Deviating from the Getting Started Guide

[git-staus]

I just went through the guide on my MacBook. I was a bit stubborn during the install and ran into a few self-infliced hurdles. I'd thought I would write down what I did publicly in case that could benefit the devs or the next person Googling.

Not installing python3 and python-tk

As specified here in the guide. I'd figured I had these already so I omitted them from the Homebrew install list. It seems to have worked.

Installing west with Conda

I was actually using Mamba (mambaforge-pypy3 even) instead of Conda, but these should be interchangable. I basically hoped to replace the first three commands given here with

# do not do this!
mamba create -n zeph west
mamba activate zeph

but this causes the SDK installation a few steps later to fail like so:

(zeph) $ cd ~/zephyrproject/zephyr/
(zeph) $ west sdk install
Traceback (most recent call last):
    ...
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'patoolib'
(zeph) $

It surprised me that installing the SDK really requires the virtual environment. I made an ugly compromise and made a basic Python base like so

mamba create -n py3135 python # which resolves to python=3.13.5 ATTOW
mamba activate py3135

Followed by exactly the steps in the guide, so now I have a lovely (.venv) (p3135) in front of everything, but it works!

Misunderstanding instructions saying "can be used"

6. The Zephyr west extension command, west packages can be used to install Python dependencies.

west packages pip --install

"OK cool but I don't care about new ways to install Python dependencies right now, I just need to get it installed first. Next step!"

I did not notice problems that I can specifically trace back to my initial omission of this step, but when I later decided to actually run it, it ran pip on a lot of things. I infer that despite (my interpretation of) the phrasing, this command is in fact not optional.

Not sure if I was just exceptionally dense here or if this line in the documentation is misleading, but don't do like I did.

Only installing a single SDK toolchain architecture

The guide hints at this possiblity, but I bumbled around here a bit too. west sdk install --help as is written gives you the

  -t, --toolchains toolchain_name [toolchain_name ...]
                        toolchain(s) to install (e.g. 'arm-zephyr-eabi'). If this option is not given,
                        toolchains for all architectures will be installed.

command option, but then the user should have prior knowledge to know what to write instead of toolchain_name. I couldn't find any information on this in the documention or the help text easily so I just tried to imitate their example like so.

west sdk install -t riscv-zephyr

Indeed the resulting error lists all supported toolchain triples and I found my desired command:

west sdk install -t riscv64-zephyr-elf

(Surprisingly I can still compile hello_world on both qemu_riscv64 and qemu_riscv32 with this toolchain. I guess I actually need to read the rest of the documentation to find out why!)

Lastly, for completeness I should also mentioned that any toolchain I tried to download failed with a single terse nondescript

[FATAL]: downloading toolchain failed

(or similiar like that) and being thrown back to the shell. After rubbing my two brain cells together really hard I figured it must've been some pop-up I clicked away which meant all Internet requests from wget were blocked. Don't ask me how I managed to mess that up...

---

Now that I got it all set up, the thing I set out to do that lead me to Zephyr works like a charm. Now that I saw Zephyr on QEMU in action It indeed looks like the perfect platform for what I initially wanted to do. A thank you to all the developers and contributors for making this possible!

[yashi]

Problems the op described

1. Mixing Conda/Mamba with west setup

   • Installing west inside a Conda/Mamba environment caused west sdk install to fail.
   • Failure was due to missing Python packages (e.g., patoolib) in the expected place.

2. Confusion about west packages pip --install

   • Docs say it “can be used,” which made it sound optional.
   • In reality, skipping it causes dependency issues, so it’s effectively required.

3. Unclear toolchain names for west sdk install -t

   • The docs mention -t to install a single toolchain but don’t list the exact names.
   • Poster had to guess through trial-and-error; correct name for RISC-V is riscv64-zephyr-elf.

4. RISC-V 32 vs 64 confusion

   • Only riscv64 toolchain is provided, but Zephyr boards include qemu_riscv32.
   • Poster was unsure if 32-bit builds were supported until they confirmed the 64-bit toolchain works for both.

5. Download failure during SDK install

   • Saw “download failed” messages when running west sdk install.
   • Root cause was a local network/permission issue (popup blocked wget), not a Zephyr problem.

[yashi]

A possible fix for 2.

diff --git a/doc/develop/getting_started/index.rst b/doc/develop/getting_started/index.rst
index d539a2dbabab..6bc12ab38eaf 100644
--- a/doc/develop/getting_started/index.rst
+++ b/doc/develop/getting_started/index.rst
@@ -260,8 +260,7 @@ chosen. You'll also install Zephyr's additional Python dependencies in a
 
             west zephyr-export
 
-      #. The Zephyr west extension command, ``west packages`` can be used to install Python
-         dependencies.
+      #. Install Python dependencies using ``west packages``.
 
          .. code-block:: bash
 

[yashi]

A possible fix for 3:

diff --git a/scripts/west_commands/sdk.py b/scripts/west_commands/sdk.py
index 8a84f063dc9b..329e1ca07212 100755
--- a/scripts/west_commands/sdk.py
+++ b/scripts/west_commands/sdk.py
@@ -154,7 +154,10 @@ class Sdk(WestCommand):
             metavar="toolchain_name",
             nargs="+",
             help="toolchain(s) to install (e.g. 'arm-zephyr-eabi'). "
-            "If this option is not given, toolchains for all architectures will be installed.",
+            "If this option is not given, toolchains for all architectures will be installed. "
+            "If you are unsure which one to install, install all toolchains. "
+            "Each Zephyr SDK release may include different toolchains; "
+            "see the release notes at https://github.com/zephyrproject-rtos/sdk-ng/releases.",
         )
         install_args_parser.add_argument(
             "-T",

[git-staus]

Thanks for the prompt reply! I almost feel guilty for my non-issues receiving such an elaborate response. Certainly using one's pet Python toolchain (Mamba in my case) instead of the recommendation in the documentation, and fumbling with some idiosyncratic network setup sound like unreasonable scenarios to have to support. I am glad my report is appreciated nonetheless.

Since I did not ask any actual questions that needed support I will mark this as the answer so this discussion does not show up "unanswered". Thanks again for making Zephyr possible!

[git-staus]

I am unsure whether or not to also "close" this discussion. What would you recommend?