AVR HOWTO
--Steve Mann, October 2003

First you need to get the AVR compiler.
Assuming you're running Debian unstable:
apt-get update
apt-get install gcc-avr
apt-get install uisp
apt-get install avr-libc
(the avr-libc is necessary to get io.h and wdt.h (watch dog timer))
binutils-avr should be included in gcc-avr

Then you can program the AVR.  I prefer to use the "uisp" for this;
also, you need to erase the old code before putting in the new
(must erase first, otherwise doesn't work new program does same as old one):
uisp -dprog=stk500 -dpart=AT90S8515 -dspeed=115200 --erase
Then you can load in the new code:
uisp -dprog=stk500 -dpart=AT90S8515 -dspeed=115200 --upload if=test.srec 

you might also want to make symbolic link to serial port:
ln -s /dev/ttyS0 /dev/avr