1. RaspberryPi-4-HamRadio@groups.io
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Re: Rapsberri and APRS Setup Question

Ray Wells
 

The following is in no way intended as criticism of the late Roger Barker, so don't bother misreading what I have written. Roger wrote some brilliant software and that it is still in use and sought after, ten years after his death, is testimony to its quality.

Roger Barker was quite pedantic about his software, taking exceptional care to ensure it worked extremely well. He also had his own ideas on how things should or shouldn't be done on air, even to the point of being a "Packet Policeman"* within his software. It took him quite a long time to bend and add Telnet to his Winpack packet terminal program, such was his belief that Telnet was not amateur radio. Even when he added Telnet he did so reluctantly.

Knowing what I do of Roger, from his own writings (go read the help documentation for Winpack and UIView), I suspect he wanted the source code for his software destroyed on his death to prevent it being massaged into something he would not have approved of. He was, and had every reason, to be proud of his software.

Ray vk2tv
One time user of both Packet and UIView

* In the hey day of Packet Radio there were individuals who went to great length to tell others how they should operate, even to the point, in some cases, of turning off equipment to thwart those who would not comply. Operators who conducted themselves in those ways were known as Packet Policemen.

On 26/04/14 21:53, John Guillory wrote:
 
Wow!  The only reason I can think of to order my code be destroyed when I die is if I was ashamed of it.  Otherwise, I'd want to either leave someone in charge of upgrades and collecting money, and specify that they keep a percent of the registration fees, the remainder be turned over to my wife.  That, or just release it all to source forge and make it free. 

--
KF5QEO
John Guillory
Intermittent Ethernet ??

jedscoot@...
 

I am experiencing a frustrating time with my PI(s) and I'm hoping someone can help me solve my problem.

I have FPAC/Netrom and have been getting Netrom connects but no AX25 connects, except from RF ; to try and find why this was happening I made
another copy of my exisiting system and connected the two on the same network, changed callsigns of course !! The result was the same, Netrom showing connected
with AX25 not ( connection pending ).  However a ROSE connection did work..

The next move was to update Wheezy and that's when the real problem arose.  The Ethernet connection drops every few minutes ; when it's up I can
send as many " pings " as I like and it will respond, I can connect via SSH although as soon as I send the password the connection drops.

I'm guessing that there is something different in the latest Wheezy, any thoughts would be appreciated.

73,
Ian..
Re: Rapsberri and APRS Setup Question

Andy McMullin
 

Rob,

Thanks for that idea.

Downloading then turning on the topographic now shows the difference between land and sea (although the line around the coast doesn't match the shading of the land).

The bad news is that the local roads have now all disappeared! I guess the colour schemes don't match too well. And if I move the centre of attraction around (drag the map) it takes some time for the topo shading of land/sea to reappear.

However, it's a step in the right direction. At least I can see the difference between the wet stuff and the dry stuff now :-)

-- 
Regards
Andy, G8TQH


On 27 Apr 2014, at 16:43, Rob McPeak <rob@...> wrote:



Try loading the topographical data. In my area, which has a lot of complicated shoreline, it made a huge difference. I think I may have had to restart the app after loading the topo data for it to display. 

Rob

On Apr 27, 2014, at 7:08 AM, Andy McMullin <andy@...> wrote:


Other than my mapping problem, I also think it's definitely on the right lines.

I think the use of java giving easy install and multiple operating systems is a great idea. The wizard configuration to set it up is good too. I also loved the way it just worked with both my TNC and aprs-is without any messing around. When I tried it, messaging worked well as did query.

My map issue is probably related to the sea not being coloured but rather having the same colour as the generic map background. The same maps displayed (from online sources rather than precompiled) in SARTrack and AGWTracker look just fine. I'd like to be able to delete all the objects in one go -- so as to remove them from my map -- but that's a local problem related to the transmission of "duff" objects around here. I also like to be able to get more information about a source (station or object) by clicking on it or something rather than opening the station list and hunting for it. And I don't understand why it downloads 638 fonts every time I start it (according to the preferences tab)!

