Linux versions, Python 3.x versions and MBED Studio/CLI

Mbed Studio Bugs
1

Crikey! I cannot even write a forum post without a problem. Why is there no “mbed_cli” as an optional tag?

Anyway, I have just installed MBED Studio… or another version of Visual Studio Code… on Linux Ubuntu. I am left wondering if an MBED extension for VSC would have been much easier, like other vendors have done, as this is quicker and less hassle (IMHO). Or is it license related (having had to manually scroll through it all).

I am still using Linux Mint 18 (Ubuntu 16.4), which, by the way, has LTS status till April 21.

Yet, the MBED Studio installation terminal message tells me that I need to use Ubuntu 18.x. Why? Searching line by line through the MBED studio installation .sh file shows that Ubuntu 16 is valid and it does work (and I have not had any issue within my Visual Studio Code IDE, which was painlessly installed using snap)…

I then tried to install MBED CLI. This seems to be tied to Python 3.7. Is this correct?

To install, I had to use a Python PIP CLI install method. This threw up all sorts of Python script errors. I think part of the reason is that I only have Python 3.5.x on my computer and when installing the latest PIP it messed things up for me. Not MBED’s fault but the reliance on Python and PIP for installs is a disappointment.

Is there no other way of doing this? Surely you could create a C or C++ or equivalent (e.g. Rust or Go etc.) compiled executable as Python2 vs Python3 version management is so messy, in my opinion - I am not a Python fan by any means.

So, what other surprises await me, I wonder, with Python version problems. I will persevere…

Any insights or advice is appreciated.

2

I resolved my pip script errors using this command:
sudo python3 -m pip install --upgrade --force-reinstall setuptools

I was then able to install MBED-CLI without error.

Yet to warm to Python though but am thawing ever so slightly :slightly_smiling_face:

3

Hi Gerriko,

during the installation you are told that we only support Ubuntu (16 and 18) because those are the only distributions where Mbed Studio is internally tested. Mbed Studio might work on Linux Mint but we cannot give you any guarantee. If you choose to try it anyway, please let us know if you find any issue.

As for mbed cli, we also ship it with Mbed Studio. If you open the Mbed Studio terminal and run mbed-cli you should be able to access it.

Hope this helps.

Federico - Mbed Studio team

4

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I have discovered one quirk with Linux Mint 18. I cannot install the clangd-9 or-10 or latest package.

I have the clang tools v8 package installed but cannot find a clangd package with that install.

Not quite sure what that means as yet. I have downloaded the blink example and flashed that onto a FRDM-25 board. So, so far so good.

G://

5

I happened to do a clean install of Linux Mint 19 (Ubuntu 18.04).

The missing “clangd” package notification still pops up, although this time I can install clang-10 / clangd-10 which sorts out the problem.

It would be helpful if this package is included in your mbed studio install routine (even if as an option y/n install)