This guide provides instructions for setting up an environment for developing, debugging, and programming embedded systems firmware in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2). WSL2 provides a convenient and stable Linux development environment for working on embedded systems firmware. If you’re curious about toolchain performance, check out this comparison of firmware development environments, but the summary is that WSL2 is about 2x the speed of Windows and similar to “bare metal” Linux.

At Ultrahuman, innovation is at the core of everything we do. Our health devices, powered by the nRF52840 SoC for BLE functionality, rely on Nordic Semiconductor’s renowned wireless technology. For years, the nRF5 SDK was the cornerstone of firmware development for these chipsets, but in 2018, Nordic introduced the nRF-Connect SDK(NCS), built on Zephyr RTOS, signaling a new era for BLE applications.