AVRDUDE(1) BSD General Commands Manual AVRDUDE(1) NAME avrdude - driver program for ``simple'' Atmel AVR MCU programmer SYNOPSIS avrdude -p partno [-b baudrate] [-B bitclock] [-c programmer-id] [-C config-file] [-D] [-e] [-E exitspec[,exitspec]] [-F] [-i delay] [-n] [-O] [-P port] [-q] [-s] [-t] [-u] [-U memtype:op:filename:filefmt] [-v] [-V] [-y] [-Y] DESCRIPTION Avrdude is a program for downloading code and data to Atmel AVR microcon- trollers. Avrdude supports Atmel's STK500 programmer, Atmel's AVRISP and AVRISP mkII devices, Atmel's JTAG ICE (both mkI and mkII, the latter also in ISP mode), programmers complying to AppNote AVR910 and AVR109 (includ- ing the Butterfly), as well as a simple hard-wired programmer connected directly to a ppi(4) or parport(4) parallel port, or to a standard serial port. In the simplest case, the hardware consists just of a cable con- necting the respective AVR signal lines to the parallel port. The MCU is programmed in serial programming mode, so, for the ppi(4) based programmer, the MCU signals '/RESET', 'SCK', 'MISO' and 'MOSI' need to be connected to the parallel port. Optionally, some otherwise unused output pins of the parallel port can be used to supply power for the MCU part, so it is also possible to construct a passive stand-alone program- ming device. Some status LEDs indicating the current operating state of the programmer can be connected, and a signal is available to control a buffer/driver IC 74LS367 (or 74HCT367). The latter can be useful to decouple the parallel port from the MCU when in-system programming is used. A number of equally simple bit-bang programming adapters that connect to a serial port are supported as well, among them the popular Ponyprog serial adapter, and the DASA and DASA3 adapters that used to be supported by uisp(1). Note that these adapters are meant to be attached to a phys- ical serial port. Connecting to a serial port emulated on top of USB is likely to not work at all, or to work abysmally slow. Atmel's STK500 programmer is also supported and connects to a serial port. Both, firmware versions 1.x and 2.x can be handled, but require a different programmer type specification (by now). Using firmware version 2, high-voltage programming is also supported, both parallel and serial (programmer types stk500pp and stk500hvsp). The simple serial programmer described in Atmel's application note AVR910, and the bootloader described in Atmel's application note AVR109 (which is also used by the AVR Butterfly evaluation board), are supported on a serial port. Atmel's JTAG ICE (both mkI and mkII) is supported as well to up- or down- load memory areas from/to an AVR target (no support for on-chip debug- ging). For the JTAG ICE mkII, JTAG, debugWire and ISP mode are sup- ported. See below for the limitations of debugWire. The AVR Dragon is supported in all modes (ISP, JTAG, HVSP, PP, debug- Wire). When used in JTAG and debugWire mode, the AVR Dragon behaves sim- ilar to a JTAG ICE mkII, so all device-specific comments for that device will apply as well. When used in ISP mode, the AVR Dragon behaves simi- lar to an AVRISP mkII (or JTAG ICE mkII in ISP mode), so all device-spe- cific comments will apply there. In particular, the Dragon starts out with a rather fast ISP clock frequency, so the -B bitclock option might be required to achieve a stable ISP communication. The USBasp ISP adapter is also supported, provided avrdude has been com- piled with libusb support. It features a simple firwmare-only USB imple- mentation, running on an ATmega8 (or ATmega88). Input files can be provided, and output files can be written in different file formats, such as raw binary files containing the data to download to the chip, Intel hex format, or Motorola S-record format. There are a number of tools available to produce those files, like asl(1) as a stan- dalone assembler, or avr-objcopy(1) for the final stage of the GNU toolchain for the AVR microcontroller. Avrdude can program the EEPROM and flash ROM memory cells of supported AVR parts. Where supported by the serial instruction set, fuse bits and lock bits can be programmed as well. These are implemented within avrdude as separate memory types and can be programmed using data from a file (see the -m option) or from terminal mode (see the dump and write commands). It is also possible to read the chip (provided it has not been code-protected previously, of course) and store the data in a file. Finally, a ``terminal'' mode is available that allows one to interac- tively communicate with the MCU, and to display or program individual memory cells. On the STK500 programmer, several operational parameters (target supply voltage, target Aref voltage, master clock) can be exam- ined and changed from within terminal mode as well. Options In order to control all the