Where is aistarter? And why cant I get this stupid thing to work?

[Shawn Hawkins]

I can't connect with USB or through the Emulator. I have followed all of the instructions and NOTHING works. I am relatively stupid when it comes to code but the files to run the emulator are NOT where the instructions say they are.

[Enis]

Please reinstall the setup software:

I suggest you try to reinstall the software and see if it still happens, and then, PLEASE report back here and let us know if it fixed your problem.  Please follow these steps.

1. Close down everything on your computer and REBOOT.
2. After the reboot, uninstall the software from the icon in the App Inventor folder... it'll be uninstall.exe.
3. REBOOT AGAIN.  To be SURE, go to your  Program Files folder and make sure the folder for AppInventor is gone.  If not, please delete it before running the setup software.
   
4. Go to the setup link (setup software), and reinstall the App Inventor software.  DO NOT CHANGE THE DEFAULTS THAT ARE PROVIDED BY THE SETUP SOFTWARE SUCH AS FOLDER ETC.  Don't run an older setup file version that you might have saved to the downloads folder, but use the current one from the link above.
   
5. After the setup is finished...REBOOT AGAIN
6. Then, try going to the App Inventor site and try loading the emulator again.

That should fix your issue, but make SURE you come back here and reply back so we know it worked, or didn't work.

[SteveJG]

The USB instructions are here http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ai2/setup-device-usb.html# and you probably have been there .  You are using Linux so you might have missed this:  Linux: Every time you want to use USB with App Inventor, you will need to manually launch the aiStarter on your computer.    

You might have missed the following in this link about aiStarter:  http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ai2/aistarter-help.html      It says On GNU/Linux, this program is in /usr/local/bin. You should be able to start it by typing aistarter from a terminal. (Note: On Linux aistarter is all lower case).

Can you find aiStarter?    It should be here:    /usr/local/bin     

What version of LINUX are you using?

Regards,

Steve

[SteveJG]

@Shawn ...you replied by email... please reply in the forum... TNX.

OK, so you can not find it in /usr/local/bin.      Have you tried typing aistarter     from a terminal?   Please try typing it (in all lower case characters) into your LINUX terminal program and tell us what (if anything ) happens.

App Inventor 2 is usable with:  

• GNU/Linux: Ubuntu 8 or higher, Debian 5 or higher

This is why I asked, and you did not reply to my question about what version of LINUX you are using.

73,

Steve

[Shawn Hawkins]

Sorry about the mail reply

The aistarter program is not in usr/local/bin. There is nothing in there. There are also many empty folders within the app. I am on Ubuntu 14.04.
And to tell you the truth, I don't even know how I installed the app inventor in the first place. Like with any ubuntu install, I had to go to several different sources to piece together somthing that will work.
Is there a guaranteed good link to get a good download and instructions that work correctly?

[Shawn Hawkins]

Firstly how would I uninstall the program?

[SteveJG]

Never worked with AI2 in Linux.   With AI Classic, more detail instructions are here: 

http://beta.appinventor.mit.edu/learn/setup/setuplinux.html    but they are for AI Classic.

Like you I am trying to find some documentation.   I think at the moment, AI2 can only work with WIFI in an Linux environment.    I usually only handle Windows/Mac issues so I am trying to find someone to respond to you who who knows about AI2 and Linux.    From the instructions posted on line, it appears you should be OK but I suspect the instructions are wrong.

Give us a bit of time.  I am forwarding this to one of the development team members and hope he has a better answer.

Regards,

Steve

[Enis]

Sorry Shawn... I neglected to see the Unix/Linux choice at the top of your message... What I sent won't work.  Just be a little patient.  Steve's sent it to someone who knows tons about what's going on, and may be able to help.

Don't forget that AI Classic ran way differently than AI2... AI2 is totally web-based, except for the emulator.  In Classic, it ran Java separately for the blocks editor, and that Java window communicated with the emulator, not the web page.

[Shawn Hawkins]

The pertinent files are in

usr/google/appinventor/commands-for-Appinventor

but I don't know what to do with them. I don't know how to execute the program 'run-emulator'

[Enis]

I don't believe Linux can run an exe file...

[Shawn Hawkins]

No it can't but Im not trying to

[krupong]

ai2Linux is aiStarter for Linux.It's just installation script not deb or rpm.
check out my project here :
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ai2u/

[Shawn Hawkins]

Trying now

[Shawn Hawkins]

ive been trying to get this running all day. Since 7:30 this morning

[Shawn Hawkins]

That didn't work.
What about USB connectivity? Any way of getting that working? I don't have an internet connection I can use. I am tethered to my phone.

[krupong]

To install :
1. untar using command
    $tar -xf ai2Linux-2.2.tar.gz
2. change to directory
    $cd ai2Linux
3. to install
    $sudo ./install.sh

Did you complete all steps?
If yes,type aiStarter to start daemon.

[SteveJG]

Here is the word from MIT summarized:

There are presently no 'official' AI2 setup tools for LINUX for USB/Emulator.  The wifi/Companion works with LINUX as any other platform.

There are a couple of third party packages that have been built by contributors that allow LINUX to be used with the USB or Emulator  (see krupon's post above).

Despite what is said several places in the MIT documentation, AI2 can only be used with WIFI at present (unless one of the third party tools is used).

MIT is now aware of the problem in documentation and will fix the problem pages.  AI Classic users are aware that AI Classic can be used with the emulator; AI2 cannot.

Will the emulator/usb be supported by MIT on AI2 for LINUX?    I do not know.   Probably not in the short term.

I hope that explanation helps Shawn.  Glad you got a possible solution and please let us know how it works for you.   Very sorry about the confusion caused by the problem documentation.

Regards,

Steve

[Shawn Hawkins]

Companion does NOT work. Every time I try to connect thru it, it crashes. So the folks at MIT can't get a program working on an operating system that they have the source code for? What does the future of programming look like with people like this at the helm?

[Shawn Hawkins]

This program worked fine till MIT got a hold of it. What  did you guys do to it?