Parallax with Ubuntu OS

Leo Sieben

Does Parallax software exist for a non-Windows OS like Ubuntu (Debian Linux)?

Mike Green

There are 3rd party Stamp IDEs (Integrated Development Environments) for Linux and the MacOS. Click on the Resources tab on the main Parallax website, then select Downloads, then Basic Stamp Software to find links to both.

There are now contributed 3rd party Propeller IDEs available as well (http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=755835) for all 3 platforms (Windows / Linux / MacOS).

ddrewski

Does anyone have a current link? The above does not work. I'm running Ubuntu 15.04 and working with a usb BS2 Rev J homework board.

Heater.

Wow, ddrewski, you have found a really old thread here.

What Parallax products do you need software for? In the land of the Propeller the is now the open source Propeller IDE for Spin programing, Simple IDE for C programming, or OpenSpin and prop-gcc if you don't need an IDE.

Sorry I have no idea about the historical STAMPS and such.

Edit: Sorry, I see you mention BS2. Perhaps some of those old IDE's work under wine on Linux.

ddrewski

I've been able to get the devices to work using the Chrome extension. I needed to install chrome, the extension, ensure the user has access to the USB ports for serial read/write (this is an instruction set that comes with the Parallax IDE extension). The 'difficult' part was installing the right FTDI drivers. The ones that come with Ubuntu (even 16.04) are not compatible with the BS2 boards. Once these drivers were installed it works fine (MINT and UBUNTU 16.04)

Just wrapping back around to complete the thread for any other person in need.

Heater.

Wow, possibly the resolution of a ten year old problem today.

I have no idea what Chrome and it's extensions has to do with the original problem though.

There is no way I'm installing any drivers into my Linux systems from http://www.ftdichip.com Not after they pulled the stunt of bricking peoples systems http://www.zdnet.com/article/ftdi-admits-to-bricking-innocent-users-chips-in-silent-update/

We like to avoid malware as much as possible.

Electrodude

Why did you have to install FTDI drivers from their website? What kind of chip does the BS2 board have that Linux's built-in FTDI driver can't handle?

Buck Rogers

Heater. wrote: »

Wow, possibly the resolution of a ten year old problem today.

I have no idea what Chrome and it's extensions has to do with the original problem though.

There is no way I'm installing any drivers into my Linux systems from http://www.ftdichip.com Not after they pulled the stunt of bricking peoples systems http://www.zdnet.com/article/ftdi-admits-to-bricking-innocent-users-chips-in-silent-update/

We like to avoid malware as much as possible.

Hello!
Actually you may already have one installed. There happens to be excellent support for FTDI devices inside the Kernel. And I routinely use the same USB to RS232 adapter that Parallax constructed for its gadgetry, for development purposes for the One-Wire File System that I also use. Of course I do not use Ubuntu here, I run Slackware Linux here, and a Debian variant for the Raspberry Pi.

What I want to see is complete support for Parallax gear on Linux, and generic Linux, distribution neutral. Besides the bricking was largely aimed at the (not very) rare counterfeit chips.

Heater.

The drivers I have installed in my Linux machines may or may not have originated from FTDI but they are Free and Open Source Software as per the licencing of the kernel itself.

The drivers that FTDI pushed through the Windows update system were intended to render Windows users systems inoperative if they happened to be using "fake" FTDI clone USB/UART chips.

Whilst I understand the motivation of FTDI to stamp out fakes, that is not the way to do it. That is malware that renders the systems of innocent parties inoperable.

Given that FTDI does not care about it's customers they are best avoided.

I am totally with you on the desire for "complete support for Parallax gear on Linux".

Buck Rogers

Heater. wrote: »

The drivers I have installed in my Linux machines may or may not have originated from FTDI but they are Free and Open Source Software as per the licencing of the kernel itself.

The drivers that FTDI pushed through the Windows update system were intended to render Windows users systems inoperative if they happened to be using "fake" FTDI clone USB/UART chips.

Whilst I understand the motivation of FTDI to stamp out fakes, that is not the way to do it. That is malware that renders the systems of innocent parties inoperable.

Given that FTDI does not care about it's customers they are best avoided.

I am totally with you on the desire for "complete support for Parallax gear on Linux".

Hello!
But they do! I had several questions regarding their VNC2 platform, and its development board, the VINCO, and even the FT232 device, and as it happens they were very supportive. Even rivaling Parallax.

You want lack of support try Dell, it seems after a machine becomes of age, over seven years of age, they stop supporting it, thus violating Mr. Dell's assertion that they will always support them, and me. And the machine described in a thread on the BASIC Stamp side, is seventeen years of age, and they started abandoning it about the same time period. Once when its crappy Windows only modem failed because of the phone system getting zapped, I made an impassioned complaint and eventually they did come back and replace it accordingly.

Over in their VAR divisions, that of the machines who are made for big offices and government offices they tend to start ignoring them very fast, with two years of service.

By contrast, the phone support then was in fact US based. (For that division.) However for the division which assembled that lucky one, phah! they made the mistake of continuing to allow the outsources ones bungle their way through support.

And now let us end this on this note. I don't want to see this thread get buried among the silt off shore in the ocean somewhere in California.