different operation modi, a number of options need to be specified to avrdude. -p partno This is the only option that is mandatory for every invoca- tion of avrdude. It specifies the type of the MCU con- nected to the programmer. These are read from the config file. If avrdude does not know about a part that you have, simply add it to the config file (be sure and submit a patch back to the author so that it can be incorporated for the next version). See the sample config file for the for- mat. Currently, the following MCU types are understood: Option tag Official part name c128 AT90CAN128 pwm2 AT90PWM2 pwm3 AT90PWM3 1200 AT90S1200 2313 AT90S2313 2333 AT90S2333 2343 AT90S2343 (*) 4414 AT90S4414 4433 AT90S4433 4434 AT90S4434 8515 AT90S8515 8535 AT90S8535 m103 ATmega103 m128 ATmega128 m1280 ATmega1280 m1281 ATmega1281 m16 ATmega16 m161 ATmega161 m162 ATmega162 m163 ATmega163 m164 ATmega164 m169 ATmega169 m2560 ATmega2560 (**) m2561 ATmega2561 (**) m32 ATmega32 m324 ATmega324 m329 ATmega329 m3290 ATmega3290 m48 ATmega48 m64 ATmega64 m640 ATmega640 m644 ATmega644 m649 ATmega649 m6490 ATmega6490 m8 ATmega8 m8515 ATmega8515 m8535 ATmega8535 m88 ATmega88 t12 ATtiny12 t13 ATtiny13 t15 ATtiny15 t2313 ATtiny2313 t25 ATtiny25 t26 ATtiny26 t45 ATtiny45 t85 ATtiny85 (*) The AT90S2323 and ATtiny22 use the same algorithm. (**) Flash addressing above 128 KB is not supported by all programming hardware. Known to work are jtag2, stk500v2, and bit-bang programmers. -b baudrate Override the RS-232 connection baud rate specified in the respective programmer's entry of the configuration file. -B bitclock Specify the bit clock period for the JTAG interface or the ISP clock (JTAG ICE only). The value is a floating-point number in microseconds. The default value of the JTAG ICE results in about 1 microsecond bit clock period, suitable for target MCUs running at 4 MHz clock and above. Unlike certain parameters in the STK500, the JTAG ICE resets all its parameters to default values when the programming soft- ware signs off from the ICE, so for MCUs running at lower clock speeds, this parameter must be specified on the com- mand-line. -c programmer-id Use the pin configuration specified by the argument. Pin configurations are read from the config file (see the -C option). New pin configurations can be easily added or modified through the use of a config file to make avrdude work with different programmers as long as the programmer supports the Atmel AVR serial program method. You can use the 'default_programmer' keyword in your ${HOME}/.avrduderc file to assign a default programmer to keep from having to specify this option on every invocation. -C config-file Use the specified config file to load configuration data. This file contains all programmer and part definitions that avrdude knows about. If you have a programmer or part that avrdude does not know about, you can add it to the config file (be sure and submit a patch back to the author so that it can be incorporated for the next version). See the con- fig file, located at ${PREFIX}/etc/avrdude.conf, which con- tains a description of the format. -D Disable auto erase for flash. When the -U option with flash memory is specified, avrdude will perform a chip erase before starting any of the programming operations, since it generally is a mistake to program the flash with- out performing an erase first. This option disables that. -e Causes a chip erase to be executed. This will reset the contents of the flash ROM and EEPROM to the value '0xff', and is basically a prerequisite command before the flash ROM can be reprogrammed again. The only exception would be if the new contents would exclusively cause bits to be pro- grammed from the value '1' to '0'. Note that in order to reprogram EERPOM cells, no explicit prior chip erase is required since the MCU provides an auto-erase cycle in that case before programming the cell. -E exitspec[,exitspec] By default, avrdude leaves the parallel port in the same state at exit as it has been found at startup. This option modifies the state of the '/RESET' and 'Vcc' lines the par- allel port is left at, according to the exitspec arguments provided, as follows: reset The '/RESET' signal will be left activated at pro- gram exit, that is it will be held low, in order to keep the MCU in reset state afterwards. Note in particular that the programming algorithm for the AT90S1200 device mandates that the '/RESET' signal is active before powering up the MCU, so in case an external power supply is used for this MCU type, a previous invocation of avrdude with this option specified is one of the possible ways to guarantee this condition. noreset The '/RESET' line will be deactivated at program exit, thus allowing the MCU target program to run while the programming hardware remains connected. vcc This