiboot files and would be finished.

With IDE 1.6.6 I had java and panic errors. Tried everything, but was not able to get it running. Downloaded IDE 1.6.5, changed to 'boards-1.6.txt', copied the contents in the IDE 'boards.txt', copied the bootloaders in the IDE, deleted the 'hardware' dir and now it's working...

I would clean this all up by myself, but sorry, I was not able to find the problem with the IDE 1.6.6. Maybe you could look at it.

Thanks and kindest regards,
Sebilativi

[majekw]

I use Optiboot with Arduino 1.6.6. It took me also a while to discover how it should be installed :-)
So, in sketch folder you need 'hardware' directory as you did first. Put Optiboot inside and rename second level directory 'optiboot' to 'avr'.
Directory tree should look like this:

hardware/
└── optiboot
    └── avr
        ├── bootloaders
        │   └── optiboot
        └── libraries

I think that release.sh script should be updated to create two different packages for each version family of Arduino. Best option would be to generate correct boards.txt from one source to not maintain two separate files as it's done currently.

[WestfW]

Did you try it via the .json file on the "releases" page? ("beta"...) I didn't think that there was a change between 1.6.5 and 1.6.6... (although, this is .hex files only. The source tree hasn't been compatible with the IDE in a LONG time, and 1.6.x no longer includes the needed tools, anyway. So I'm not sure what should be done there...)

[ivakinpavel]

plese put this info in readme

[WestfW]

I've updated the README file.
0eb5e37
Still need to update the more detailed wiki pages...
Note that in general, the proliferation of other "Boards Manager Packages" that already include some optiboot hex file should lessen the need for a separate Optiboot install.

[Roberto6969]

I see this issue is still open so I will use it. Maybe this will help to clear some question regarding installation in IDE environment (mine is 1.8.7):

1. on location "C:\Users\test\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\Optiboot_old\hardware\avr" should be folder 0.8.0 as it was for version 0.6.2 and 0.7.0?
2. Is @majekw advice still valid? Compatibility ARDUINO 1.6.6 IDE  #164 (comment)
3. Should be any optiboot's folder here? C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino\hardware\arduino\avr\bootloaders

I have made installation/deinstallation/installation but now Boards Manager show Optiboot 8.0 by westfw version 0.8.0 INSTALLED but ther is no traces of files on computer :-(

[WestfW]

1. When I install Optiboot 8.0 on a windows system, I wind up with the actual .hex files in:
   "C:\Users\billw\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\Optiboot\hardware\avr\0.8.0\bootloaders\optiboot\optiboot_atmega1280.hex"
   Except I seem to have left out at atmega328 .hex file :-(

2. I think the current board-manager install currently puts things in the correct place; the burn-bootloader command does the right thing with my 1.8.5 install; I'll check with 1.8.7 as well...

3. No. or rather, that's the original version of optiboot (~2011) that comes with the IDE.
   All the things installed by the board manager go in the "packages" directory.

Understand that "AppData" is a hidden, system file, so its contents do not show up in search results, and with a normal user-level configuration you can't even see it to look at. And it doesn't install source, anyway. Unless you're interested in only the pre-built binary for one of the "main" cores, using the board manager is a poor way to work with Optiboot. See #243

[Roberto6969]

Thank you for your explanation. You have pointed out right source of possible problem. I have installed in 1.8.7 and folder was empty.
Then i installed in 1.8.5 version and in C:\Users\test\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\Optiboot\hardware\avr\0.8.0\bootloaders\optiboot I got six *.hex files (including optiboot_atmega328.hex)

It seems something goes wrong in version 1.8.7 during the installation because directory structure in folder packages is not created.