But it's still a beta and being improved on a regular basis! So all these things will come if people ask for them. It's definitely a product to use if you can.

-- 
Regards
Andy, G8TQH
Re: Rapsberri and APRS Setup Question

Dale Miller - KC2CBD
 

On 4/26/2014 6:53 AM, John Guillory wrote:
Wow!  The only reason I can think of to order my code be destroyed when I die is if I was ashamed of it.  Otherwise, I'd want to either leave someone in charge of upgrades and collecting money, and specify that they keep a percent of the registration fees, the remainder be turned over to my wife.  That, or just release it all to source forge and make it free. 

--
KF5QEO
John Guillory
Cell: 601-754-9233
Pinger: 337-240-7890
Google Voice: 601-265-1307



Agreed.
But you have to honor the wishes of the deceased.

-- 
All the Best & 73's
Dale Miller, KC2CBD
Cookeville, Tennessee
Ham Operator since 1997 (Extra)

Registered Linux User: #317401
Linux since June 2003
Registered Ubuntu User #26423

stpatrick3spam@...
stpatrick2spam@...
stpatrick3spam@...
bdchimneysweepspam@...

(cut the spam to reply)

__

Re: xastir autostart - the correct way (I hope, I googled it)

g4sra
 

If you are using LXDE (most of you will be)...

delete all the other stuff I wrote about, and then
create the file '~/.config/lxsession/LXDE/autostart'
with the contents '/bin/xastir'.

You can cut'n'paste all the following to the command line to do it in one go:-

mkdir -p ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE
echo '/bin/xastir' >> ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE/autostart
Re: xastir autostart

g4sra
 

On 27/04/14 23:48, Ray Wells wrote:
Being a shell script, you may need to have "#!/bin/bash" as the first
line, making the script ....

#!/bin/bash
# wait 30 seconds
sleep 30
# now really start xastir
exec /bin/xastir

Ray vk2tv
And what happens then if he is running tsh or csh ;)

The shebang line is a good idea, and essential when the processing
application needs help. If it was a perl script for example then it
would be needed, without, the User's login shell should get used by
default (queryable from the environment).



On 28/04/14 05:12, g4sra wrote:

On 27/04/14 11:29, ramsatphones@... wrote:
Hi

The issue I have is that using the .config/autostart/xstir.desktop
method xastir starts before startx has finished. So xastir is running
but in the back ground.
That should not happen until after the desktop has loaded, I will have
to investigate that myself it may be a bug (that needs reporting).

How can I delay the start up of xastir until after startx has finished?
A very quick bodge to get you by for now...

Create '/usr/local/bin/start_xastir.sh' with the contents

# wait 30 seconds
sleep 30
# now really start xastir
exec /bin/xastir

and make it executable 'chmod u+x /usr/local/bin/start_xastir.sh'

and launch that from xastir.desktop instead

Exec=/usr/local/bin/start_xastir.sh
Re: Rapsberri and APRS Setup Question

Ronny Julian <k4rjjradio@...>
 

If you are a real Linux person and are not afraid to go out and build from source, track down maps, find dependencies etc give this a try.  I did make it work but the interface is not user friendly and the text is not changeable as easy as the rest of the OS.  I have some eyesight challenges and found this made the program even more of a non starter.

If it works for you keep making it better.  I'd like to see many more good APRS programs.  Remember YAAC was born out of one guy taking a challenge and it went from nothing to good function in a short time.  If you have not seen Garys video on it give it  a look.





On Mon, Apr 28, 2014 at 4:17 AM, max wheatley <max@...> wrote:
 

Hey Ronny


Those are just the very problems I had when I took a quick look .... so it wasn't just me ....


