Ubuntu – How to install the latest Arduino IDE

Arduino IDE from Ubuntu's repos are usually outdated. There are three main ways to install the latest Arduino IDE: with umake, from arduino.cc tar.gz and as a snap. In all cases you may need to add your user to dialout group (if it doesn't work add it also to tty group):

sudo adduser $USER dialout

Install the latest version from Ubuntu Make (on GitHub)

Ubuntu Make is a command line tool which allows you to download the latest version of popular developer tools on your installation

1. Install Ubuntu Make

   sudo apt install ubuntu-make
   

   If not using Ubuntu 18.04+ or want the latest versions:

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-desktop/ubuntu-make
   sudo apt update
   

2. Install Arduino IDE with umake

   umake electronics arduino
   

_{Warning: umake ide arduino is deprecated.}

This will install it on ~/.local/share/umake/electronics/arduino. If you don't get the shortcut available you'll need to run install.sh found there.

Some other software options (like Eagle or Sublime) are not free software. I recommend instead Fritzing and Atom.io.

Install the latest version from arduino.cc

Just follow official guide (or Canonical's tutorial):

1. Download the Arduino Software (IDE). lscpu will tell you if 32 or 64 bits. If unsure use 32 bits.
2. Extract the package (from terminal tar -xvf arduino-1.8.2-linux64.tar.xz).

3. Run the installation script (./install.sh).

   

Install the latest version using snap package

sudo snap install arduino

If you need any other Python 3 dependencies other than serial, you can install them inside the snap sandbox using the arduino.pip command.

Notes

• Before installing you might move the folder with binaries to /opt/ or /usr/local/.
• For ESP8266 see this installation instructions.

• Installer don't create Launcher icon for me: Just drag it (arduino-arduinoide.desktop) from Desktop:

  

• You also have
  • Arduino Web Editor
  • PlatformIO IDE, an extension for Atom.io or Visual Studio Code.

• With the latest versions come newer features like the "Additional Boards Manager URLs" on Preferences (to add ESP8266 board):