Tip for Linux users having trouble running Arduino IDE 1.8.xx

[bitrot-alpha]

I'm using Fedora Linux 37 (with GNOME DE), and I was having trouble getting the Arduino IDE to show the dropdown menus at the top.

I googled around and found this Arduino forum post: https://forum.arduino.cc/t/ide-menus-disappeared/692220/2
That post links to this GitHub issue: arduino/Arduino#11150

The gist is that if the dropdown menus aren't showing up, your Java version is too new, or you don't have the required font installed.

I tried running the IDE with Java 17, but it gave some weird error about a "missing splash" and didn't finish starting up, so I switched to Java 11.

What I did to fix it:

• rename the java folder inside of the Arduino IDE folder to something else, like java_bak or something
• install OpenJDK-11 (Fedora command is sudo dnf in java-11-openjdk)
  • the two dependencies that installed with it are xorg-x11-fonts-Type1 and ttmkfdir
• set my system Java to be Java 11: sudo alternatives --config java
  • if you run java -version it should say "Java 11" now
  • if you don't want your system Java to always be 11, run alternatives again and pick a different Java version after you exit Arduino IDE

[aly-fly]

Arduino version was deleted. Project was migrated to PlatformIO.