Build Arduino Create Agent on Raspberry Pi 4

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1

To use Arduino Web Editor on a Raspberry Pi, the Arduino Create Agent must be built from source code. It is not very difficult but does assume familiarity with Linux command line mode.

This should work on other Raspberry Pi's but but has only been tested on a Pi 4 running buster.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade

If the upgrade step, says to reboot, please do so. Then continue with the next step. Cut and paste the next step because it is too long to enter by hand.

$ sudo apt install golang libappindicator1 libappindicator3-0.1-cil \
    libappindicator3-0.1-cil-dev libappindicator3-1 libappindicator3-dev \
    libgtk-3-0 libgtk-3-dev
$ cd $HOME
$ go get github.com/arduino/arduino-create-agent
$ export GOPATH=$(go env GOPATH)
$ export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin
$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/arduino/arduino-create-agent
$ go build
$ cp config.ini $GOPATH/bin

The previous steps should only be done once to build the Create Agent. The file is left in /home/pi/go/bin/.

To launch the Create Agent just run from command line.

$ ~/go/bin/arduino-create-agent &

The Arduino icon should appear in the GUI tray (top right of screen). Click on the icon then click on the "Go to Arduino Create" option to open a browser window at https://create.arduino.cc.

To automatically start the Create Agent without a command line window try the following.

$ mkdir /home/pi/.config/autostart
$ cat >/home/pi/.config/autostart/arduino-create-agent.desktop <<EOF
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=arduino-create-agent
Comment=
Exec=/home/pi/go/bin/arduino-create-agent
Terminal=false
EOF

At this point, reboot the Pi (or logout then login). The Arduino Create Agent should be running.

2

Hi,

I'm not very familiar with the Linux environment, but I followed all the steps above and got the agent working on a Raspberry Pi 3 B+.

Thanks! :slight_smile:

3

Thanks Poki,

After seaching of a way to develop for arduino on raspbian, I came to this post of yours.
I have just built Arduino Create Agent following your instructions on my Raspberry Pi 3 B+.
The only problem had been the error messsage:
"Package webkit2gtk-4.0 was not found...", aborting "go get GitHub - arduino/arduino-create-agent: The Arduino Create Agent" execution.
Probably, you might add webkit2gtk libs in the apt install section of your script.

In the end, I am thrilled that I can upload and run/monitor my uno sketches wthout a PC, using just my tv and a Pi3 tv-box!

4

Hi

Something seems to have broken in the intervening time as the "go get ..." command now fails due to what appears to be multiple code issues (wrong number of arguments to a function). The GitHub page for arduino-create-agent has a short message saying that there is some re-factoring work in progress so perhaps this might have something to do with the problem?

So it looks like at this moment there is no way forward except to download the IDE :frowning: