[Elecraft] LINIX PCs and ham SW?

[R. Kevin Stover]

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G4ILO wrote:


| It's not a rare occasion, because many ham programs (including
W1HKJ's) are
| not included in the repositories of major distributions. Those that
are, are
| often not the latest version. And precompiled Linux binaries (unlike
Windows
| .EXEs) very often won't run on a different version than the one they were
| compiled on.

| Three commands may work to compile the very simplest basic C programs, but
| for many others especially GUI programs you first need to download and
| install various development libraries, many of which may have dependencies
| on other software that also needs to be installed.

Nope, they work with the most complex as well. I have done LFS, Linux
from Scratch on a couple of occasions. It's not even a "distribution".
It's a book which gives you step by step instructions for building your
own distro with nothing more than gcc and some source code. It does take
a while to compile the X window system but the commands are basically
the same with a few variations.

The days of having to compile programs are pretty much gone. If they
aren't in the Debian or RPM repositories they are probably not getting a
lot of users anyhow.

| Because of this, even after considerable effort, I utterly failed to
produce
| a version of W1HKJ's Fldigi that would run on the Asus Eee PC. The only
| advice I received was to replace the version of Linux that came with
the Eee
| with another one, which I was unwilling to do for the sake of one program.
| Fortunately I still have a copy of an older version that will run on
it (if
| anyone wants it, it can be found in the Zerobeat forum.)

Give FLDigi another try. Dave is producing pre-compiled binaries of the
program. Extract the executable, stick it in /USR or /USR/Share and your
off to the races. These binaries work on all Linux distro's and as far
as I know FLDigi is available on the Debian repositories, although not
the newest version.

If you want to do rig control with FLDigi you will need HamLib 1.26,
also in the repos.


| So choosing to run Linux in your shack is not a decision to be taken on a
| whim. It needs to be thought through, and part of that consideration
should
| be choosing a version that will run whatever software you need. If you
ever
| think that you might want to run HRD then forget it - I don't see any
| likelihood that something even approaching its capabilities will ever be
| developed for Linux.

Certainly we're not there yet. It is harder to develop software in Linux
because your using C, C++, Java rather than one of the "visual"
development environments in Windows.

You never know, I've been using FLDigi since way before it got popular
and the strides Dave has made in such a short time are commendable. IMHO
what Linux Ham software needs most is a killer logging app like N1MM or
DXLab. Combined with FLDigi you've got most of what most guys/gals want
or need.

| I believe W1HKJ has a distribution called EMCPup available as an .iso
file.
|>From this you can burn a CD and boot your existing PC without
affecting the
| Windows partition. It includes Fldigi and logging software. That might be
| the best way to try out Linux ham software without doing anything
| irrevocable.

Yes, he does. You can also run it off of a Flash "thumb" drive if your
machine will boot from USB devices.

I am NOT a developer. I am a network/systems guy. I don't have the
patience to write and debug code. I learned that in the summer school
session from hell when I learned Fortran (shudder). I used to be a
gung-ho Linux tweaker, always messing with the system, etc, etc, etc....
I decided a couple years ago that I was wasting a lot of my spare,
non-work time messing with OS's, especially Linux. When the "buntu's"
came out I decided to quit tweaking and just run it like your average
Joe. Haven't been sorry in the slightest and have almost beat my
tweaking addiction. ;-)

73

- --
R. Kevin Stover, ACØH
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