Remove Bootloader on Arduinos

Question

I am trying to move from arduinos to AVR C. Would somebody know how to remove the arduino bootloader from the microcontroller? Is there a different process for the different atmega microcontrollers like the 32u4, 328, or 2560?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You don't "remove" the bootloader, you just ignore it. When you program your new code with the hardware programmer of your choice it will just overwrite the bootloader code with your software's startup code.

• Chris Stratton: If you actually need to. Just because a program is written bare-metal without use of the Arduino runtime libraries down't mean an Arduino/optiboot/whatever bootloader may not still be a convenient way to get it onto the chip. It's really only necessary to remove the booloader if you need to speedup the start of the application after reset, remove any chance of it not starting based on serial input that looks like programming commands, or reclaim that small amount of flash space.
• Gerben: I think you need to change the fuses, to set the correct Boot Start Address (or that flash memory isn't available for your program).
• Majenko: Isn't that naturally part of you writing your program? Setting the right fuses for your program?