Setup Description - Step by Step :-)

Step 1 - Download the correct files (or get them all on a CD)
  • CYGWIN The cygnus Toolset. Please note: VFDIDE is based on b20.1 of cygwin. Even though more recent versions are avail you may use this version (it has all I need - and works just fine)
  • PRC-Tools The PRC-Tools Toolset. Same comment...
  • You may also want to download the documentations etc. but that is not vital for VFDIDE to operate propperly.
  • Palm OS SDK Software Development Kit from Palm.
  • PILRCW32 - The Resource Compiler 2.8 or above Please download the latest built
  • Palm OS Emulator The Palm Os Emulator (POSE) that VFDIDE uses for debugging purposes.
  • The Palm OS Emulator needs a ROM file to work.
    Please get one from the Palm Web site. (Due to legal reasons I'm not allowed to publish ROM files here - sorry)
  • Of course you also need VFDIDE Version 4.2.7 or above.
  • VFDHELP.ZIP can also be viewed individualy for "first information"

Step 2 - Installation of the individual SW Packages
  • Uninstall gcc 0.5.0 if you have this on your System
  • Remove all GCC environment variables that you might have been left in your autoexec.bat
  • On Win9x Systems please add the following command to your config.sys.
    SHELL=c:\dos\command.com /E:2048 /P (or wherever your command.com is located)
    You *may* need that. You will increase the environmental space for environment variables you will get during the installation.
    Please boot your PC after this change !!
  • IMPORTANT:
    The following description will assume that you will install to C:\PalmDev. You may decide different but - good luck. Please AVOID blanks in folder names. You may need approx 100 MB of free space on drive C:


  • CYGWIN:
    • Run the cygwin-b20.1-full.exe installation program. Please select C:\PalmDev\cygwin as your destination folder (case sensitivity? I don't know...)
    • Please accept all defaults during the rest of the setup process.
    • Please check that you have cygnus in C:\PalmDev\cygwin plus a handfull of sub-folders

  • PRC-Tools:
    • Run the PRC-Tools-2.0.exe installation program.
    • Select all components to be installed
    • Select C:\PalmDev\PRC-Tools as your prc-tools tool chain destination location.
    • Select C:\PalmDev\Docu as your tool chain documentation and samples destination location.
    • Please accept all defaults during the rest of the setup process.
    • Please check the existance of the following folders:
      • C:\PalmDev\PRC-Tools (plus some sub-folders)
      • C:\PalmDev\Docu (plus some sub-folders)

  • Palm OS SDK 4.0:
    • Open the SDK40.zip file
    • Please launch the Palm OS 4.0.exe
    • Please select c:\PalmDev as your destination folder.
    • You now have the SDK ready.
    • In order for the gcc-compiler to find all the include files there are different alternatives.
      • You can set up a symbolic link. Forget that.
      • You can define -palmos35 compiler switch. Forget that.
      • Please locate c:\PalmDev\sdk-4.0 and rename this folder to c:\PalmDev\sdk
      • This should end up in the following folder structure:
        • C:\PalmDev\sdk\include\Core
        • C:\PalmDev\sdk\include\Dynamic
        • C:\PalmDev\sdk\include\Libraries
        • (And related Sub-folders)

  • PILRC - The Resource Compiler:
    • Please unzip PILRC_w32.zip to C:\PalmDev (subfolder pilrc-[n.n] gets created)
    • Please rename this folder to c:\PalmDev\Pilrc
    • Please ensure that you have C:\PalmDev\pilrc (plus sub-folders) at the end
    • Please copy the file c:\PalmDev\Pilrc\cygwin1.dll into your windows system folder.