Thanks


Max





On 28/04/2014 10:18, Ronny Julian wrote:
Ray I see no difference when it is not working.  I'm not going to bother trying anymore to cobble the thing together when YAAC works better out of the box for me. Why does the community have an old repository version if that is not the latest and greatest?  Why is  compiling from source even needed if the group wants this to be a widely used program?  I don't see FLDigi having these issues?  I install XUbuntu
 on a friends machine and that is the first program I get for them.  Always works great from the start.


Ronny
K4RJJ
Re: Rapsberri and APRS Setup Question

max wheatley <max@...>
 

Hey Ronny


Those are just the very problems I had when I took a quick look .... so it wasn't just me ....


Thanks


Max




On 28/04/2014 10:18, Ronny Julian wrote:
Ray I see no difference when it is not working.  I'm not going to bother trying anymore to cobble the thing together when YAAC works better out of the box for me. Why does the community have an old repository version if that is not the latest and greatest?  Why is  compiling from source even needed if the group wants this to be a widely used program?  I don't see FLDigi having these issues?  I install XUbuntu
 on a friends machine and that is the first program I get for them.  Always works great from the start.


Ronny
K4RJJ



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Re: xastir autostart

Ray Wells
 

Being a shell script, you may need to have "#!/bin/bash" as the first line, making the script ....

#!/bin/bash
# wait 30 seconds
sleep 30
# now really start xastir
exec /bin/xastir

Ray vk2tv


On 28/04/14 05:12, g4sra wrote:
 

On 27/04/14 11:29, ramsatphones@... wrote:
> Hi
>
> The issue I have is that using the .config/autostart/xstir.desktop method xastir starts before startx has finished. So xastir is running but in the back ground.
That should not happen until after the desktop has loaded, I will have
to investigate that myself it may be a bug (that needs reporting).

> How can I delay the start up of xastir until after startx has finished?

A very quick bodge to get you by for now...

Create '/usr/local/bin/start_xastir.sh' with the contents

# wait 30 seconds
sleep 30
# now really start xastir
exec /bin/xastir

and make it executable 'chmod u+x /usr/local/bin/start_xastir.sh'

and launch that from xastir.desktop instead

Exec=/usr/local/bin/start_xastir.sh
Re: Rapsberri and APRS Setup Question

Ronny Julian <k4rjjradio@...>
 

Ray I see no difference when it is not working.  I'm not going to bother trying anymore to cobble the thing together when YAAC works better out of the box for me. Why does the community have an old repository version if that is not the latest and greatest?  Why is  compiling from source even needed if the group wants this to be a widely used program?  I don't see FLDigi having these issues?  I install XUbuntu
 on a friends machine and that is the first program I get for them.  Always works great from the start.

It is what works for me that counts with me.  You will not change my mind on that.

Ronny
K4RJJ



On Sun, Apr 27, 2014 at 4:37 AM, Ray Wells <vk2tv@...> wrote:
 

There's a big difference between "I can't get the program to work" and "the program is no good", I'm sure you'll agree.

To Ronny, and anybody else having difficulty with xastir .... ask for help! There are people on this list who use xastir and who may be able to help, but the best place for help, the place where both new and experienced users, and developers hang out is the xastir mailing list.

This is a reminder, sent out once a month, about your lists.xastir.org
mailing list memberships.  It includes your subscription info and how
to use it to change it or unsubscribe from a list.

You can visit the URLs to change your membership status or
configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery
or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.

In addition to the URL interfaces, you can also use email to make such
changes.  For more info, send a message to the '-request' address of
the list (for example, mailman-request@...) containing
just the word 'help' in the message body, and an email message will be
sent to you with instructions.

If you have questions, problems, comments, etc, send them to
mailman-owner@....  Thanks!


