Installing MAVLink

This topic explains how to install the MAVLink toolchain, including both XML message definitions and the GUI/command line tools that use them to Generate MAVLink Source Files.

You do not need to install or generate the source files if you are using the C programming language and a standard dialect. Just get the prebuilt libraries and then jump to Using C Libraries.

Prerequisites

The requirements for using the MAVLink tools are:

• Python 2.7+ or Python 3.3+
• Python future module
• (Optional) Python TkInter module (required to use the GUI tool).
• PYTHONPATH environment variable must be set to the directory path containing the mavlink repository.

Installation Steps

The main installation steps are:

1. Install Python 2.7+ or 3.3+.
   • Windows: Download from Python for Windows
   • Ubuntu Linux 16.04: Python 2.7 and Python 3.0 are already present. If you are using Python3 you will need to install the pip3 package manager:

     sudo apt-get install python3-pip
     

2. Install the future module:
   • Windows:

     pip install future
     

   • Linux:

     pip install --user future
     

3. (Optionally) Install TkInter

   • Windows: Installed already as part of Python for Windows
   • Linux: Enter the following terminal command:

     sudo apt-get install python-tk
     

4. Clone the mavlink repo (or your fork) into a user-writable directory:

   git clone https://github.com/mavlink/mavlink.git
   git submodule update --init --recursive
   

   Alternatively you can do this in one line:

     git clone https://github.com/mavlink/mavlink.git --recursive
   

5. Set PYTHONPATH to the directory path containing your mavlink repository.
   • Windows: set PYTHONPATH=C:\your_path_to_mavlink_clone
   • Linux: PYTHONPATH=your_path_to_mavlink_clone

Now you are ready to Generate MAVLink Libraries.