Adding a root cert to the IDE keystore

[zorkomatic]

@ptillisch In troubleshooting my problems with getting the IDE to talk to external URLs I found that while I put in the right proxy script location, the proxy strips the cert from downloads.arduino.cc and replaces with our corporate cert. I need to add our root cert to the Java cert keystore but it keeps asking me for a password. ??

[zorkomatic]

Never mind. "changeit".

[zorkomatic]

But then again, how do you configure the proxy in 2.0 if it won't even start when it can't get to downloads.arduino.cc? I also could not find the same castore in the 2.0.3 installation as in 1.8.19.

[ptillisch]

@zorkomatic

how do you configure the proxy in 2.0 if it won't even start when it can't get to downloads.arduino.cc?

This is indeed a "catch 22". The developers are tracking this bug here:

IDE doesn't start when proxy configuration is required to access network

Workaround

Even though the bug causes a poor user experience, it is not a show stopper for using Arduino IDE under these conditions. The reason is it is possible to configure the proxy by editing a configuration file. I'll provide instructions:

1. Select File > Quit from the Arduino IDE menus if it is running.
2. Use any text editor to open the file at the following path:
   • Windows:

     C:\Users\<username>\.arduinoIDE\arduino-cli.yaml
     

     (where <username> is your Windows username)
   • Linux:

     ~/.arduinoIDE/arduino-cli.yaml
     

     The ~/.arduinoIDE/ folder may be hidden by default in your file manager and terminal.
   • macOS:

     ~/.arduinoIDE/arduino-cli.yaml
     

     The ~/.arduinoIDE/ folder is hidden by default. You can make it visible by pressing the Command+Shift+. keyboard shortcut.
3. Add the following lines anywhere in the file:

   network:
     proxy: <proxy scheme>://<username>:<password>@<proxy address>:<port>
   

   Where the placeholders are:
   • <proxy scheme>: the URL scheme for your proxy server.
     One of the following;
     • http
     • socks5
   • <username>: the username of your proxy server credentials.
   • <password>: the password of your proxy server credentials.
   • <proxy address>: the address of your proxy server.
   • <port>: the port of your proxy server.
4. Save the file.
5. Start the Arduino IDE.

[zorkomatic]

This won't work for us because our CA root certificate has to be added to whatever the Arduino IDE is using due to our proxy hijacking endpoint certs and replacing them with our own. I need to be able to tell Arduino about our root cert. This can be done in 1.8.19 with keytool but I don't know where 2.0.3 stores its certs.