pk2cmd Linux port under Ubuntu

Edit in 09/2009: new download link
http://www.microchip.com/pickit2

Download link:
http://home.pacbell.net/theposts/picmicro/

As of this writing, the version is 0.8. I've tested the following under Ubuntu 6.06 and 7.10. It should work for 7.04 as well. For Ubuntu 5.04 and maybe 5.10, you should use hotplug rules instead of udev rules. But I no longer use these older versions.

How to build it from the downloaded source? You need to have gcc, g++, make (sudo apt-get install build-essential) and libusb-dev (sudo apt-get install libusb-dev).

You will also need to edit the Makefile and choose the following option.
# ----- Use the following for Linux kernel 2.6.x: -----
CFLAGS=$(OPTS) -I$(LIBUSB)/include -DLINUX -DUSE_DETACH -DCLAIM_USB

After that, just type "make" and you should have pk2cmd Linux port built.

You will need to set up proper udev rules to run pk2cmd as a normal user and not using sudo.

More detailed steps.
1) Create a group called microchip, add your user name to it.
GUI method: System --> Administration --> Users and Groups -->
Manage Groups --> Add Group
Group name : microchip
Group member: add your user name (mine is "mcuee").

To confirm that this is a success.
mcuee@ubuntu710:~$ groups mcuee
mcuee : mcuee adm dialout cdrom floppy audio dip video plugdev scanner
lpadmin admin netdev powerdev microchip

Take note that the output has "microchip" in it.

The command line way of doing this.
mcuee@ubuntu710:~$ sudo groupadd microchip
mcuee@ubuntu710:~$ sudo gpasswd -a mcuee microchip
(Replace mcuee with your username linuxdev).
mcuee@ubuntu710:~$ groups mcuee
mcuee : mcuee adm dialout cdrom floppy audio dip video plugdev scanner lpadmin admin netdev powerdev microchip

2) Create the udev rule 026_microchip.rules in the directory
/etc/udev/rules.d. You can use gedit.
mcuee@ubuntu710:~$ sudo gedit /etc/udev/rules.d/026_microchip.rules
Here is my udev rules for PICKit 2 and some other Microchip USB tools.

Edit: please follow Peter Restall's comments and use ATTRS{} instead of SYSFS{}. SYSFS{} is deprecated in later version of udev.

mcuee@ubuntu710:/etc/udev/rules.d$ cat 026_microchip.rules
#PICKit 1
SYSFS{idVendor}=="04d8", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0032", MODE="0660",
GROUP="microchip"
#PICKit 2
SYSFS{idVendor}=="04d8", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0033", MODE="0660",
GROUP="microchip"

#ICD2
SYSFS{idVendor}=="04d8", SYSFS{idProduct}=="8000", MODE="0660",
GROUP="microchip"
#ICD21
SYSFS{idVendor}=="04d8", SYSFS{idProduct}=="8001", MODE="0660",
GROUP="microchip"

#PICDEM FS USB Bootload
SYSFS{idVendor}=="04d8", SYSFS{idProduct}=="000b", MODE="0660",
GROUP="microchip"
#PICDEM FS USB Demo
SYSFS{idVendor}=="04d8", SYSFS{idProduct}=="000c", MODE="0660",
GROUP="microchip"
#PICDEM FS USB CDC-ACM
SYSFS{idVendor}=="04d8", SYSFS{idProduct}=="000a", MODE="0660",
GROUP="microchip"

3) Unplug and plug PICkit 2 and check if the udev rules work or not. If not, you may reboot and check again. Actually a better way is to restart udev and then unplug and plug in PICkit 2.

mcuee@ubuntu710:~$ sudo /etc/init.d/udev restart
* Loading additional hardware drivers... [ OK ]

mcuee@ubuntu710:~$ lsusb

Bus 003 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04d8:0033 Microchip Technology, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04d8:000c Microchip Technology, Inc.

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

mcuee@ubuntu710:~$ ls -la /dev/bus/usb/001
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 100 2008-04-24 15:26 .
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 100 2008-04-24 15:26 ..
crw-rw-r-- 1 root root 189, 0 2008-04-24 15:26 001
crw-rw-r-- 1 root microchip 189, 2 2008-04-24 15:26 003
crw-rw-r-- 1 root microchip 189, 3 2008-04-24 15:26 004

Now you can see that PICkit 2 is in Bus 001 and it belongs
to root user but group member of microchip have read
and write access to it.

4) now you should be able to run pk2cmd as normal user.
mcuee@ubuntu710:~/Desktop/build/pk2cmd/pk2cmdLinux-0.8$./pk2cmd -PPIC16F690 -I
Device ID = 1403

Operation Succeeded