SmartSDR on Linux

WX7Y

Harold Bullard

I am intrested. Windows updates are a killer.

Bill -VA3WTB

I have tried that, SSDR will not on linux.

Jim KJ7S

NA0B

Bill -VA3WTB

Chris de Voogd

I run SSDR on the new MacMini with Boot Camp / Windows 10. Till now never had any update problem.

Mark_WS7M

Also interested.  Have some local flex friends that are linux users

Jim KJ7S

Bret WX7Y, has it running on Linux Cinnamon Mint  19.1 "Tessa" with the latest Wine and some help from Winetricks which helps speed some configuration without quite as much console intense command work hi. Your mileage will most probably vary.

Rick - W5FCX

Some screenshots would be interesting

Bill -VA3WTB

WX7Y

Michael Coslo

You'll have to forgive us Bret - you just got a sizable number of the community really interested! 8^) my email is on the way. 

Dave - W6OVP

Same here but my MacMini is at least 5 yrs old. No problem since I bought a very cheap dynamic clip-on lapel mike with USB. Finally solved that audio transmit problem. Good reports.

WX7Y

No problem, I just know this is NOT for everyone and with out any support would not make it feasible for LINUX or SmartSDR New-bees if you know what I mean.
Most user now day want turn key, not that there is anything wrong with that for sure. 
Been playing around on my MacBook PRO to see if I can it it to work there and so far I am stuck on the "DOT.NET 4.0 not installed because of newer version" issue, Good luck. 
73's
have a great day
Bret WX7Y

Oxford English

Brett,

I am sure that no one would object to you burning bandwith here to let us know what and how you have done what you have done.

Tim

Ted VE3TRQ

So, I was intrigued. I, too, wanted a free (or almost free) way of running various digital modes on Linux. I have done that for ages with my analogue input / output radios (Elecraft K3,KX3, Kenwood VHF / UHF). However, just as many of you, I wanted to run my Flex under Linux. My goal was to eventually write the equivalent to xDax/xCat for the Linux sound architecture (still my preferred, although deferred, way) so I could use the 6600M front panel for the GUI, and run all the digital apps and logging native Linux. Not happening quite yet :-( Bret’s experience with Wine (good and bad) got me to thinking I should try another essentially free way to run the Windows SSDR / DAX / CAT apps under Linux. Enter VirtualBox, Oracle Corp’s free virtual engine that runs cross-platform. I have had it installed on my Ubuntu laptop for a while, with an old copy of Win2000 (unused at this time). Someone else suggested buying an inexpensive Windows 10 Pro key on eBay, so I did that, downloaded the 32-bit Win10Pro ISO. Failed miserably to load up into VirtualBox, with an OOBEREGION error. Did a bit of Googling (actually, DuckDuckGo’ing :-) and discovered you need the April 2018 version of Win10. That loaded up into VirtualBox just fine. Gave the guest O/S 2 CPUs and 2 GB of memory, installed SSDR 2.4.9, WSJT-X 2.0.1, and off to the races (after making sure networking was bridged so broadcasts from the radio made it to the copy of DAX/CAT I was using). So, not native, but cheap! $3.00 for the Win10 license, all other parts totally free. It just worked. BUT, I am still running Windows 10 Pro - with the GIANT advantage of having a VM snapshot that I can simply load back in if anything nasty is done by Windows. I have not (yet) run SSDR, probably won’t, because I don’t really run that way anywhere at the moment, just DAX/CAT and the digital apps. No reason why SSDR and SSB using the Linux sound hardware wouldn’t just run, too. Certainly Cortana bugged me sufficiently while loading Windows to know that audio worked just fine. Ted VE3TRQ

Bill -VA3WTB

It is really SSDR we are interested in, hope you can try that some time. I have a feeling you will still have driver problems. Many have tried running SSDR for a while now with little luck. At least to the point of leaving Windows.

