{"id":479,"date":"2020-02-14T13:23:47","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T12:23:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bierkai.nl\/?page_id=479"},"modified":"2026-09-02T16:30:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T15:30:30","slug":"getting-started-on-windows","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bierkai.nl\/?page_id=479","title":{"rendered":"Getting started"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n

The authoritative official documentation<\/a> should be followed to get started with ev3dev. This page provides some additional pointers that may help people set things up for a Windows-based development rig. Use these instructions at your own peril<\/strong>: they may be inappropriate for your situation, they may fail to produce the desired results, or they may even damage your system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initializing the MicroSD card<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Make sure you get a MicroSD card that satisfies the documented requirements<\/a> of having a capacity between 2 and 32 Gb, and supporting the MicroSD and\/or MicroSDHC formats rather than the MicroSDXC format. My 8Gb Philips card<\/a> had the correct buzzwords on the packaging and seems to work well enough. Plus it came with an adapter that fits the card reader on my Windows machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official instructions tell you to use Etcher<\/a> to flash the ev3dev image file<\/a> onto the MicroSD card. My attempts to do so kept failing until I ran Etcher as an administrator. With administrative privileges, Etcher flashed the card successfully on the first attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running ev3dev<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Turn off your EV3 brick and insert the MicroSD card into the slot (with the connector pins facing toward the bottom of the brick). Note that you’ll need some pretty small fingers and\/or long fingernails to extract it again, because the EV3 brick does not provide a spring-powered ejection mechanism. I usually have to resort to using tweezers or even pliers<\/a>, risking damage to the card. Adding a homebrew pull tab<\/a> makes extraction much easier, but make sure that it doesn’t make the card too thick for its slot, and that the tape tail doesn’t get in the way of the rest of your build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you turn on the brick with the MicroSD card inserted, the system will boot the ev3dev environment, culminating in the display of a menu driven application on the LCD. This GUI is called Brickman, and it allows you to interact with ev3dev when the system is disconnected from a PC. You’ll probably use it mostly (or even exclusively) to launch programs from the File Browser<\/code> menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

USB connectivity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The official instructions for establishing a network connection<\/a> differentiate between connecting to the Internet or just tethering the EV3 brick to your PC. Since an Internet connection makes it easier to add optional packages to the brick’s Linux environment later, choose that option<\/a> unless you’re sure the vanilla ev3dev distribution will suffice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Windows 10, the Bluetooth & other devices<\/code> window will list your Remote NDIS Compatible Device<\/code> but won’t allow you to configure its network settings. The same is true for Windows 11’s Bluetooth & devices > Devices<\/code> window. Instead scroll to the Related settings<\/code> section toward the bottom of the window and use the link to open the Devices and printers<\/code> control panel applet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the Settings and Control Panel windows may contain a device named EV3<\/code>, which represents a (Bluetooth) connection you may have established earlier from the Lego EV3 desktop software. As documented<\/a>, the (USB) connection to the ev3dev environment is listed as a Remote NDIS Compatible Device<\/code>, so you’ll configure that one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SSH connectivity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The ev3dev environment comes with a prefab account named robot<\/code>, whose password is initially set to maker<\/code>. Security buffs will want to change the password, and perhaps take a look at some other stuff that comes pre-configured. Mere mortals may wish to create a PuTTY<\/a> shortcut on their PC that automatically passes the credentials when connecting to the brick:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"C:\\Program Files\\PuTTY\\putty.exe\" robot@ev3dev -pw maker<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Omit the -pw <your-password><\/code> clause to enter the password manually when you connect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Package repositories<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
If you’ve set up Internet connectivity<\/a>, you’ll probably want to (be able to) install additional packages onto the system, or update existing ones. But ev3dev is based on such an old version of Debian Linux that the package repositories aren’t available anymore in their original locations. As a consequence, you’ll get errors when trying to (use apt<\/code> or dpkg<\/code> to) access them. Fix this<\/a> by updating ev3dev’s \/etc\/apt\/sources.list<\/code> file so that it contains (only) the following entries:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
deb http:\/\/archive.debian.org\/debian\/ stretch main\ndeb http:\/\/archive.debian.org\/debian-archive\/debian-security stretch\/updates main<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Changing the file requires that you sudo<\/code> or su<\/code> to root privileges. You may find the pre-installed nano<\/code> editor useful, or vi<\/code> if you’re so inclined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
File system connectivity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
You’ll probably develop applications on your PC, using ev3dev’s command line or on-screen File Browser to run the finished programs. Since SSH connectivity comes preconfigured with ev3dev, file transfer based on SCP<\/a> should be supported out of the box. But for development a persistent file system connection is more convenient:<\/p>\n\n\n\n