The Arduino Portenta H7 is Arduino’s latest line of industry-focused devices. With it’s dual-core STM32H747XIH6 processor, Murata LBEE5KL1DX wireless radio, Ethernet and High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) capabilities, its easily the most powerful Arduino currently available. Despite this, you can develop Potenta H7 applications (called “sketches”) using the common, free Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
In this walkthrough, we’ll cover how to install the Arduino IDE and Portenta H7 drivers for the Ubuntu Linux 20.04 Long Term Support (LTS) environment. If you already have Arduino IDE version 1.8.10 or later installed for Linux, feel free to skip ahead to the driver installation.
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Objectives
- Visit the official Arduino website
- Download the latest Arduino IDE
- Extract Arduino IDE as a tar.xz file
- Run the Arduino IDE
- Install Portena H7 drivers
- Address the “Can’t open device / Permission denied” error
Material Requirements
- Arduino Portena H7
- USB-C Cable
- Recommended: Anti-Static Workstation
Software Requirements
- Ubuntu Linux (version 20.04 LTS 64-bit used here)
- Super user privileges
Step 1: Visit the Arduino Web Site
First, go to the official website and download the latest Arduino IDE. Typically this comes as a .tar.xz file.
Official Arduino Website: https://www.arduino.cc/en/software (an external link)
In today’s example, my downloaded version is named…
arduino-1.8.13-linux64.tar.xz
If your downloaded version has a different name, substitute “arduino-1.8.13-linux64.tar.xz” with the filename you have downloaded. Bear in mind that all Linux commands and filenames are case-sensitive.
Step 2: Extract and Install
Open the terminal.
My first step will be to create a new directory (folder) on the home directory called “Projects.”
mkdir ~/ProjectsAssuming your web browser has downloaded the file to the /home/Downloads folder, you will need to change (cd) to the Downloads folder first. From there, I will move the file from /home/Downloads to /home/Projects, and then extract it.
cd Downloads
mv arduino-1.8.13-linux64.tar.xz ~/Projects/FILE
cd ~/Projects
tar xvf arduino-1.8.13-linux64.tar.xz
rm arduino-1.8.13-linux64.tar.xz
cd arduino-1.8.13
sudo ./install.sh
Step 3: Launch the Arduino Application
Atmel AVR-based Arduinos are already supported by this IDE upon installation, but the Portenta H7 requires an additional installation via the Arduino IDE Boards Manager.
To launch, simple type “arduino” in the terminal.
Step 4: Install Drivers
Inside the Arduino IDE, you will need to install hardware drivers for the Portenta H7. As of February 2020, these are labelled “Ardino mbed-enabled Boards” and there are deprecated and non-deprecated versions.
Open the Boards Manager at Tools –> Board –> Boards Manager…
In the window that appears, filter the search results by typing “mbed” in the search board. Then locate the Arduino mbed-enabled Boards version, and avoid the DEPRECATED version unless you have a specific need for it.
Optional: Avoiding “can’t open device “/dev/ttyUSB0”: Permission denied”
If you encounter this error at any time, you may be able to avoid it by adding your username to the dialout group.
With your Portena H7 plugged into a USB port, enter the following command to check its visibility…
ls -l /dev/ttyACM*In my case, this returned…
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 0 5 apr 23.01 ttyACM0The “0” at the end of ACM might be a different number, or multiple entries might be returned. The data we need is “dialout” (which is the group owner of the file).
Now you need to add yourself to the dialout group. Get your own username using the command…
whoamiNow add yourself to the dialout group using…
sudo usermod -a -G dialout <username>References
| [1] | Arduino, “Portenta H7,” Arduino, [Online]. Available: https://www.arduino.cc/pro/hardware/product/portenta-h7. [Accessed 8 Feb. 2021]. |
| [2] | Arduino, “Arduino Portenta H7: Product Reference Manual Rev 1,” 18 Dec 2019. [Online]. Available: https://content.arduino.cc/assets/Datasheet-Portenta-H7.pdf. [Accessed 8 Feb. 2021]. |
| [3] | Arduino, “Software | Arduino,” Arduino, 29 Jan. 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.arduino.cc/en/software. [Accessed 8 Feb. 2021]. |
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