Firmware setup

This guide assumes that you have already read Initial Setup.

Linux/WSL

If you still have interfaces as a subdirectory (e.g. from a previous version of main), you will have to delete it. You can run

rm -r interfaces

Do this before initializing the submodule in the last step. If you have the repo cloned from before the submodule change (5/13/2026), you will have interfaces as a subdirectory. Make sure to remove it so that you can initialize the submodule with the same name. You can check if you have it by using

ls

Run the following command in a directory of your choice to clone the repository:

# if you are using HTTPS
git clone https://github.com/UWOrbital/obc-firmware.git

# or if you are using SSH
git clone git@github.com:UWOrbital/obc-firmware.git

Install our required tools:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y build-essential gcc-multilib g++-multilib cmake curl

Install uv, our Python package manager:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Install Python 3.12+. If you are using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or later, or installed the default WSL distribution, you should already have a compatible version of Python installed.
Terminal window
```
sudo apt install python3
```
Check your installed Python version with:
Terminal window
```
python3 --version
```
If it’s 3.12 or higher, you’re good.
Install dependencies by running the following command in the repository’s root directory:
Terminal window
```
uv sync
```
Setup pre-commit by running the following command in the repository’s root directory:
Terminal window
```
pre-commit install
```
Use the following to initialize the submodule representing our interfaces repository.
Terminal window
```
git submodule update --init
```
We use git submodules to use our interfaces repository from this repository. Many builds and includes will not work if the interfaces/ directory is empty (most tasks will not require you to change code related to interfaces/, however it still needs to be set up once). Should you wish to learn about git submodules, https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Tools-Submodules is a good resource.