After getting some things set up, I wrote some test code and assembled it to Intel Hex so I could write it to flash on my STK500. Unfortunately, I've been receiving these ReceiveMessage() timeout errors and did some research online but I honestly think the USB/RS-232 adapter is the culprit (from what I've heard, it doesn't work too well with AVRDUDE).
This is what I'm typing to verify that my STK500 is interfaced correctly: avrdude \-c stk500v2 \-p m324p \-P /dev/ttyUSB1 and this is what I receive:
avrdude: stk500_2_ReceiveMessage(): timeout
I have also tried ttyUSB0, which is the other tty device that shows up (my USB/RS-232 adapter operates as two RS-232 heades connected with one USB head, so could it be that?).
This is the error I also receive when I try ttyUSB0 device: avrdude: stk500v2_command(): command failed avrdude: stk500v2_recv(): checksum error avrdude: stk500v2_program_enable(): bad STK600 connection status: Unknown (0x64)
avrdude: initialization failed, rc=-1 Double check connections and try again, or use -F to override this check.