Ray vk2tv



On 27/04/14 13:28, Ronny Julian wrote:
 
Well opinions vary.  I never could make the stupid thing work at all.  Shows how user friendly it is.  YAAC seems to work better overall and I've had no major issues.  
      Most hams do not want to compile from source and while I support the Linux systems much more than anything else there is a learning curve most will never climb.


On Sat, Apr 26, 2014 at 7:25 PM, Ray Wells <vk2tv@...> wrote:
 

Sir, your advice regarding xastir couldn't be any less accurate if you tried, and you have grossly mislead this group.

Xastir has support for more mapping formats than, arguably, any other aprs program. Note! Mapping formats. Whether maps for those formats are available in any particular country is a matter for that country to sort out, not the xastir developers, but I doubt the vast majority of users would want anything outside the formats that are natively handled by xastir, regardless of where in the world they live. America as a country seems to produce a greater variety of free mapping than most anywhere else, it would seem, but it's hardly fair, and totally incorrect,  to say that xastir is "American-centric with poor mapping options outside the USA." 

My preference is for raster maps, usually topographic, in jpg, png or tif formats and many of the maps I use are those I used with UIView about 100 years ago. I simply used the inf2geo tool that ships with xastir to convert the UIView .inf description file to a .geo description file. Nothing else needs to be done. If you can use a particular map in UIView you can use it in xastir.  I've scanned paper topographic maps to jpg format and manually created a geo reference file from coordinates on the map, I've downloaded maps from the Internet and used the same procedure; used shapefiles (which I don't like) and I've used (use) online free mapping. All the foregoing is natively handled by xastir in a standard release.

As for updates, xastir is under constant development and issues are promptly fixed with CVS releases. Most users of an application would see a lack of updates as a sign of stability and maturity, and that is certainly the case with xastir.  If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Members of the development team subscribe to the xastir mailing list and readily offer help and advice to users in strife and, if a bug should arise it is dealt with very quickly.

I'm not American, I have no connection with the xastir development team (except I've called for advise occasionally in years gone by), but I am a long term user of xastir (since release 1.04, about 12 or so years ago when I ran it on a 166MHz Pentium under vanilla Debian). I compiled and run it on my desktop computer (Linux Mint), compiled and run it under Linux Mint Debian Edition on my laptop,  and I have compiled and used it on the RPi. I no longer use it on the RPi for the aprs gateway (because I run it headless as command line only) but I will always use it for non-gateway aprs because I believe it's the best available.

Ray vk2tv



Re: xastir autostart

g4sra
 

On 27/04/14 11:29, ramsatphones@... wrote:
Hi

The issue I have is that using the .config/autostart/xstir.desktop method xastir starts before startx has finished. So xastir is running but in the back ground.
That should not happen until after the desktop has loaded, I will have
to investigate that myself it may be a bug (that needs reporting).

How can I delay the start up of xastir until after startx has finished?
A very quick bodge to get you by for now...

Create '/usr/local/bin/start_xastir.sh' with the contents

# wait 30 seconds
sleep 30
# now really start xastir
exec /bin/xastir

and make it executable 'chmod u+x /usr/local/bin/start_xastir.sh'

and launch that from xastir.desktop instead

Exec=/usr/local/bin/start_xastir.sh
Re: Rapsberri and APRS Setup Question

Rob McPeak <rob@...>
 

Try loading the topographical data. In my area, which has a lot of complicated shoreline, it made a huge difference. I think I may have had to restart the app after loading the topo data for it to display. 

Rob

On Apr 27, 2014, at 7:08 AM, Andy McMullin <andy@...> wrote:

 

Other than my mapping problem, I also think it's definitely on the right lines.

I think the use of java giving easy install and multiple operating systems is a great idea. The wizard configuration to set it up is good too. I also loved the way it just worked with both my TNC and aprs-is without any messing around. When I tried it, messaging worked well as did query.

