Initial setup

This guide walks you through the process of setting up your development environment.

Windows

Caution

Windows is not supported for firmware and ground station development.

If you are using Windows, you will need to install Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). WSL lets you run a complete Linux environment directly inside Windows without virtual machine overhead or dual booting.

After installing WSL, continue to the Linux/WSL section of the guide.

WSL installation

Follow Microsoft’s official guide to install WSL: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install. Make sure you install the latest Ubuntu distribution for consistency (this should be the default). You can use another distribution, but note that some steps may differ, most notably package installation.

Tip

For command-line work, it’s recommended to use Windows Terminal (in Windows, it’s just called Terminal). Despite being a built-in Microsoft app, it’s surprisingly powerful and intuitive. Use Windows Terminal to access WSL and run any command-line tasks.

You can also work with WSL in VS Code. To open VS Code in WSL, install the WSL extension, then either run code . from a WSL directory or use the Remote Explorer in VS Code.

Caution

Clone the repository and do all work in the Linux home directory (e.g. ~/projects/orbital-software). Don’t store your code on Windows and access it via the mnt directory. This will help with performance and compatibility.

Linux/WSL and Mac

1. Ensure you have Git installed. If you are using Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or later, or installed the default WSL distribution, you should already have it installed. If not, open a terminal and run the following commands to install Git:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install git

2. If you have not already, set up git locally however you want, there are lots of guides online!

3. Now depending on what you want to setup follow one of the guides below!

Firmware Setup

Ground Station Setup