Cheap ATtiny programmer on Debian I've recently purchased a no-brand 1€ ATtiny programmer off eBay, and with the ridiculous price obviously came no documentation nor support from the seller.



At first I thought that using it with the Arduino IDE would have been as simple as plugging and programming, but no default lib worked. My hopes definitely crumbled when I realized the device wasn't even being picked up by Debian, showing instead this in the logs:

kernel.info: [ 2758.501968] usb 6-3: new low-speed USB device number 2 using ohci-pci
kernel.err: [ 2758.641798] usb 6-3: device descriptor read/64, error -62
kernel.err: [ 2758.885515] usb 6-3: device descriptor read/64, error -62
kernel.info: [ 2759.125231] usb 6-3: new low-speed USB device number 3 using ohci-pci
kernel.err: [ 2759.265065] usb 6-3: device descriptor read/64, error -62
kernel.err: [ 2759.508779] usb 6-3: device descriptor read/64, error -62
kernel.info: [ 2759.748500] usb 6-3: new low-speed USB device number 4 using ohci-pci
kernel.err: [ 2760.156027] usb 6-3: device not accepting address 4, error -62
kernel.info: [ 2760.291871] usb 6-3: new low-speed USB device number 5 using ohci-pci
kernel.err: [ 2760.699382] usb 6-3: device not accepting address 5, error -62
kernel.err: [ 2760.699421] usb usb6-port3: unable to enumerate USB device


and with lsusb outputting this:

Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 07d1:3c0a WiFi Dongle
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 045e:0745 Mouse/Keyboard BT Dongle
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub


Reading up on the subject seemed to confirm that it was something I shouldn't have bought, and the closest I've got to a better understanding was with this question (link) which I can't comment.  

So building up on the answer there, can anyone please explain a bit more in detail what for and where micronucleus would be needed?  

Alternatively, is it possible to go with something as easy as installing the drivers and plugging it into the Arduino IDE?
Micronucleus is a bootloader - in the same way that Optiboot is a bootloader used on the Uno. It provides the USB connection to program the chip.

Without it you can't do anything at all with that, since the USB port just plugs direct into the ATTiny chip. With no software on the chip the USB port doesn't do anything.  It's kind of a catch-22 situation - you need software on the chip in order to put software on the chip.

In essence Micronucleus turns the ATTiny into a kind of Mini Leonardo.

You need to first put Micronucleus on the chip (which you can do with an Arduino as an ICSP programmer) and then once that is installed you should be able to start using that little board with the chip to program it.

Since you're on a decent operating system there's no need for "drivers".