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SmartSDR on Linux

WX7Y
WX7Y Member ✭✭✭✭
edited December 2020 in SmartSDR API
I have been playing with this a bit and have a bit typed up if anyone is interested, I am not a programmer and no reverse engineering was done here just playing around with Linux and WINE.
if you interested in my write up send me a Email at wx7yatarrldotnet

73's
Bret
WX7Y

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Comments

  • Harold Bullard
    edited March 2019
    I am intrested. Windows updates are a killer.
  • Bill -VA3WTB
    Bill -VA3WTB Member ✭✭✭
    edited March 2019
    I have tried that, SSDR will not on linux.
  • Jim  KJ7S
    Jim KJ7S Member ✭✭
    edited January 2020
    Just an aside folks, I tested with Bret this morning, and he is definitely able to run SSDR on a linux box with Wine, albeit a bit rough but does function.
  • NA0B
    NA0B Member ✭✭
    edited January 2020
    Jim, what Linux distribution? How about wine in Mac OS?
    Thanks

  • Bill -VA3WTB
    Bill -VA3WTB Member ✭✭✭
    edited June 2020
    If someone has SSDR working on Linux perhaps they can share how they did it?
    Like I said I have tried,,,yes SSDR will install but it will not really work because of missing needed drivers.
  • Chris de Voogd
    Chris de Voogd Member ✭✭
    edited March 2019
    I run SSDR on the new MacMini with Boot Camp / Windows 10. Till now never had any update problem.
  • Mark_WS7M
    Mark_WS7M Member ✭✭✭
    edited March 2019
    Also interested.  Have some local flex friends that are linux users
  • Jim  KJ7S
    Jim KJ7S Member ✭✭
    edited March 2019
    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
    Rick - W5FCX Member ✭✭
    edited March 2019
    Some screenshots would be interesting
  • Bill -VA3WTB
    Bill -VA3WTB Member ✭✭✭
    edited March 2019
    Perhaps WX7Y could give step by step instructions?
    I can not get .net framework 4 installed that will permit me to install SSDR.

    It says a newer version of .net or the same is already installed, so instalation will stop.

    There are all kinds of problems running SSDR in Linux..
  • WX7Y
    WX7Y Member ✭✭✭✭
    edited June 2020
    you will need to completely remove what ever DOT net to get dot.net 4.0 to install

    Email me direct if you want my instructions. 
    I WON'T take up any band width on the FLEX system for this. 
    you can find my Email in my original post.
    73's
    Bret
    WX7Y

  • Michael Coslo
    Michael Coslo Member ✭✭
    edited March 2019
    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
    Dave - W6OVP Member ✭✭
    edited March 2019
    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
    WX7Y Member ✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2019
    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
    Oxford English Member ✭✭
    edited March 2019
    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
    Ted VE3TRQ Member ✭✭✭
    edited June 2020
    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
    Bill -VA3WTB Member ✭✭✭
    edited March 2019
    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
    Ted VE3TRQ Member ✭✭✭
    edited March 2019
    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
    WX7Y Member ✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2019
    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
    Ted VE3TRQ Member ✭✭✭
    edited March 2019
    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. image 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
    Norm - W7CK Member ✭✭
    edited December 2019
    Running smart sdr in a virtual box is not really running ssdr on linux. You still running Windblows
  • Ted  VE3TRQ
    Ted VE3TRQ Member ✭✭✭
    edited March 2019
    Yup. But at least it’s running under your full control, resettable at will.
  • Bill -VA3WTB
    Bill -VA3WTB Member ✭✭✭
    edited March 2019
    The hole idea is to not use Windows at all, may as well just stay with Windows anyways.
  • Ted  VE3TRQ
    Ted VE3TRQ Member ✭✭✭
    edited March 2019
    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
    Norm - W7CK Member ✭✭
    edited March 2019
    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
    Glenn Depp Member ✭✭
    edited May 2020

    With all the updates windows is doing now and what looks like will become a yearly subscription operating system I FULLY welcome SDR for Linux.  I look forward to being able to run this in Linux as I am currently installing my first Linux operating system.
  • James Whiteway
    edited June 2020
    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
    Darryl Mann Member
    edited June 2020
    Best bet is for someone to make a "AppImg" that can be run under any flavor of linux.

  • David - KO1C
    David - KO1C Member ✭✭
    edited June 2020
    Without meaning to, he's probably predicting the future.

  • KK0U
    KK0U Member
    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

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