[Xastir] Xastir crashing lxde desktop

Wed Feb 28 09:19:28 PST 2018

This email is only relevant if you are intending to use a UDRC to interface
a raspberry pi to your radio.

Be advised that a solution to the problem of the newest version of xastir
precipitating the crash of the lxde desktop environment is to use the
latest version of compass taken from the wilderness directory of the
compass archive http://archive.compasslinux.org/images/wilderness/.

I used the version from the February 25, 2018 as opposed the  May 23rd,
2016 version which is what most of the links for obtaining a compass.img
I've seen would have you use.  Problem resolved.

Gayland
KG7GCF

On Sun, Feb 25, 2018 at 9:43 AM, Robert Sears <kf7vop at comcast.net> wrote:

> This sounds like the same problem I was having a while back, and I think
> it was written off as using the old Compass image but it does it with later
> images as the build I am using at home on a monitor and the build in my
> truck with a 7 inch i touch display does it too..
>
> https://nw-digital-radio.groups.io/g/compass/topic/6079844#146
>
> It has been a long time since I did any APRS but I don't think I have ever
> found a solution.
>
> Robert/KF7VOP
>
>
>
> On 2/24/2018 4:49 PM, Tom Russo wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Feb 24, 2018 at 04:32:48PM -0800, we recorded a bogon-computron
>> collision of the <kg7gcf at gmail.com> flavor, containing:
>>
>>> Thanks Tom,
>>>
>>> You've given me some ideas and that is a whole lot better than what I
>>> had.
>>>   Do have VNC and SSH enabled and running the behavior is similar to what
>>> you pointed out.  There's a lot here that I don't understand .  Thanks
>>> for
>>> the input.  Thank you again for the work on git.  The build was flawless
>>> as
>>> near as I can tell.
>>>
>>> Well thought I'd report that I disabled both ssh and vnc, rebooted, fired
>>> up direwolf and festival, then launched xastir.
>>>
>> Is this using a locally connected monitor, then?
>>
>> The same outcome as with
>>> both those services enabled, the lxde desktop panel disappeared and the
>>> three windows with direwolf, festival, and xastir continued and the
>>> xastir
>>> window continued.  It all seemed to be working but I'd lost the lxde
>>> panel
>>> with it's application launcher, menu, etc.
>>>
>> Hmmmm.
>>
>> If any more thoughts or info come your way about this odd behavior I hope
>>> you drop me a line.
>>>
>> No more thoughts, but if you google with the search text "raspbian vnc
>> bug lxde"
>> and "raspberry pi taskbar missing" you'll find lots of hits, some of
>> which are
>> so old the solutions they propose are suspect, but some very recent (a few
>> months old).  There is one report:
>>
>> https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=191765
>>
>> that the initial release of Raspbian Stretch had the bug but it got fixed
>> (so
>> an "apt-get update/apt-get upgrade" would fix it.  But you're running a
>> different OS, so this might not be relevant.
>>
>> There's also this:
>>
>> https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=148030&p=974857
>>
>> and this:
>>
>> https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/9395/i-
>> accidently-deleted-my-taskbar-how-do-i-get-it-back
>>
>> that may have *something* for you to try.  The number of low-quality
>> answers
>> on some of those threads (and some of their ages) make me wary of just
>> trying
>> what they say, though.
>>
>> On Sat, Feb 24, 2018 at 12:11 PM, Tom Russo <russo at bogodyn.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Sat, Feb 24, 2018 at 11:11:53AM -0800, we recorded a bogon-computron
>>>> collision of the <kg7gcf at gmail.com> flavor, containing:
>>>>
>>>>> Built xastir from the git hub source yesterday and every thing went
>>>>>
>>>> smooth
>>>>
>>>>> as glass, nice job devs!  All features including gdal indicated they
>>>>> were
>>>>> enabled.
>>>>>
>>>>> I am running a pi3 with a udrcII, compass OS, and direwolf.  When I
>>>>>
>>>> launch
>>>>
