Setup Arduino on Debian

26 Feb 2014

Some notes on setting up Arduino on Debian.

Add yourself to the required groups - dialout and tty.

sudo adduser $USER dialout
sudo adduser $USER tty

Confirm the port /dev/ttyUSB0 is being used by Arduino - tail messages then plug in the Arduino.

sudo tail -f /var/log/messages

# you should see something like:
FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

# out of interest, inspect permissions on port
ls -al /dev/ttyUSB0

Logout and login (or run a login shell). Confirm permissions.

zsh -l
id

# you should see something like:
groups=1000(sonia),5(tty),20(dialout),...

Install Arduino pre-requisites.

sudo aptitude install arduino arduino-core

If preferred, download the latest Arduino environment, run the shell script to start it.

cd ~/arduino-1.0.5
./arduino&

Set the serial port (Tools -> Serial Port) to /dev/ttyUSB0. Any problems doing this, edit the serial port setting in ~/.arduino/preferences.txt

Hello World - upload Blink (File -> Examples -> 01.Basics -> Blink) to your Arduino, go crazy with that flashing LED!