Hi everybody,
How can I create an exact copy of an Arduino-IDE-installation on a second computer that has the exact same additional boards and exact same installed libraries. Some libraries installed through the library manager some installed through add-ZIP-library?
After installing the Arduino-IDE on the second computer.
Can this be done by simply copying all the folders (from which paths?) to the new computer?
best regards Stefan
The easiest way is to use the Arduino IDE in portable mode:
This will result in all your installed boards and libraries being stored in the "portable" subfolder of the Arduino IDE installation folder. So you can simply copy that single folder (or just put it on a flash drive) to any computer of the same operating system and have an identical installation.
Portable mode is difficult to achieve on macOS. See the link above for details.
On Windows, because portable mode requires the creation of files under the Arduino IDE installation folder, it's very difficult to do with the Microsoft Store version of the Arduino IDE, and even with the default standard installation location under "C:\Program Files (x86)" (because Windows has more strict security for that folder). So the best way to do use portable mode on Windows is to use the "Windows ZIP file" download from the software page:
then just unzip the downloaded file to some convenient location not in C:\Program Files (x86) to install. You can have the "Windows ZIP file" version of the Arduino IDE installed at the same time as the windows installer or Microsoft Store versions, so there's no need to uninstall your previous installation of the Arduino IDE.
You should not have any problems with portable mode on Linux.
Hi pert,
thank you very much for your explanation. I followoed th einstructions on this page
unzipped the folder created a folder portable and its subfolders
This portable Arduino-IDE starts but it does not use my configuration.
How do I or which folder do I copy my configuration from the non-portable-Arduino-IDE located in the folder
C:\Program Files (x86)\Arduino
I guess I have to collect files from more places
best regards Stefan
C:\Users\Stefan\Documents\Arduino
?
best regards Stefan
If you want to duplicate your non-portable installation, just copy the files into the portable folder:
OK. Arduino15 and Sketchbook copied.
Still not done because the additions board urls are missing
(somehow I knew that it won't be that simple like just copying some folders)
So to improve my understanding how the Arduino-IDE works
If I add a additional boards-url this starts a BIG (or at least long enduring download) Does this download add
the GBs to the Arduino15-folder?
best regards Stefan
StefanL38:
(somehow I knew that it won't be that simple like just copying some folders)
It is indeed just that simple when everything is done right, but it's true that it's not a simple process, so still plenty of chances for something to go wrong.
StefanL38:
Still not done because the additions board urls are missing
They should have been transferred along with the contents of the Arduino15 folder. Did you have the Arduino IDE running when you did that?
StefanL38:
If I add a additional boards-url this starts a BIG (or at least long enduring download) Does this download add
the GBs to the Arduino15-folder?
When you have the Arduino IDE running in portable mode, the "C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Local\Arduino15" folder is not used at all. When you install a boards platform via Boards Manager with the IDE in portable mode, it is installed to the portable\packages folder.
It is indeed just that simple when everything is done right, but it's true that it's not a simple process, so still plenty of chances for something to go wrong.
So does there exist a real detailed manual on how to do it right?
IMHO there should be one very detailed and all conditions that are nescessary (like Arduino IDE not running) etc. etc. describing manual on how to do it.
otherwise this is just causing extra posting-traffic
best regards Stefan
StefanL38:
So does there exist a real detailed manual on how to do it right?
IMHO there should be one very detailed and all conditions that are nescessary (like Arduino IDE not running) etc. etc. describing manual on how to do it.
Feel free to write one.
StefanL38:
otherwise this is just causing extra posting-traffic
We don't mind. I'm happy to help if you still need any more assistance.
So do i understand right
let's say I have my Arduino-Zip-file unzipped to folder
D:\D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13
As soon as I create a subfolder named "portable"
this is a switch for "D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\Arduino.exe"
to take any and all configurations found in D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\portable?
and the only thing I have to do is copying
C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Local*Arduino15*
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\portable
so that there is a folder
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\portable\Arduino15
and copy my sketchbook-folder
which I have in C:\Users\Stefan\Documents\Arduino
to D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\portable\sketchbook
so all my sketches are inside this folder ?
No it is not enough. What I have additionally done so far is
copying the folder D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\lib\theme
to have my modified theme in the portable version
I reduced the boards list with the Arduino Board Switch-plugin
the boards list dose contain all Arduino-boards. This means there has to be copied the file that contains this modified list
If I lookup the available boards the ESP8266 boards, the teensy boards and the Seeduino XIOA-board are not listed.
So again something additional has to be done.
I guess there are some jsoan or xml-files that contain informations about that
So which files are these that make the Arduino-IDE know that inside my folder
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\portable\Arduino15
what additional packages I do have
?
Maybe it will be easier if you do a test-setup to a testfolder for a portable version and post the folders that you used and the steps you have done
best regards Stefan
StefanL38:
As soon as I create a subfolder named "portable"
this is a switch for "D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\Arduino.exe"
to take any and all configurations found in D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\portable?
Correct.
StefanL38:
and the only thing I have to do is copying
C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Local*Arduino15*D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\portable
so that there is a folder
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\portable\Arduino15
Incorrect. You must copy the contents of C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Local\Arduino15 to D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\portable, not the C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Local\Arduino15 folder itself.
StefanL38:
and copy my sketchbook-folder
which I have in C:\Users\Stefan\Documents\Arduinoto D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\portable\sketchbook
so all my sketches are inside this folder ?
Yes. As with C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Local\Arduino15, copy the contents of C:\Users\Stefan\Documents\Arduino to D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\portable\sketchbook, not the C:\Users\Stefan\Documents\Arduino folder itself.
