Particle Workbench DOA in VSCode for Raspberry Pi 4

Hi,
I cannot get Particle Workbench to work in VSCode on a Raspberry Pi 4 with 8gb

After downloading what I thought I needed (see below) and restarting VSCode, I tried particle ‘create new…’ ,‘audit env…’ ,and ‘reset env…’ from the command palette and they all return an error message:
"Command 'Particle: {one of the above commands} resulted in an error (command 'particle {one of the above commands}‘not found’

My versions are:
VSCode version is 1.55.2
I used VSCode to add the Particle extensions:
Workbench, Workbench Core, Themes, and Snippets - all at version 1.13.7

I think I also got c/C++ 1.3.1 and CortexDebug 0.3.12 along the way.

Am I missing something here? Should I be doing something different?

Any suggestions are most appreciated.

Thanks
Gary

@gman50, the Raspberry Pi OS is a 32bit OS while the Particle Workbench plugin needs to be 64bits. I was not able to find a way to run Workbench on VSCode on the Pi.

It is possible to use Workbench on armv7l or aarch64 architectures if you are willing to substitute some of the Workbench backend with neopo, or use neopo exclusively. Also, using a heavy text editor like VSCode on the Pi is sub-optimal.


Standard disclaimer: While neopo provides users the opportunity to use Workbench components on multiple architectures without requiring VSCode, it is still an unofficial tool that I am the sole maintainer of.

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Rats.

But thanks for the update, at least I know what the deal is

Thanks again

It looks like you replied to @peekay123 via email, but it is in fact possible to use “Workbench” on a Raspberry Pi.

I saw your response also. I’ll give it a try tomorrow.

Thanks for your help

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@gman50
It’s still technically in beta, though it’s pretty stable from everything I’ve heard/seen, but there is a 64 bit version of Pi OS out there if you are willing to try a fresh install.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=117&t=275370

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@TrikkStar, I was somewhat unclear. The version of VSCode for Pi is 32bits but the Workbench plugin requires 64bits. This is not a problem on Windows or full 64bit Linux but not so on the Pi yet. I have tested on a 4GB RPi 4 with the 64bit OS beta without success.

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Whenever I feel like using any of my Raspberry Pi's with 64 bit Linux I go with Manjaro ARM instead of Raspberry Pi OS. Manjaro ARM XFCE is a good compromise between user-friendliness and performance.

To install aarch64 VSCode the following package on the Arch User Repository can be used: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/visual-studio-code-bin/

Even when using aarch64, the x86_64 binaries (gcc-arm, openocd, buildtools) provided by Workbench will not work, but you can substitute them with aarch64 binaries using neopo.

On Manjaro ARM getting "Workbench" installed is a pretty simple process:

$ sudo pacman -Syu
$ sudo pacman -S yay base-devel
$ yay -S visual-studio-code-bin neopo-git
$ neopo setup
$ neopo setup-workbench

After installing you can get the complete Workbench experience but it will be a little slow compared to x86_64 machines:

@peekay123, I would highly recommend Manjaro ARM to you or anybody looking to get more out of their Raspberry Pi.


Also, and I know this is missing the point, but you can achieve a Workbench-like experience on x86_64, aarch64, and armv7l by using neopo alongside any text editor of your choosing.

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Mr. Robinson,

Thanks a lot for your suggestion. After fussing a bit with Manjaro, I succeeded in using your toolset to install and bring up what appears to be a functioning instance of the Particle Workbench in VSCode. This will allow me to develop/debug a client/server setup using only my Pi and a Photon.

One thing I noticed is that at the neopo setup-workbench script ended with:
‘Problem with serial-port-build.sh!’

Which worries me a bit. Is that to be expected? I looked at the script and it seems to assume setup for an electron, not a photon, so maybe that is the issue?

Any suggestions appreciated, and thanks again for this setup, it will be very useful

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You should be fine. This is only relevant if you want to use the Particle debugger. It's been a few months since I've tested this part of the setup, so serial-port-build.sh may have changed. Also, this is the electron it is referring to.

My only suggestion would be to experiment more with neopo and and building in a CLI environment if you are interested.

There are many more features to neopo than supporting Workbench on Raspberry Pi. It's very extensible and flexible, providing many commands and a Python API.

For a complete reference you can refer to the neopo manual with man neopo or the online version.

If you have any suggestions for neopo or encounter any bugs please feel free to open an issue on GitHub.

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