Setting Up a SMART board in Linux Mint 13

Having installed SMART Notebook and the drivers for SMART Tech's interactive whiteboards on dozens of Linux machines, I can safely say that the main issue is documentation which targets system administrators. Here are the simple steps to set up a SMARTboard in Linux Mint 13. These steps will also work in Ubuntu and Debian. Note that while I have done this procedure many, many times and you should not run into any trouble, I do not take responsibility for problems you may encounter in your own efforts. You have been warned.

Requirements

• Officially supported Linux distributions: Debian 6, Ubuntu 10.04 / 11.10 / 12.04, OpenSuse 11.4, RHEL 6, Linkat 4
• Unsupported (but confirmed working) distributions: Kubuntu 12.04, Xubuntu 12.04, Linux Mint 13. Other 32-bit distributions based on supported Ubuntu versions should also work but have not been confirmed.
• 1 GB RAM (2 GB or more recommended)
• 2.5 GB free hard drive space

Confirmed Not Working:    all 64-bit distributions, Linux Mint 15, OpenSuse 13.1

Get SMART Notebook and a Product Key

Notebook requires a product key for activation. This is mostly to prevent widespread use with competing whiteboard solutions. Write down the serial number on the back of your board. Go to http://www.smarttech.com/NB10ProductKey and fill out the form. You will be e-mailed the product key pretty quickly. Note that you can re-use this key as many times as necessary, but don't share it with anyone outside of your organization.

Notebook itself can be downloaded from SMART Tech's website in the Software downloads section under the Support category on the main navigation bar (convenience link here). Annoyingly, there is another form to fill out and a license to agree to before the download begins. For RHEL and OpenSuse, download the RPM repository archive--it will work for both making a repository and for just a "regular" installation. In the case of Mint / Ubuntu / Debian, if you are an experienced system administrator, the sensible route is to create a repository using the installation instructions available from the website, for which you will need to download the "prepackaged repository" archive. For one-off installations or for regular people, grab the "plain files" package. The archive is hefty--about 250 MB.

Installation

Once downloaded, extract the archive to a folder. Open up the command prompt (Terminal in the Accessories category of the Start Menu for those unfamiliar) and go to the folder where you extracted the files. Type ls and press Enter to get a listing of the files. It should look something like this:

customization
customize.sh
nwfermi-0.6.5.0_i386.deb
nwfermi_i386_sha256sum.asc
README
smart-activation_1.1.1181.1-1_i386.deb
smart-activation_i386_sha256sum.asc
smart-common_10.3.1236.1-1_i386.deb
smart-common_i386_sha256sum.asc
smart-gallerysetup_1.3.1236.1-1_i386.deb
smart-gallerysetup_i386_sha256sum.asc
smart-hwr_11.0.379.1-1_i386.deb
smart-hwr_i386_sha256sum.asc
smart-languagesetup_2.2.1191.4-1_i386.deb
smart-languagesetup_i386_sha256sum.asc
smart-notebook_11.0.379.0-1_i386.deb
smart-notebook_i386_sha256sum.asc
smart-product-drivers_11.0.379.1-1_i386.deb
smart-product-drivers_i386_sha256sum.asc
swbuild.asc
validate.sh
VERSION

We are only going to worry about the .deb files. Everything else can be ignored. Run these commands one at a time in order -- any other way will result in errors. You will need administrator rights to the computer on which you are installing and a working Internet connection.

sudo apt-get install -y libnspr4-0d

sudo dpkg -i smart-common*.deb

sudo dpkg -i smart-hwr*.deb

sudo dpkg -i smart-languagesetup*.deb

sudo dpkg -i smart-product-drivers*.deb

sudo dpkg -i smart-activation*.deb

sudo dpkg -i smart-gallerysetup*.deb

sudo dpkg -i smart-notebook*.deb

sudo dpkg -i nwfermi*.deb

sudo apt-get install -y dkms

The last command will take some time, but if everything was run as listed and there were no errors from any of them, the SMARTboard drivers and Notebook have been successfully installed.

Almost finished! The Start Menu will have a separate category just for SMART software. Those users who use SMART tools toolbar will see it after a reboot. All that is left is to activate. Run Notebook from the Start Menu and you will be greeted by the activation window. Click 'Enter License', enter in the product key you received in the e-mail from SMART Tech, click 'Add', 'Next', and then click 'Finish' and you are done!

Before you run off to play with your board, here are a couple of tips and quirks to be aware of:

• If you are working with a board that has built-in speakers, it will create a second sound device in the system when the board is connected. You will have to select the device as the default sound device in the Sound preferences in order to have sound play through the board's speakers. You will have to do this every time you connect the board. KDE-based environments tend to remember your choice, so you should only have to do it once per individual board.
• The status light on the board will blink green until you log in, at which point it should stop blinking and turn solid green.
• Using a SMART board with the Unity environment found in Ubuntu 12.04 can be frustrating because the window buttons on maximized windows (close, minimize, maximize) disappear from view, forcing you to guess where the controls are.
• If your computer dual boots with Linux and Windows, you may have to reset the board after changing from one to the other.

If you discover another distribution not listed in this article which you can confirm works easily with a SMARTboard, leave a comment so that others may benefit from your experience. Best of luck in your endeavors!