>>>>> Xastir, the LXDE desktop environment crashes, and I am left in an
>>>>> OpenBox
>>>>> window manager session.
>>>>>
>>>>> I am looking for any input that might help me determine what the heck
>>>>> is
>>>>> going on.  Is there something new in xastir that might account for
>>>>> this.
>>>>> It appears to be easily replicated by starting up xastir.
>>>>>
>>>> Can't help you with what might be wrong, but there shouldn't be anything
>>>> new in Xastir for the last few years that could account for this.
>>>> Almost
>>>> all of the work that has gone into Xastir for the last two public
>>>> releases
>>>> has been unrelated to its GUI (either in scripting, network handling, or
>>>> internal decoding of APRS data).
>>>>
>>>> Any messages in /var/log/syslog or /var/log/messages that might be
>>>> relevant?
>>>>
>>>> Are you viewing your desktop over VNC, or on a screen attached directly
>>>> to
>>>> the Pi3?  I think we saw some commentary recently about there being aa
>>>> bug
>>>> in VNC where there were problems if VNC and SSH were both enabled on the
>>>> machine, but that was mostly something that showed up as panels going
>>>> away
>>>> on
>>>> the desktop.
>>>>
>>>> If that's not the issue, if it were me I'd start by pulling everything
>>>> off
>>>> the
>>>> Pi and just seeing if Xastir, not talking to any interfaces and not
>>>> having
>>>> any
>>>> external hardware on the Pi, will still crash the desktop.
>>>>
>>>> Other than that, I don't know what to guess at.
>>>>
>>>> I've only used Raspbian on my pis (they're all running Stretch right
>>>> now),
>>>> and only old-school TNCs with them (an OpenTracker 2 for one igate, an
>>>> ancient
>>>> MFJ TNC for another igate, and an even older OpenTracker SMB running
>>>> KISS
>>>> firmware built into an HT's battery pack for playing around).  I've no
>>>> experience with the UDRCII and direwolf.
>>>>
>>>> I have run Xastir on my headless Pi B+, but not through the LXDE desktop
>>>> --- I
>>>> just used ssh -Y to the machine from my desktop machine and popped the
>>>> window
>>>> back up on my desktop's X server.  It ran fine for hours, albeit with a
>>>> little struggle on that poor overworked B+ (which is also running
>>>> javAPRSSrvr,
>>>> something of a resource pig).
>>>>
>>>> I noticed some UI hangs, notably the little "data in/data out" arrows
>>>> getting
>>>> stuck "on" on some interfaces when no data was flowing, and the "Show
>>>> Incoming
>>>> Data" window stopped updating even though axlisten showed that
>>>> data was coming in over the TNC all the time.  I'm thinking that was
>>>> just
>>>> the
>>>> poor little Pi B+ not having enough "oomph" to handle everything I was
>>>> asking
>>>> of it.  It still updated the map and received packets as normal, even
>>>> with
>>>> that
>>>> hiccupping.  The program didn't crash, but I have no idea what would
>>>> have
>>>> happened if I had tried to run LXDE on top of all that.
>>>>
>>>> I did briefly play with Xastir on a Pi Zero W with the LXDE desktop
>>>> displaying
>>>> on a little 7" HDMI monitor just a few weeks ago with a USB-connected
>>>> TNC.
>>>> It, too, ran fine, and I saw no evidence of crashes.  That was just a
>>>> toy
>>>> setup though, and I didn't keep it running for very long, as what I was
>>>> actually doing was rebuilding an SD card for one of my IGates, and using
>>>> the
>>>> Pi Zero temporarily to configure the new card --- and while I was at it
>>>> I
>>>> used
>>>> Xastir to test out the AX25 networking set-up.
>>>>
>>>> This is all a long-winded way of saying "I dunno why you're having this
>>>> problem."  Sorry.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Tom Russo    KM5VY
>>>> Tijeras, NM
>>>>
>>>>   echo "prpv_a'rfg_cnf_har_cvcr" | sed -e 's/_/ /g' | tr [a-m][n-z]
>>>> [n-z][a-m]
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Xastir mailing list
>>>> Xastir at lists.xastir.org
>>>> http://xastir.org/mailman/listinfo/xastir
>>>>
>>>>
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