ORCA Setup

Aquiring dependencies and setting up the repository

The following instructions are for Windows devices. There may be different processes for different OS systems. If you find out how to set ORCA up for different devices, feel free to add to this documentation.

Installing dependencies

If you are using a Raspberry Pi, you will want to get miniconda for the Raspberry Pi. This will be done later after SSH is set up. You can skip this section and go to Connecting to GitHub

Install WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)
From the Start menu, open Powershell and type “wsl –install”.
Install VSCode (or some other code editor of choice).
If you’re using VSCode, open the Extensions tab and install the following extensions: Python, C/C++, and CMake Tools
Within VSCode, open a new Ubuntu (WSL) terminal
Create a username and password for the Linux system if prompted. This password is used when running Linux commands with administrator permissions (sudo).
Download Miniconda for Linux, but do not open the .sh file.
In the WSL terminal, run bash \_path-to-Downloads/\_Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh and accept the default options in the installer (select yes when prompted about auto_activate_base, though we will change this later).
After Miniconda has been installed, close and reopen the WSL terminal.
To ensure it has been installed, run conda list and you should see a list of the installed dependencies printed out.
We are now going to change one of the default settings with the command 1conda config –set auto_activate_base false`

Connecting to GitHub

Create an account on GitHub and sign in
Go to the ORCA repository and click “Branch” to create your own copy of the code. Name this new repository whatever you want.

If you’ve already made an SSH key aand connected it to github, you can skip the next few steps. If you have no clue what SSH and want to learn more, you can read Basics of SSH.

To securely connect your laptop to GitHub, we will create an SSH key. In the Git Bash terminal, run ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C [your@email.com](mailto:your@email.com) and accept the default location.
Create a password that you will input every time you pull or push code to GitHub from your terminal, so make sure it is memorable. A new public key file should be made
Run cat file_you_just_made.pub to print out the key to the terminal, and copy it.

If that command doesn’t work, you can also try and run cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

In GitHub, open settings and go to the SSH and GPG keys tab, and add a new SSH key.
Name this whatever you want and paste the key into the correct field.
Now we need to install Git for Windows. Follow the installer prompts
Once installed open a Git Bash terminal in VSCode. This is where you will run all the Git commands.

If you need more help with making an SSH key, here is a helpful GitHub link

SSH Agent Forwarding

After making your SSH key, you need to add it to your SSH agent on your lapotp. First we need the SSH agent to be running. In powershell run Get-Service -Name ssh-agent. If it says the status is stopped, run Start-Service ssh-agent. Then run Get-Service -Name ssh-agent again and check it says the status is running.

Now to add your key, run ssh-add C:/Users/YOU/.ssh/id_ed25519. You will need to insert the secure passphrase you made when you originally made your SSH key. The key should now be added. You can test this by running ssh -T git@github.com.

Cloning the Repository

We will now clone the code from GitHub onto your computer so that it can be accessed locally. Go to your fork that you just created.
Click the green Code button and within the dropdown go to the SSH tab.
Copy the repository link which should end in .git
In the Git Bash terminal, navigate to whichever folder you would like the code to be copied into, and run git clone link_to_repo.git.
In VSCode, you can now open this folder to see all the code

If you haven’t worked with Git before, read the Basics of Git

Setting up Conda

We now need to use Conda to install the required dependencies for ORCA.
Before we create the conda environment, check that GCC is installed by running gcc --version in the WSL terminal. If the gcc command is not found then install it with sudo apt update and sudo apt install gcc
In the WSL terminal, navigate to the folder you just cloned the code to and run conda env create -f environment-rpi.yaml
Once the environment is installed, run conda activate uhd
The code is now installed and ready to run or modified.

Next, set up your Raspberry Pi.

SSH

If you already know how SSH works you don’t need to read this. The goal is to gain a basic understanding of what SSH is. This is NOT a tutorial on how to set up SSH.

Git

If you already know how Git works you don’t need to read this. The goal is to gain a basic understanding of how to use Git.

Last modified July 9, 2026: Update _index.md (c165bb9)