My map issue is probably related to the sea not being coloured but rather having the same colour as the generic map background. The same maps displayed (from online sources rather than precompiled) in SARTrack and AGWTracker look just fine. I'd like to be able to delete all the objects in one go -- so as to remove them from my map -- but that's a local problem related to the transmission of "duff" objects around here. I also like to be able to get more information about a source (station or object) by clicking on it or something rather than opening the station list and hunting for it. And I don't understand why it downloads 638 fonts every time I start it (according to the preferences tab)!

But it's still a beta and being improved on a regular basis! So all these things will come if people ask for them. It's definitely a product to use if you can.

-- 
Regards
Andy, G8TQH


On 27 Apr 2014, at 01:07, Ronny Julian <k4rjjradio@...> wrote:



Considering who compiles that data you are probably right.  Other than mapping how do you linke it?  I think he is on the right track.


On Sat, Apr 26, 2014 at 10:53 AM, Andy McMullin <andy@...> wrote:
 

Hi,


Whilst I agree that YAAC is multi-platform and does some things quite well, again I find the mapping isn't so hot. Downloading the tiles then importing/converting takes a deal of processing time -- and then in my case the land/sea boundary is not shown at all with the defaults of the program. Living by the seaside means the maps I see are somewhat weird! 

I can send you a screen-shot if you like -- there is no boundary to the country just rivers appearing out of nowhere! The official pre-complied tiles don't seem to show anything when I try and download them, the whole planet set just wouldn't download, so this is with gz tiles from the extracts at geofabrik.de - Europe/Great Britain.  

Of course, your part of the world might be better served!

-- 
Regards
Andy, G8TQH
Re: xastir autostart

Basil Gunn
 

Posted by: "g4sra" g4sra
On 21/04/14 09:13, ramsatphones@... wrote:

What i am trying to achieve is that if the power goes out then comes
back on everything starts back up automatically. The only way you can
achieve that is to avoid file system corruption.
Either have the Pi shut down properly - buy an UPS, there is one
pecifically available for the PI but it may not be compatible with
other expansion boards.
Or have your SD Card file system mounted read-only with temporary
working storage in RAM (all my Pi's work this way, it increases SD Card
life considerably).
This is just a data point for what works for me, ymmv.

I run a UDR cpu card (similar to Pi) in my truck which gets its
power from a cigarette lighter, that is, the cpu card gets rudely shut
down on a regular basis. I have been running it like this for over a
year with no problems. This is a Debian Linux system that runs a
version of dantracker.

Below is the partition format line from my script that builds the root file
system on the flash part.
$flashdevice_part2 is a variable for the partition the udr56k uses, ie. /dev/sdb2

mkfs.ext4 -E stride=2,stripe-width=512 -b 4096 -L NWDR_Root_FS "$flashdevice_part2"

The point to note is the above line uses ext4 with journaling turned on.

Another point is that you need to use a "decent" flash part. Not some
flash knock-off that works in your camera so might work. The term
"decent" invokes about a 10 page discussion. I have NEVER had an SD
card fail due to excessive write cycles in the last 3 years for the
UDR boards.

/Basil n7nix
Re: Rapsberri and APRS Setup Question

Andy McMullin
 

Other than my mapping problem, I also think it's definitely on the right lines.

I think the use of java giving easy install and multiple operating systems is a great idea. The wizard configuration to set it up is good too. I also loved the way it just worked with both my TNC and aprs-is without any messing around. When I tried it, messaging worked well as did query.

My map issue is probably related to the sea not being coloured but rather having the same colour as the generic map background. The same maps displayed (from online sources rather than precompiled) in SARTrack and AGWTracker look just fine. I'd like to be able to delete all the objects in one go -- so as to remove them from my map -- but that's a local problem related to the transmission of "duff" objects around here. I also like to be able to get more information about a source (station or object) by clicking on it or something rather than opening the station list and hunting for it. And I don't understand why it downloads 638 fonts every time I start it (according to the preferences tab)!