option will leave those parallel port pins active (i. e. high) that can be used to supply 'Vcc' power to the MCU. novcc This option will pull the 'Vcc' pins of the paral- lel port down at program exit. Multiple exitspec arguments can be separated with commas. -F Normally, avrdude tries to verify that the device signature read from the part is reasonable before continuing. Since it can happen from time to time that a device has a broken (erased or overwritten) device signature but is otherwise operating normally, this options is provided to override the check. -i delay For bitbang-type programmers, delay for approximately delay microseconds between each bit state change. If the host system is very fast, or the target runs off a slow clock (like a 32 kHz crystal, or the 128 kHz internal RC oscilla- tor), this can become necessary to satisfy the requirement that the ISP clock frequency must not be higher than 1/4 of the CPU clock frequency. This is implemented as a spin- loop delay to allow even for very short delays. On Unix- style operating systems, the spin loop is initially cali- brated against a system timer, so the number of microsec- onds might be rather realistic, assuming a constant system load while avrdude is running. On Win32 operating systems, a preconfigured number of cycles per microsecond is assumed that might be off a bit for very fast or very slow machines. -n No-write - disables actually writing data to the MCU (use- ful for debugging avrdude ). -O Perform a RC oscillator run-time calibration according to Atmel application note AVR053. This is only supported on the STK500v2, AVRISP mkII, and JTAG ICE mkII hardware. Note that the result will be stored in the EEPROM cell at address 0. -P port Use port to identify the device to which the programmer is attached. By default the /dev/ppi0 port is used, but if the programmer type normally connects to the serial port, the /dev/cuaa0 port is the default. If you need to use a different parallel or serial port, use this option to spec- ify the alternate port name. For the JTAG ICE mkII, if avrdude has been configured with libusb support, port can alternatively be specified as usb[:serialno]. This will cause avrdude to search a JTAG ICE mkII on USB. If serialno is also specified, it will be matched against the serial number read from any JTAG ICE mkII found on USB. The match is done after stripping any existing colons from the given serial number, and right-to- left, so only the least significant bytes from the serial number need to be given. As the AVRISP mkII device can only be talked to over USB, the very same method of specifying the port is required there. For the USB programmer "AVR-Doper" running in HID mode, the port must be specified as avrdoper. Libusb support is required on Unix but not on Windows. For more information about AVR-Doper see http://www.obdev.at/avrusb/avr- doper.html. For programmers that attach to a serial port using some kind of higher level protocol (as opposed to bit-bang style programmers), port can be specified as net:host:port. In this case, instead of trying to open a local device, a TCP network connection to (TCP) port on host is established. The remote endpoint is assumed to be a terminal or console server that connects the network stream to a local serial port where the actual programmer has been attached to. The port is assumed to be properly configured, for example using a transparent 8-bit data connection without parity at 115200 Baud for a STK500. This feature is currently not implemented for Win32 systems. -q Disable (or quell) output of the progress bar while reading or writing to the device. Specify it a second time for even quieter operation. -s Disable safemode prompting. When safemode discovers that one or more fuse bits have unintentionally changed, it will prompt for confirmation regarding whether or not it should attempt to recover the fuse bit(s). Specifying this flag disables the prompt and assumes that the fuse bit(s) should be recovered without asking for confirmation first. -t Tells avrdude to enter the interactive ``terminal'' mode instead of up- or downloading files. See below for a detailed description of the terminal mode. -u Disable the safemode fuse bit checks. Safemode is enabled by default and is intended to prevent unintentional fuse bit changes. When enabled, safemode will issue a warning if the any fuse bits are found to be different at program exit than they were when avrdude was invoked. Safemode won't alter fuse bits itself, but rather will prompt for instructions, unless the terminal is non-interactive, in which case safemode is disabled. See the -s option to dis- able safemode prompting. -U memtype:op:filename[:format] Perform a memory operation as indicated. The memtype field specifies the memory type to operate on. The available