2. Compiling binutils

Checking the currently installed version of avr binutils

Run the following command:

avr-as  --version

After installing the latest avr-gcc, you should get the latest version of binutils. We tested these instructions with version 2.19.1.

Downloading the source code

Get the latest version from the binutils FTP site.

Unpacking the archive

Run the following command:

tar xzf ~/Desktop/binutils-2.19.1.tar.gz
cd binutils-2.19.1

Configuring and compiling binutils

The options give here just specify that the AVR version of binutils should be compiled:

./configure --prefix=/usr/local --target=avr
make
sudo make install

Next steps

You should now have the latest version of all of the binutils utilities compiled for the avr and installed in your /usr/local/bin. Proceed to Section 4 to install avr-libc for all of the AVR microcontrollers supported by gcc.