Renode

Copyright (c) 2010-2024 Antmicro

What is Renode?

Renode was created by Antmicro as a virtual development tool for multi-node embedded networks (both wired and wireless) and is intended to enable a scalable workflow for creating effective, tested and secure IoT systems.

With Renode, developing, testing, debugging and simulating unmodified software for IoT devices is fast, cost-effective and reliable.

Supported architectures include:

• ARMv7 and ARMv8 Cortex-A, Cortex-R and Cortex-M
• x86
• RISC-V
• SPARC
• POWER
• Xtensa

Why use Renode?

Renode was created based on many years of experience with the development of software for embedded systems - both for gateways, on-board computers, as well as sensor nodes and microcontrollers.

Testing and developing physical embedded systems is difficult due to poor reproducibility and lack of insight into the current state of a system, especially in multi-node scenarios.

Renode addresses this issue by letting you run unmodified binaries identical to the ones you would normally flash onto their target hardware on a virtual board or system of boards.

One important aspect of the tool is that it simulates not only CPUs but entire SoCs (e.g., heterogeneous multicore SoCs and various peripherals) as well as the wired or wireless connections between them, allowing users to address complex scenarios and test real production software.

Installation

Using the Linux portable release

If you are a Linux user, the easiest way to use Renode is to download the latest linux-portable from the releases section and unpack it using:

mkdir renode_portable
tar xf  renode-*.linux-portable.tar.gz -C renode_portable --strip-components=1

To use it from any location, enter the created directory and add it to the system path:

cd renode_portable
export PATH="`pwd`:$PATH"

Follow the 'Additional Prerequisites' section if you wish to use the Robot framework for testing. Otherwise, you are ready to go to the 'Running Renode' section.

Installing dependencies

Mono/.NET

Renode requires Mono >= 5.20 (Linux, macOS) or .NET >= 4.7 (Windows).

Linux	Install the mono-complete package as per the installation instructions for various Linux distributions, which can be found on the Mono project website.
macOS	On macOS, the Mono package can be downloaded directly from the Mono project website.
Windows	On Windows 7, download and install .NET Framework 4.7. Windows 10 ships with .NET by default, so no action is required.

Other dependencies (Linux only)

On Ubuntu 20.04, you can install the remaining dependencies with the following command:

sudo apt-get install policykit-1 libgtk2.0-0 screen uml-utilities gtk-sharp2 libc6-dev gcc python3 python3-pip

If you are running a different distribution, you will need to install an analogous list of packages using your package manager; note that the package names may differ slightly.

Installing from packages

Go to the releases section of this repository and download the appropriate package for your system.

Linux	Install Renode with your preferred package manager using the provided *.deb, *.rpm or *.pkg.tar.xz packages.
macOS	Use the provided *.dmg as normal. Additionally, to use Renode from the command line on macOS, create appropriate aliases. You can add alias renode='mono /Applications/Renode.app/Contents/MacOS/bin/Renode.exe' and alias renode-test='/Applications/Renode.app/Contents/MacOS/tests/renode-test' to your .bashrc or .zshrc file, depending on the shell you're using.
Windows	Install Renode from the provided *.msi file. The installer will allow you to add icons to your Desktop and/or Start Menu and an entry to your PATH.

Additional prerequisites (for Robot framework testing)

To write and run test cases, Renode integrates with the Robot testing framework. This requires you to install Python 3 (on Windows, you will also need Cygwin - see the advanced installation instructions) with pip (note that the relevant package may be called python-pip or python3-pip on Linux).

Once you have Python 3 and pip, install some additional modules:

python3 -m pip install -r tests/requirements.txt

Building from source (advanced)

For information on building Renode from source, see the documentation.

Nightly packages

Nightly builds of Renode for all systems are available at builds.renode.io. Please note that these packages are not stable releases.

The latest builds are always available as renode-latest.* packages.

Running Renode

If you followed the instructions on installing from a package above, you should have a system-wide renode command that you can use to run the tool:

renode [flags] [file]

If you built it from source, navigate to the relevant directory and use:

./renode [flags] [file]

The optional [file] argument allows you to provide the path to a script to be run on startup.

The script allows several optional flags, the most useful of which are presented below:

-d            debug mode (requires prior build in debug configuration) - only available when built from source
-e COMMAND    execute a command on startup (executed after the [file] argument)
-p            remove ANSI escape codes (e.g., colors) from the output
-P PORT       listen on a port for Monitor commands instead of opening a window
--console     run the Monitor in the console instead of a separate window
-v            prints the version number
-h            help & usage

Renode can be run on Windows systems by starting Renode.exe with a similar set of optional flags.

Running Renode in a Docker container

If you want to run Renode in Docker, you can use a prebuilt image available on Docker Hub.

To start it in interactive mode on Linux, assuming you have installed Docker on your system, run:

docker run -ti -e DISPLAY -v $XAUTHORITY:/home/developer/.Xauthority --net=host antmicro/renode

This should display the Renode Monitor window. Alternatively, you can provide your custom command at the end of the above line.

To run the image in console mode without X server passthrough, run:

docker run -ti antmicro/renode bash

You can add more -v switches to the command to mount your own directories.

For more information and the underlying Dockerfile, visit the repository on GitHub.

Documentation

Documentation is available on Read the Docs.

License & contributions

Renode is released under the permissive MIT license. For details, see the LICENSE file.

We're happy to accept bug reports, feature requests, and contributions via GitHub pull requests / issues. For details, see the CONTRIBUTING.rst file.

Commercial support

Commercial support for Renode is provided by Antmicro, a company specializing in helping its clients to adopt new embedded technologies and modern development methodologies.

Antmicro created and maintains the Renode framework and related tooling and is happy to provide services such as adding new platforms, integrations, plugins, and tools.

To inquire about our services, contact us at support@renode.io.