Arduino Uno on Fedora

I just wanted to share how easy it is to start playing with an Arduino Uno on Fedora (if you've got tips or links for getting started on other OSes please share in comments). The Uno is the reference prototyping board for the Arduino project. It uses an Atmel ATmega328 micro-controller, and comes with all of the supporting circuitry required to start programming the device right out of the box.
Start out by installing the tools (Fedora 14 and up) using the package manager (see a somewhat dated how-to on the Arduino site):

yum -y install arduino uisp avr-libc avr-gcc-c++ rxtx avrdude

As noted in the how-to, a minimal install would just be the arduino package.

Blink Sketch

The first "hello world" type of thing in the Arduino Cookbook is to plug in your Arduino and load the Blink Sketch ("sketch" is what a bit of Arduino code is called, like a script in other languages). Before the sketch can be uploaded, it needs to be compiled. To compile a sketch just requires clicking the button with a triangle inside on the upper left of the IDE window (it looks like a play button). This should result in a message like "Done compiling," and "Binary sketch size: 1024 bytes (of a 32256 byte maximum)."

The next step is to make sure the correct board is selected. In my case it is an Uno, the first menu entry under Tools --> Board. Then the correct serial port must be selected under Tools --> Serial Port. In my case it was the first one. Now clicking the Upload button sends the compiled sketch to the Arduino Uno. You should see the TX and RX LEDs on the board flash, and then the L LED will flash according to the settings in the sketch.

That's it: if you've followed along, then you've just programmed an Arduino!