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BST for linux versions — Parallax Forums

BST for linux versions

RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
edited 2009-11-21 15:00 in Propeller 1
I am running into some problems that I can not seem to resolve. My test machine is an ACER Aspire 5000 64 bit laptop, and I have tried the latest versions of Ubuntu 9.10, openSUSE 11.2, and Fedora 12.

The Ubuntu version, I got it to load on the machine, but when I try to reboot, grub keeps telling me that it can not find some kind of file. So, I could not test BST on that setup, never got Ubuntu to start up.

openSUSE 11.2 loads up, and starts fine. BST starts up fine, the problem is that it can not find the port. I checked to make sure I had a /dev/ttyUSB0, which it did, it even showed that it found the USB that the propeller was on. BST did not have any success in finding the port, even after I tried a manual find.

Fedora 12.0 had the same occurrence, everything is there, but BST can not find the port. I do not know what else to try, I do not have the slightest clue as to what to do next. I also made sure that the privileges for BST were set to read/write, and execute.

Anybody have a clue as to what the problem might be?

Ray

Comments

  • Luis DigitalLuis Digital Posts: 371
    edited 2009-11-19 22:34
    You may need permission to access the USB port.
    You should put your user in the USB group, with the configuration tool (GUI) or the command line.
  • BradCBradC Posts: 2,601
    edited 2009-11-19 23:50
    As Luis said, it sounds like a permissions problem.

    You can test this from the command line with something along the lines of

    brad@bklaptop2:~$ echo fred > /dev/ttyUSB0
    bash: /dev/ttyUSB0: Permission denied

    If you don't get the permission denied message, then we'll need to look a little deeper. I know Ubuntu sets up your users permissions correctly from base install, but I can't vouch for the other distributions. On Ubuntu & Debian your user needs to be part of the "dialout" group.

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  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    edited 2009-11-20 13:06
    I just added the USB group, and put me, the user, into the group. I also put me into the tty group, and I get nothing. BST still can not find the port. I also so ran '~$ echo fred > /dev/ttyUSB0', just to see what I would get, "Permission denied" is what came up. I guess it is stuff like this that makes everybody not want to use linux. Oh, and I did restart the computer after I made the changes. I also double checked the 'Users and Groups' gui just to make sure I still had 'USB', and 'tty' in there, which it was. I am still not ready to give up, any other suggestions?

    Thanks

    Ray
  • heaterheater Posts: 3,370
    edited 2009-11-20 13:17
    I guess it is stuff like that that makes me not want to use Windows.
    I just had to completely reinstall XP to get rid of an incorrectly configured USB driver supplied with the RAISONANCE STM32 development kit after two hours of following their instructions carefully.

    Anecdote, anecdote....

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  • Luis DigitalLuis Digital Posts: 371
    edited 2009-11-20 13:39
    In the directory that is the USB port (in my case /dev) type "ls ttyUSB* -l", so you can see which group it belongs. Or using the GUI simply view the properties with the file browser.

    Add your user to the group indicated by the file.
  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    edited 2009-11-20 14:03
    Something interesting just occurred, after making the above mentioned changes, ttyUSB0 is no longer found in my /dev directory. Now I have to figure out how to do a system wide find. I am using Fedora 12 as the OS, once Ubuntu fixes the boot problem for the older BIOS machines, then I will probably HAVE to switch over, although I am starting to like Fedora quite well.

    Ray
  • Luis DigitalLuis Digital Posts: 371
    edited 2009-11-20 14:45
    When the USB cable is not connected the file disappears.
  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    edited 2009-11-20 15:15
    Yea, now I am ready to give up on this installation. After using "ls ttyUSB* -l", it came up with '... root ...', so I put myself into the 'root' group, and again, the same thing, can not find the port. I think that there are just to many hoops to jump through to get BST to work on openSUSE, and Fedora. I know BST works just fine on Ubuntu, but I can not get the 9.10 to boot up, so, now it is back to MS.

    Thanks

    Ray
  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    edited 2009-11-20 16:28
    Just when I thought I was done, I thought I would give the Puppy linux a shot. I loaded up BST, and it found the propeller right off the bat. When I get some more time a little later I will pursue this some more.
  • Luis DigitalLuis Digital Posts: 371
    edited 2009-11-20 17:34
    Rsadeika said...
    Just when I thought I was done, I thought I would give the Puppy linux a shot. I loaded up BST, and it found the propeller right off the bat. When I get some more time a little later I will pursue this some more.
    Yes, because now you are an administrator (root), but that's not the best option.
    What is the line that comes out when you used the command "ls ttyUSB* -l"?
  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    edited 2009-11-20 17:45
    crw- rw----. root dialout 188, 0 2009-11-20 12:48 ttyUSB0 This does not tell me very much, although the rw tells me I have read/write privileges, I think.
  • AleAle Posts: 2,363
    edited 2009-11-20 19:16
    the privileges are owner group others. Being in root's group is bad practice. But "others" should be rw too. you can change it manually using chmod and see if it finds the port... then is a matter of finding where the configuration for HAL is.... then I'm lost, the distros changed too much :-(

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  • Luis DigitalLuis Digital Posts: 371
    edited 2009-11-20 19:17
    Perfect, the file owner is "root" and group "dialout".

    For safety reasons use "dialout" and not "root".
  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    edited 2009-11-20 19:49
    I guess setting it to "dialout" did the trick. Boy, that was a lot of work just to get BST to find the propeller, somebody else will have to find the right settings for openSUSE. So, what did I do, in the "users and groups" I had to check the boxes for USB, tty, and dialout. Do not know if you need all three, or just dialout, someday I may try to figure that one out.
  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    edited 2009-11-20 20:38
    I just did a little test program, flash the LED, and everything seems to be working, as advertised. Now, I am happy again, long live linux LOL. Thank you guys for all the help.
  • BradCBradC Posts: 2,601
    edited 2009-11-21 00:23
    Rsadeika said...
    I guess setting it to "dialout" did the trick.

    Not to tell you how to suck eggs, but I did suggest you add yourself to the dialout group in my first post.

    Glad you got it working.

    <edit> Oh, don't install Ubuntu 9.10 if you want to use any ftdi usb->serial converter. They are shipping a buggy kernel and it won't talk to your devices.

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    Post Edited (BradC) : 11/21/2009 12:35:26 AM GMT
  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    edited 2009-11-21 15:00
    OK, I could not let it stand, I just verified, at least on my setup, that all I need is JUST the "dialout group" inclusion, no tty or USB. Just to refresh, I have Fedora 12.0 installed, and I am included in the "dialout group". Now, I have to figure out what that inclusion allows you to do, besides being able to run BST. I tried out both the demo board, and the Propeller Platform Module, which uses a propplug, both setups worked.
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