But it's still a beta and being improved on a regular basis! So all these things will come if people ask for them. It's definitely a product to use if you can.

-- 
Regards
Andy, G8TQH


On 27 Apr 2014, at 01:07, Ronny Julian <k4rjjradio@...> wrote:



Considering who compiles that data you are probably right.  Other than mapping how do you linke it?  I think he is on the right track.


On Sat, Apr 26, 2014 at 10:53 AM, Andy McMullin <andy@...> wrote:
 

Hi,


Whilst I agree that YAAC is multi-platform and does some things quite well, again I find the mapping isn't so hot. Downloading the tiles then importing/converting takes a deal of processing time -- and then in my case the land/sea boundary is not shown at all with the defaults of the program. Living by the seaside means the maps I see are somewhat weird! 

I can send you a screen-shot if you like -- there is no boundary to the country just rivers appearing out of nowhere! The official pre-complied tiles don't seem to show anything when I try and download them, the whole planet set just wouldn't download, so this is with gz tiles from the extracts at geofabrik.de - Europe/Great Britain.  

Of course, your part of the world might be better served!

-- 
Regards
Andy, G8TQH
Re: Autostart Xastir on boot

ramsatphones@...
 

Hi
When I read the documentation its says don't run xastir as root. Wouldn't the example here runs as the root user by using sudo?

My pi boots into the startx gui. I want xastir to start on boot but after startx gui is up. Otherwise xastir starts but runs in the background. I have to kill the service and restart it to make visible on the desktop.

thanks

Woz
Re: xastir autostart

ramsatphones@...
 

Hi 

The issue I have is that using the .config/autostart/xstir.desktop method xastir starts before startx has finished. So xastir is running but in the back ground. How can I delay the start up of xastir until after startx has finished? 

Not really worried about the life of the SD card a this stage. I will look at the HDD options once its auto starting as required.

regards

Woz
Re: Rapsberri and APRS Setup Question

Ray Wells
 

There's a big difference between "I can't get the program to work" and "the program is no good", I'm sure you'll agree.

To Ronny, and anybody else having difficulty with xastir .... ask for help! There are people on this list who use xastir and who may be able to help, but the best place for help, the place where both new and experienced users, and developers hang out is the xastir mailing list.

This is a reminder, sent out once a month, about your lists.xastir.org
mailing list memberships.  It includes your subscription info and how
to use it to change it or unsubscribe from a list.

You can visit the URLs to change your membership status or
configuration, including unsubscribing, setting digest-style delivery
or disabling delivery altogether (e.g., for a vacation), and so on.

In addition to the URL interfaces, you can also use email to make such
changes.  For more info, send a message to the '-request' address of
the list (for example, mailman-request@...) containing
just the word 'help' in the message body, and an email message will be
sent to you with instructions.

If you have questions, problems, comments, etc, send them to
mailman-owner@....  Thanks!


Ray vk2tv


On 27/04/14 13:28, Ronny Julian wrote:
 
Well opinions vary.  I never could make the stupid thing work at all.  Shows how user friendly it is.  YAAC seems to work better overall and I've had no major issues.  
      Most hams do not want to compile from source and while I support the Linux systems much more than anything else there is a learning curve most will never climb.


On Sat, Apr 26, 2014 at 7:25 PM, Ray Wells <vk2tv@...> wrote:
 

Sir, your advice regarding xastir couldn't be any less accurate if you tried, and you have grossly mislead this group.

Xastir has support for more mapping formats than, arguably, any other aprs program. Note! Mapping formats. Whether maps for those formats are available in any particular country is a matter for that country to sort out, not the xastir developers, but I doubt the vast majority of users would want anything outside the formats that are natively handled by xastir, regardless of where in the world they live. America as a country seems to produce a greater variety of free mapping than most anywhere else, it would seem, but it's hardly fair, and totally incorrect,  to say that xastir is "American-centric with poor mapping options outside the USA." 

