Install TinyOS 2.1.2 on Ubuntu 12.04 and blink LEDs on TelosB mote

Recently I got my hands on the TelosB mote and as the tradition goes, I had to test blinking LEDs on it. (If you want to compare this mote with few others out there then this is a good paper to refer).

Initially, I went to the TinyOS getting started page which provides instructions for installing TinyOS 2.1.1. It had few steps missing and one can run “tos-check-env” and google for the errors which show up. However, when I went on to make the blinking LED project (make telosb), it spewed out a host of errors similar to this line “/opt/tinyos-2.1.1/tos/platforms/telosa/PlatformLedsC.nc:54: cannot find `Port56′”. Apparently the msp430 packages did not jive with this TinyOS version 2.1.1 and multiple posts online suggested rolling back to legacy versions.

I decided to give TinyOS 2.1.2 a shot and it worked!!! So well here is the entire procedure for you:

Remove brltty package to avoid FTDI to serial conflicts
```
sudo apt-get autoremove brltty
```
Make sure you have the build-essentials package
```
sudo apt-get install build-essential
```
Execute the following command,
```
sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
```
Hit “G” to go to end of file and then hit “A”. Paste the line given below at the end of this file
```
add deb http://tinyos.stanford.edu/tinyos/dists/ubuntu lucid main
```
In case you had previous repositories for TinyOS in source, then remove them. Hit ESC, then enter “:wq” to save and quit

Now install TinyOS 2.1.2 using

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tinyos-2.1.2

Now you need to configure the environment for TinyOS. Do

sudo vi ~/.bashrc

Add the lines given below at the end of this file

# Sourcing the tinyos environment variable setup script
source /opt/tinyos-2.1.2/tinyos.sh
export CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:.

Create the setup script using:

sudo vi /opt/tinyos-2.1.2/tinyos.sh

Now enter the following contents into this file (use “i” to insert, ctrl+shift+v to paste)

#! /usr/bin/env bash
# Here we setup the environment
# variables needed by the tinyos 
# make system
   
# echo "Setting up for TinyOS 2.1.2"
export TOSROOT=
export TOSDIR=
export MAKERULES=
   
TOSROOT="/opt/tinyos-2.1.2"
TOSDIR="$TOSROOT/tos"
CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH:$TOSROOT/support/sdk/java:$TOSROOT/support/sdk/java/tinyos.jar
MAKERULES="$TOSROOT/support/make/Makerules"
   
export TOSROOT
export TOSDIR
export CLASSPATH
export MAKERULES

Run the command below to allow this script to execute

sudo chmod 755 /opt/tinyos-2.1.2/tinyos.sh

Now close and start a new terminal or alternatively
```
source ~/.bashrc
```
Run the command
```
tos-check-env
```
If it gives warnings related to Java version then do
```
java -version
```
If your version is above 1.5, then ignore this warning else upgrade to a newer java version. Ignore the warning related to graphviz.
Now insert Telos mote in your USB slot. You may run the command
```
motelist
```
to check if it was detected. The output will be
```
$motelist
Reference  Device           Description
---------- ---------------- ---------------------------------------------
M49WC0OT   /dev/ttyUSB0     Moteiv tmote sky
```
Allow writing to the USB port using (substitute your device name as per the previous output)
```
sudo chmod 666 /dev/ttyUSB0
```
Navigate to the blinking led project folder
```
sudo bash
cd /opt/tinyos-2.1.2/apps/Blink
```
Execute the command below and the code should get compiled
```
make telosb
```
Install the blinking LED application on the mote using
```
make telosb reinstall
```
The command above assumes you have only one Telos mote on USB. Else use the command
```
make telosb reinstall bsl,/dev/ttyUSB0
```
You should see the LEDs come to life.

References: TinyOS Documentation