Arduino portable IDE

[liuzengqiang]

Just realized this feature yesterday:

https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/PortableIDE

You can pack the entire arduino and all its libraries, core files, board files, sketchbook folder etc. into one flash drive and run off the drive.

This is very good news for workshop organizers and instructors/students. I tried it with 1.6.5 and it works. I've used 1.6.5 for a few years and never knew this feature exists. Only works on windows though, still very cool.

[Robin2]

Only works on windows though, still very cool.

I can't imagine why you could not get the same effect on Linux. The IDE is just a Java program so it will run from anywhere as long as the PC has the Java runtime.

...R

[westfw]

I have multiple (many) "portable" IDE installs on my Mac.  They work fine.

You'll need to have write-access to the portable directory, in addition to its creation.  That might cause issues for non-admin users.

[pert]

I know there were some improvements made to portable mode after its introduction. I think it was related to initial limitations of where the sketchbook folder could be, and this was dependent on OS. So if you do end up having any problems getting it working on another OS then try again with the latest IDE version.

There's a link from the Portable mode documentation page to a forum thread with westfw's instructions on how to do it on macOS.

[Robin2]

limitations of where the sketchbook folder could be

I have always assumed that the sketchbook folder could be anywhere you want it to be - as set in Preferences.

...R

[pert]

From https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/issues/4103:

Sketchbook location on Portable Edition
...

• On Linux (Xubuntu 15.10): you can choose every directory you need, everywhere in the file systems
• On Windows (Win7): you can choose every directory BUT only on the same partition where is the Arduino IDE (if you have it on C:\ is it not possible select a sketchbook dir present on D:)
• On Mac (OS X 10.11.1): you can choose ONLY a dir inside the "portable" folder, if you try to change the selection you receive error like explained in this topic by gpb01: http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=153592.msg2467987#msg2467987

That was fixed Nov. 19, 2015 so it should not occur with Arduino IDE 1.6.7 and newer.

[liuzengqiang]

I have always assumed that the sketchbook folder could be anywhere you want it to be - as set in Preferences.

...R

Yes but that path is probably absolute so if you move to another computer then you have to re-select the path. An absolute path would make sense on windows since it's simple. You store your sketchbook under some document folder or elsewhere, not relative to the arduino folder. My guess is that they made the path relative when the IDE detects a "portable" folder. It is indeed useful. If you have only a few hours of workshop time, you don't want to fight every problem there is to get everyone on the same page.

[liuzengqiang]

I just realized that the COM port was actually remembered in the portable IDE, not the best way since the port name will change when you move from computer to computer. It would be nice to have an additional routine to "grab the last port number" to make it better for beginners. A student of mine spent a fair amount of time not knowing the port should be changed despite me showing how to do it.

[Robin2]

Yes but that path is probably absolute so if you move to another computer then you have to re-select the path.

Must investigate that.

...R

[jaldomir]

Hi everyone. I put an Arduino, Windows patform, with "portable" folder on my projects flash drive, and works very fine. But today I received an message informing about that has a new version of Arduino IDE, and it suggesting to upgrade by download link.

I downloaded Windows ZIP version and tryed unzip it on my Arduino folder on flash drive, overwriting files with same name. However don´t worked as expected: my "new" Arduino portable IDE have a lots of duplicate libraries and boards others I haved installed before on old IDE.

I have done an backup before upgrade, and I needed to recovery it to back to work, then I tryed to put only my old folder "portable" inside new Arduino IDE folder, and don´t worked again, all the libraries and external boards still not worked.

My question is: has some way to upgrade the IDE Arduino Portable?

Thank you.

[pert]

Hi everyone. I put an Arduino, Windows patform, with "portable" folder on my projects flash drive, and works very fine. But today I received an message informing about that has a new version of Arduino IDE, and it suggesting to upgrade by download link.

I downloaded Windows ZIP version and tryed unzip it on my Arduino folder on flash drive, overwriting files with same name. However don´t worked as expected: my "new" Arduino portable IDE have a lots of duplicate libraries and boards others I haved installed before on old IDE.

I have done an backup before upgrade, and I needed to recovery it to back to work, then I tryed to put only my old folder "portable" inside new Arduino IDE folder, and don´t worked again, all the libraries and external boards still not worked.

My question is: has some way to upgrade the IDE Arduino Portable?

Thank you.

I think it's a very bad idea to install one IDE version over the other one. That will only replace existing files. Any files that were present in the old IDE version and not in the new IDE version will be left behind to pollute the new IDE installation. The correct way to do it is to move the portable folder out of the IDE installation folder, delete the old version of the IDE, unzip the new version of the IDE, then copy the portable folder into the new IDE installation folder.

Try that. If it doesn't work for you, come back with a detailed description of the problem.

[jaldomir]

...The correct way to do it is to move the portable folder out of the IDE installation folder, delete the old version of the IDE, unzip the new version of the IDE, then copy the portable folder into the new IDE installation folder.

Yes, that's exactly what I did on my second attempt (in fact, creating a new Arduino Portable with the old "portable" folder).
The problem, in this case, is that my original Arduino Portable has extra cards installed (like ESP32, for example) as well as having more extra libraries, and none of them are appearing in the "new" Arduino Portable, even copying my original old "portable" folder.

[PaoloP]

Is the new "Arduino Pro IDE" portable?

[jaldomir]

No, just original Arduino IDE, version 1.8.10, using "portable" folder as described in

(MOD EDIT)
https://www.arduino.cc/en/Guide/PortableIDE