[En-Nut-Discussion] Help for a Newbie

[Wittmier, Joshua]

Hello,

I have had past experience in programming microcontrollers in their assembly
language (PIC18LF448 and Motorola 68HC11).  I have been given the assignment
of putting a real time os on a microcontroller.  The microcontroller being
used is an Atmel mega128 and I have an ATmega128 development board from
PRLLC (www.prllc.com).  As of right now I only have a serial interface for
programming the board from the computer. 

I am fairly new to Makefiles and this project.  I have been over and over
the Ethernut documentation.  I have went through the Quick Start with WinAVR
for Windows a few times, and I need a little help with my understanding and
with how exactly to proceed.  

1) When going through the Net Configurator, what .conf file should I use
since I am not using a specific Ethernut board?

2) How exactly do I code a program and then load it onto the chip?  From my
understanding, I can use a program like Programmer's Notebad to code my
program.  Then, using one of the premade Makefiles from Ethernut, I modify
it for the chip I am using.   I then load the program and the modified
makefile into a directory.  Using an AVR bootloader, I load that program and
then load it onto the mcu via the serial interface.  Also, that program I
load onto the mcu should be a .hex file if I understand correctly.

To try to be clearer, I am having trouble understanding exactly how the real
time os fits into this picture of programming the mcu.  For I have already
with just WinAVR and Programmer's Notepad programmed a simple program to
light up the LEDs on the board.  And I did not use any real time os.  I
understand why we want to use a real time os, just not exactly how it fits
into programming the mcu.

Any help would be much appreciated.
Thank you for the time and help,


Josh Wittmier
Fluke Corporation
Engineering Intern
Joshua.Wittmier at fluke.com