[Swlug] Arduino and Linux

[Rhys Sage]

I'm getting endless issues trying to code for any flavour of Arduino using Linux. The Arduino IDE in the Mint appstore is exceedingly limited in which Arduino boards it uses. The IDE on the Arduino website does not seem to have an installer built in for Linux and I can't find any file in the folder that wants to execute.

I did download Arduino CLI but I'm not 100% sure how to run it and to be honest I prefer GUI to command line.

My latest board is recognised by LSUSB which is a bonus. It has a built-in screen and I did find the driver. That's where the Arduino GUI refused to cooperate. There seems no way of including external drivers/libraries.

All rather frustrating and I could rant about how we've had modern computers of increasing complexity for at least the last 40 years yet documentation always seems to be a casual afterthought. When it is written, it's usually badly written.

Atmel Studio is recommended for the ATTiny88 processors and that's only available for Windows. I wonder whether I might get better luck with the Arduino with Windows?

At the moment I have two laptops - my 11.6" Asus that I use daily for just about everything. That runs Linux, is pretty slow and somebody looked at one of the logfiles and declared it looked like the SSD was about to fail. Don't know about that but I'll keep using this one til it dies. The battery is already down from 10 hours to 2.

I have a 14.1 inch Asus that I use strictly for video and Raspbery Pi stuff. That runs Linux too.

I have no objection to buying another laptop purely for Windows work. There's a nice little Asus L210 advertised at $189. That might work for Arduino/Atmel Studio. I don't need something stunningly powerful or blisteringly fast. For me, portability and compactness win over power and speed.

Rhys Sage