If you aren’t interested in enabling WSL on Windows or are having trouble setting up a build environment on another OS, Linode might be a low cost solution to get up and running rather quickly. There is a monthly fee involved, so it may not be for everyone. I am in no way affiliated with the company - I just found it to be a simple way of getting a development environment up and running with little fuss.
Sign up for a Linode account
Look for Linode videos on YouTube for promotional codes to potentially get several months free.
Once signed up, click “Create” and select the following options:
- Linode
- Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (well supported)
- Region (local to you)
- Shared 4GB 2 Core (minimum)
- Enter root password
- All other defaults should work fine
Once the new virtual instance boots, take note of the IP address for follow-on steps.
Connect and update the VPS instance
(via command line: bash, zsh, PowerShell, etc)
ssh root@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
(enter password)
apt update && apt upgrade -y
Optionally, change the hostname:
echo ardupilot-dev > /etc/hostname
Add a new user with sudo privileges
(I’m using “yuri” as the example username - pick whatever you like)
adduser yuri
(enter a password for this user)
(no need to enter any other info - just press enter until back to shell prompt
usermod -aG sudo yuri
exit
Reboot the VPS
(from Linode webpage)
When the reboot completes, log in as the new user.
ssh yuri@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
(enter password)
Lock root account access
This is a reasonable security measure. Enter user password if prompted.
sudo passwd -l root
Clone ardupilot and set up the environment
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/ArduPilot/ardupilot.git
cd ardupilot
git submodule update --init --recursive
./Tools/environment_install/install-prereqs-ubuntu.sh
(recommend answering y to all prompts)
exit
Reconnect to refresh user/shell settings
ssh yuri@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
(enter password)
Build the master branch to test the new environment
This isn’t a blazing fast instance, but it should build in a few minutes, nonetheless. Mine took 7 minutes (further builds will be much faster if you don’t ./waf clean). You can always pay for dedicated CPU time and/or more CPU cores if you so desire.
cd ~/ardupilot/
./waf configure --board CubeOrange
./waf copter
Finally…
Copy your brand new, bleeding edge firmware to the local machine
sftp yuri@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
(enter password)
get ardupilot/build/CubeOrange/bin/arducopter.apj
exit
You should now have a copy of your latest build in the directory from which you issued the sftp command. Use your GCS of choice to upload it to an autopilot (usually via a “custom firmware” option).
If you use VS Code, you can install the “Remote - SSH” extension and create a connection to the Linode VPS to work on the cloned repository as if it were local to your client machine.