Downloading and installing the IDE

Having the board ready, let's now install the Arduino IDE on your computer. Currently, there are three main versions of the Arduino IDE—one maintained by Intel (Arduino 1.6.0 – Intel 1.04 ), another by Arduino.cc (Arduino LLC 1.6.4), and the third one by Arduino.org (Arduino Srl 1.7.3)—appearing after a dispute with Arduino.cc. All of these versions are forks of the same project, but currently only Intel and Arduino.cc IDE's most recent versions support the Intel Galileo boards. Besides having different version numbers, these IDEs are maintained by different entities, and a higher version from a different entity doesn't necessarily mean a more recent version.

You can choose from one of the following versions, which support Intel Galileo:

• Intel custom Arduino IDE 1.6.0 – Intel 1.04 (recommended): This is the Intel Arduino IDE version supporting their boards out of the box, without the need to install any support extensions. It is a custom Arduino IDE with the same functionalities as the original one, but it supports Intel development boards such as Galileo Gen 1, Galileo Gen 2, and Edison. It is the recommended version to work with Galileo. You can download this version at https://communities.intel.com/community/makers/drivers.
• Arduino IDE 1.6.4: This is the Arduino.cc version. It brings some improvements such as the possibility of adding support to a great range of development boards, including the Intel ones. To be able to use the Intel boards with this IDE, you'll need to install an extension. You can download this version from http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software.

Feel free to download the version you prefer since the code we'll be developing in this book will run well on both.

After the selected download completes, extract the downloaded compressed file contents:

For Microsoft Windows 7/8 OS, you need to perform the following steps:

1. You can use 7-Zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) to extract the file contents. Extract the IDE folder to the root directory of C:.
2. The next thing to do is install the USB drivers. If you downloaded the Intel IDE version, the drivers come included and should be located at the C:\arduino-1.6.0+Intel/drivers folder. If you downloaded the Arduino.cc IDE, you'll need to download the drivers available at http://downloadmirror.intel.com/24748/eng/IntelGalileoFirmwareUpdater-1.0.4-Windows.zip and extract its contents. This download includes the USB drivers and the firmware updater tool.
3. To install the drivers, you must first connect the Galileo to your computer. Windows will try to install the drivers from online sources, but it will fail. Open Device Manager from the Windows Control Panel, and under the Ports (COM & LPT) tab, you'll find your Galileo with the name Gadget Serial:
   

   Windows device manager without the USB drivers installed

4. Right click on it and select Update Driver Software.... Now, you need to click on Browse my computer for driver software. If you downloaded the Intel IDE version, enter the path C:\arduino-1.6.0+Intel/drivers and click on Next. If you downloaded the Arduino.cc IDE version instead, go to the Galileo Driver folder you just downloaded and extracted and click on Next.
5. When the drivers are found in the location you provided, you'll be prompted to install them and you should click on Install.

   As soon as the drivers finish installing, you'll be able to find Galileo listed under the Ports (COM & LPT) section:

   
6. To start the IDE, double-click on the Arduino icon inside its folder.

   Note

   If you need further assistance installing the USB drivers, check the Intel guides at https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-galileo-board-assembly.

For Linux OS, use the following steps:

1. You can extract the folder using the following xz command (the filename may be different depending on whether you are running a 32-bit or 64-bit Linux):

   unxz IntelArduino-1.6.0-Linux64.txz
   

2. If you don't have xz installed, you can install it with the following command:

   $ sudo apt-get install xz-utils
   

3. If you are running a Debian Linux, Red Hat, Fedora, CentOS, or similar, use the following command:

   $ sudo yum install xz
   

4. To run the IDE, enter the extracted folder and run this command:

   ./arduino
   

For Mac OS X OS, use the following steps:

1. Unzip the application and move it into your Applications folder.

   Note

   If you already have any of the Arduino IDEs, you can rename the folder to something more intuitive (for example, galileoIDE), just make sure there are no spaces in the name of the directory.

2. Double-click on your newly downloaded Arduino application to run the IDE.
3. If you installed the Intel Arduino version, when you run it you'll be asked if you want to update to the latest version of the Arduino IDE. You must click on the No option or your IDE will be replaced by the Arduino.cc one.
4. If the installed version was the Arduino.cc IDE 1.6.4, you'll need to add the Intel boards' support. To do it, click on the IDE Tools top menu and navigate to Board | Boards Manager.... In the displayed list, locate and click on the Intel i586 Boards by Intel section and finally click on Install:
   

   Installing the Intel boards support on Arduino 1.6.4

5. When the installation process completes, you can confirm whether everything went right by navigating to Tools | Board in the top menu and finding the Galileo boards listed.
6. When it finishes installing, if everything went right, you should see the INSTALLED tag appearing on the selected section.
7. Now, if you navigate to Tools | Board, you'll find the Galileo boards appearing in the supported boards list.

Common issues and troubleshooting

The following are some of the commonly faced issues:

• Unable to access serial port in Linux: If you aren't able to access the serial port, you may need to run the software with the following command:

  sudo ./arduino
  

• Java missing error: If you get an error related to Java not being found, you must install it using this command:

  sudo apt-get install default-jre
  

• Language error: If you have an error related to the language not being supported, you'll need to change the OS language to English. In Linux, you can start the application with the following command:

  LANG=en_US LC_ALL=en_US.utf8 ./arduino
  

• Linux USB issues: It is recommended to stop or remove the system service named modem manager because it can conflict with Galileo. You can discover the process PID using this command:

  ps –ef | grep modem*
  

  Kill it with the following command, replacing [PID] with the process identification number, visible with the preceding command:

  kill [PID]
  

  If you are using a Debian distro and wish to remove the process, you can use this command:

  sudo apt-get remove modemmanager
  

  If you are using Red Hat, CentOS, or equivalents, use this command:

  yum remove modemmanager
  

• Other: If you are facing a different issue, check the Intel community support forums at https://communities.intel.com/community/tech/galileo/content. If you still can't find any information regarding your issue, open a new question and the Intel support team will help you.