My preference is for raster maps, usually topographic, in jpg, png or tif formats and many of the maps I use are those I used with UIView about 100 years ago. I simply used the inf2geo tool that ships with xastir to convert the UIView .inf description file to a .geo description file. Nothing else needs to be done. If you can use a particular map in UIView you can use it in xastir.  I've scanned paper topographic maps to jpg format and manually created a geo reference file from coordinates on the map, I've downloaded maps from the Internet and used the same procedure; used shapefiles (which I don't like) and I've used (use) online free mapping. All the foregoing is natively handled by xastir in a standard release.

As for updates, xastir is under constant development and issues are promptly fixed with CVS releases. Most users of an application would see a lack of updates as a sign of stability and maturity, and that is certainly the case with xastir.  If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Members of the development team subscribe to the xastir mailing list and readily offer help and advice to users in strife and, if a bug should arise it is dealt with very quickly.

I'm not American, I have no connection with the xastir development team (except I've called for advise occasionally in years gone by), but I am a long term user of xastir (since release 1.04, about 12 or so years ago when I ran it on a 166MHz Pentium under vanilla Debian). I compiled and run it on my desktop computer (Linux Mint), compiled and run it under Linux Mint Debian Edition on my laptop,  and I have compiled and used it on the RPi. I no longer use it on the RPi for the aprs gateway (because I run it headless as command line only) but I will always use it for non-gateway aprs because I believe it's the best available.

Ray vk2tv


Re: Rapsberri and APRS Setup Question

Ronny Julian <k4rjjradio@...>
 

Well opinions vary.  I never could make the stupid thing work at all.  Shows how user friendly it is.  YAAC seems to work better overall and I've had no major issues.  
      Most hams do not want to compile from source and while I support the Linux systems much more than anything else there is a learning curve most will never climb.


On Sat, Apr 26, 2014 at 7:25 PM, Ray Wells <vk2tv@...> wrote:
 

Sir, your advice regarding xastir couldn't be any less accurate if you tried, and you have grossly mislead this group.

Xastir has support for more mapping formats than, arguably, any other aprs program. Note! Mapping formats. Whether maps for those formats are available in any particular country is a matter for that country to sort out, not the xastir developers, but I doubt the vast majority of users would want anything outside the formats that are natively handled by xastir, regardless of where in the world they live. America as a country seems to produce a greater variety of free mapping than most anywhere else, it would seem, but it's hardly fair, and totally incorrect,  to say that xastir is "American-centric with poor mapping options outside the USA." 

My preference is for raster maps, usually topographic, in jpg, png or tif formats and many of the maps I use are those I used with UIView about 100 years ago. I simply used the inf2geo tool that ships with xastir to convert the UIView .inf description file to a .geo description file. Nothing else needs to be done. If you can use a particular map in UIView you can use it in xastir.  I've scanned paper topographic maps to jpg format and manually created a geo reference file from coordinates on the map, I've downloaded maps from the Internet and used the same procedure; used shapefiles (which I don't like) and I've used (use) online free mapping. All the foregoing is natively handled by xastir in a standard release.

As for updates, xastir is under constant development and issues are promptly fixed with CVS releases. Most users of an application would see a lack of updates as a sign of stability and maturity, and that is certainly the case with xastir.  If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Members of the development team subscribe to the xastir mailing list and readily offer help and advice to users in strife and, if a bug should arise it is dealt with very quickly.

I'm not American, I have no connection with the xastir development team (except I've called for advise occasionally in years gone by), but I am a long term user of xastir (since release 1.04, about 12 or so years ago when I ran it on a 166MHz Pentium under vanilla Debian). I compiled and run it on my desktop computer (Linux Mint), compiled and run it under Linux Mint Debian Edition on my laptop,  and I have compiled and used it on the RPi. I no longer use it on the RPi for the aprs gateway (because I run it headless as command line only) but I will always use it for non-gateway aprs because I believe it's the best available.

