Getting started with Ubuntu 15.10 for Photon development!

Here are the basics of getting started with Photon development using Ubuntu 15.10 “Wily Werewolf” Linux. You will need nodejs, npm, particle-cli, and dfu-util on your machine.

Clear out any OLD stuff:
sudo apt-get remove nodejs npm
sudo apt-get purge nodejs npm
sudo apt-get autoremove

Get current nodejs and npm: (To save frustration, note that Node.js v0.12 and v5.x DON’T work in Ubuntu 15.10)
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_4.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Now setup particle-cli by using npm:
sudo npm install -g particle-cli

Now use the Ubuntu Software Center app (or apt-get) to install dfu-util, currently v0.8-1. Now start developing!

Hope this saved you some time!
-Ron B.

3 Likes

Is there an IDE to use with these tools ?

Is there a link to explain what this means.

1 Like

Yes, once you have the basics installed, then you would use the Particle build system that is browser based. You would need to setup an account at https://build.particle.io/login. There is a Linux based development system that can be installed locally, but not available yet; you should keep checking with Particle to see when that is available!

When you install Ubuntu on your machine, the default program for adding/deleting programs is called “Ubuntu Software Center.” If for some reason that is not installed on your machine then get used to the command line (terminal) and try this:
sudo apt-get install dfu-util

Hope that helps!

Are any of the things you mentioned an IDE ??

I do have ubuntu installed on my laptop.
I do have an account on build.particle.io and I have used it a few times.

Now,
I want to compile programs for Particle in Ubuntu and down load the code to the Particle using USB.

Can this be done in a simple say ?

Is there a web page that describes the steps to do this ?

Here is a great tutorial for Photon development: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/photon-development-guide/all

There are lots of documents from Particle also.

Have fun!