[nrv-hams] New radio (BTech 50x2), new CHIRP_NEXT, new Linux Installation

[Knight, Dave]

Legacy CHIRP installed on Linux machines (PCs or Pies) from Linux distro
vendors mostly doesn't work.  Of a handful of PC and Pi systems only one PC
works with legacy CHIRP from the OS vendor (Mint 21.3).

The CHIRP webpage "suggests" that Linux users "probably" should install
chirp_next.   That worked for me, ending major frustrations trying to
program my standard set of VHF/UHF channels to the new BTech 50x2!

For all the details of installing chirp_next on Linux, see:

      https://chirpmyradio.com/projects/chirp/wiki/ChirpOnLinux

Here are some notes on my experience installing chirp_next on an old
laptop running Linux Mint 21.3, I just followed the "Debian, Ubuntu, Mint,
Raspbian, etc." instructions:

    sudo apt install python3-wxgtk4.0 pipx

    # Download the chirp-yyyymmdd-py3-none-any.whl file located under
    # the folder corresponding to the latest date.  Note that
    # "chirp-yyyymmdd-py3-none-any.whl" is a link to the daily build
    # directories from whence the .whl files can be downloaded.

    pipx install --system-site-packages ./chirp-yyyymmdd-py3-none-any.whl

Run chirp in the directory where your chirp .img files live with

    ~/.local/bin/chirp

Note that if you don't already have a ~/.local directory when chirp is
installed, it will be created.  To ensure that ~/.local/bin is in your
$PATH, rerun your .profile with:

    . ~/.profile

thenceforth, you can run chirp with the command chirp.

# The first time CHIRP is launched it should pop up a prompt to add a
# .desktop file for the current user. Select yes if you want to have the
# icon installed into the application menu (the activities menu in gnome)
# to launch CHIRP.

If you have questions or problems, email me directly at diemkae at gmail.com
and I will try to help.

Good luck,
Dave, K2COE

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