Installing Particle Tools on Your Device
For Particle’s Device OS for Linux, tools can be installed directly on the device — giving developers a way to build, run, and debug applications right from the edge. This is especially useful for workflows involving media, UI, or interactive testing.
⚠️ Note: This guide applies specifically to the desktop variant of Device OS for Linux, which includes a full graphical environment. If you're using the headless variant, you're welcome to install the same tools manually — just as you would on a host computer — but that setup is not currently documented.
What’s Included with the Desktop Variant
When using the pre-built desktop variant of Device OS for Linux provided by Particle (e.g., for Tachyon), a complete development environment comes ready to use — no setup required.
Once you’ve flashed the image and booted your device, you’ll find:
- ✅ Visual Studio Code
- ✅ Particle CLI
- ✅ Particle Workbench Extension
- ✅ Example apps and demo projects
- ✅ The Particle Setup App for first-time configuration
💻 This makes it easy to get started building, customizing, and deploying apps without needing another computer.
First Boot & Setup Flow
- Flash your device with the desktop variant of Device OS for Linux (download from your device’s setup instructions).
- Boot the device — it will load a graphical desktop environment.
- The Particle Setup App will launch automatically.
- Follow the prompts to:
- Connect the device to Wi-Fi or Ethernet
- Log in to your Particle account
- Register the device to your account or organization
At the end of setup, you’ll be prompted to open Visual Studio Code with one of our pre-installed demo apps.
What Happens Next?
Each demo project includes:
- A working application you can run immediately
- A
README.mdwith walkthrough instructions - Hooks for building, running, and customizing the code
From here, you can:
- Run your first application with zero additional setup
- Open new projects from local storage or the Particle Blueprints site
- Customize or clone existing blueprints and try them on-device
- Push changes live and observe output directly in the console or GUI
A Note on Flexibility
There’s nothing stopping you from building, editing, and running apps directly on-device — just as you would on your laptop. The only difference is we’ve pre-configured everything on the desktop image to save time and help you get started faster.
If you’re using the headless variant or prefer a more minimal environment, you can manually install:
- VS Code
- Docker / Docker Compose
- The Particle CLI
- Any language runtimes or dev tools you need
…but these steps are not yet officially documented.
Summary
| Variant | Visual Desktop | Preinstalled Tools | Recommended For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Desktop Variant | ✅ | ✅ | Fast on-device development & demos |
| Headless Variant | ❌ | ❌ (manual setup) | Lightweight production deployment |
🎬 With the desktop image, you're ready to go out of the box — build, run, and explore apps using familiar tools directly on your Particle-powered Linux device.
👉 Ready to get started? Open VS Code on your device and launch one of the demo projects.