Dockerized Arduino IDE

This project is about installing and running the Arduino IDE from a docker image.

You do not have to pollute your original operating system, with installing the several libs and the app itself. Instead you only need docker to be installed.

At the same time you can keep your projects on your disk, that the arduino docker container will reach through volumes.

This solution was made based on the Running GUI apps with Docker blog post written by Fábio Rehm.

Use the container

Run this if you want the container to be removed after the session:

    docker run \
        -it \
        --rm \
        --network=host \
        --privileged \
        -e DISPLAY=$DISPLAY \
        -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \
        -v /dev/tty<chooseyours>:/dev/tty<chooseyours> \
        -v /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb \
        -v $HOME/container_data/arduino:/home/developer/Arduino \
        mbkamble/darduino:latest \
        [arduino | /bin/bash]

or just simply run the ./arduino.sh shell script, which contains the command listed above.

In case you want to make changes, then start the container without the --rm switch, and execute the commit and push docker commands.

Using STM32F103x Arduino Compatible boards

This container is already packaged with the Arduino SAM board which provides the gcc tool chain for Cortex-M3. The STM32 MCU contains the same CPU core. So to compile and upload sketches to the STM32F103 generic boards, install the Arduino_STM32 hardware support files. To do so, just git clone the Arduino_STM32 repo to $HOME/container_data/arduino/hardware

There are two binaries (Arduino_STM32/tools/linux/upload-reset and Arduino_STM32/tools/linux/dfu-util/dfu-util) that need to execute successfully to reset and upload firmware through USB. In case there are errors executing them, you may need to recompile them on your host.

ESP8266 Board Manager usage

Starting with 1.6.4, Arduino allows installation of third-party platform packages using Boards Manager.

1. Start Arduino and open Preferences window.
2. Enter http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json into Additional Board Manager URLs field. You can add multiple URLs, separating them with commas.
3. Open Boards Manager from Tools > Board menu and install esp8266 platform.
4. Select your ESP8266 board from Tools > Board menu after installation. For ESP8266-12F, select the Generic ESP8266 Module.

References

• Running GUI apps with Docker
• Ubuntu Package Search
• Install the Arduino Software (IDE) on on Linux
• How to Install AVRDude 6.3 in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 14.04