AVR ISP MKII, avrdude, Ubuntu 11.10 - linux

Question

So, I have had this working on Ubuntu before. But then I upgraded to 11.10. Now, no such luck.
Note: if you are still messing with getting this to work on eclipse, you might want to try this command line stuff... if it doesnt work here, its not going to work in eclipse.
I have this error:
avrdude: stk500v2_command(): command failed
avrdude: stk500v2_command(): unknown status 0xc9
avrdude: stk500v2_program_enable(): cannot get connection status
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.
I have tried with all different configurations.
ie: -B 1 ,10, 1000,
-F doesn't help becuase then you just get back 000000 or whatever as your serial.
Also, I should mention, clearly from the output below, you can see that it gets to the programmer and even to the target board and reads its voltage out.
You can also see the target chip reset. (ie: i have tested on a number of devices includeing a DB101 and you can see when it resets)
The full output is like this:
> avrdude -c avrispmkII -P usb -p m1281 -B 100 -v
avrdude: Version 5.10, compiled on Jun 29 2010 at 03:44:14
Copyright (c) 2000-2005 Brian Dean, http://www.bdmicro.com/
Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Joerg Wunsch
System wide configuration file is "/etc/avrdude.conf"
User configuration file is "/home/david/.avrduderc"
User configuration file does not exist or is not a regular file, skipping
Using Port : usb
Using Programmer : avrispmkII
Setting bit clk period : 100.0
avrdude: usbdev_open(): Found AVRISP mkII, serno: 000200037289
AVR Part : ATMEGA1281
Chip Erase delay : 9000 us
PAGEL : PD7
BS2 : PA0
RESET disposition : dedicated
RETRY pulse : SCK
serial program mode : yes
parallel program mode : yes
Timeout : 200
StabDelay : 100
CmdexeDelay : 25
SyncLoops : 32
ByteDelay : 0
PollIndex : 3
PollValue : 0x53
Memory Detail :
Block Poll Page Polled
Memory Type Mode Delay Size Indx Paged Size Size #Pages MinW MaxW ReadBack
----------- ---- ----- ----- ---- ------ ------ ---- ------ ----- ----- ---------
eeprom 65 10 8 0 no 4096 8 0 9000 9000 0x00 0x00
flash 65 10 256 0 yes 131072 256 512 4500 4500 0x00 0x00
lfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 9000 9000 0x00 0x00
hfuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 9000 9000 0x00 0x00
efuse 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 9000 9000 0x00 0x00
lock 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 9000 9000 0x00 0x00
calibration 0 0 0 0 no 1 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00
signature 0 0 0 0 no 3 0 0 0 0 0x00 0x00
Programmer Type : STK500V2
Description : Atmel AVR ISP mkII
Programmer Model: AVRISP mkII
Hardware Version: 1
Firmware Version Master : 1.13
Vtarget : 5.1 V
SCK period : 100.37 us
avrdude: stk500v2_command(): command failed
avrdude: stk500v2_command(): unknown status 0xc9
avrdude: stk500v2_program_enable(): cannot get connection status
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.
avrdude done. Thank you.
I already have the udev stuff set up:
ie:
cat /etc/udev/rules.d/60-avrisp.rules
SUBSYSTEM!="usb_device", ACTION!="add", GOTO="avrisp_end"
# Atmel Corp. JTAG ICE mkII
ATTR{idVendor}=="03eb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="2103", MODE="660", GROUP="dialout"
# Atmel Corp. AVRISP mkII
ATTR{idVendor}=="03eb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="2104", MODE="660", GROUP="dialout"
# Atmel Corp. Dragon
ATTR{idVendor}=="03eb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="2107", MODE="660", GROUP="dialout"
LABEL="avrisp_end"
The board AND the programmer work with AVR studio on another machine.
Apparently a lot of people have this issue on Linux. :(
Dont really want to have to dig up a winblows box.

Answer 1

I had a really hard time getting mine to work as well. In the end, I tripped over http://wiki.dataflow.ws/Electronix/AvrIsp2OnOSX and found that I had actually missed a package. After installing uisp
sudo apt-get install uisp
I ran
sudo avrdude -c avrispmkII -p m168 -P usb: -B 8 -v -U lock:w:0x3f:m -U lfuse:w:0xff:m -U hfuse:w:0xdf:m -U efuse:w:0x0:m
And got a nice pretty green LED.

Answer 2

Just for the record (same error message) and because I also spent some time fiddling with my AVR ISP MKII:
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1
Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override
this check.
It did work OK for me only after adjusting the timing using the -B parameter! Looks like even a current mini PC is just too fast.
Avrdude now works for me reliably under straight Debian 7. Also, it works under Windows 8 with WinAVR driver installed, then VirtualBox VM running a Debian 7 non-UI installation, after passing through the AVRISP to the VM in VirtualBox.
avrdude -c avrispmkII -P usb -p t13 -B 10 -v
...