Getting ready

This software suite comes in two parts— a new image, called the IoT image, that you need to install on the SD card, and also some software called (Cross-Platform Development Kit) XDK that needs to be installed on your computer.

The first step is to download this IoT image from the Intel website:

https://software.intel.com/en-us/iot/downloads

This is the page you will see when going to this web address:

Download the image from the web page. Then, go to the following address to download the Intel XDK software:

https://software.intel.com/en-us/html5/xdk-iot

You will be redirected to the page where you can download the Intel XDK software for your operating system:

How to do it...

Installing the Intel IoT image is a bit more complex than it is with the simple Linux image. It varies depending on your operating system. Luckily for us, Intel has written guides to help install this image, depending on your operating system:

https://software.intel.com/en-us/iot/downloads

Simply follow the corresponding guide before continuing this recipe.

Installing the Intel XDK software is actually much easier. You simply need to execute the installer and just let yourself be guided by the instructions. When you first launch the software, you will be asked to create an account on the Intel website.

This is what the software looks like:

Congratulations, you are now completely ready to use the Intel IoT development suite on your computer!

How it works...

The Intel IoT image and Intel XDK work together to make development on your Galileo board much simpler. XDK is able to locate your Galileo board automatically on your network, develop applications in Node.js inside the software, and then automatically upload and run these applications on your Galileo board!

There's more...

You will see that the Intel XDK software offers much more than what we are going to use in this book. You can actually develop mobile applications that work on your phone and communicate directly with your Galileo board, right from Intel XDK!

You have other options to program your board at this point. The first option is to use Eclipse, which also lets you program the board, but by using C/C++ instead of Node.js. The next option is to use the special version of the Arduino IDE for the Galileo board, which lets you program the board with the well-known Arduino language.

See also

Using this recipe will allow you to make nearly all the recipes in the subsequent chapters of this book. Look at the remaining recipes in this chapter to see how to access your board once the IoT image is installed.