Microchip Graphics Suite (MGS) Cross-Platform for Linux®
Introduction
This user guide provides information on how to use the Microchip Graphics Suite (MGS) Composer and MGS Graphics Library to develop a Graphical User Interface (GUI) application for a Microchip MPU running an embedded Linux® system.
The user guide also provides information on how to port an existing MGS Harmony-based application to run on an embedded Linux system.
Getting Started
System Requirements
A Linux®-based development environment is required. The following steps were tested on a PC running Ubuntu® 24.04.01 LTS version.
Make sure all the archive indices are up-to-date:
sudo apt-get update
Install the following dependencies for Linux-based development.
sudo apt install build-essential libsdl2-dev libsdl2-2.0-0 cmake pkg-config libinput-dev
Download the SDK
Use the terminal to download the SDK.
via GIT SSH:
git clone --recurse-submodules git@github.com:mchpgfx/mgs_xp.git
or via HTTPS:
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/mchpgfx/mgs_xp.git
This will download the platform-specific system code and, as a submodule, the latest released version of the MGS repository used for MPLAB® Harmony-based projects.
The repository's directory structure is as follows:
| Directory | Sub-Folder | Description |
| apps | Contains the MGS Quickstart and demo applications | |
| gfx | Contains the MGS graphics library | |
| system | Contains the platform-specific library and interface code | |
| /gfx | Cross-platform versions of certain MGS library middleware | |
| /linux | Interface code for Linux-based platforms |
The SDK repository has the following branches based on the available example applications.
| Branch | Description |
dev | Contains Quickstart applications only. Use this to use Quickstart as a starting point for a new design |
| demo_applications | Contains the demo applications. Use this to build and run the demo applications |
Building for Desktop Linux
Use the following steps to do a test build and to verify that all dependencies are installed for building and running an MGS application on the Linux desktop.
Run the following commands to set up the makefiles and build environment for a Linux desktop.
cd mgs_xp
mkdir -p build/host
cd build/host
cmake ../../
Do a test build by running make.
make all
Do a Test Run
When the build completes, the built Quickstart applications are in <mgs directory>/build/host/apps/quickstart/. In mgs_xp/build/host, run the application:
./apps/quickstart/mgs_quickstart
If successful, the application will launch in its own window.
Clicking on the Quick Start button on the bottom right of the screen will show another screen.
Your Linux development environment is now set up for desktop development.
Develop MGS GUI Applications for Embedded Linux
Refer to the topics below to start developing MGS GUI applications for embedded Linux.
Building MGS for Embedded Linux
This section provides information on how to build and run the application on a Microchip MPU running embedded Linux.
Creating a New GUI Application using Microchip Graphics Suite (MGS) Quickstart
This user guide provides information on how to quickly develop a GUI application using MGS Quickstart as the starting point.
Creating a New GUI Application From Scratch
This user guide provides information on how to create a new GUI application from scratch.
Porting a Microchip Graphics Suite (MGS) Harmony Application
This user guide provides information on how to port an existing MGS Harmony application to build and run for Linux.