Code Composer v5 suddenly "broke"

Dave,

A quick note about how driverlib works:  The file your build complained about not being able to find, driverlib-cm4f.lib, is a precompiled binary.  We have a project inside stellarisware/driverlib/ that will go through and compile the module for every peripheral, and place the resulting binary into the .lib file. When you make a call to a GPIO function, then, instead of your compiler having to go through and recompile the source code for the GPIO module on every build, it just makes a link from your application code into the precompiled .lib file.  Note that this is a very high level overview; if you want to delve into how this works, I recommend googling around for a description of how a linker works, and how it handles precompiled binaries (as I am nowhere near eloquent enough to explain that well in a single forum post :)

Now that that's out of the way, lets get down to actually solving your problem.  What probably happened is that somewhere along the way, either through running a Clean Project command, a Rebuild Project command, errant clicking, or file corruption, the precompiled binary that was unpacked in driverlib/ccs-cm4f/Debug went away.  Fortunately, you can find a project file for rebuilding driverlib inside the driverlib directory.  You should just be able to import the driverlib-cm4f project into ccs (found at driverlib/ccs-cm4f) and build that project, which will recreate your driverlib-cm4f.lib.

For your second problem, when you create a project in CCS, you have to explicitly tell it where to look to find files that you are including.  This is done through the project properties, under Build->ARM Compiler->Include Options.  In the projects we ship, we normally have something like "${SW_ROOT}" in the #include search path field, which is a variable that eventually resolves to wherever you installed stellarisware (the exact meaning of this and all other build variables can be found in project properties under Resource->Linked Resources).  My guess is that the include path for your project doesn't have your stellarisware root directory, which means that when you tell CCS to #include "inc/hw_types.h", it doesn't know to start looking for the inc directory at wherever you installed stellarisware in your file system.  To fix this, you can just click the "Add..." button in the "Add dir to #include search path" field, click on "File System..." browse to your stellarisware install path, and hit OK.

Let me know if any of this was unclear, or if you still have trouble building after re-creating your .lib file and making sure your include paths are set up correctly.

-Jordan

Dave: Glad to hear I could help!  When you say you were unable to "get out of" the debugger and "return to build", do you mean switch from the debugger perspective (Debug window in the top left, Variables, expressions, registers in the top right, console in the bottom, and code only in a really tiny window in the center of the screen) to the code editing perspective (project explorer on the left, console and problems in the bottom right, big code editing frame in the center)?  If so, there's a set of buttons in the top right of the CCS window you can use to switch contexts.  By default, when you hit the "stop" button in the debugger, it will take you back to the code editing perspective, but it's possible to switch between them manually.

cb1: They can rebrand my launchpad when they pry it from my cold, dead hands :)  Despite all the hullabaloo, the Stellaris engineers are still the same folks with the same professionally (and at times, emotionally) vested interest in delivering a top notch software library to accompany a stellar MCU.  So long as it is in my power to do so, my forum handle will reflect as much.