memory types are device-dependent, the actual configuration can be viewed with the part command in terminal mode. Typ- ically, a device's memory configuration at least contains the memory types flash and eeprom. All memory types cur- rently known are: calibration One or more bytes of RC oscillator calibration data. eeprom The EEPROM of the device. efuse The extended fuse byte. flash The flash ROM of the device. fuse The fuse byte in devices that have only a sin- gle fuse byte. hfuse The high fuse byte. lfuse The low fuse byte. lock The lock byte. signature The three device signature bytes (device ID). The op field specifies what operation to perform: r read device memory and write to the specified file w read data from the specified file and write to the device memory v read data from both the device and the specified file and perform a verify The filename field indicates the name of the file to read or write. The format field is optional and contains the format of the file to read or write. Format can be one of: i Intel Hex s Motorola S-record r raw binary; little-endian byte order, in the case of the flash ROM data m immediate; actual byte values specified on the command line, separated by commas or spaces. This is good for programming fuse bytes without having to create a sin- gle-byte file or enter terminal mode. a auto detect; valid for input only, and only if the input is not provided at stdin. d decimal; this and the following formats are only valid on output. They generate one line of output for the respective memory section, forming a comma-separated list of the values. This can be particularly useful for subsequent processing, like for fuse bit settings. h hexadecimal; each value will get the string 0x prepended. o octal; each value will get a 0 prepended unless it is less than 8 in which case it gets no prefix. b binary; each value will get the string 0b prepended. The default is to use auto detection for input files, and raw binary format for output files. Note that if filename contains a colon, the format field is no longer optional since the filename part following the colon would otherwise be misinterpreted as format. As an abbreviation, the form -U filename is equivalent to specifying -U flash:w:filename:a. This will only work if filename does not have a colon in it. -v Enable verbose output. -V Disable automatic verify check when uploading data. -y Tells avrdude to use the last four bytes of the connected parts' EEPROM memory to track the number of times the device has been erased. When this option is used and the -e flag is specified to generate a chip erase, the previous counter will be saved before the chip erase, it is then incremented, and written back after the erase cycle com- pletes. Presumably, the device would only be erased just before being programmed, and thus, this can be utilized to give an indication of how many erase-rewrite cycles the part has undergone. Since the FLASH memory can only endure a finite number of erase-rewrite cycles, one can use this option to track when a part is nearing the limit. The typ- ical limit for Atmel AVR FLASH is 1000 cycles. Of course, if the application needs the last four bytes of EEPROM mem- ory, this option should not be used. -Y cycles Instructs avrdude to initialize the erase-rewrite cycle counter residing at the last four bytes of EEPROM memory to the specified value. If the application needs the last four bytes of EEPROM memory, this option should not be used. Terminal mode In this mode, avrdude only initializes communication with the MCU, and then awaits user commands on standard input. Commands and parameters may be abbreviated to the shortest unambiguous form. Terminal mode provides a command history using readline(3), so previously entered command lines can be recalled and edited. The following commands are currently imple- mented: dump memtype addr nbytes Read nbytes bytes from the specified memory area, and dis- play them in the usual hexadecimal and ASCII form. dump Continue dumping the memory contents for another nbytes where the previous dump command left off. write memtype addr byte1 ... byteN Manually program the respective memory cells, starting at address addr, using the values byte1 through byteN. This feature is not implemented for bank-addressed memories such as the flash memory of ATMega devices. erase Perform a chip erase. send b1 b2 b3 b4 Send raw instruction codes to the AVR device. If you need access to a feature of an AVR part that is not directly supported by avrdude, this command allows you to use it, even though avrdude does not implement the command. sig Display the device signature bytes. part Display the current part settings and parameters. Includes chip specific information including all memory types sup- ported by the device, read/write