RISC-V Atom Development in Docker

Alternative to previous approach, you can also use the provided Dockerfile to build a Docker image containing all the necessary tools to checkout the RISC-V Atom project. This approach is OS agnostic. As a prerequisite, you must have Docker installed on your system. You can install Docker by following the official Docker guide.

Once you have installed Docker, you can follow these steps to setup a RISC-V Atom dev environment.

Tip

We recommend using bash is you have a Linux OS and powershell if you’re on Windows.

  1. Obtain the Dockerfile from the RISC-V Atom repository either manually or by using the following command.

$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/saursin/riscv-atom/main/Dockerfile
$ ls                                              # check if the file was downloaded

  1. Once you have the Dockerfile, we need to build a docker image as follows.

$ docker build . -t rvatom-dev-img                # We'll call this image rvatom-dev-img
$ docker images                                   # List docker images
REPOSITORY       TAG       IMAGE ID       CREATED          SIZE
rvatom-dev-img   latest    4e888efaf4c1   3 minutes ago    2.46GB

  1. Now we can create a new instance of this image (aka container) called rvatom from rvatom-dev-img image as follows.

$ docker create -it --name rvatom rvatom-dev-img  # We'll call this container rvatom
$ docker ps -a                                    # List all containers (running or not running)
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE            COMMAND       CREATED         STATUS    PORTS     NAMES
5a1a95325d61   rvatom-dev-img   "/bin/bash"   5 seconds ago   Created             rvatom

  1. At this point, we’re all set to start our new docker container as follows!

$ docker start -i rvatom
***** RISC-V Atom Environment Setup *****
> Setting environment variables...
Found Verilator at: /opt/verilator
*** Welcome to the riscv-atom container! ***
~@dev $

You should be able to see a bash prompt, and the riscv-atom repository already cloned for you in the home folder!

Tip

You can detach from the container using ctrl + d or by using the exit command. This also stops the container. To restart, simpy use the above docker start command again.

Tip

Checkout this cheatsheet to learn more about Docker CLI syntax.

Tip

If you want to use VS Code for development, install the Remote Explorer and Dev Containers extensions. You should now be able to see the “Dev Containers” options in the Remote Containers tab and the container we just created in the list.