QGroundControl

Open Source Micro Air Vehicle Ground Control Station

• Project: http://qgroundcontrol.org

• Files: http://github.com/mavlink/qgroundcontrol

• Credits: http://qgroundcontrol.org/credits

Obtaining source code

Source code for QGroundControl is kept on GitHub: https://github.com/mavlink/qgroundcontrol.

git clone --recursive https://github.com/mavlink/qgroundcontrol.git

Each time you pull new source to your repository you should run git submodule update to get the latest submodules as well. Since QGroundControl uses submodules, using the zip file for source download will not work. You must use git.

Supported Builds

Native Builds

QGroundControl builds are supported for OSX, Linux, Windows and Android. QGroundControl uses Qt as it's cross-platform support library and uses QtCreator as it's default build environment.

• OSX: OSX 10.7 or higher, 64 bit, clang compiler
• Ubuntu: 64 bit, gcc compiler
• Windows: Vista or higher, 32 bit, Visual Studio 2013 compiler
• Android: Jelly Bean (4.1) and higher
• Qt version: 5.5.1 (or higher)

Install QT

You need to install Qt like this instead of using packages from say a Linux distribution because QGroundControl needs access to private Qt headers.

• Download the Qt installer
  • Ubuntu: Set the downloaded file to executable using:chmod +x. Install to default location for use with ./qgroundcontrol-start.sh. If you install Qt to a non-default location you will need to modify qgroundcontrol-start.sh in order to run downloaded builds.
  • Windows: Default installer not quite correct, use this instead

Install additional packages:

• Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install espeak libespeak-dev libudev-dev libsdl1.2-dev
• Fedora: sudo yum install espeak espeak-devel SDL-devel SDL-static systemd-devel
• Arch Linux: pacman -Sy espeak
• Windows: USB Driver to connect to Pixhawk/PX4Flow/3DR Radio
• Android: Qt Android Setup

Building using Qt Creator

• Launch Qt Creator and open the qgroundcontrol.pro project.
• Select the appropriate kit for your needs:
  • OSX: Desktop Qt 5.5.1 clang 64 bit
  • Ubuntu: Desktop Qt 5.5.1 GCC bit
  • Windows: Desktop Qt 5.5.1 MSVC2013 32bit
  • Android: Android for armeabi-v7a (GCC 4.9, Qt 5.5.1)

Vagrant

A Vagrantfile is provided to build QGroundControl using the Vagrant system. This will produce a native Linux build which can be run in the Vagrant Virtual Machine or on the host machine if it is compatible.

• Download Vagrant
• Install Vagrant
• From the root directory of the QGroundControl repository run "vagrant up"

Additional build notes for all supported OS

• Warnings as Errors: Specifying CONFIG+=WarningsAsErrorsOn will turn all warnings into errors which break the build. If you are working on a pull request you plan to submit to github for consideration, you should always run with this settings turned on, since it is required for all pull requests. NOTE: Putting this line into a file called "user_config.pri" in the top-level directory will set this flag on all builds without interfering with the GIT history.
• Parallel builds: You can use the '-j#' option to run parellel builds.
• Location of built files: Individual build file results can be found in the build_debug or build_release directories. The built executable can be found in the debug or release directory.
• If you get this error when running qgroundcontrol: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6: version 'GLIBCXX_3.4.20' not found. You need to either update to the latest gcc, or install the latest libstdc++.6 using: sudo apt-get install libstdc++6.

Additional functionality

QGroundcontrol has functionality that is dependent on the operating system and libraries installed by the user. The following sections describe these features, their dependencies, and how to disable/alter them during the build process. These features can be forcibly enabled/disabled by specifying additional values to qmake.

Opal-RT's RT-LAB simulator

Integration with Opal-RT's RT-LAB simulator can be enabled on Windows by installing RT-LAB 7.2.4. This allows vehicles to be simulated in RT-LAB and communicate directly with QGC on the same computer as if the UAS was actually deployed. This support is enabled by default once the requisite RT-LAB software is installed. Disabling this can be done by adding DEFINES+=DISABLE_RTLAB to qmake.

XBee support

QGroundControl can talk to XBee wireless devices using their proprietary protocol directly on Windows and Linux platforms. This support is not necessary if you're not using XBee devices or aren't using their proprietary protocol. On Windows, the necessary dependencies are included in this repository and no additional steps are required. For Linux, change to the libs/thirdParty/libxbee folder and run make;sudo make install to install libxbee on your system (uninstalling can be done with a sudo make uninstall). qmake will automatically detect the library on Linux, so no other work is necessary.

To disable XBee support you may add DEFINES+=DISABLE_XBEE to qmake.