The Intel and Arduino Certified Galileo board was released in October 2013. I have a first generation board, which I purchased on eBay in early 2026. Yes, I missed out at the time, as I was too busy moving out of my parents house at the ripe age of 31 in 2015. I had just turned 31. I later bought a Raspberry Pi, but that's already been covered by me and others elsewhere. So has this, by others, but it got memoryholed hard after it was discontinued in 2019. This won't be a proper walkthrough, because I am trying to do something different with this board. In 2015, Microsoft dropped support for Windows IoT, citing "performance" issues. This is not a real barrier, but an administrative one- that narrows intended use to avoid unhappy children and parents calling in and saying their board can't play Call of Duty when it wasn't intended for that level of performance.
But since Windows 10 was out at the time, Microsoft (and this isn't to suggest Wintel is or was a lockstep alliance) wasn't interested in promoting an earlier operating system, which would run quite fine, and possibly even better than some of the earlier chips from that era. That said, if this chip was a 400 MHz Pentium, it might be hard to compare it to a Pentium II or III, which was more likely to use 400MHz. I am not sure whether it has SSE, MMX and other extensions, nor do I really need all them, but I recall reading one of the many datasheets that it has several early Pentium ISA instructions, at the very least.
So where to begin? The USB to Serial Driver. I do have an ethernet and ethernet router I can connect it to, and an SD image I found where someone installed the "larger" linux along with a blog on how to install Debian, but this not-a-walkthrough will resemble my Sparkfun Artemis Nano excursion from 2022, where I found a wonderful USB-to-Serial driver, which allowed me to use Arduino's IDE to connect the Artemis Nano directly to my PC. And also my RockPi S tests in 2023.
From what I've read on archived and unarchived blog posts that haven't succummed to bitrot, Intel developed a special Arduino IDE version (1.5.4) that is designed just for the Edison and Galileo boards, one which I managed to download. The latest Arduino, 2.3.9, which covers all the other boards, curiously, does still include support for Intel's Curie board, but that I don't own- you can find some on EBay and it has a Quark D2000!
However, the problem I ran into with this special Arduino version seems to be a combination of Windows 10 22H2 no longer listing the "Gadget Serial 2.4" pre-install driver (that's not "pre-installed", but the driver that should appear before you can manually designate Arduino's firmware, an intel inf file, called "linux-cdc-acm.inf".)
Gadget Serial v2.4 last appeared in Windows 7 and/or Windows 8:
https://www.wti.com/blogs/knowledge-base/windows-7-and-the-usb-gadget-serial-v2-4
I tried compatibility mode, but that did not work. What I did find, after some jangling with available drivers, were 2013 era Arduino drivers that told me it failed, but at least got the names of the the last known files:
There are 4:
Yes, I have tried the linux package in Mint 20.4 Xfce, but it doesn't seem to recognize the COM ports, yet.
The Arduino IDE and the Galileo firmware updater program defaults to COM3, but it doesn't detect the firmware on my board, since the driver isn't installed yet. Windows 10 uses COM3 for something else, and I'm not sure what. I tried changing its COM port to 2, but that didn't free up COM3 nor did a new driver magically appear when I pressed "Scan for Hardware Changes." Also an early tutorial said that the Gadget Serial used to appear under Universal Serial Bus Controllers (USB at the bottom), whereas most tutorials say it should appear under "Other Devices." Also, "Other Devices" ONLY appears when you select/checkbox "Show Hidden Devices" from the View Tab on the Menu.
Curiously or funnily enough, Intel Active Management Technology refers to this PC's built-in Intel ME (Or Management Engine, which features another Quark processor). I am using an i7 laptop from the 2013 era. With 8GB RAM, It still runs fast for most things.
But this Serial driver needs to recognize my Galileo board with just a micro-USB cable connected to the Client port on the board. There is also a USB Host port, but that is not the one tutorials say to connect it to. I suppose I could try again.
Initially, I found SOL using COM3, which would have conflicted with the Galileo firmware updater, if I even wanted to update that), and the Arduino IDE COM, although in the latter I I changed it back to COM3, because I didn't know what it used. It's possible one of the many USB Controllers is now what Windows 10 uses for Serial, but I am just going to assume driver support died for this particular Galileo board on Windows 10, and therefore the only way to connect to it is to install a DVD of Windows 7 or 8.
However, before I do that, I wanted to check if there is a generic driver that might be able to connect to it (that's a big IF). The Sparkfun Artemis used a different serial driver, the CH340 (also the CH341) which I was able to connect via USB-C without issue (it doubled as a power cable, since it used very little power on 3.3V).
