[Xastir] digi_ned and linspire now work!

[hasan schiers]

Hi Andrew,

Linspire is a Linux distribution (Debian derivative) that has a very user 
friendly GUI, and also has a CNR (Click and Run) system built into it for 
linux dummies like me.

With it, you download a host of applications (including Xastir) from within 
the O/S interface itself by clicking on the CNR button, logging on and 
simply doing a "search" for whatever program you might be interested in. If 
you find what you are looking for, clicking on the green CNR button 
downloads AND INSTALLS the application with a one button click, hence Click 
and Run (CNR).

I sucessfully installed Xastir, and Nano (text editor) using that method. 
There are con's with this approach. When I tried to download mtrack 
(satellite tracking) using that approach, it would download the app, but the 
install failed every time. Why? Fortunately I remembered that for any of the 
sat tracking programs to install, they require that mathlib be installed. 
So, I went back to the site, chose r-mathlib for download and install. After 
doing that, I reselected mtrack for download and install and it went 
perfecty.

This is a BIG problem, because in the interest of making things "simple" for 
the user, when a download fails to install, there are no error messages 
presented and the user has no idea why it failed. I'm sure there is a log 
file somewhere, but it is NOT obvious where that might be. I was very 
fortunate to remember that mathlib was required for sat tracking to work.

Now, before this gets too negative, I should add that without using any 
"help" or manuals, I was able to intuitively bring up a network (interfacing 
to windows), do file sharing, set up static ip for internet services, and 
install both a printer server for the network and a Samsung ML-1740 laser 
printer that is accessible to all the windows machines on the network. All 
went without the slightest hitch. It was just "obvious" what to do. I also 
changed video cards after the install, and (during the boot process), 
Linspire has a selection called "Redetect". It recognized and properly 
configured the video card "automagically"...a Rage 128 ATI with 16 mb of 
ram.

While Linspire 5.0 says minimum system requirements are an 800 mhz processor 
and 128 megs of ram, I found that a 400 mhz celeron with 512 megs of ram 
works very nicely. I am currently running Xastir and digi_ned on this 
machine with a system load of only 15%. Things are acceptably "snappy".

I do have one annoying BUG with Xastir (it may not be Xastir's fault). The 
top left menu item (File), when expanded has the first 3 or 4 character cut 
off, so I see "t" for Exit at the bottom and "nfigure" for Configure. The 
sub-menus are fine...all other menus are fine, just the top level of the 
File menu has characters missing. I've tried two different video cards and 
four different resolutions and refresh rates. None of those changes helped. 
Making the window full-screen makes no difference

The version of Xastir is from late 2005 (that was what was on the Linspire 
site) and I'm not at home to check the version number. Everything seems to 
work nicely, including the AGWPE interface, which is what I'm using. 
Digi_ned is also installed, but to contrast with Linspire's CNR approach, I 
had a little trouble in that I didn't know where to put it, couldn't get it 
to compile (wrong compiler name)...etc. I finally got it running by guessing 
that gcc wasn't installed or wasn't called what I expected. I used CNR to 
download and install gcc-2.9.5 and then fixing the Makefile allowed it to 
compile. I need to create the link so a simple "gcc" call will work 
instead...but I was "doing whatever it took" to get things running.

I'm wondering how to upgrade Xastir at this point. There is a warning about 
using apt get possibly trashing Linspire's CNR service. I'll have to do some 
reading and ask a few more questions. It is very nice to be running Xastir 
again, and it is pure PLEASURE to be running digi_ned. Nothing works as well 
for me.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

...hasan, N0AN


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew Rich" <vk4tec at tech-software.net>
To: "hasan schiers" <schiers at netins.net>
Cc: <xastir at xastir.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 19, 2006 4:13 PM
Subject: RE: [Xastir] digi_ned and linspire now work!


> Sorry
>
> my question is, what does the marriage of digi_ned and linspire give you ?
>
> What over and above digi_ned does linspire add ?
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Andrew Rich
> Amateur radio callsign VK4TEC