If you are a Linux user and have a Robotics Invention System (RIS) version 1.0 or 1.5, you have a serial infrared (IR) tower, which is fairly easy to set up. RIS version 2.0 came with a USB tower however, and getting that to work isn’t as straightforward. Some of these steps might seem daunting to a novice, but if you follow them correctly you should be OK.

Current versions of the Linux kernel (2.6.*) include support for the LEGO USB Tower by default. There are many Linux distributions, and they’re not all configured the same way. Below instructions were created for Ubuntu version 12.04 TLS 32-bit, one of the most popular distributions at this time. Continue reading →