  • Palm OS Emulator:
    • It is - again - a ZIP file. Please unzip to C:\PalmDev\POSE
    • Please ensure that you have C:\PalmDev\POSE (plus sub-folders) at the end
    • Please get a ROM file and copy it to this folder as well.
    • Try to launch Emulator.exe, define a ROM file and a Palm model to emulate and set the "save session" flag to "always"

  • VFDIDE 4.2.6++ - Visual Form Designer:
    • Now the most easy step: Install VFDIDE to C:\PalmDev\VFDIDE

Step 3 - Configuration Settings
  • CONFIG.SYS (Win9x only)
    As mentioned earlier on Win9x Systems please add the following command to your config.sys.
    SHELL=c:\dos\command.com /E:2048 /P
    You *may* need that. You will increase the environmental space for environment variables you will get during the installation.
    Please boot your PC after this change !!


  • AUTOEXEC.BAT (Win9x) / Or Environment Settings (WinNT)
    Please add the following environment settings to your system:
    Attention: Don't use cut&paste here as this *may* add trailing blanks which will result in an environment that will not work
    • set MAKE_MODE=UNIX
    • set CYGNOS_HOME=c:\PalmDev\cygwin\cygwin-b20\H-i586-cygwin32
    • set PRCTOOLS_HOME=c:\PalmDev\PRC-Tools\H-i586-cygwin32
    • set PATH=%PRCTOOLS_HOME%\BIN;
      %CYGNOS_HOME%\BIN;
      C:\PALMDEV;
      C:\PALMDEV\PILRC;
      C:\PALMDEV\POSE;
      %PATH%
      (Note: All settings must appear in a SINGLE line)
    • (no include_path settings required due to the rename of the sdk4.0 folder to the sdk folder :-)) )

    • Boot your PC in order to activate the changed settings. Please double check afterwards if your environment settings are accurate and as listed above. In order to do so run "SET" on a DOS prompt.

  • System Mounts for cygwin:
    This is probbably the most important step. So ensure everything is correct. Mount information must appear with a single backslash at the end.
    • Please open a DOS window and type MOUNT. You will receive a list of mount entries.
    • Please compare that list with the list following here.
    • use MOUNT or UMOUNT to add or remove a mount (sample: "MOUNT c:\temp /tmp" or "UMOUNT /tmp")
    • This is the list how it has to look at the end:
      DeviceDirectoryTypeFlags
      c:\temp/tmpnativetext!=binary
      c:\PalmDev\PRC-Tools/prc-toolsnativetext!=binary
      c:\PalmDev\cygwin\cygwin-b20\H-i586-cygwin32\bin/binnativetext!=binary
      c:\PalmDev/PalmDevnativetext!=binary
      c:/nativetext!=binary
      • Note: You need to change a mount point after setup. You don't need c:\PalmDev\Docu mounted but c:\PalmDev mounted to /PalmDev. This is IMPORTANT.
       If you have trouble mounting you can alernatively use regedit and set the mount points by hand. Please be careful with this as it is normaly not required and may corrupt your registry. The key is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cygnus Solutions\CYGWIN.DLL setup\b15.0\mounts.

Step 4 - Configuration of VFDIDE
  • Please go to the Options screen and configure the Environment-TAB, the automation settings and the debugging component (please search for m68K-palmos-gdb.exe and configure this).

Step 5 - Test
  • In order to test your environment you may want to run a test compilation. Please go to C:\PalmDev\VFDIDE\Sample1PRCTools20 unzip the sample files and run the compile1.bat from inside VFDIDE. You should receive a counter.prc with 5 KB of size that you can install on a Palm Device.

Step 6 - Porting gcc 0.5.0 Applications
  • 3com has changed some of the include file names. Please change your project accordingly. The files I know of are UIAll.h, SysAll.h and so on. Please instead include PalmOS.h and PalmCompatibility.h

Trouble ??? - Don't hesitate to contact me
It sometimes happens that some of the steps above are not followed accurately and then do not result in a running environment.
This is very often due to invalid SET/PATH/MOUNT/DIRECTORY structure.

Please do the following to analyze that:
  • open up a DOS box
  • run "set > c:\mysets.txt"
  • run "dir c:\palmdev /s > mydir.txt"
  • run "mount > c:\mymounts.txt"
and pass over all the txt files so that I can have a look to your environmental settings. Something is not accurate there.