[Pkg-electronics-devel] Bug#985578: arduino-core-avr: Flashing bootloader fails due to invalid size

[Gregor Riepl]

> you hit some more issue we currently have with these files.
> A lot of them we can't currently rebuild at all and due this we can't
> ship them.
> 
> We have written some notes about the known problems to
> /usr/share/doc/arduino-core-avr/README.Debian and it seems this should
> get extended about this new issue.
> 
> So far I know upstream is aware about the underlying problem that all
> build targets needs to get adjusted to current avr-gcc versions, if I
> remember right there is some issue about this in on GitHub within the
> Git tree.
> The Debian version of avr-gcc is lacking maintenance regarding newer
> versions. Due this I wont spend time on potential bug fixing, it's more
> efficient to pick the original .hex file from the Git tree of
> arduino-core-avr. Without the help from Arduino devs or some more
> experienced users I see no fixing of the reported problem in the near
> future. Sorry about this probably not satisfying answer.

Yes, I have found a few references that relate to this problem:
https://github.com/thseiler/embedded/issues/9
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32540418/avr-gcc-compiles-too-large-optiboot-hex-to-suit/32541098#32541098
https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=128752.0
https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=657971.0
https://web.archive.org/web/20160817171346/http://code.google.com/p/optiboot/issues/detail?id=54

The hint given in the first and second link (use an older avr-gcc) is
not really feasible in Debian, sadly. And the others are from very long
ago, so they may not even be relevant any more.

In the meantime, I think it would be ok with binaries from upstream in
Debian contrib (I assume they would be ok there, as the source code is
covered by the DFSG). Not the best solution for people who want to just
"use" Arduino, but at least it will unbreak the package.

Feel free to lower the severity of the issue if you like.