Mindstorm NXT Software Requirements

[ozzie88]

Hi,

I'm really interested in getting the NXT 2.0, however I'm seeing mixed information about OS requirements.

Can someone please confirm what are the OS requirements for this system?

I current have a laptop with XP 32 bit and another with Windows 7 64 bit.

Thanks!

[muntoo]

It'll definitely work on the 32-bit XP laptop, but I don't know about the 64-bit Windows 7.

[mattallen37]

I have run it on Win 7 64-bit without a problem.

[ozzie88]

Thank for the quick replies Matt/Muntoo.

Matt, for Windows 7-64, is the software good to go out of the box or are there some specific drivers/firmware that I need to download prior to installing the NXT software?

Thanks again.

[mightor]

No, the NXT-G software will do all of it for you. I have NXT-G running on a 64bit Windows 7 laptop as well.

- Xander

[mattallen37]

It worked without any issues. However, the phantom drivers needed to be updated/replaced for all my NXTs to work. Before, only one of them worked. Now I have no issues at all. You can download the drivers from the ROBOTC website. Also note, that I started with NXT-G 1.0, but 2.0 might have the right drivers automatically. IIRC, it was super easy to update.

[h-g-t]

I have it working on a 500 mhz laptop with 512 mb ram running 32-bit XP Home and a 4gb desktop with 64-bit Win 7 Home Premium. No problems as long as you install the latest Fantom driver.

[ozzie88]

Guys.

Thanks a lot for the info. Really appreciate it.

[sparramc]

I personally run a 32Bit MS Windows XP IN-A-Box ) as a Virtual Machine Guest in VirtualBox on my 64Bit PC, running amd64 LinuxMint as my Operating System. I did run into a couple of issues with 64Bit MS Windows XP Guest with NXT-G, 18 months+ ago before returning to a 32Bit WinXP Guest. I'm confident the latest version of VirtualBox has solved these issues.

I find that WinXP, run as a Linux guest is far more reliable than ran native. If your WinXP Guest crashes, you only loose the Guest & not Linux. The WinXP Guest can be restart again in a few seconds (10-15sec) back to where you were. Absolute Bliss!

You can also use VirtualBox on a Mac to run Windows as well!


More Information on getting your Windows based NXT Software working in VirtualBox on Linux, visit: www.rjmcnamara.com

The MS Windows XP Guest will happily Run all my 32Bit MS Windows based LEGO Mindstorms Software, including LEGO's NXT-G & Digital Designer software, plus BricxCC, RobotC, RoboLab 2.54, & Robotics Invention System 2.0. Too name just a few.

The Speed, Reliability & Security of Linux, with all my Windows based LEGO Mindstorms software available to me inside Linux.

I also use Linux version of Not eXactly C (NXC) and NeXT Tools for Linux NXC development. For LeJOS, (Java for Mindstorms) I use Linux for the IDE, Compiling & Uploading to the NXT.