Ubuntu/Linux - How to create a custom board?

Using Arduino IDE 1.x
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A few years back, I created my own custom board in the Arduino IDE, so that I could make use of the Calibrated Internal RC Oscillator in the ATMega328p. Doing that was fairly simple. I just created a new bootloader, and modified the boards.txt file so that I would have a Nano board with different fuses and a lower oscillator and clock speed.

Roll forward to 2021. I started a new project and tried to reuse my old custom board files. But there's a problem. The Arduino IDE developers decided to throw the old method of managing boards away, and create an entirely new system.

I found some guidance online, but it's for windoze, and the files don't seem to match those that are in a Linux Ubuntu installation.

https://www.instructables.com/Arduino-IDE-Creating-Custom-Boards/

So, how do I create a new board in Arduino when using Linux/Ubuntu? It should be quite simple. I just want a Nano with updated fuses and a lower oscillator/clock speed.

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Unfortunately I think that guide assumes that you will be using the same bootloader as a regular Arduino board. I can't do that. The upload speed would be too high for a 1Mhz clock.

I'm close to giving up the whole idea of creating my own board in Arduino 1.8.16, and doing one of the following:

  1. Use AVRDUDE on command line with my USBasp
  2. Use an older version of the Arduino IDE

In any case, the IDE developers may just change it all again in a few weeks/months/years, and then I wasted some more time.

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did you visit the my_boards repository linked in the answer? I have multiple customized bootloaders there. it is very simple to setup the necessary folders and files.

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Thanks for your reply. I couldn't work out how to direct the Arduino IDE to my custom board.

I opened File>Preferences in the Arduino IDE, and tried to add a path to the 'Additional Boards Manager URLs'. I closed the IDE and restarted, but I can't see my custom board.

I just don't know how to structure the folders or place the files correctly so that the IDE can see them.

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OK, after reading a little of this page, I think I may be getting somewhere.

But where do I put the bootloader hex file?

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see my my_boards git repository. it is exactly what I have in my Arduino/hardware/my_boards folder

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Thanks. I succeeded in getting my 1Mhz bootloader uploaded into an ATMega328p.

However, when I tried to use a serial programmer with the new bootloader, I hit a new problem:

Error while detecting libraries included by /tmp/arduino_build_891258/sketch/Blink.ino.cpp

and:

avr-g++: error: device-specs/specs-ATmega328P: No such file or directory

Any idea what might cause these errors? They don't happen when using the regular Arduino setup.

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Update:

I've fixed it. My mistake was to set the mcu as 'ATmega328p' instead of 'atmega328p'.

I now have a blink program running on a bare bones Arduino, using the internal RC oscillator at a clock speed of 1Mhz, with no 16Mhz resonator/crystal.

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for that you could use MiniCore by McuDude

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