trying to get arduino to work with my linux distro...

Checked /var/log/messages and it says:

kernel: usb 1-2: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 4
kernel: usb 1-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usbserial
kernel: drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for generic
kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usbserial_generic
kernel: drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial Driver core
kernel: drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for FTDI USB Serial Device
kernel: ftdi_sio 1-2:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
kernel: drivers/usb/serial/ftdi_sio.c: Detected FT232BM
kernel: usb 1-2: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0
kernel: usbcore: registered new driver ftdi_sio
kernel: drivers/usb/serial/ftdi_sio.c: v1.4.3:USB FTDI Serial Converters Driver

All looks fine....

The problem seems to be that I can't select the serial port number using "Comport" inside the "Arduino" abstraction, tried giving it a file path using the devicename message /dev/usb/ttyUSB0 but no luck.

Any ideas?

...seriously (serialously?) this is doing my head in...

ah, figured this out now. I didn't know you could do this but you can replace a serial port with a symlink to a usbserial connection like this:

# rm /dev/ttyS0
# ln -s /dev/usb/ttyUSB0 /dev/ttyS0
# less -f /dev/ttyS0

now arduino can connect by thinking it's hooked up to port number 0.

I'm using linux, and I used the arduino abstraction. I set it to "4" and it works ([arduino 4] or send {open 4} to arduino object)

Does not seem like a good idea to overwrite your ttS0 device.