[Xastir] Soundmodem installation error

[Curt, WE7U]

On Tue, 10 Aug 2010, John Wilson wrote:

> Because there isn't a compiled .015 version out yet, I downloaded the 
> compressed file and attempted to follow the instructions for installation. 
> Should this be installed from the home directory? How can I tell if it is 
> installed properly?

Any time you install from sources on a system that has real package
management you have to make some choices as to whether or not to 
corrupt your system directories with non-package-managed software.

I try to install from sources only into the /usr/local/* heirarchy,
which keeps them separate from anything my RPM package management
might try to do (I mostly run OpenSuSE Linux).

It's at the point where you mix and match compiled-from-sources bits
with your package management installs that you may run into trouble.
The package management tools keep a database of what's installed.
You can invalidate bits of it if you're not careful, causing trouble
later when you try to tweak something later with your package
management tools.  For instance if you were to have one package
installed via package management and then without removing it,
install a newer package of the same from sources.  It's often
difficult later to remember which you installed from packages and
which from sources if you install them into the same areas.

To answer your question more directly:  For Soundmodem you should be
able to install it to your home directory or to the /usr/local/*
areas without messing up your OS packages.

If you're running Soundmodem as a Serial KISS Modem you can probably
run it as a normal user (plus make sure that user belongs to the
group that has read/write permissions for your serial ports you're
using).

If you're running Soundmodem as an AX.25 networking device you'll
have to start it up as root.

-- 
Curt, WE7U.                         <http://www.eskimo.com/~archer>
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