Oberon RTK

Framework Installation

How to install the Oberon RTK framework

Overview

The Oberon RTK framework, including

  • source code modules
  • Astrobe configuration files
  • development, debugging and testing tools

is published as git repository.

Installation Location

The Astrobe installer sets the search path variables such as %AstrobeRP2350% to the root of its framework.

+ %AstrobeRP2350% <= root of the framework for Astrobe for RP2350
  + Configs
  + Examples
  + Lib

Oberon RTK can be installed in any directory that Astrobe can read, for example:

+ C:\oberon\oberon-rtk
  + config
  + examples
  + lib
    + v3.1
  + tools

The library search path would be, omitting the details:

%AstrobeRP2350%\Lib\Pico2
%AstrobeRP2350%\Lib\General
C:\oberon\oberon-rtk\lib\v3.1\...
...

That is, the Oberon RTK directories need to be specified without the help of %AstrobeRP2350%.

I install the Astrobe framework and Oberon RTK thusly:

+ <some-dir>
  + astrobe-mx
    + .git
    + rp2350      <= root of the Astrobe RP2350 framework
      + Configs
      + Examples
      + Lib
    + rp2040      <= root of the Astrobe RP2040 framework
      + Configs
      + Examples
      + Lib
  + oberon-rtk    <= root of the Oberon RTK framework
    + .git
    + config
    + examples
    + lib
    + tools
  + project-0
    + .git
  + project-1
    + .git
  ...

.git denotes the location of the corresponding git repos.

That is, all frameworks and all project directories are on the same hierarchy level. To avoid using absolute directory path definitions in the my Astrobe configuration files, and instead to be able to use %AstrobeRP2350% and %AstrobeRP2040%, I have changed their definitions to <some-dir> in the above outline. Now all search path entries can be defined "downwards" in the directory tree from %AstrobeRP2350% and %AstrobeRP2350%, without resorting to relative paths definitions.

This requires to modify the definitions of %AstrobeRP2350% and %AstrobeRP2040% in the Windows registry. Contact me if you need help with this – it's easy enough, but I prefer not to give public advice on Windows registry surgery.

Installation Step

To install Oberon RTK into directory oberon-rtk:

> git clone https://github.com/ygrayne/oberon-rtk.git oberon-rtk

oberon-rtk will be created if it does not exists. If it exists, it must be empty.

To update, from within the Oberon RTK framework directory:

> git pull

Astrobe Configuration Files

One of the main parts of the Astrobe configuration files is the library search path, which the compiler and linker use to find the modules in your IMPORT lists.

For the above installation set-up, a typical library search path for a program for the RP2350 looks as outlined below. It works for all Oberon RTK programs that don't have project-local modules, including most example and test programs.

%AstrobeRP2350%/oberon-rtk/lib/v3.1/mcu/rpi/rp2350/base/src
%AstrobeRP2350%/oberon-rtk/lib/v3.1/mcu/rpi/rp2350/base
%AstrobeRP2350%/oberon-rtk/lib/v3.1/mcu/m33
%AstrobeRP2350%/oberon-rtk/lib/v3.1/mcu/rpi/rp2350/startup
%AstrobeRP2350%/oberon-rtk/lib/v3.1/mcu/rpi/rp2350
%AstrobeRP2350%/oberon-rtk/lib/v3.1/mcu/rpi/any/kernel-v1
%AstrobeRP2350%/oberon-rtk/lib/v3.1/mcu/rpi/any
%AstrobeRP2350%/oberon-rtk/lib/v3.1/board/rpi/pico2
%AstrobeRP2350%/oberon-rtk/lib/v3.1/board/rpi/any
%AstrobeRP2350%/oberon-rtk/lib/v3.1/any
%AstrobeRP2350%/astrobe-mx/rp2350/Lib/General

Environment Variables

Several RTK_ environment variables are used by the Oberon RTK tooling and the build scripts. The most relevant ones for installation are:

  • RTK_REPO_ROOT – absolute path to your oberon-rtk checkout. Build scripts use this to find files inside the framework (eg. central configuration files, examples).

  • RTK_ASTROBE_FOLDER_2350 and RTK_ASTROBE_FOLDER_2040 – the parent directory used to resolve %AstrobeRP2350% (resp. %AstrobeRP2040%) substitutions in the library search paths shown above. In the side-by-side layout suggested earlier, both astrobe-mx/ and oberon-rtk/ live under this directory.

  • RTK_ASTROBE_BUILD_2350, RTK_ASTROBE_LINK_2350 (and the corresponding _2040 pair) – absolute paths to the Astrobe AstrobeBuild.exe and AstrobeLink.exe executables for each Astrobe product, used by build scripts.

The _2350 and _2040 suffixes name the Astrobe product (Astrobe for RP2350, Astrobe for RP2040), not the target MCU. The Cortex-M33 product (Astrobe for RP2350) builds for RP2350 and STM32; the Cortex-M0+ product (Astrobe for RP2040) builds for RP2040.

Other RTK_ variables exist for debug servers, OpenOCD configurations, SVD files, and external tools. See Environment Variables for the full list and recommended values.

Help and Support

Please contact me if you need more information and support.

Last updated: 5 May 2026