Compile and setup PonyProg on Ubuntu

PonyProg uses cheapest possible hardware to program various memory chips and microcontrollers. There are no repository packages for Ubuntu, so let's see how to compile it and what development libraries it needs.

PonyProg is a device programming software for the SI Prog serial interface programmer designed by Claudio Lanconelli. The latest version of the PonyProg software can be found on SourceForge, but there are no Ubuntu packages.

Here is how to compile it on Ubuntu. This post was updated for Ubuntu 16.10. First you'll have to install some development libraries:

sudo apt install build-essential libxt-dev libxmu-dev libxaw7-dev

Then download the archive from SourceForge and extract it to some folder you want (at the time of writing this, the latest version is 2.08d).

Go to PonyProg2000-2.08d/v/srcx and open Makefile with a text editor. Below the directive include $(CONFIG) (lines 21-22) add the following line:

CFLAGS += -Wno-narrowing

Search and delete the following line if it exists (it may be line 145):

cd iconed ; $(MAKE) ARCH=$@ ; cd ..

Save the makefile. Open a Terminal and go to the extracted archive folder. Run:

./config.sh
make clean
make

If you run ./bin/ponyprog2000 and you get the main window everything worked good.

PonyProg2000 About Dialog

To install it run sudo make install. Now, you can run ponyprog2000 in any directory.

One thing you may want to do if you use the serial interface programmer: add your user to the dialout group, so you won't need root permissions everytime you use PonyProg:

sudo adduser <username> dialout

You can uninstall the development libraries:

sudo apt purge libxt-dev libxmu-dev libxaw7-dev
sudo apt autoremove

If you can't select the port in the configuration dialog, it means the current user doesn't have access to it. Note that while API mode may work with standard privileges, I/O mode requires root privileges. PonyProg lists the ports as in Windows (COM1, LPT1).

PonyProg run with user rights on a computer with a single serial port.

If the adapter is connected and the correct setup is made, when clicking the Probe button, Test Ok should be displayed.

Do you use PonyProg2000 on Linux? Have you compiled it or are you using the Windows version in Wine? Did you know that version 3 will have Qt user interface?