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4. Advanced compilation parameters

Table of Contents

• 4. Advanced compilation parameters
• Table of Contents
  • Client
  • Firmware
  • PLATFORM
  • PLATFORM_EXTRAS
  • STANDALONE
  • 256KB versions
  • Next step

The client and the Proxmark3 firmware should always be in sync. Nevertheless, the firmware can be tuned depending on the Proxmark3 platform and options.

Indeed, the Iceman fork can be used on other Proxmark3 hardware platforms as well.

Via some definitions, you can adjust the firmware for a given platform, but also to add features like the support of the Blue Shark add-on or to select which standalone mode to embed.

Client

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The client doesn't depend on the capabilities of the Proxmark3 it's connected to. So you can use the same client for different Proxmark3 platforms, given that everything is running the same version.

It's possible to explicitly skip the Qt support in the compilation even if Qt is present on the host, with:

make clean
make SKIPQT=1

or to force a fallback to Qt5 even when Qt6 is installed

make clean
make SKIPQT6=1

On Linux hosts, if the Bluez headers and library are present, the client will be compiled with native Bluetooth support. It's possible to explicitly skip Bluetooth support with:

make clean
make SKIPBT=1

Firmware

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By default, the firmware is of course tuned for the Proxmark3 RDV4 device, which has built-in support for 256KB onboard flash SPI memory, Sim module (smart card support), FPC connector. These features make it very different from all other Proxmark3 devices, there is non other like this one.

Recommendation: if you don't have a RDV4, we strongly recommend your device to have at least a 512KB arm chip, since this repo is crossing 256KB limit. There is still a way to skip parts to make it fit on a 256KB device, see below.

If you need to tune things and save the configuration, create a file Makefile.platform in the root directory of the repository, see Makefile.platform.sample. For an up-to-date exhaustive list of options, you can run make PLATFORM=.

PLATFORM

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Here are the supported values you can assign to PLATFORM in Makefile.platform:

By default PLATFORM=PM3RDV4.

The MCU version (256 or 512) will be detected automatically during flashing.

Known issues:

• 256KB Arm chip devices: The compiled firmware image from this repo may/will be too large for your device.
• PM3 Evo: it has a different led/button pin assignment. It tends to be messed up.
• Proxmark Pro: it has different fpga and unknown pin assignments. Unsupported.

PLATFORM_EXTRAS

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Here are the supported values you can assign to PLATFORM_EXTRAS in Makefile.platform:

By default PLATFORM_EXTRAS=.

If you have installed a Blue Shark add-on on your RDV4, define PLATFORM_EXTRAS=BTADDON in your Makefile.platform to enable it.

If you did some modding on the PM3GENERIC platform, you can define FLASH and SMARTCARD to enable these features, like PLATFORM_EXTRAS=FLASH

You can also define multiple options like PLATFORM_EXTRAS=FLASH SMARTCARD

STANDALONE

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The Iceman repository gives you to easily choose which standalone mode to embed in the firmware. Documentation for each standalone mode can be found in the Standalone Modes Index. Here are the supported values you can assign to STANDALONE in Makefile.platform:

By default STANDALONE=LF_SAMYRUN.

256KB versions

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If you own a Proxmark3 Easy with only 256KB, you can use a few definitions to help you getting a smaller firmware.

First thing is of course to use the PLATFORM=PM3GENERIC. Adding PLATFORM_SIZE=256 will provoke an error during compilation of the recovery image if your image is too big, so you can detect the problem before trying to flash the Proxmark3, e.g.

[=] GEN proxmark3_recovery.bin
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ERROR: Firmware image too large for your platform! 262768 > 262144
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can skip the standalone support by indicating STANDALONE= and a series of SKIP_* allow to skip some of the functionalities and to get a smaller image.

So for example, at the time of writing, this is a valid Makefile.platform compiling an image for 256KB:

PLATFORM=PM3GENERIC
PLATFORM_SIZE=256
STANDALONE=
SKIP_HITAG=1
SKIP_FELICA=1

Situation might change when the firmware is growing of course, requiring to skip more elements.

Last note: if you skip a tech, be careful not to use a standalone mode which requires that same tech, else the firmware size reduction won't be much.

Next step

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See Compilation instructions