TI, Launchpad, Energia installation problems..

[jprtist]

I'm taking an edx course that utilizes a Texas Instruments Launchpad to program a simple robot we build. I'm having troubl

e installing the Energia programming software for the device, MSP430G2. I'm using Ubuntu 14.04LTS,


When I try to follow these instructions, I get an error saying:

I tried adding my user name to "dialout" using sudo after the fact when it wouldn't allow me to save the rules file first, but nothing I've tried works.. any ideas?

Thanks, I'm a stupid newbie

 

[JasKinasis]

Your text editor is unable to save the file as it requires root permissions.
From a terminal, you can use gedit as root using this kind of syntax:

sudo gedit /path/to/file

Where /path/to/file is the path to the file you are editing.

That will prompt you to enter your password, before opening the file in gedit as root (or at least with root privileges!)

 

[atanere]

No, you're not stupid. We all had to start at the beginning. Welcome!

So, first off, you aren't understanding the "file structure" of Linux. Your screenshot shows part of your mistake is trying to create the file in "/" which is the "root" of your file system. Your instructions tell you to create this file in the /etc/udev/rules.d/ folder. Also you did not open your text editor with "root privileges" so you did not have permission to create the file in "/".

There are many ways to do anything in Linux, so here is one way.

1. Open a terminal (command line) and type in:
cd /etc/udev/rules.d (and hit ENTER)

2. type (without quotes) "sudo gedit 99-ti-launchpad.rules" (ENTER)
(You have to provide your root password to start gedit.)

3. Add the text in your instructions and save/close the file.

Then follow your other instructions with the sudo command.

Oops! Looks like @JasKinasis beat me to it!

 

[JasKinasis]

I haven't used Ubuntu much since they switched to the Unity desktop, but in older versions of Ubuntu, Alt+F2 used to bring up the 'Run' dialog, which would allow you to enter a command to run. In the run dialog, you could use gksudo to start graphical programs as root, from the desktop.

So after hitting alt+f2 to get the run dialog to appear, you would enter a command like this:

gksudo gedit /path/to/file

A pop up would appear on the desktop prompting you for your password. As long as you entered your password correctly, gedit would run as root and you could edit config files. No need to open up a terminal.... But that was in the good old Gnome2 days!

I imagine gksudo is still installed by default, but I imagine the run dialog is no longer available, or disabled. I would also hazard a guess that you can enter the gksudo command (see snippet above) in that new-fangled dash thing and it will probably just run it like the old run dialog did!

 

[ryanvade]

I haven't used Ubuntu much since they switched to the Unity desktop, but in older versions of Ubuntu, Alt+F2 used to bring up the 'Run' dialog, which would allow you to enter a command to run. In the run dialog, you could use gksudo to start graphical programs as root, from the desktop.

So after hitting alt+f2 to get the run dialog to appear, you would enter a command like this:

gksudo gedit /path/to/file

A pop up would appear on the desktop prompting you for your password. As long as you entered your password correctly, gedit would run as root and you could edit config files. No need to open up a terminal.... But that was in the good old Gnome2 days!

I imagine gksudo is still installed by default, but I imagine the run dialog is no longer available, or disabled. I would also hazard a guess that you can enter the gksudo command (see snippet above) in that new-fangled dash thing and it will probably just run it like the old run dialog did!

Alt+f2 is still available with Unity.

 

[jprtist]

Thanks everybody, you solved my problem quite fast thank you. I'll try harder to do things for myself before bothering you all, but, I know I'm going to learn quite a bit reading these forums. Thanks again.