Frequently Asked Build Questions

This page covers questions about building QMK. If you haven't yet done so, you should read the Build Environment Setup and Make Instructions guides.

Can't Program on Linux

You will need proper permissions to operate a device. For Linux users, see the instructions regarding udev rules, below. If you have issues with udev, a work-around is to use the sudo command. If you are not familiar with this command, check its manual with man sudo or see this webpage.

An example of using sudo, when your controller is ATMega32u4:

$ sudo dfu-programmer atmega32u4 erase --force
$ sudo dfu-programmer atmega32u4 flash your.hex
$ sudo dfu-programmer atmega32u4 reset

or just:

$ sudo make <keyboard>:<keymap>:flash

Note that running make with sudo is generally not a good idea, and you should use one of the former methods, if possible.

Linux `udev` Rules

On Linux, you'll need proper privileges to communicate with the bootloader device. You can either use sudo when flashing firmware (not recommended), or place this file into /etc/udev/rules.d/.

Once added, run the following:

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

Note: With older versions of ModemManager (< 1.12), filtering only works when not in strict mode. The following commands can update that setting:

printf '[Service]\nExecStart=\nExecStart=/usr/sbin/ModemManager --filter-policy=default' | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/ModemManager.service.d/policy.conf
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart ModemManager

Serial device is not detected in bootloader mode on Linux

Make sure your kernel has appropriate support for your device. If your device uses USB ACM, such as Pro Micro (Atmega32u4), make sure to include CONFIG_USB_ACM=y. Other devices may require USB_SERIAL and any of its sub options.

Unknown Device for DFU Bootloader

Issues encountered when flashing keyboards on Windows are most often due to having the wrong drivers installed for the bootloader, or none at all.

Re-running the QMK installation script (./util/qmk_install.sh from the qmk_firmware directory in MSYS2 or WSL) or reinstalling the QMK Toolbox may fix the issue. Alternatively, you can download and run the qmk_driver_installer package manually.

If that doesn't work, then you may need to download and run Zadig. See Bootloader Driver Installation with Zadig for more detailed information.

USB VID and PID

You can use any ID you want with editing config.h. Using any presumably unused ID will be no problem in fact except for very low chance of collision with other product.

Most boards in QMK use 0xFEED as the vendor ID. You should look through other keyboards to make sure you pick a unique Product ID.

Also see this. https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard/issues/150

You can buy a really unique VID:PID here. I don't think you need this for personal use.

I just flashed my keyboard and it does nothing/keypresses don't register - it's also ARM (rev6 planck, clueboard 60, hs60v2, etc...) (Feb 2019)

Due to how EEPROM works on ARM based chips, saved settings may no longer be valid. This affects the default layers, and may, under certain circumstances we are still figuring out, make the keyboard unusable. Resetting the EEPROM will correct this.

Planck rev6 reset EEPROM can be used to force an eeprom reset. After flashing this image, flash your normal firmware again which should restore your keyboard to normal working order. Preonic rev3 reset EEPROM

If bootmagic is enabled in any form, you should be able to do this too (see Bootmagic docs and keyboard info for specifics on how to do this).

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