[Elecraft] KXUSB with Linux - Success with Mint

[Lyn Haddock]

Thanks to some helpful hints from several in the group, I found the solution to getting Linux (Mint 17 Qiana, Mate Edition) to work with the KXUSB adapter. Here is what was required…

- Click the MENU button and select the CONTROL CENTER

- Locate USERS AND GROUPS in the SYSTEM grouping

- Select your USER on the Users Settings screen if you have more than one user set up

- Select ADVANCED SETTINGS and Authenticate

- Select the USER PRIViLEGES tab

- Enable USE MODEMS by clicking the box

- OK and Close all the open screens and REBOOT or log out and back in

Your Elecraft Utility of choice should now find the proper port (/dev/ttyusb0 in my case) and be able to to connect via the KXUSB.

I took a quick look at Ubuntu 14.04 and didn’t find GUI options like Mint has to work with user groups. I suspect I would need to edit a file, perhaps having to do with “dialout” privileges. This is beyond my attention span since Mint is now working fine.

By the way, the Linux Elecraft Utilities (at least the ones I tried) are 32 bit applications. I installed 64 bit Mint 17 and could not get the Utilities to open at all until I installed the 32 bit libraries for Mint. I used the commands suggested by David - W4DES, shown at the bottom of this link…

http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/linux-K3-utility-td7589395.html <http://elecraft.365791.n2.nabble.com/linux-K3-utility-td7589395.html>

This installation went fine and then the Utilities would open. There is a 32 bit version of Mint 17 available for download, and I suspect it would work as installed.

Thanks again for the helpful replies.

73 and Have Fun!

Lyn - KC8I

PS - After finding this USER PROCESSES screen, I probably can figure out why some other things don't work for me on Linux. There are numerous other boxes you can check to enable “stuff” that might be necessary.


> I’m trying to connect my KX3/PX3 rig to a Linux computer to use the Utility programs. I’m have tried to connect to two different computers running both Mint 17 and Ubuntu 14.04 with no luck so far.
> 
> From what I can tell, these Linux distros should both natively support FTDI chips for VCP connections. The FTDI site confirms this and only provides instructions for replacing the VCP driver with a D2XX driver.
> 
> I can see the FTDI device using “lsusb” when plug the KXUSB in. However, the KXUSB apparently can’t connect to /dev/ttyusb0 to let me use the KX3 or PX3 Utilities.
> 
> When i unplug the KXUSB from the USB port on either Linux box and plug it into my Mac, all is well. It even works when I reboot the same PC to WIN7 instead of Ubuntu. What am I missing?
> 
> Thanks,
> Lyn - KC8I