timing, etc. vtarg voltage Set the target's supply voltage to voltage Volts. Only supported on the STK500 programmer. varef voltage Set the adjustable voltage source to voltage Volts. This voltage is normally used to drive the target's Aref input on the STK500. Only supported on the STK500 programmer. fosc freq[M|k] Set the master oscillator to freq Hz. An optional trailing letter M multiplies by 1E6, a trailing letter k by 1E3. Only supported on the STK500 programmer. fosc off Turn the master oscillator off. Only supported on the STK500 programmer. sck period STK500 programmer only: Set the SCK clock period to period microseconds. JTAG ICE only: Set the JTAG ICE bit clock period to period microseconds. Note that unlike STK500 settings, this set- ting will be reverted to its default value (approximately 1 microsecond) when the programming software signs off from the JTAG ICE. This parameter can also be used on the JTAG ICE mkII to specify the ISP clock period when operating the ICE in ISP mode. parms STK500 programmer only: Display the current voltage and master oscillator parameters. JTAG ICE only: Display the current target supply voltage and JTAG bit clock rate/period. ? help Give a short on-line summary of the available commands. quit Leave terminal mode and thus avrdude. Default Parallel port pin connections (these can be changed, see the -c option) Pin number Function 2-5 Vcc (optional power supply to MCU) 7 /RESET (to MCU) 8 SCK (to MCU) 9 MOSI (to MCU) 10 MISO (from MCU) 18-25 GND debugWire limitations The debugWire protocol is Atmel's proprietary one-wire (plus ground) pro- tocol to allow an in-circuit emulation of the smaller AVR devices, using the '/RESET' line. DebugWire mode is initiated by activating the 'DWEN' fuse, and then power-cycling the target. While this mode is mainly intented for debugging/emulation, it also offers limited programming capabilities. Effectively, the only memory areas that can be read or programmed in this mode are flash ROM and EEPROM. It is also possible to read out the signature. All other memory areas cannot be accessed. There is no chip erase functionality in debugWire mode; instead, while reprogramming the flash ROM, each flash ROM page is erased right before updating it. This is done transparently by the JTAG ICE mkII (or AVR Dragon). The only way back from debugWire mode is to initiate a special sequence of commands to the JTAG ICE mkII (or AVR Dragon), so the debug- Wire mode will be temporarily disabled, and the target can be accessed using normal ISP programming. This sequence is automatically initiated by using the JTAG ICE mkII or AVR Dragon in ISP mode, when they detect that ISP mode cannot be entered. FILES /dev/ppi0 default device to be used for communication with the programming hardware ${PREFIX}/etc/avrdude.conf programmer and parts configuration file ${HOME}/.avrduderc programmer and parts configuration file (per-user overrides) ~/.inputrc Initialization file for the readline(3) library ${PREFIX}/share/doc/avrdude/avrdude.pdf Schematic of programming hardware DIAGNOSTICS avrdude: jtagmkII_setparm(): bad response to set parameter command: RSP_FAILED avrdude: jtagmkII_getsync(): ISP activation failed, trying debugWire avrdude: Target prepared for ISP, signed off. avrdude: Please restart avrdude without power-cycling the target. If the target AVR has been set up for debugWire mode (i. e. the DWEN fuse is programmed), normal ISP connection attempts will fail as the /RESET pin is not available. When using the JTAG ICE mkII in ISP mode, the mes- sage shown indicates that avrdude has guessed this condition, and tried to initiate a debugWire reset to the target. When successful, this will leave the target AVR in a state where it can respond to normal ISP commu- nication again (until the next power cycle). Typically, the same command is going to be retried again immediately afterwards, and will then suc- ceed connecting to the target using normal ISP communication. SEE ALSO avr-objcopy(1), ppi(4), readline(3) The AVR microcontroller product description can be found at http://www.atmel.com/products/AVR/ AUTHORS Avrdude was written by Brian S. Dean . This man page by Joerg Wunsch. BUGS Please report bugs via http://savannah.nongnu.org/bugs/?group=avrdude. The JTAG ICE programmers currently cannot write to the flash ROM one byte at a time. For that reason, updating the flash ROM from terminal mode does not work. Page-mode programming the EEPROM through JTAG (i.e. through an -U option) requires a prior chip erase. This is an inherent feature of the way JTAG EEPROM programming works. This also applies to the STK500 in parallel programming mode. The USBasp driver does not offer any option to distinguish multiple devices connected simultaneously, so effectively only a single device is supported. BSD June 30, 2007 BSD