Install Arduino IDE 2.0 beta on Linux Mint 20.1, include ESP32/ESP8266 support.

Arduino IDE 2.0 (beta) is now available (refer to announcement in Arduino blog). It,s my first try to install Arduino IDE 2.0 beta (2.0.0-beta3) on Linux Mint 20.1, tested with VirtualBox 6.1/Windows 10.

Download Arduino IDE 2.0 beta

Visit https://www.arduino.cc/en/software, scroll download to download Arduino IDE 2.0 beta for Linux 64 bits (X86-64).

Run arduino-ide

Extract the downloaded file to a any folder you want. Run arduino-ide in Terminal
$ ./arduino-ide

Install board

In a fresh new installed Arduino IDE 2.0, no board is installed, you will be report with error:

Compilation error: Error: 2 UNKNOWN: platform not installed

Click Boards Manager on left, search to install Arduino AVR Boards by Arduino.

Add permission to user, to access USB

In a new Linux, you (as a regular user) have no permission to access USB port, and report with error:

avrdude: ser_open(): can't open device "/dev/ttyACM0": Permission denied

Open Terminal, enter the command to add permission:
$ sudo usermod -a -G dialout <username>
$ sudo chmod a+rw <port>

Done.

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Install board support for ESP32/ESP8266

Menu > File> Preferences

Enter the url in the "Additional Board Manager URLs":

https://dl.espressif.com/dl/package_esp32_index.json (for ESP32)

http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json (for ESP8266)

Then you can add board of ESP32/ESP8266 in Boards Manager.

Setup Python

By default Linux Mint 20.1 pre-install Python3, but no Python2. Currently, esptool for ESPs call python. You can create a symlinks /usr/bin/python to python3 by installing python-is-python3.

$ sudo apt install python-is-python3

Optionally, you can prevent Python 2 from being installed as a dependency of something in the future:

$ sudo apt-mark hold python2 python2-minimal python2.7 python2.7-minimal libpython2-stdlib libpython2.7-minimal libpython2.7-stdlib

And you have to install pyserial with pip:

$ sudo apt install python3-pip

$ pip3 install pyserial

Add permission to your user (if not do in above steps):

Additionally, if you cannot download your code to board caused by:

avrdude: ser_open(): can't open device "/dev/xxx": Permission denied

$ sudo usermod -a -G dialout <username>

$ sudo chmod a+rw <port>