Before you can build keymaps, you need to install some software and set up your build environment. This only has to be done once no matter how many keyboards you plan to compile firmware for.
* You’ll need a program that can edit and save plain text files. The default editor that comes with many OS's does not save plain text files, so you'll need to make sure that whatever editor you chose does.
?> If you haven't worked with the Linux/Unix command line before, there are a few basic concepts and commands you should learn. [These resources](newbs_learn_more_resources.md#command-line-resources) will teach you enough to be able to work with QMK.
QMK maintains a Bundle of MSYS2, the CLI and all necessary dependencies. It also provides a handy `QMK MSYS` terminal shortcut to boot you directly into the correct environment.
You will need to install [QMK MSYS](https://msys.qmk.fm/). The latest release is available [here](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_distro_msys/releases/latest).
You will need to install [MSYS2](https://www.msys2.org). Once installed, close any open MSYS terminals (purple icon) and open a new MinGW 64-bit terminal (blue icon) from the Start Menu.
!> **NOTE:** The MinGW 64-bit terminal is *not* the same as the MSYS terminal that opens when installation is completed. Your prompt should say "MINGW64" in purple text, rather than "MSYS". See [this page](https://www.msys2.org/wiki/MSYS2-introduction/#subsystems) for more information on the differences.
?> **Note for WSL users**: By default, the installation process will clone the QMK repository into your WSL home directory, but if you have cloned manually, ensure that it is located inside the WSL instance instead of the Windows filesystem (ie. not in `/mnt`), as accessing it is currently [extremely slow](https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4197).
These packages are maintained by community members, so may not be up to date or completely functional. If you encounter problems, please report them to their respective maintainers.
On Arch-based distros you can install the CLI from the official repositories (NOTE: at the time of writing this package marks some dependencies as optional that should not be):
?>**Note on Debian, Ubuntu and their derivatives**:
It's possible, that you will get an error saying something like: `bash: qmk: command not found`.
This is due to a [bug](https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=839155) Debian introduced with their Bash 4.4 release, which removed `$HOME/.local/bin` from the PATH. This bug was later fixed on Debian and Ubuntu.
?> The qmk home folder can be specified at setup with `qmk setup -H <path>`, and modified afterwards using the [cli configuration](cli_configuration.md?id=single-key-example) and the variable `user.qmk_home`. For all available options run `qmk setup --help`.
?> If you already know how to use GitHub, [we recommend that you follow these instructions](getting_started_github.md) and use `qmk setup <github_username>/qmk_firmware` to clone your personal fork. If you don't know what that means you can safely ignore this message.
Now that your QMK build environment is set up, you can build a firmware for your keyboard. Start by trying to build the keyboard's default keymap. You should be able to do that with a command in this format:
qmk compile -kb <keyboard> -km default
For example, to build a firmware for a Clueboard 66% you would use:
qmk compile -kb clueboard/66/rev3 -km default
When it is done you should have a lot of output that ends similar to this:
