Can't communicate with mega from Ubuntu

Development Tools IDE 1.x
1

I have a new Mega 2560 that I bought to use in a reprap. When I plug it in with the USB cable, the ttyACM0 node is created and dmesg shows:

 [ 2380.620052] usb 1-4.1: USB disconnect, address 28
[ 2392.084609] usb 1-4.1: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 29
[ 2392.177927] cdc_acm 1-4.1:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device

When I try to program it with the arduino IDE I get this error: avrdude: stk500_2_ReceiveMessage

I'm suspicious that usbcore isn't registering a new interface but I really don't understand what it should be doing. This is happening on two different version of ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10. The 10.10 machine is a fresh install.

I saw a few posts around about a serial communication problem with linux and tried to follow this post: Fixing Linux firmware issues on Arduino Mega 2560 | Wayne and Layne but dfu-programmer consistent reports 'no device present' when I try to do the erase step.

Anyone have a suggestion?

2

I do not have a mega 2560, but if my Uno is not in DFU programming mode I get the same no device found message went running the erase command.

3

Does the /dev/ttyACM0 device appear in the Tools > Serial Port menu in the Arduino software? Which version of the software are you using?