I might have just found the solution. After Googling Gadget Serial, I found this NXP forum post by someone also looking for the driver on Windows 10:
Since I didn't know which controller to add the driver manually to (there are hundreds in device manager), there is another option at the top of the menu under Action called "Add legacy hardware":
This allowed me to select Have Disk:
Select "manually" (Advanced) (not the one I have selected above, although there is a way to eventually select Disk anyways)
Click "Browse" ^
Navigate to the Gserial file that you unzipped.
After downloading the zip file (just 7KB- thinking it was incomplete- it unzipped to a 14KB file, which included an .inf. One of the links in the post only downloaded a 14KB file without 4 files, so instead of unzipping that I clicked on the other embedded link, which displayed an Acer driver for the Serial:
Pick the "Gadget Serial" one. Not sure what the Acer one does.
You'll see this when you select it:
It says this on first try:
That's good enough for me. I will assume it installed but maybe just needs a reboot at most to fully initialize before trying again or the Acer driver.
I did have my Galileo board plugged in with the Barrel DC adapter and the USB connected to the PC, and although I didn't think it would connect immediately, I thought it might help in "pointing" it to a relevant device.
And after closing the window, what do you know, I found a NEW driver appearing under COMS and LPT ports, one of the places I searched yesterday and had a hunch might be there:
Except now it's using COM5 instead of 3, but that might not be an issue for the Arduino IDE or even Firmware driver if it can now detect it.
Now that it's installed, I can designate the offical Intel driver for it, the one mentioned above:
I used this Sparkfun tutorial, under the section titled "Windows Driver Install":
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/galileo-getting-started-guide/all
First the driver is installed, then the firmware (if you want). It's easy to confuse the two, so I will only include the necessary steps:
5. "Open up the Device Manager. (Either Start > Run > devmgmt.msc, or go to the Control Panel, select System and click Device Manager.)
6. Locate the Gadget Serial v2.4 device, under the Other devices tree. Right-click that and select Update Driver Software..."
7. On the first window that pops up, click Browse my computer for driver software. And on the next page select Browse... and navigate to the hardware\arduino\x86\tools folder within your Arduino Galileo software installation. Then click Next.
8. Click Install on the next Windows Security window that pops up. And, after a number of loading-bar-scrolls, the installation should complete and you should be greeted with a Windows has successfully updated your driver software window."
Note: Arduino Tools is a folder found in the installation package "arduino-windows-1.0.4. It's a 159MB 7Z package that unzips to 416MB) that can be a little hard to find in 2026. I found Mac and Windows copies on Softpedia (or was it Action Retro? No, I think that is where I found the firmware)
According to this page, it was released in December 2014:
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/edison-getting-started-guide/download-drivers-and-arduino
Software 1.5.3 - Intel 1.0.4" (latest as of December 2014)
This seems to be the same package for both Edison and Galileo, and FTDI seems to be used for Edison, (the chip that converts USB to Serial)
After selecting the tools folder for driver search, It determined I already had the latest Gadget Serial driver:
When I opened Arduino IDE 1.53 it still displayed COM3, but not referring to the one designated by Windows after Gadget Serial was installed. So I might be able to move the COM3 to another COM to free it up, or restart the computer, which I will try first.
After restarting, there's still a yellow triangle in device manager for Gadget Serial (COM3), but I noticed that Arduino 1.5.4 now displays a black text for "Serial Port," whereas before it was greyed out:
The only thing is that it designates COM2, and doesn't notice or recognize COM3 as in device manager (although before I restarted it was at COM5). So either I need to move the SOL driver to another port, or use COM2 because that's what Arduino sees.
The firmware updater is also running into a problem I had yesterday which was a Java 8 runtime error, preventing it from loading. I installed both Java 6 after initiallying trying Java 8. A lot of times the exact Java version needs to run, but eventually this issue cleared up after uninstalling Java 8, which is still uninstalled, although the error seems to persist again:
#
# A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:
#
# EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005) at pc=0x000000006a00b5bb, pid=9016, tid=0x0000000000001ffc
#
# JRE version: Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (8.0_481) (build 1.8.0_481-b10)
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (25.481-b10 mixed mode windows-amd64 compressed oops)
# Problematic frame:
# C [jSSC-2.6_x86_64.dll+0xb5bb]
#
# Failed to write core dump. Minidumps are not enabled by default on client versions of Windows
#
# If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit:
# https://bugreport.java.com/bugreport/crash.jsp
# The crash happened outside the Java Virtual Machine in native code.
# See problematic frame for where to report the bug."
---------
After moving the Management driver (SOL3) to COM5, Arduino wanted to use COM5. so it might be following or thinking the Active Management driver, wherver it goes. I uninstalled it in case it affixed the firmware I tried to install yesterday to it. It prompted me to restart the computer. Now it's using COM3 again. Arduino is using COM2 still. Which might be fine., but there's still a yellow triangle.
Somehow Java 8 was reinstalled. I thought I uninstalled it yesterday. Update 481 got removed. I removed it again.