Ted VE3TRQ

There are no extra drivers between SSDR and the radio, Bill (I assume the native sound devices work just fine based on windows accessing the Linux audio. Other than that, there is the whole network stack of course). If DAX audio works, mic audio should work. It will all come to how efficient the network is between the virtual O/S and the Linux native networking stack. I’ll try it sometime when I kick the GUI off my front panel (I want v3!). Can’t do it tonight, so someone may beat me to it :-) In the end, it’s just another VM.

WX7Y

So far No DAX and CAT are not working, BUT PC MIC and Computer RX audio work just fine 
My 6700 is out in my shop and the LINUX computer is in the house.
Talking to KJ7S over air on it using my using my Old Heil head set plugged into the Sound blaster USB Sound device.
Yes about the same as VM but full screen instead of small little window and you don't have to have a Licensed copy of Windows to load on it.

Bret
 

Ted VE3TRQ

My “licensed copy” cost me $3 :-) Lots of license keys for sale on eBay - seem to be legit. So, what you see running below on my shack Linux computer (Ubuntu Bionic **** - 18.04 - running on an i7 NUC) cost me $3 to implement, plus some investment in time. Windows 10 running in VirtualBox. Granted not native, and I still need to see how much screen real estate I can take over, and still need to explore using my USB or Logitech wireless headset, but SSDR really appears to have good performance in this environment. To set this up, I just transferred the stopped VM from my Linux laptop, where I did the original install of Windows, SSDR and wsjt-x, to my shack Linux computer. Simple export/import in VirtualBox on the two Linux computers. Can’t do that with native Windows :-) NO config or install needed on the shack computer.

Norm - W7CK

Running smart sdr in a virtual box is not really running ssdr on linux. You still running Windblows

Ted VE3TRQ

Yup. But at least it’s running under your full control, resettable at will.

Bill -VA3WTB

The hole idea is to not use Windows at all, may as well just stay with Windows anyways.

Ted VE3TRQ

Except my shack computer runs Linux, and every now and again I’d like to talk to my Flex 6600M :-) This lets me do that without booting a separate Windows computer - useful to me, anyway. Only time I use Windows is to load new software into the radio, or try something I can’t do on a Mac or iPad. It turns out this solution lets me run any Windows Flex 6xxx program I like, and I don’t need to fight with Wine or Crossover to run SSDR / DAX / CAT, etc. I really don’t care what anyone else wants to do or whether they don’t like this solution - I simply mentioned it because for me it solves a problem, and maybe for someone else it also will.

Norm - W7CK

There are lots of audio issues running windows in VB on a Linux machine.  I gave up.  Spent way too much time beating linux into submission just to get a few windows apps to work.  I'll never recover the hours I spent dinking around with it.

Its much easier to have a small windows machine stuck away somewhere and attach to it from you Linux box when you want to run some windows app.  Linux is good for the average user who just wants to run some office applications and cruise the interent now and again.  The best apps run under Windows and In my opinion, it just isn't worth the trouble to try to force them to run under Wine or VB.  Life is short.  Do something fun!

Glenn Depp

James Whiteway

I am running Windows 7 with my 6600M. So far, no issues related to Updates. And once the BSoD issue is figured out, I think most of those issues ( DAX & CAT) will go away.
Linux is nice, but has issues too. I kind of doubt that any freeware for Linux to run a Flex will show up. I only know one person that ported the FlexLib API to work in Linux. And he decided to not make it available to other Linux developers. Or make his Linux app available. ( either paid or freeware) You can run SSDR in a VM in Linux. But, that is problematic in itself. Linux doesn't have the user base that Windows has. So, the only way to get a program to run you Flex in Linux is to write it yourself.
Not impossible. Just a lot of work.
James
WD5GWY By the way, what makes you believe Windows will become annual subscription software?

Darryl Mann

David - KO1C

Without meaning to, he's probably predicting the future.

KK0U

Not really wanting to resurrect an old thread, but very interested in WX7Y's and (to a lesser extent) VE3TRQ's approach. Haven't used Windows in over 20 years (not even at work), so something that is as close to running natively on Linux as possible would be great.

At this point, I'm just considering a Flex 6400, but if I have to have Windows or a MacOSX just to run it, it's a non-starter.

73, Jim KK0U