Trying to get a Nano to communicate w/a Dell i7 laptop running Mint 20 and the 18.1 Arduino IDE, the Nano's factory loaded LED blink program was running, but on uploading a simple test program, I was getting "Permission Denied" error messages, which I worked through using "avrdude",
However, subsequent tries at uploading a simple test program got a new error message as follows:
AND THEN, at some point. the factory-loaded LED blink program STOPPED running, so that only the "PWR" LED remained on, possibly suggesting something HAD been uploaded, that overwrote the original blink program.
SO, I went back to avrdude, followed the "not in sync" error trail, and was taken to the "loop test", which I performed, with odd-seeming results: Upon uploading from the loop-test window, both the "RX" and "TX" flashed VERY briefly on the Nano, suggesting that 2-way communication had taken place, but the text was NOT returned!
My question then is: Is this Nano DEFINITELY trash, or is there something else i still need to try?
Probably not. The "not in sync" message indicates no communication between the PC and the bootloader on the Arduino.
You may have selected the wrong board in the IDE, you don't have the required permissions to use the serial port, there may not be a bootloader on the Nano, the serial connection is miswired or faulty, etc.
By the way, WHICH "Nano"? There are several very different varieties. And which serial port programmer?
The board is a no-name with an Atmega 328. The USB chip on the flip side looks like the numbers have been sandblasted off. This board was purchased a few years back, so it may well have the old bootloader, but I tried uploading with both versions many times now.
I was careful to have "Nano" selected in "Board", and even tried various others when that didn't work.
I tried and both bootloader options for the Nano, and then checking the port connection by unplugging and replugging the USB cable.
I think should have the required permissions because that error message went away after I performed avrdude's procedures for that error, and the error message did not occur after that; it went to "not in sync".
yes, that is what the avrdude error page leads to.
If you follow the link at the end of an error message in the 18.1 IDE, you are taken to an "avrdude'
page that lists various Arduino errors and then gives ways to fix them.
Yes, that's why I said "from the loop-test window".
Interesting! Very good to know! The Nano in question has a numberless USB hub chip on it, so the loopback test now looks to be less useful than I knew.
It means to push the button, per instructions in the loopback test window , that initiates at attempt to the send a test message to the board under test . If the message is returned to that loopback test window, the test was successful, otherwise is was not.
Hmm.... it's looking more and more like this Nano is headed for the trash....
If not mistaken, lsusb should tell you the chip or the VID/PID of the chip and you can look it up on the web. Else dmesg should give you the needed information.