Windows native

The preferred method is to use Windows WSL, but also in native windows we can install the tools. For this purpose we are going to use MSYS2 and the OSS CAD Suite.

Important

The native installation of the tools do not support a VHDL design flow, it is restricted to a Verilog flow. For a VHDL-flow please use a WSL-setup.

Installing MSYS2

Download and install MSYS2 from the official website. It’s recommended to not change the default installation path, as this guide will assume that MSYS2 is installed in the default directory: C:\msys64.

Note

MSYS2 is used to provide commands such as mkdir, ls, etc. in a windows terminal.

We will be using make. To install it open an MSYS2 MSYS terminal. In this terminal execute following command:

pacman -S make

To be able to use MSYS2 in a windows terminal we have to add it to the %PATH% variable. To do so:

  1. type <windows>-i, following window should appear:

windows system

  1. scroll down to the bottom and click on About, following window should appear:

windows system

  1. click on Advanced system settings, following window should appear:

windows system

  1. click on Environment Variables…, following window should appear:

windows system

  1. under system variables scroll down such that you can see the entry Path. Click on this entry, and click on the Edit… button, following window should appear:

windows system

  1. Click on New and type in here: C:\msys64\usr\bin\

  2. Click on the entry C:\msys64\usr\bin\ and press the button Move Up as long as this entry is the first in the list.

  3. Click on OK

To test if your set-up is okay, open a terminal and type make. Your output should look like this:

make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found.   Stop.

Installing the oss-cad-suite

You can find the OSS-CAD-suite here. The OSS-CAD-suite contain all required tools (and more).

Download under releases the latest version (e.g. oss-cad-suite-windows-x64-<date>.exe).

Perform following tasks:

  1. With the file manager go to your Downloads folder.

  2. Click once on the file: oss-cad-suite-windows-x64-<date>.exe

  3. Type <ctrl>-x.

  4. Go to the folder: This PC->Local Disk (C:)

  5. Type <ctrl>-v. Windows should now move the file oss-cad-suite-windows-x64-<date>.exe to C:\

  6. Double click on the file oss-cad-suite-windows-x64-<date>.exe. Windows might ask you all kind of questions, just answer that you trust all.

  7. You should after execution have a directory called C:\oss-cad-suite

  8. You can now delete the file oss-cad-suite-windows-x64-<date>.exe.

Note

To use the oss-cas-suite in a Windows terminal you have to execute C:\oss-cad-suite\start.bat, which will set-up all required environment variables. To be able to have these settings set-up by default, you can use the desciption below.

To setup globally the oss-cad-suite, a few settings need to be setup (look also in the file *C:\oss-cad-suite\environment.ps1). Follow the steps 1 to 4 above, you should now have following window:

windows system

Follow now the steps below:

  1. under system variables scroll down such that you can see the entry Path. Click on this entry, and click on the Edit… button, following window should appear:

windows system

  1. Click on New and type in here: C:\oss-cad-suite\bin\

  2. Click on the entry C:\oss-cad-suite\bin\ and press the button Move Up as long as this entry is below the entry C:\msys64\usr\bin\.

  3. Click on New and type in here: C:\oss-cad-suite\lib\

  4. Click on the entry C:\oss-cad-suite\lib\ and press the button Move Up as long as this entry is below the entry C:\oss-cad-suite\bin\.

  5. The first entry in the list should now be C:\msys64\usr\bin\, the second entry C:\oss-cad-suite\bin\, and the third C:\oss-cad-suite\lib\, this is very important!

  6. Click on OK

  7. We now have to add some System variables. To perform this, click on New… in the System variables part of the screen. You should get following window:

windows system

  1. Add all the following parameters:

Variable name:

Variable value:

YOSYSHQ_ROOT

C:\oss-cad-suite\

SSL_CERT_FILE

C:\oss-cad-suite\etc\cacert.pem

PYTHON_EXECUTABLE

C:\oss-cad-suite\lib\python3.exe

QT_PLUGIN_PATH

C:\oss-cad-suite\lib\qt5\plugins

QT_LOGGING_RULES

*=false

GTK_EXE_PREFIX

C:\oss-cad-suite\

GTK_DATA_PREFIX

C:\oss-cad-suite\

GDK_PIXBUF_MODULEDIR

C:\oss-cad-suite\lib\gdk-pixbuf-2.0\2.10.0\loaders

GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE

C:\oss-cad-suite\lib\gdk-pixbuf-2.0\2.10.0\loaders.cache

OPENFPGALOADER_SOJ_DIR

C:\oss-cad-suite\share\openFPGALoader\

Important

  1. The Variable values shown above are for the oss-cad-suite of the 26th of July 2025. A later version might have different values. Look at the file C:\oss-cad-suite\environment.ps1 to verify that the values hold for your installation.

  2. This setup is known to break Intel Quartus and maybe other software packages. To use Quartus/broken packages: remove the entries C:\oss-cad-suite\bin\ and C:\oss-cad-suite\lib\ from the %PATH% variable (see above). The oss-cad-suite can in this case be used by executing C:\oss-cad-suite\start.bat as first command in a Windows terminal, however, all the manuals on this website assume that the oss-cad-suite has the %PATH% entries.

Installing the device driver

As the tools are based on libusb, we have to change the device driver for the GECKO5Education/Modular. For this purpose we are going to use the tool zadig. Download zadig from the official website and execute it.

To change the device driver, do following:

  1. Plug-in your GECKO5Education/Modular board into your computer.

    Important

    In case of the GECKO5Education make sure that you hold the ESP32 bootmode button.

  2. Goto Options and click List All Devices.

  3. In the drop-down list select Dual RS232-HS (Interface 0)

  4. Click on the button Replace Driver (This can take a while).

You should now be able to use the GECKO5Education/Modular. To test your setup, open a terminal and execute:

openFPGALoader --detect

You should see as response:

empty
No cable or board specified: using direct ft2232 interface
Cannot read iSerialNumber field from FTDI: considered as empty string
Jtag frequency : requested 6.00MHz   -> real 6.00MHz
index 0:
        idcode 0x41113043
        manufacturer lattice
        famely ECP5
        model  LFE5U-85
        irlength 8

Important

  1. Each time after a windows update you have to repeat this procedure!

  2. Windows is very persintent, it has been observed that it changes ramdomly the device driver, so if you can not download your bitfile, you have to repeat the above procedure.