Thanks Alex
yep, it was just the opencv issue that prompted me to rebuilt it with eglibc. I want to get some kids playing with some webcams, in python, but interfaces to some Arduino sketches. They are a bit familiar with python and arduino but not with writing code in C/C++, not yet.
perhaps I will have a go at rebuilding opencv that on the galileo/devtools version to see if it will fix it. However I have seen somewhere that uclibc is part of the problem there ...
Another idea I was toying with was just rewriting the clupload_linux script to use ssh, and use SIGHUP to see if it will make clloader pay attention to the sketch. I did have a brief look at the clloader code and that seems to be a possible route, need to look a bit harder. Not quite as convenient as using a serial port. But workable, sorta.
Thanks for the feedback. I will let you know how I get on.