When compiling sketch I get an error avr-gcc-ar executable not found

Development Tools IDE 2.x
1

Updated IDE to 2.3.4. Have not used IDE in a couple years. Updated today prior to doing anything and now see error that says cannot find the the "avr-gcc-ar" executable.

I verified that it is not in the directory specified. The path to the expected location is in the path. I have un-installed and re-installed the IDE and used the board manager to install various older revisions of the megaAVR board.

The board I am using is the mega2560 R3.

Any suggestions are welcome.

2

What OS. What link did you use to do the IDE download.
Can you explain to me how backleveleing the AVR boards would be a solution?

3

Hi @tmcdougall.

This might be caused by a problem during the installation of the "Arduino AVR Boards" platform that adds support to Arduino IDE for the Mega 2560 board. If so, it might be fixed by uninstalling and then reinstalling the platform. I'll provide instructions you can follow to do that:

  1. Select Tools > Board > Boards Manager... from the Arduino IDE menus to open the "Boards Manager" view in the left side panel.
  2. Scroll down through the list of boards platforms until you see the "Arduino AVR Boards" entry.
  3. Hover the mouse pointer over the "Arduino AVR Boards" entry.
    You will see a ●●● icon appear at the top right corner of the entry.
  4. Click the ●●● icon.
    A menu will open.
  5. Select "Remove" from the menu.
    An "Uninstall" dialog will open.
  6. Click the "YES" button in the "Uninstall" dialog.
    The dialog will close.
  7. Wait for the uninstall process to finish, as indicated by a notification at the bottom right corner of the Arduino IDE window:

    Successfully uninstalled platform ...

  8. Click the "INSTALL" button at the bottom of the "Arduino AVR Boards" entry.
  9. Wait for the installation process to finish, as indicated by a notification at the bottom right corner of the Arduino IDE window:

    Successfully installed platform ...

Now try compiling the sketch again. Hopefully this time it will be successful. If the error still occurs, let us know and we'll provide further assistance.

This won't help because the avr-gcc toolchain is installed separately from Arduino IDE, and uninstalling the IDE doesn't affect the installation of avr-gcc.

You had a good idea, but you picked the wrong platform. Arduino megaAVR Boards is only used for the Nano Every and UNO WiFi Rev2 boards. If you don't use those boards, then you can use the Arduino IDE Boards Manager to uninstall the Arduino megaAVR Boards platform. If you do use one of those boards then it is perfectly fine to have it installed as it doesn't affect the Arduino AVR Boards platform.

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