Mac OS X Installation

Brew

Open your bash terminal and paste this into the prompt:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

This snippet is taken directly from brew’s website. The script will guide you through the installation.

Packages

libusb is required by the chipwhisperer software to communicate with the board. You can install it using brew:

brew install libusb

Python

The best way to install Python on Mac is in a Python virtualenv. The steps for this are found at https://opensource.com/article/19/5/python-3-default-mac. A quick summary is:

brew install pyenv
pyenv install 3.9.5
pyenv global 3.9.5
echo -e 'if command -v pyenv 1>/dev/null 2>&1; then\n  eval "$(pyenv init -)"\nfi' >> ~/.zshrc

Then launch a new terminal and run

python --version

and make sure it reports that you’re using Python 3.9.5.

Compilers

The compilers are also available on Mac OSx. You can install by running:

# install arm-gcc
brew install --cask gcc-arm-embedded

# install avr-gcc
brew tap osx-cross/avr
brew install avr-gcc

This brew install does not work for some older versions of Mac OS X. You will have to find a different way to install the compilers.

Mac M1 Notes

ChipWhisperer is compatable with Mac M1; however, due to the M1’s different architecture, as well as its x86 emulation, you need to manually install libusb1 and ensure that the architecture for libusb1 matches the architecture for Python.

The best way to do this seems to be to install Python via conda miniforge and to use the newest homebrew to install libusb.

See https://github.com/newaetech/chipwhisperer/issues/381 for more information.

Installing ChipWhisperer

See the Linux install instructions.