Platform SDK Installation
Attention: These instructions are only valid for Platform SDK versions newer than or equal to 2.1.3. If you have an older Platform SDK, please upgrade it or use the old instructions. If you are doing a fresh installation, please ignore this note.

The SailfishOS platform SDK contains Development Tools like Scratchbox2, MIC (Image Creation), Spectacle, osc, qemu, etc, to make it easier for a developer to work with SailfishOS.
Quick start

If you're in a hurry then this should get you going (if it doesn't work then read the full instructions carefully!) :
export PLATFORM_SDK_ROOT=/srv/mer
curl -k -O http://releases.sailfishos.org/sdk/installers/latest/Jolla-latest-SailfishOS_Platform_SDK_Chroot-i486.tar.bz2 ;
sudo mkdir -p $PLATFORM_SDK_ROOT/sdks/sfossdk ;
sudo tar --numeric-owner -p -xjf Jolla-latest-SailfishOS_Platform_SDK_Chroot-i486.tar.bz2 -C $PLATFORM_SDK_ROOT/sdks/sfossdk  ;
echo "export PLATFORM_SDK_ROOT=$PLATFORM_SDK_ROOT" >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'alias sfossdk=$PLATFORM_SDK_ROOT/sdks/sfossdk/mer-sdk-chroot' >> ~/.bashrc ; exec bash ;
echo 'PS1="PlatformSDK $PS1"' > ~/.mersdk.profile ;
echo '[ -d /etc/bash_completion.d ] && for i in /etc/bash_completion.d/*;do . $i;done'  >> ~/.mersdk.profile ;
sfossdk
Once you've installed the Platform SDK you'll need to installation a Platform SDK Target.

It's recommended that you read sections below for pre-requisites, options and details on installing extra architecture toolchains, tools etc.
Contents [hide]
1 Quick start
2 Platform SDK
3 Installing the Platform SDK
3.1 SDK Requirements
3.2 Installation / setup
3.3 Platform SDK control script
3.4 Entering Platform SDK
3.5 Useful Alias
3.6 Basic tasks
3.6.1 Compiling with the Platform SDK
4 Next Steps
5 Updating the Platform SDK
6 Removing the Platform SDK
7 Extras
7.1 Multiple Platform SDKs
7.2 Known Issues
7.2.1 work around bug #554 : mic failure
7.2.2 "not enough disk space left" or similar
Platform SDK

The default download contains:
Development tools
Image creation tools
OBS development tools

You can also install :
Debugging tools
Testing tools
Python development
Ruby development

Installing the Platform SDK

SDK Requirements
The Platform SDK will run on most modern Linux machines. It needs:
Linux distribution (one in a virtual machine works well), running 2.6.37 or newer kernel
about 400Mb free space to install
The SDK must be installed on a standard filesystem and "nosuid" must not be set. (Note: recent ecryptfs will automatically use and enforce nosuid. Automounted usb drives typically have "nosuid" set too.)
hundreds of Mb for rpm caches for osc and mic as well as for SB2 targets
Generic x86 CPU
user must have sudo rights
Installation / setup
The Platform SDK is provided as a rootfs tarball that contains essential tools for Sailfish OS platform development along with a helper script to enter the rootfs.

Filesystem requirements:
The Platform SDK can be installed to any location with enough space - we'll use /srv/ as per the Linux FHS (feel free to adapt the commands to use any other location).
The installation path must contain an intermediate directory called 'sdks' which only has Platform SDKs inside. eg /srv/mer/sdks/sfossdk/...