Ray vk2tv


On 26/04/14 19:35, Andy McMullin wrote:
 

Stephen et al,


Just to add that as well as SARTrack for Windows, there is AGWTracker which is still under development. That one includes a range of mapping options and is very versatile but, as said, also Windows and Windows-CE only.

For Unix there's Xastir but that is very American-centric with poor mapping options outside the USA. Inside the USA you've lots of choice for map sources but of the 125-odd formats claimed hardly any seem to be accurate for Europe so it depends where you're interested in. However, I don't seem to have seen any updates in the last year so I couldn't swear it can be classed as "still being developed". BUT it is native for the Pi.

I hope this helps.

-- 
Regards
Andy, G8TQH
Re: xastir autostart

Jack Smith
 

I had thought about the HDD solution, especially as I have a couple of disused laptop sized ones running about.  Would there be any noticeable increase in map loading speeds?  If not, just the ability to have “more stuff” would be useful in itself.

 

73,

Jack KE4LWT

 

From: Raspberry_Pi_4-Ham_RADIO@... [mailto:Raspberry_Pi_4-Ham_RADIO@...] On Behalf Of g4sra
Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2014 5:50 PM
To: Raspberry_Pi_4-Ham_RADIO@...
Subject: Re: [Raspberry_Pi_4-Ham_RADIO] xastir autostart

 

 

On 26/04/14 21:30, CyclingSoldier wrote:
> Just thinking, would running from a USB stick help with either the speed or card lifespan issues?
You could spread the writes across both the SD Card and the USB stick to
wear them both at a slower rate, but there are better ways.
A USB HDD connected via a powered hub works respectably with the Pi.

Re the speed, everything USB (& the ethernet) eventually goes through a
single USB port (the one on the SoC itself). Also USB can be a fairly
processor intensive protocol, don't expect anything amazing, be happy
with 'it-does-the-job'.
Re: MicroLCD Picaso Free to good home

sbd sbd
 

Well you can have it, I don’t know where you are so can’t really estimate shipping. But I am in the UK.

Contact me off group for contact details etc

 

Steve

G6UIM

 

From: Raspberry_Pi_4-Ham_RADIO@... [mailto:Raspberry_Pi_4-Ham_RADIO@...] On Behalf Of John H. Guillory
Sent: 26 April 2014 03:45
To: Raspberry_Pi_4-Ham_RADIO@...
Subject: Re: [Raspberry_Pi_4-Ham_RADIO] MicroLCD Picaso Free to good home

 

 

If no one else grabs it, let me know how much the shipping is, if you can take paypal, I'll throw in a little extra to get you a beer, mc double, etc. Personally, I'm not a beer drinker, but... ;-)  Depending on how much the shipping is and all, I may be able to send you payment immediately, or at the latest Tuesday night / Wednesday morning... 

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Thursday, April 24, 2014 3:50 PM

Subject: RE: [Raspberry_Pi_4-Ham_RADIO] MicroLCD Picaso Free to good home

 

 

To be clear this is not an LCD monitor similar to the Adafruit. It needs to be programmed. I have the Raspberry Pi interface but not the programming lead.

It’s made by 4d systems

I bought it by mistake and it’s a shame for it to just sit I a junk pile

Since 3 people have expressed interest, I think the first person to respond to this message gets it

Steve

G6UIM

From: Raspberry_Pi_4-Ham_RADIO@... [mailto:Raspberry_Pi_4-Ham_RADIO@...] On Behalf Of Steve Daniels
Sent: 23 April 2014 23:18
To: Raspberry_Pi_4-Ham_RADIO@...
Subject: [Raspberry_Pi_4-Ham_RADIO] MicroLCD Picaso Free to good home

 

I have a MicroLCD Picaso display free to a good home, although if you want to give me beer tokens I won’t refuse,

It’s unused

Steve

G6UIM
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