This guide was an update to the previous(Arduino 0010) which itself was an update of Arduino 0007. The new guide should work for Arduino 0013 and Debian Lenny.
1. Install dependencies
$ sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jre gcc-avr avr-libc avrdude
binutils-avr should be installed automatically.
2. If you've already installed a form of java then
$ sudo update-alternatives --config java
and select the number relating to /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/bin/java.
3. Download the arduino ide and extract it.
4.On 64 bit Linux, check: http://feelslikeburning.com/2009/08/21/how-to-get-arduino-0017-working-on-64-bit-linux-including-ubuntu-9-04/
Install a minimal set of IA32 libraries packaged for use in a 64bit Debian system:
$apt-get install ia32-libs
6. Run the file "arduino".
It'll run and ask you where to put your sketches.
Configure your port. This is so you can read/write the arduino.
Tools/Serial Port/dev***
This should be all that is required to run 0010 ide in Debian Etch
If you want to build the Arduino IDE from source, you will need to install a few more packages so that you can compile Java source files.
$ sudo apt-get install sun-java5-jdk sun-java5-bin unzip zip
To make sure that you are using the correct Java compiler (javac), run this command and select the number related to java-1.5:
update-alternatives --config javac
There is an experimental package hosted at alioth.debian.org that installs enough of arduino to build and install sketches on the command-line (so, no IDE, and therefore no java dependency).
Read the README.Debian to get an idea of what it does, and doesn't do.
The source package uses the new 3.0 (Quilt) Debian source format (which makes it easy to see what patches were applied), and is currently built with source from svn (you can find out which revision by looking at the version number in the changelog)