This tutorial shows the steps needed to install .NET6 and to develop, build and deploy a .NET6 App on RaspberryPi.

dotnet4pi.md

Running .NET 6 App on RaspberryPi

This tutorial shows the steps needed to install .NET6 and to develop, build and deploy a .NET6 App on RaspberryPi.

Requirements

• a RaspberryPi (only AMR32v7 versions are supported. E.g. Pi Zero W is not supported)
• code editor (e.g. VSCode) on the dev machine, Windows or Mac

Preparing the Pi

Follow the usual steps to install RaspberryPi OS, enable SSH and run update and upgrade

• install Mono

sudo apt install mono-complete

• Install .NET Core 6.0 SDK (Linux/ARM32) and ASP.NET Core 3.1 Runtime (Linux/ARM32)

Note: Check the latest versions on https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet-core/6.0

wget https://download.visualstudio.microsoft.com/download/pr/a218e3b9-941b-43be-bfb1-615862777457/80954de34ab68729981ed372a8d25b46/dotnet-sdk-6.0.301-linux-arm.tar.gz

wget https://download.visualstudio.microsoft.com/download/pr/084bfc2b-f28d-4995-87f0-d82519245825/7f5398fc2caf95355b154856868ef560/aspnetcore-runtime-6.0.6-linux-arm.tar.gz

• create a new folder and unzip both tar archives

sudo mkdir dotnet-arm32
tar zxf aspnetcore-runtime-6.0.6-linux-arm.tar.gz -C $HOME/dotnet-arm32
tar zxf dotnet-sdk-6.0.301-linux-arm.tar.gz -C $HOME/dotnet-arm32

Make them accessible globally

export DOTNET_ROOT=$HOME/dotnet-arm32 
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/dotnet-arm32

Note: path needs to be added after every restart. To add it on autostart

sudo nano .profile

and add these lines at the end of this file

# set .NET SDK and Runtime path
export DOTNET_ROOT=$HOME/dotnet-arm32
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/dotnet-arm32

Reboot the Pi (sudo reboot) and run dotnet --info to check the installation

Optional for playing sounds

NetCoreAudio is a simple cross-platform library to play audio on .NET Apps. In order to playback MP3 files, the library mpg123 is needed

sudo apt-get install mpg123

Developing the App on Win/Mac

Be sure to have the correct .NET6 installed and that dotnet is available globally

• In VSCode, open a terminal and create a new console App

dotnet new console -o NAME-OF-APP --framework net6.0

• to add packages use dotnet add package NAME-OF-THE-PACKAGE, NuGET is the main portal to find packages. For example

# Access to GPIO on Rpi
dotnet add package RaspberrySharp --version 1.40

# MQTT Client
dotnet add package M2Mqtt --version 4.3.0

# Playback library for WAV - it needs mpg123 for mp3
dotnet add package NetCoreAudio --version 1.6.3

# Mangage signalling 
dotnet add package Mono.Unix --version 7.1.0-final.1.21458.1

Note: be sure that the packages are compatible with the version of .Net chosen

Some additional parameters can be added to NAME-OF-APP.csproj to control and optimise the build process: create a single file; trim the not used DLL; define the target framework (.Net6.0 in this case).

Note: the <ItemGroup> is populated automatically using dotnet add package NAME-OF-THE-PACKAGE

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net6.0</TargetFramework>
    <SelfContained>true</SelfContained>
    <PublishTrimmed>true</PublishTrimmed>
    <TrimMode>Link</TrimMode>
    <PublishReadyToRun>true</PublishReadyToRun>
    <IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract>
    true
    </IncludeNativeLibrariesForSelfExtract>
    <PublishSingleFile>true</PublishSingleFile>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="M2Mqtt" Version="4.3.0" />
    <PackageReference Include="Mono.Unix" Version="7.1.0-final.1.21458.1" />
    <PackageReference Include="NetCoreAudio" Version="1.6.3" />
    <PackageReference Include="RaspberrySharp" Version="1.4.0" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Build and deploy the App for linux-arm

dotnet publish --configuration FOLDER-NAME --runtime linux-arm

Copy the release file ./bin/FOLDER-NAME/net6.0/linux-arm/publish/NAME-OF-APP on RPI (e.g. FileZilla)

Note: Linux file doesn't have extension

Make it executable and run it

chmod +x ./NAME-OF-APP
sudo ./NAME-OF-APP