QMK Firmware Tutorial - MSYS2, and Drivers (Part 1)

By the end of this tutorial, you'll have a fully functioning MSYS2 build environment for QMK firmware on your Windows PC. The web-based configurators for QMK are great, but if you want to take advantage of all the features, fully customize your keymap, or just learn more about the way QMK works, you can get to editing the files directly. You'll need to setup a build environment first, but it's really not that hard. I'm not an expert in using MSYS2, Git, or QMK, but this process worked for me and first-timers should have no trouble.

I didn't detail checking out the firmware via Git since I thought dealing with .zip files was something beginners would be more familiar with. I'll talk about using Git from the command line in a later episode.

[RainbowVomitPanda]

"Give it a bash"
You got me.

[Martijnluka]

"cd /wherever/theheck/youput/it/" Love this one! Great tutorials!

[Manapoker]

can't find the 'util/msys2_install.sh' . Is this step really necesary?

[ryderpham]

When I enter util/msys2_install.sh, it says that there is "No such file or directory"
Any tips?

[jackhumbert]

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing the rest of the series :)

[BareSphereMass]

for anyone wondering for me I typed...
cd /qmk_firmware
Its in drive C: I did not capitalize any of the letters and I did not add the : in front of the C drive.

[kaitalyn]

I kept getting "gpgme error invalid crypto engine" when running "pacman -Syu"
Turning off my antivirus and restarting fixed the issue.

[MrJAM-npgo]

Wow, the best comprehensive QMK tutorial ever! SO MANY THANKS!

[Devoider]

Just built my own custom and am so glad to be finally figuring this out. Thanks a bunch!

[andre.ramos.]

How can I call a Windows app just pressing a key or combination of keys?
I wasn't able to find it yet.
Thx 😊😊

[kuruptgt]

Can you use windows 10 's ubuntu instead of mysys2?

[SmedleyRudolf-wk]

Taylor Margaret Taylor Michael Gonzalez Jessica

[RatedBforBadass]

pacman -Syu
pacman -Su
util/msys2_install.sh

[adambjelland]

I enter "a" for the install all usb devices, but only receive this



Which USB drivers do you want to install?
(A)all - All supported drivers will be installed
(C)onnected - Only drivers for connected keyboards (in bootloader/flashing mode)
will be installed
(F)force - Like all, but will also override existing drivers for connected
keyboards
(N)one - No drivers will be installed,
flashing your keyboard will most likely not work
(A/C/F/N)? a
~/qmk_utils /c/qmk_firmware-master/util /c/qmk_firmware-master

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.885]
(c) 2018 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.





What Am i supposed to enter at the bottom, becuase it does not say anyhting has been installed

[pyk_]

It might be useful to add that, like the Terminal in macOS, you can simply drag a folder to the MSYS window and it will automatically type out the path. I use this all the time.

[DavRambo]

I've always written my keymaps and flashed my Planck from my mac laptop. But the desire to go through this series has me doing it on my PC! Thank you, now on to the second video : )

[sleepintheheat]

This is exactly what I need right now. Now I just need you to finish off the series so I can learn how to use QMK properly. If you could cover writing the actual code, that would be awesome too. And maybe some short spin off videos covering the more specialist functions like tap dance, etc...

[aria]

Command line still terrifies me. By far what I'm most nervous about as the parts for my handwire roll in.

[sonicase]

nice, but, what are some examples of why you would mess with the qmk code vs the online editor? ...all i can think of is if you wanted some crazy leds or something weird like control a motor

[danielradosa]

I get 'Other error' instead of Success message when installing drivers. Can anyone help?