Getting Started¶

Initial setup instructions for the Coral Dev Board.

Prerequisites¶

Coral Dev Board
USB-C cable (data-capable)
USB serial adapter (for initial setup)
microSD card (pre-flashed or for flashing)
Host PC (Linux / macOS)

1. Flash Mendel Linux¶

Factory State

New Coral Dev Boards come with Mendel Linux pre-installed. Only perform this step if you need to re-flash the OS.

Follow the official documentation to flash Mendel Linux:

Get started with the Dev Board | Coral

2. Install MDT¶

Install the Mendel Development Tool (mdt) on your host PC. Create a virtual environment in the project root and install the dependencies.

python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt

PATH Setup

Either add .venv/bin to your PATH, or run tools with their full path like .venv/bin/mdt.

3. Connect to the Board¶

Connect the Coral Dev Board to your host PC via USB-C.

# Detect the board
mdt devices

# Access the shell
mdt shell

Automatic SSH Key Management

mdt automatically generates an SSH key on first connection and stores it at ~/.config/mdt/keys/mdt.key. The deploy scripts also use this key, so no manual SSH key setup is required.

4. Network Configuration¶

Set up Wi-Fi:

# Run inside mdt shell
nmcli dev wifi connect <SSID> password <PASSWORD>

# Check IP address
ip addr show wlan0

5. Install the Cross-Compiler¶

Install ARM GNU Toolchain 8.3 that matches the Coral Dev Board's Mendel Linux (Debian 10 Buster, glibc 2.28) using the setup script.

./cmake/setup-toolchain.sh

The toolchain is downloaded and extracted into the toolchain/ directory.

Next Steps¶

Once the environment is ready, try building and deploying with Hello World.