STM32CubeIDE Beginner Tutorial — Blink LED on STM32N6570-DK

In this tutorial, we’ll guide you through getting started with STM32CubeIDE on the STM32N6570-DK Discovery Kit.

You’ll learn how to install the STM32CubeIDE on Ubuntu 24.04 and flash a simple LED example project. This step-by-step guide is perfect for beginners who want to start exploring STM32 development, embedded programming, and Edge AI capabilities with the STM32N6 platform.

A video version of this walkthrough is also available below.

What You Will Learn

How to install STM32CubeIDE on Ubuntu 24.04
How to open the LED example project
How to flash the STM32N6570-DK using STM32CubeIDE

Requirements

A computer with Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
STM32N6570-DK Discovery Kit
USB-C cable
Internet connection
Basic familiarity with the Linux terminal

How to install the STM32CubeIDE on Ubuntu?

Download the STM32CubeIDE Debian Linux Installer from the ST official website :

https://www.st.com/en/development-tools/stm32cubeide.html

The image shows the ST software download page with the STM32CubeIDE installer for Ubuntu highlighted. — Figure 1: STM32CubeIDE installer for Ubuntu

The STM32CubeIDE installer is approximately 1.1 GB. For version 1.19.0, you should see a zip file named “st-stm32cubeide_1.19.0_25607_20250703_0907_amd64.deb_bundle.sh.zip”.

To extract the installer, open a terminal in the directory where the zip file is located and run the following command:

unzip stm32cubeide_1.19.0_25607_20250703_0907_amd64.deb_bundle.sh.zip

Then, make the extracted installer script executable using the following command:

chmod u+x stm32cubeide_1.19.0_25607_20250703_0907_amd64.deb_bundle.sh

Next, run the installer script using the following command:

sudo ./stm32cubeide_1.19.0_25607_20250703_0907_amd64.deb_bundle.sh

The installer will guide you through the license agreements and installation options, and the process typically takes about 2 minutes. Once installed, you can open STM32CubeIDE from the Ubuntu menu or by running the following command in the terminal (assuming you used the default installation location):

/opt/st/stm32cubeide_1.19.0/stm32cubeide

How to flash the LED blink example?

Open STM32CubeIDE. To download the example projects, you must sign in with your ST account. To do this, go to:

 Help -> STM32Cube updates -> Connection to myST

The image shows the STM32CubeIDE application with the menu open to sign in into the ST user account. — Figure 2: Open ST account login

Once you are logged in, go to the Information Center and select “Import STM32Cube Example”.

The image shows the STM32CubeIDE application with the "Import STM32Cube example" button highlighted. — Figure 3: Import STM32Cube example option

The Target Selection window will open. Switch to the Example Selector tab and enter STM32N6570-DK in the Board Name field:

The Target Selection menu of the STM32CubeIDE — Figure 4: STM32CubeIDE target selection

Then select the “GPIO_IOToggle” example from the “Example List” and click Next.

The STM32CubeIDE example selector window with the GPIO_IOToggle selected — Figure 5: STM32CubeIDE GPIO_IOToggle example selection

The STM32CubeIDE will ask for a project name and location. You can leave the defaults and click Finish. The IDE will then take a few seconds to download the required software packages and ask you to review the license agreement. After you accept the license, it will install the packages and open the project.

At this point, you can connect the STM32N6570-DK board to your computer using the USB-C port located near the mainboard buttons (STLINK_V3EC). In this guide, we use a USB-C to USB-C cable connected to the laptop’s USB-C port.

With the board connected, select the GPIO_IOToggle_FSBL file from the Project Explorer window and then click Run:

The STM32CubeIDE project install window for the LED blink example — Figure 6: LED blink example install window

If the installation was successful, LED1 should start flashing green.

The STM32N6570-DK with the LED 1 blinking. — Figure 7: LED 1 blinking

Installing STM32CubeIDE is only the first step. From here, you can explore additional examples, experiment with peripherals, and build your own projects on the STM32N6 platform.