[Xastir] Re Soundmodem

[Tom Russo]

On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 05:24:48PM -0300, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <murraybr at nbnet.nb.ca> flavor, containing:
> Well, it's working fine now. Can't explain exactly why, but will tell 
> you what I am doing.
> I start Xastir first.
> Then I open a terminal and as root, type "soundmodem -v5"
> Then I go to Xastir, Interface control, and select the kiss tnc and it 
> starts.
> TX and RX OK.
> 
> Not being very literate in Linux, I have a problem with the procedure 
> given by George, SV4LAX. If I follow his instructions, after I type 
> "soundmodem -v5" I get three lines of information and then my cursor is 
> at the extreme left of my screen, flashing, and I don't know what to do 
> next.

Just looked -- that's probably because George's instructions tell you to type
"soundmodem -v5" instead of "soundmodem -v5 &" --- the latter puts the running
soundmodem program in the "background" so that you can keep doing other
commands.  I think George intended that you do the commands after that one in
a separate terminal window, because he refers to  opening a new terminal 
a few lines down.  If you don't do that then you'll see the behavior
you describe.

In your procedure above you describe opening a new terminal window to start
soundmodem in.  If you reverse the process, starting soundmodem first, then
opening a new window and starting xastir, you'll probably also have the same
success.

I think the confusion is that George put a heading on his list of 
instructions between the instructions for starting soundmodem and the 
instructions for starting Xastir.  That heading, "Xastir", is wha you might be 
misinterpreting as the next command to execute.  The first thing *after* that 
heading is "open terminal."  That's what he was intending for you to do next.

> If I keep going down the list as it reads, nothing  happens.

That's because the soundmodem program is running and not returning you to 
a command line prompt.  SO anything you type in that window is pretty much 
not being heard by any program that can do anything with it.  Either 
background soundmodem or open a second terminal window (as you did in your
own procedure above).

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236        http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
  In some cultures what I do would be considered normal. 
                                  -- Ineffective daily affirmation