StefanL38:
No it is not enough. What I have additionally done so far is
copying the folder D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\lib\themeto have my modified theme in the portable version
You can do that if you like. I prefer to install themes in the sketchbook though.
StefanL38:
I reduced the boards list with the Arduino Board Switch-plugin
the boards list dose contain all Arduino-boards. This means there has to be copied the file that contains this modified list
The file that contains the modified list is in C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Local\Arduino15, so it will be copied along with the contents of that folder. No additional steps are needed for this.
StefanL38:
If I lookup the available boards the ESP8266 boards, ... and the Seeduino XIOA-board are not listed.
So again something additional has to be done.
This is because you didn't copy the contents of C:\Users\Stefan\AppData\Local\Arduino15 over correctly. Once you get the D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13\portable folder structure right, they will be listed.
StefanL38:
the teensy boards
Teensy is different because this is actually a modified version of the Arduino IDE, rather than a standard boards platform like everyone else uses. Just run the Teensyduino installer on D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13-windows\arduino-1.8.13.
StefanL38:
post the folders that you used and the steps you have done
I already did that. See reply #3.
Hi pert,
yes my fault. I did not read carefully enough just the content (not the folder).
So it works now. I copied the themes.txt and themes-folder to the folder above portable and inside folder portable
but this did not help to use my different theme.
So I just copied it to ..... lib\theme
best regards Stefan
StefanL38:
So it works now.
I'm glad to hear it!
StefanL38:
So it works now. I copied the themes.txt and themes-folder to the folder above portable and inside folder portable
but this did not help to use my different theme.
They need to be installed inside the sketchbook (portable/sketchbook). If you're interested, you can find instructions here:
https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=526402.msg4678818#msg4678818
it works except for the theme.
No success with the theme. Maybe I'm stil misinterpreting some path
so far I have tried the following things
my portable Arduino-IDE is in folder
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13
I mean the Arduino.exe is here
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13\arduino.exe
There is a folder
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13\portable
inside this folder I copied the themes folder
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13\portable\theme
no luck with this version
then I copied the theme-folder here
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13\portable\sketchbook\theme
did not work either
inside preferences sketchbook-location is set to
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13\portable\sketchbook
As soon as I rename the file
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13*lib\theme*\theme.txt
to
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13\lib\theme\theme-hide.txt
This portable version of the arduino-IDE does not start anymore showing the error-message
I want to make a suggestion:
If you have a portable Arduino-IDE working with a modified theme.txt inside some other folder than
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13*lib\theme*
If you don't mind for data-protection-reasons that I have a list of your installed files of your portable Arduino-IDE you could open a CMD-Window change to your main-folder of the portable Arduino-IDE
and type
dir *.* /s >dirlist.txt
Which writes all files, folders and subfolders into a textfile.
It's about 8 MB zipped it's about 800 kB
and attach this to a PM or a posting
Then I can do a deep analyse which folder has to be where and how does your preference-file look like
best regards Stefan
It's exactly as I described in the link I provided in my last reply:
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13\portable\sketchbook
|_ theme
|_ syntax
| |_ default.xml
|_ theme.txt
|_ etc...
Your writing stile is not clear to me
|_ theme
|_ syntax
| |_ default.xml
|_ theme.txt
I have the files here
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13\portable\sketchbook\theme\theme.txt
with all the other files inside this folder
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13\portable\sketchbook\theme\syntax\default.xml
with all the other files inside this folder
If I start Arduino.exe
located here
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13\arduino.exe
through double-click it just presents the error-message.
"could not read color theme."
so there must be something different on your system if it runs on your computer and my computer shows an error-message
Are you using Arduino-IDE 1.8.13 on a windows 10 64bit professional system?
Would you mind setting up a portable Arduino-IDE again in some testfolder and just add the
...... portable\sketchbook\theme... subfolders with an easy to see different theme?
best regards Stefan
StefanL38:
Your writing stile is not clear to me
|_ theme
|_ syntax
| |_ default.xml
|_ theme.txt
The lines represent the folder structure, just like the graphical lines you'll see in Windows File Explorer.
StefanL38:
through double-click it just presents the error-message."could not read color theme."
It's because you did this:
StefanL38:
As soon as I rename the file
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13*lib\theme*\theme.txt
to
D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13\lib\theme\theme-hide.txt
You need to leave the stock theme alone. Even though the one in the sketchbook overrides it, it seems that for some reason the Arduino IDE reads the built-in theme before loading the custom theme. If you rename "D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13\lib\theme\theme-hide.txt" back to "D:\ArduPTest\arduino-1.8.13portable\arduino-1.8.13\lib\theme\theme.txt", the error will go away and your custom theme from the sketchbook folder will be used.
StefanL38:
Are you using Arduino-IDE 1.8.13 on a windows 10 64bit professional system?
Yes
StefanL38:
Would you mind setting up a portable Arduino-IDE again in some testfolder and just add the
...... portable\sketchbook\theme... subfolders with an easy to see different theme?
Already did it. It works perfectly.
Yay!
Having the theme installed in the sketchbook is convenient because it allows you to more easily update the IDE, since everything that is custom is now stored in your portable folder, so you only need to take care to preserve the portable folder through the IDE update (which you'd have to do regardless), and the entire IDE installation can be replaced.
It also provides the alternative .zip file theme installation option, which allows you to have multiple themes installed simultaneously and easily switch between them via the Arduino IDE's File > Preferences GUI.