To setup the Platform SDK:
Download the latest stable Platform SDK rootfs tarball with the common armv7hl toolchain preinstalled:
curl -k -O http://releases.sailfishos.org/sdk/installers/latest/Jolla-latest-SailfishOS_Platform_SDK_Chroot-i486.tar.bz2
Optionally, you can check the release notes from the Application SDK Release Notes. The SDK Build Engine section also contains the latest changes to the Platform SDK.
Create a directory for the Platform SDK rootfs and extract the tarball as root or with sudo:
sudo mkdir -p /srv/mer/sdks/sfossdk
sudo tar --numeric-owner -p -xjf Jolla-latest-SailfishOS_Platform_SDK_Chroot-i486.tar.bz2 -C /srv/mer/sdks/sfossdk
Platform SDK control script
The Platform SDK rootfs contains a helper script to enter the chroot named 'mer-sdk-chroot'. The helper script is located in the root directory (/) of the rootfs. It requires you to have sudo ability.

As mentioned, the Platform SDK is location independent so it uses the location of the helper script to determine which Platform SDK to enter.
Entering Platform SDK
Before entering the Platform SDK you may want to make an Platform SDK equivalent of ".profile" to give you a nice prompt to remind you that you are in the Platform SDK. This also reads the bash autocompletion scripts from inside the chroot.

cat << EOF >> ~/.mersdk.profile
PS1="PlatformSDK \$PS1"
if [ -d /etc/bash_completion.d ]; then
   for i in /etc/bash_completion.d/*;
   do
      . \$i
   done
fi
EOF

If you use multiple Platform SDK instances, you can utilise the MERSDK shell variable to determine the absolute path to the Platform SDK chroot in use (since Sailfish OS release 2.1.3).

To enter the Platform SDK rootfs with the helper script run
/srv/mer/sdks/sfossdk/mer-sdk-chroot

You should find that you are operating under your normal username and that your home directory is available as /home/<username> and any other mountpoints are mounted under /parentroot/*

You have sudo rights automatically. If sudo fails within the sdk, make sure that the filesystem the sdk is on is not mounted with the "nosuid" parameter. "mount" on the host system gives you this information, add "suid" as parameter in fstab, if necessary.
Useful Alias
If you tend to use a single instance of the Platform SDK then this alias is useful
 echo alias sfossdk=/srv/mer/sdks/sfossdk/mer-sdk-chroot >> ~/.bashrc ; exec bash
Basic tasks
Compiling with the Platform SDK

Platform SDK can be used to compile code as well, e.g., you can compile simple applications within the Platform SDK:
mkdir ~/src
cat <<EOF >~/src/hello.c
#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
   printf("Hello World\n");
   return 0;
}
EOF
gcc ~/src/hello.c -o ~/src/hello

and run it:
~/src/hello

Note that this compilation is strictly for compiling code for use in the Platform SDK itself - i.e. it's not terribly useful for writing code for SailfishOS devices; for that you need a suitable Target ... keep reading.
Next Steps

The next step is to look at setting up the Platform SDK Targets and installing and using more Development Tools
Updating the Platform SDK

Attention: Sailfish OS Platform SDK before Sailfish OS release version 2.1.3 did not support simultaneous installation of SDK Targets for multiple Sailfish OS versions. If you are using such an older SDK you should ensure that the Platform SDK release version matches the SDK Target release versions and you should only update your Platform SDK after all SDK Targets are updated.

You can check your current release version by executing ssu re in the SDK. For a newer SDK release version check out the Application SDK Release Notes. In this example we will use Jolla release 2.0.2.48.

 sudo ssu re 2.0.2.48
 sudo zypper ref
 sudo zypper dup
Removing the Platform SDK

Remove all SDK Targets and Toolings, then simply exit all chroot instances and, using sudo, remove /srv/mers/sdks/sfossdk.
Extras

Multiple Platform SDKs
You should be able to install and connect to multiple Platform SDKs at the same time.
Known Issues
work around bug #554 : mic failure

To work around a bug #554 add the following to ~/.mersdk.profile (e.g. Fedora >= 17 needs that):
export PATH=$PATH:/sbin
"not enough disk space left" or similar

If you do actually have enough disk then the problem is possible that the kernel on your host is too old. To run Platform SDK you should be running kernel 2.6.37 or newer on your host.