It loads but I got the error again I saw after that:
It only notices one COM, and no ability to designate other COM ports.
So after deciding to designate the "Active Management" SOL Driver as the "real" Galileo driver I needed to add the Gadget Serial, it let me install it manually (which was always an option, but didn't think I could override the driver, whatever it's for- Intel ME, etc). Although I already did yesterday.
Curious if this restart will actually activate it. The driver sounds nothing like it.
This time, at least, no errors appeared after the inital installation.
My power went out for an hour so I didn't remember what I had saved earlier this afternoon, but I tried installing this on an AMD system and there was no Active Management, of course, since that is an Intel product, but no working Gadget Serial either:
Arduino 1.5.3 still doesn't communicate with the COM port, and only picks the one already installed in the PC before adding the Gadget Serial:
And like before, the firmware update doesn't show a COM error, but doesn't recognize the firmware nor allows updating it:
While I would have liked to post this article after getting my Galileo board to blink at least with the Arduino Example code, it's been 3 full days since I began this so I would rather post my progress. Interestingly, in 2026 someone else tried restoring Galileo functionality:
They also found some links and source files, some of which I might have or earlier versions of.
I might give this another try in a couple days, or a week, or I will test out my Raspberry Pi 3B+ Serial USB driver and see what kind of a server I can install on that.
As nice as it would be to have a working Serial driver, it'd be even nicer to have a BIOS or UEFI on the Galileo like virtually all PC motherboards. I get that the the serial interface is closer to metal, but since the Galileo is an x86, it would be a lot more versatile with a simple, yet overengineered recovery firmware.
Part of the fun of running a Quark Chip is seeing how much Pentium performance you can get out of a 400MHz chip...
One article, last archived in 2017, covered that EoS:
“But the Galileo Gen2 board "does not meet the minimum hardware requirements" for Windows 10 IoT Core, Microsoft said. Support for the OS on Galileo will end Nov. 30, Microsoft said on its IOT developer page.
Microsoft is recommending that developers move projects to the popular Raspberry Pi 2 developer board, which also supports the slimmed-down version of Windows. The board options outside Raspberry Pi 2 are few and some have issues supporting components needed to build devices. For example, Qualcomm's DragonBoard doesn't support USB hubs, making it impossible to attach multiple USB devices to one port.
The transition from Galileo to Raspberry Pi 2 should be easy and inexpensive. An entry-level Pi 2 board sells for $35, and Microsoft has added support for a wide range of components and peripherals such as screens and webcams.
Microsoft had talked about adding Windows 10 IoT Core support to another Intel board, called Edison, which has been described as a "smaller brother" of Galileo. That may not happen now.
Intel has been adding more features and reducing power consumption with each new generation of Galileo. Microsoft may have pulled Windows support from Galileo Gen2 because of the underpowered Quark X1000 processor, which runs at 400MHz. Issues related to OS support also faced the original Raspberry Pi board, which was considered underpowered, with a 700MHz CPU based on an ARM design from 2003.
Galileo Gen2 users will be able to install Linux on the board after Windows support ends.”
The Edison board was actually more powerful than the Galileo, as it featured a dual core Atom. And the Galileo isn't a slow processor by any means. It's more than 4x faster some of the slowest Pentiums (P60-75MHz). There's a lot of interesting things one can do on a Quark X1000, like install Windows 95 and run Windows Subsystem Linux: https://codeberg.org/hails/wsl9x Windows 10 IoT isn't really an interesting use of the board, but rather, optimizing old software. But I would agree that Windows 95 and 98, which required a startup disk (a floppy), would benefit from a modernized bootloader, if someone hasn't already hacked one together. Emulation is usually fine, except at 400MHz it's a lot better to run it on the native transistors. Windows Me, 2000, and XP could probably also run, although that might be the limit (The RAM is abundant). And pretty much any 32-bit linux kernel, of course.
Edit: I also wrote about the board purchase in 2026: https://inavoyage.blogspot.com/2026/01/because-they-didnt-know-what-to-do-with.html
(Short video of boot up).
Line Spacing has been fixed. To a spacing of 2 and transferred to Open Writer before being copy pasted back to Blogger.
Apologies for the line spacing. I originally wrote this on WordPad, then transferred it to Open Office Writer and some of the spacing wasn't fixed after I manually pasted the images onto the Blogger Draft Window and Blogger doesn't offer line spacing editing. I will have to add the blocks of text again because I posted this late last night so I am still catching up on sleep. I suppose another program can paste both text and images, but it's possible the 43MB .rtf file was too large for it to upload it all at once.
Updates on these tests will be posted in my repository: https://github.com/hatonthecat/Intel-Galileo-board-tests
9:49 AM
And so as previous instructions say to select the Gadget Serial driver for that (listed as COM5), it patched it/updated the driver and prompted me to restart, with no errors appearing:
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