[Xastir] Problems installing Xastir

[KK6RW]

Curt,

Subject: Re: [Xastir] Problems installing Xastir


> Be aware that the Cygwin versions on their site appear to be
> unstable at times, and sometimes you just have to keep running
> "setup.exe" and updating to their latest until it works right.  They
> seem to change it often, which of course breaks things often.  Once
> you have a working version of Cygwin, you might want to hold on to
> that one for a while.  You can also downgrade to previous versions
> of each package if you know which ones worked for you before.

I'm not so sure this version is stable as I do seem to have a few problems.
I've decided to install a Linux OS and dualboot my machine. I'm working on
getting Suse or possibly Slackware. I can't seem to find any store that
carry these particular versions. I'm sure Xastir will be much faster running
on a native LInux machine.

> We don't support _any_ commercial map programs.  There are better
> options out there.

Of course I knew that :-) I am getting frustrated trying to get some mapping
solutions other than the online Tiger Maps. I would like to use the 2003
Tiger maps and some terra maps. The README.Maps is helpful but seems when I
try to do some things it says, I get stuck. I'm pretty sure it's cockpit
error for the most part.

> > I've seen some references to Tiger maps and needing to compile Xastir
with
> > dbfawk. I can't seem to find the proper syntax to do this (I'm very new
to
> > *nix ways of doing things!) There sure is a lot of info in the archives
> > here! It's very helpful.
>
> You'll need the "pcre" and Shapelib libraries installed in order to
> use it:
>
>     cd src/xastir
>     ./configure --with-dbfawk
>     make
>     make install
>     chmod 4555 /usr/local/bin/xastir

I have the pcre adn Shapelib libraries installed as far as I can tell. I was
able to preform all the commands above except the lst Chmod. I get and error
of no such file or directory. Also, I thought chmod only use 3 characrters?
Is the 4 characters something used in the linux environment?

> Once you get it all compiled, the dbfawk files allow you to
> recognize a "signature" in the Shapefile DBF files, and then you can
> specify how you want that particular map drawn.  You can put the
> dbfawk files into your /usr/local/share/xastir/config/ directory, in
> which case you have to restart Xastir to have it read them, or you
> can put them in with each map subdirectory where they are needed, in
> which case they get read each time you load the map (I believe I got
> that correct, Tom?).
>
> We have a few dbfawk files in xastir/config/ directory already, and
> Tom's site has some info on creating them.  See README.MAPS.

I'll do more reading on trying to get some maps loaded. I did manage to get
some UI-View maps working but they are too small to really be of much help
to me. They are just part of the Puget Sound area.

Thanks again for your help!

Randy