Coding for Vex IQ on Linux

VEX IQ General Discussion
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Has anyone here been successful in setting up a Linux machine for coding Vex IQ?

Background: I have coached Vex IQ teams for a few years now, within the school system. I am now looking at establishing a community-based robotics program (nonprofit). We are really at the very beginning phases. As part of this effort, a local business has donated a large number of older laptops that are in good condition, but are obsolete by Windows 11 standards. I also need to install new harddrives. To keep costs low as we get up and running, I’d like to use Linux OS on these machines, but I don’t see that Vex offers a VexCode product for the Linux machines. I also read where folks who tried this via Wine would run into issues.

I would really prefer to stick with VexCode given the young age of my prospective teams. That said, I also want to explore any other coding products that may work.

I will have the same issue with our potential Vex V5 teams.

Any suggestions or thoughts?

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You can see how well the web version of Vex Code works from a linux machine:

https://codeiq.vex.com/
https://codev5.vex.com/

You could also check if Vex Code extension works from linux:

I’m unsure if there are any compatibilty issues with Linux on any of those options, but worth a quick check.

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It will depend on the distro. You will have to create some udev rules to allow access to serial ports and potentially install additional packages.

Generation 1 or 2 ? The VSCode extension only supports IQ Generation 2.

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Do you have to use Win 11? In what way are they “… obsolete by Win 11 standards”?

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The machines are older Lenovo machines. Some of the hardware components do not have drivers that are compatible with Windows 11 (Windows 11 update wizard). An additional factor is that I’ve acquired additional machines sans OS; to keep costs low, I’d rather aim at Linux so that I don’t have to pay licensing fees for Windows.

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Thanks! I can see the web version, but haven’t tried it yet. That may be a backup plan, but another constraint I’d like to stick with, is to set up my teams to function without internet access available (avoid meeting disruption if internet is down, and not all competitions guarantee internet access). The VS Vex Code extension uses text-based programming, which I like, but have to take into consideration some of the teams will be younger and thus want to use block-based coding for them. In addition, the bulk of my IQ’s are Gen-1. The VS extension only works on Gen-2.