Linux

This is written for debian, raspian or ubuntu. You'll have to make the usual adjustments if you're using something else.

Update your OS

First, update and upgrade your OS

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

Access to USB Serial

Add your user to the dialout group, change $USER to your user name. This allows your user to access the USB serial device.

sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER

You'll need to logout and back in again.

Flash the companion

Install needed software

Install pipx, make sure the bin dir is in the path, then install meshcore-cli

sudo apt install pipx
pipx ensurepath
pipx install meshcore-cli

or

sudo pipx install meshcore-cli --global

Logout and back in again.

Find the USB device

meshcli -l

Output probably looks like this, you'll want to use the USB one:

BLE devices:
 No BLE HW

Serial ports:
 /dev/ttyS0         n/a [n/a]
 /dev/ttyUSB0       CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller - CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller [USB VID:PID=10C4:EA60 SER=0001 LOCATION=1-1]

Create serial based symlink

This creates /dev/meshcore0 using your devices serial number, which is much more reliable than ttyUSB0 or ttyACM0 which can change.

If you want to change to a different board, you'll have to create meshcore1 or update these values.

sudo udevadm info -a -n /dev/ttyUSB0 | vi -

Look for ATTRS{serial} and ATTRS{idVendor}:

    ATTRS{idVendor}=="303a"
    ATTRS{serial}=="332AC33C8CDC"

sudo vi /etc/udev/rules.d/99-meshcore.rules

put a line in similar to this:

SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ATTRS{idVendor}=="303a", ATTRS{serial}=="332AC33C8CDC", SYMLINK+="meshcore0"

run the following:

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

Start MeshCLI

meshcli -s /dev/meshcore0

Configure node

Do basic companion configuration. You should only need to do this once, unless you want to change these settings:

meshcore-cli -s /dev/meshcore0 set radio 915.800,250,11,5
meshcore-cli -s /dev/meshcore0 set name "🦷 rdm cli 0"
meshcore-cli -s /dev/meshcore0 advert