Install Nightmare / Feedback with many bugs

Mbed OS Bugs
1

Can’t use it, every time I try to create a program ist says “Failed to create program”.

First feedback point:

  • Provide meaningful error messages! “Failed” helps nothing. At least a link to the log file.

Judging from the log file it tries to get some files from C:\ProgramData\Mbed Studio\mbed-studio-tools but this directory is empty, even after full reinstallation.

Searching your community reveals that if an install failed because of disc space running out, all subsequent installs will also fail silently because the install folder is still locked.

So next feedback points: Get your installer right!!!

  • Check for sufficient disc space beforehand
  • Clean uninstall if install failed
  • Clear error descriptions when new install fails because some folder is locked
    That’s very bad programming style.

That was the first time I wanted to give feedback, so I clicked “Help > Report an Issue”, which opens an Email window to the recipient “studio@mbed.com” and typed this report.
Know what? The mail came back to me “550 5.1.1 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable”
Dear developers, when you build a feedback function, be sure that the mailbox the feedback is sent to is available!

  • Feedback Email Adress “studio@mbed.com” which is found under Help >Report an Issue is unavailable.

So I made more disk space available, rebootet and tried again. Now I get the Message “Extract: error writing uninstall mbed.exe” (or something similar). I removed all files belonging to mBed, rebootet, and installed again. Now intall seemed to be successfull, but when creating a new app, again “Failed to create program” because “C:\ProgramData\Mbed Studio\mbed-studio-tools” is still an empty directory.

Next I tried to install it manually. I unzipped “MbedStudio-1.4.4.exe” and found a file “app-64.7z” inside the “$PLUGINSDIR” folder. I unzipped that one, too. Inside there is a folder “tools” which, for example, contains the folder “example-projects”. I took all the content of “tools” and moved it to “C:\ProgramData\Mbed Studio\mbed-studio-tools”.

And finally I was able to create the first app!
But building the app failed: “Process failed with exit code 2”. Again, please provide meaningful error messages and a link to the log file!
The log file was not helping me. In an attempt of clicking around randomly, I switched to another target and now it compiled successfull. I switched back to the previously selected Target “DISCO-F072B” and now I noticed the litte warning icon and Output when compiling: “DISCO_F072B is not a supported MCU. Supported MCUs are…”

Okay, next Bug report:

  • When compiling against an unsupported Target like “DISCO_F072B” there is no appropiate error message, just “Exit code 2”.

So I switched Target to a supported variant: “NUCLEO-F072RB”. After successfull compiling, I get one Problem: ‘In included file: “Compiler generates FPU instructions for a device without an FPU (check __FPU_PRESENT)”’
Searching in this Forum I found out that this is a known problem with no solution and no reaction from official support staff since 2021.

I’m coming to the conclusion that Mbed Studio is not (yet?) ready for professional use. Too much homework for the developers left. For me, just a waste of time. I hope it will improved, otherwise it would be really sad.

Summary of my Bug reports:

  • Provide meaningful error messages! “Failed” helps nothing. At least a link to the log file.
  • Check for sufficient disc space beforehand
  • Clean uninstall if install failed
  • Clear error descriptions when new install fails because some folder is locked
  • Feedback Email Adress “studio@mbed.com” which is found under Help >Report an Issue is unavailable.
  • When compiling against an unsupported Target like “DISCO_F072B” there is no appropiate error message, just “Exit code 2”.
  • Solve Problem “Compiler generates FPU instructions for a device without an FPU (check __FPU_PRESENT)”, See Updated libraries now get Error about FPU Nucleo f103rb
2

fwiw, we created the Mbed CE project as a way to build and use Mbed without relying on Mbed Studio, partly due to issues like this. It allows you to build Mbed OS using only CMake and your IDE of choice (CLion/VS Code), allows more complex project structures such as having multiple executables/libraries in a single project, and is generally adaptable to more complex project setups that are seen on real projects. While I can’t guarantee it will solve every pain point with Mbed, it should at least deal with most of the issues you faced here. If you want to give it a shot, check out the hello world project here.

3

Just to reinforce Jamie’s message, I have started using mbed-ce + CLion, some time ago, as per his sugestion and ,believe me, it is a true game changer, excellent developing experience, I reallly recommend using this solution and also it is a good starting point to begin dealing with CMake which it is a great technology. The clear documentation assists everyone, even beginners, to start playing with it with no pain. To me Mbed Studio is a toy, good as starting point but not useful for serious applications.

1 Like
4

Hello @MultipleMonomials and @jancotipsarevic, thank you for your answers and your recommendation!

“Mbed OS Community Edition (CE), a fork focused on improving the build system and tooling, fixing bugs, and keeping maintenance going after ARM’s step back from the Mbed project.” - This explains it all. Like why the Mail adress isn’t available. I fell for a dead software here. Shame on me!

In the meantime, I’ve finished my work on the firmware with the STM32CubeIDE, which worked without problems. But I’ll give MBed CE a try next time.