Clarification: PlatformIO now appears to support this core via official raspberrypi platform — docs still say otherwise

[paynerc]

I’ve been using PlatformIO and recently discovered that the official raspberrypi platform now pulls in this core (framework-arduino-pico) via the PlatformIO registry, even though the docs still suggest using the Max Gerhardt fork due to lack of upstream support.

Here’s what I’m seeing:
• With platform = raspberrypi and board = adafruit_feather, PlatformIO resolves and installs framework-arduinopico via your GitHub repo.
• Verified via:

pio pkg list
Resolving adafruit_feather_rp2040 dependencies...
Platform raspberrypi @ 1.17.0+sha.6af38e2 (required: raspberrypi)
├── framework-arduinopico @ 1.40600.0+sha.6fc3165 (required: git+https://github.com/earlephilhower/arduino-pico.git#6fc3165d3a6024d221ed8897cf2b6f52c613fb10)
├── tool-mklittlefs-rp2040-earlephilhower @ 5.100300.230216 (required: earlephilhower/tool-mklittlefs-rp2040-earlephilhower @ ~5.100300.0)
├── tool-openocd-rp2040-earlephilhower @ 5.140200.250530 (required: https://github.com/earlephilhower/pico-quick-toolchain/releases/download/4.1.0/aarch64-apple-darwin20.4.openocd-ebec9504d.250530.tar.gz)
├── tool-picotool-rp2040-earlephilhower @ 5.140200.250530 (required: https://github.com/earlephilhower/pico-quick-toolchain/releases/download/4.1.0/aarch64-apple-darwin20.4.picotool-c56c005.250530.tar.gz)
└── toolchain-rp2040-earlephilhower @ 5.140200.250530 (required: https://github.com/earlephilhower/pico-quick-toolchain/releases/download/4.1.0/aarch64-apple-darwin20.4.arm-none-eabi-1aec55e.250530.tar.gz)

But this seems to contradict the documentation, which still says:

“Support for this core has not been merged into the upstream PlatformIO raspberrypi platform…”

I understand PR #36 was closed and never merged, but it appears PlatformIO incorporated support separately, likely via internal registry metadata and dynamic resolution rather than via GitHub repo changes.

It would seem that the docs need to be updated now that support appears to be in PlatformIO directly? It could help avoid confusion for users who are now successfully using this core through the official platform.

---

Example platformio.ini configuration using the official platform and Philhower core

[env:adafruit_feather_rp2040]
platform = raspberrypi
board = adafruit_feather
framework = arduino
board_build.core = earlephilhower
board_build.filesystem_size = 0.5m
monitor_speed = 115200
upload_protocol = picotool
debug_tool = cmsis-dap

This minimal configuration works out of the box with PlatformIO Core 6.1.18+ and Platform raspberrypi 1.17.0+, pulling the Philhower core automatically from the registry.

I'd be happy to create a doc update PR if that would be helpful.

[earlephilhower]

@maxgerhardt, any insight?

[earlephilhower]

Also your log shows it using a really old mklittlefs. We;re at this version in the 4.1.0 release

{
   "description": "littlefs-utility",
   "name": "tool-mklittlefs-rp2040-earlephilhower",
   "system": [ "linux_x86_64" ],
   "url": "https://github.com/earlephilhower/pico-quick-toolchain",
   "version": "5.140200.250530"
}

They might point to the last one I uploaded to the P.IO repo. When this went down, the P.IO guys asked me to stop uploading anything to their repo, which I did.. So they may have some ancient things still floating around there (not sure if I myself can delete them, nor how).

[maxgerhardt]

Example platformio.ini configuration using the official platform and Philhower core

[env:adafruit_feather_rp2040]
platform = raspberrypi

This part is a misconception. This is not using "the official platform". The version specification is just raspberrypi. Which means latest raspberrypi version that is currently installed on your system. Once you have installed my fork (https://github.com/maxgerhardt/platform-raspberrypi/), then that platform version becomes the latest version of the raspberrypi version on your system. Thus, this is not using the official platform, it's using the fork.

To make it use "the official version", you have to force it into a registered official version, such as

platform = raspberrypi@1.17.0

This should then fail to use the Arduino-Pico and all board definitions except pico and nanorp2040connect, as these are the only two boards supported in the official platform.

Long story short: A misunderstanding about how version pinning works in the platformio.ini. The official platform cannot use Arduino-Pico or any of the new board definitions.

[maxgerhardt]

And Earle is right, we're currently behind the latest mklittlefs version in the platform. I still specify that to be pulled from the PlatformIO registry instead of the download links in https://github.com/earlephilhower/pico-quick-toolchain/releases. I guess I should correct that to make the LittleFS version used for pre-packing files match the one that's used in the core.

[paynerc]

Ah. Got it. So then I'm not certain how I got into this state but I will go back to the docs and try and reconfigure.

I got sidetracked when I went to review the PR that was waiting to merge and fell down a rabbit hole.

Maybe we should update the doc to remove the note about waiting for the PR to get merged that never will.