Windows Build Prerequisites (CMake)

This guide describes how to build a no-OS project for a Windows host using the CMake build system, which is the only supported build flow for this platform.

Note

This is a build guide for the Windows platform itself — i.e. for producing executables that run on Windows. It is not a guide for cross-building any other no-OS platform from a Windows host. No cross-compiling is supported: the toolchain set up here only produces Windows executables, and only for x86_64. There is no ARM64 Windows build support (unlike the macOS platform, which supports both Intel and Apple Silicon natively — see the macOS build guide).

The Windows platform targets applications that run natively on a Windows PC. For projects that use the USB2PMB2 FTDI adapter (win-usb2pmb2 board), the ftd2xx library must be set up separately — see the ftd2xx build guide.

All commands below are for PowerShell. No MSYS2 shell is required for building — MSYS2 is installed only to obtain the GCC toolchain.

Supported boards

Preset / Board	Description
`win-host`	Native Windows host
`win-usb2pmb2`	Windows host with USB2PMB2 adapter (FT2232HQ, ftd2xx library)

Prerequisites

All one-time setup steps below only need to be performed once per machine.

Git

winget install Git.Git

Close and reopen PowerShell after installation so that git is on PATH.

CMake and Ninja

winget install Kitware.CMake
winget install Ninja-build.Ninja

Verify:

cmake --version
ninja --version

Python 3

Note

The Python installer requires elevation. Run PowerShell as Administrator for this step.

winget install Python.Python.3.13

Verify (in a new PowerShell window):

python --version

The build system creates a virtual environment under .no_os_venv on first configure and installs the required dependencies (kconfiglib) automatically.

Compiler (MinGW-w64 GCC)

Install MSYS2 using its official installer, then open the MSYS2 MinGW64 shell and run:

pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc

Add the MinGW-w64 bin directory to your system PATH permanently via System Properties → Advanced → Environment Variables:

C:\msys64\mingw64\bin

Verify from a new PowerShell window:

gcc --version

FTDI CDM driver (USB2PMB2 boards only)

The CDM (Combined Driver Model) package provides the Windows USB driver for FTDI chips. Download CDM-v2.12.36.20-WHQL-Certified.zip from the FTDI website, extract it, then install:

Plug in the USB2PMB2 board.
Open Device Manager (devmgmt.msc).
Locate the FTDI device under Other devices or Universal Serial Bus devices.
Right-click → Update driver → Browse my computer for drivers.
Point to the extracted CDM folder → Next.

After installation the device appears as USB Serial Converter A and USB Serial Converter B.

Visual C++ 2013 Runtime (USB2PMB2 boards only)

The prebuilt libmpsse.dll shipped by FTDI requires the Visual C++ 2013 Runtime (MSVCR120.dll). Install it with:

winget install Microsoft.VCRedist.2013.x64

Note

Without this runtime the executable exits silently with no output.

Listing build combinations

From the no-OS repository root, list all valid Windows combinations:

python tools\scripts\no_os_build.py list --board win-host
python tools\scripts\no_os_build.py list --board win-usb2pmb2

Each row is a PROJECT VARIANT BOARD PLATFORM tuple that can be fed directly to the build subcommand.

Building a project

Recommended: the build helper

cd no-OS

python tools\scripts\no_os_build.py build `
    --project <project> --variant <variant> --board win-usb2pmb2

Replace win-usb2pmb2 with win-host for projects that do not use the FTDI adapter.

Useful options:

--clean / --fresh — remove or refresh the build directory.
-j N / --jobs N — parallel compile jobs.
--dry-run — print the cmake commands without running them.

The executable is placed in build\<project>-<variant>-<board>\build\<project>.exe.

Note

For win-usb2pmb2 builds, the required FTDI runtime DLLs (FTD2XX.dll and libmpsse.dll) are copied automatically next to the executable by the build system.

Manual CMake invocation

You can also drive CMake directly from PowerShell. Ensure cmake, ninja, and gcc are all on PATH:

cmake --preset win-usb2pmb2 `
      -B build-<project>-<variant>-win-usb2pmb2 `
      -DPROJECT_DEFCONFIG=<project>/<variant>.conf

cmake --build build-<project>-<variant>-win-usb2pmb2 --target <project>

The built executable is placed in build-<project>-<variant>-win-usb2pmb2\build\<project>.exe.

Running

Run the executable directly from PowerShell:

.\build\<project>-<variant>-<board>\build\<project>.exe

IIO projects

Projects built with the iio_example variant are not supported on the win-usb2pmb2 board — there is no Windows socket backend in the ftd2xx platform. Use the win-host board for IIO projects that do not require FTDI hardware.

Example: building max31827-evkit basic

Note

This example uses the win-usb2pmb2 board which requires the ftd2xx library. Set it up first following the ftd2xx build guide.

cd no-OS

python tools\scripts\no_os_build.py build `
    --project max31827-evkit --variant basic --board win-usb2pmb2

.\build\max31827-evkit-basic-win-usb2pmb2\build\max31827-evkit.exe