Optiboot/IDE1.6.11 - errors on board selection and on compile

Other Hardware 3rd Party Boards
1

I figured I'd ease my transition to optiboot by buying a 1284 preloaded....apparently I was 'easing' the wrong part.

I've installed optiboot into the ide and followed the instructions on github to add the boards info. I then wrote a simple blink program to rotate through all the Digital pins and flash them (nothing clever, just a nested while loop within a for loop).

When I try to select the board from the dropdown within the IDE i get a pile of errors and of course a fresh pile if I dare press the compile button. I've checked my java version, its current. Any other ideas?

On board Selection:

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException
	at cc.arduino.contributions.packages.ContributionsIndexer.getContributedPlaform(ContributionsIndexer.java:472)
	at processing.app.BaseNoGui.getBoardPreferences(BaseNoGui.java:178)
	at processing.app.BaseNoGui.onBoardOrPortChange(BaseNoGui.java:804)
	at processing.app.Base.onBoardOrPortChange(Base.java:1249)
	at processing.app.Base$11.actionPerformed(Base.java:1446)
	at javax.swing.AbstractButton.fireActionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2022)
	at javax.swing.AbstractButton$Handler.actionPerformed(AbstractButton.java:2348)
	at javax.swing.DefaultButtonModel.fireActionPerformed(DefaultButtonModel.java:402)
	at javax.swing.JToggleButton$ToggleButtonModel.setPressed(JToggleButton.java:308)
	at javax.swing.AbstractButton.doClick(AbstractButton.java:376)
	at com.apple.laf.ScreenMenuItemCheckbox.itemStateChanged(ScreenMenuItemCheckbox.java:193)
	at java.awt.CheckboxMenuItem.processItemEvent(CheckboxMenuItem.java:389)
	at java.awt.CheckboxMenuItem.processEvent(CheckboxMenuItem.java:357)
	at java.awt.MenuComponent.dispatchEventImpl(MenuComponent.java:351)
	at java.awt.MenuComponent.dispatchEvent(MenuComponent.java:339)
	at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:761)
	at java.awt.EventQueue.access$500(EventQueue.java:97)
	at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:709)
	at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:703)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
	at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:86)
	at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:731)
	at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:729)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.security.ProtectionDomain$JavaSecurityAccessImpl.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
	at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:728)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:201)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:116)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:105)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:101)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:93)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:82)

If i then try to compile I see the following;

java.lang.NullPointerException
	at cc.arduino.contributions.packages.ContributionsIndexer.getContributedPlaform(ContributionsIndexer.java:472)
	at processing.app.BaseNoGui.getBoardPreferences(BaseNoGui.java:178)
	at cc.arduino.Compiler.callArduinoBuilder(Compiler.java:240)
	at cc.arduino.Compiler.loadPreferences(Compiler.java:183)
	at cc.arduino.Compiler.build(Compiler.java:140)
	at processing.app.Sketch.build(Sketch.java:1111)
	at processing.app.Sketch.build(Sketch.java:1081)
	at processing.app.Editor$BuildHandler.run(Editor.java:1988)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)
2

What core are you using?
At least there have been no reported issues using MightyCore with Arduino IDE 1.6.11 :slight_smile:
Give it a try!

3

Thanks, it worked a treat!

the boards manager etc is a nice feature in the newer IDE, its a shame the IDE doesnt migrate what you already have on an upgrade though.

4

scrumfled:
I've installed optiboot into the ide and followed the instructions on github to add the boards info.

Please post a link to the optiboot and instructions. I know you already solved your issue by using MightyCore but if there's an issue with the other it would be nice to try to fix it.

scrumfled:
its a shame the IDE doesnt migrate what you already have on an upgrade though.

What do you mean by that?

5

pert:
Please post a link to the optiboot and instructions. I know you already solved your issue by using MightyCore but if there's an issue with the other it would be nice to try to fix it.

I took the stuff I used from: GitHub - Optiboot/optiboot: Small and Fast Bootloader for Arduino and other Atmel AVR chips

Like you say, mighty seems to have sorted it.

pert:
What do you mean by that?

eg i had various boards entries (optiboot, breadboard, attiny) in the hardware directory, the IDE doesnt seem to update these, or even alert that they may need updating.