Tag: svxlink

LHS Episode #068: Hell Sheep

Posted on by Russ Woodman

And finally the podcast is caught up. All the back episodes have been edited and released and now Russ is taking a break, breathing a little easier and hiding from the hell sheep. In this episode, the hosts talk about the new release of Ubuntu (formal review coming later), the KDE desktop, doing noise cancellation with Audacity and much more. They address feedback from listeners and encourage everyone to support the show by calling in some voice comments, making a donation, becoming a member or purchasing show-related merchandise. Sorry for the advertisement, but sometimes it just has to be done. Thank you for being a listener. Peace, love, ham radio and Linux. Good times.

73 de The LHS Guys

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LHS Show Notes #065

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Introduction:

  • Welcome to another episode of Linux in the Ham Shack.
  • Richard has moved to another QTH, and that's provided some challenges.

Announcements:

  • The LHS Ambassador Program needs your help. Russ explains what the LHS Ambassador program is all about and how you can get involved. If you're interested, please contact us at ambassadors@lhspodcast.info
  • Richard gives an update on the archiving of Resonant Frequency, The Amateur Radio Podcast.
  • Richard complains about the Internet service at his new location, and Russ offers a tip about using wget -c for downloading large files.

Topics:

  • Richard updates us on his AX25 project and moving to a new location.
  • The Linux kernel goes 3.0: So what? Russ talks about the new Linux kernel, v. 3.0, recently released, and what you can expect.
  • Your first license: What should you expect? Richard describes the process for getting your first amateur radio license. At one time, proficiency with Morse code was a requirement, but no longer. Richard used the Gordon West training materials to prepare. Having a local radio club or another ham can be a great help. There are two volunteer examiner groups: ARRL and W5YI. Both offer training materials for their examinations. When you go to a testing session, be sure to bring the required materials. After you pass the test, check the FCC website for your callsign. It often shows up just a few days after taking the test. Most importantly, after you get your callsign, get on the air!
  • Revisiting OpenHatch (see episode 059). Russ discusses the OpenHatch project and how you can contribute to the open source community. There is a simple sign-up process to join OpenHatch. You can use OpenID or several other authentication services. OpenID can be used with several web applications. Once you join, you can specify the various skills you have, and the type of assistance you'd like to provide, such as development, bug fixing, documentation, etc. You can also start a new project or link your own project to OpenHatch. You'll find development, testing and documentation opportunities.
  • Russ gives an update on getting SvxLink to work. He had the build of version 11.05 blow up with an error about missing include files. He Googled the error message and found the answer. So he now has a working EchoLink server using SvxLink on 146.225 MHz. So, while it may be a bit challenging to build, it can work and provides a native Linux EchoLink program. (Thanks to Rick, K9AO, who sent an email that gave Russ the push to finish his SvxLink project.)

Feedback:

  • We received a donation from Oscar, N6PAZ. Thank you! If you'd like to donate to the podcast, please click the Donate button on the website. Oscar also visited the LHS booth at Dayton, and left a comment on website expressing his appreciation for the LHS website.
  • F8ARR conducted a poll on his website asking what operating system his visitors used in their ham shacks. He found 23% were using Linux! He also linked back to the LHS site. Thanks!
  • David, N1EA, tells us that the new website for Vinux is vinuxproject.org. Vinux is a remastered version of Ubuntu, optimized for visually impaired users. It includes several ham radio applications, including TLF (The Left Foot), a console-mode logging and contest program.
  • AmiZed (KB2MOB) wrote a very nice review of LHS. Thank you for the kind words!

Contact Info:

  • Contact Richard at kb5jbv@gmail.com, Russ at k5tux@lhspodcast.info, or both at the same time at info@lhspodcast.info.
  • Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
  • Leave us a voice mail at 1-909-LHS-SHOW (1-909-547-7469), or record an introduction to the podcast.
  • Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
  • Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
  • LHS merchandise is available at the Merch link on Web site. Check out the Badgerwear or buy one of the other LHS-branded items at PrintFection.com/lhs or Cafe Press. Thanks!
  • Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music

  • “Complicated Man” by Lejo Harmeson & Essence from the album “Complicated Man,” courtesy of Jamendo.
  • “Don’t Be Harshin’ My Mellow” by Lejo Harmeson & Essence from the album “Complicated Man,” courtesy of Jamendo.

LHS Show Notes #061

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Promo:

Announcements:

  • LHS will be at the Dayton Hamvention, May 20-22, 2011, booth 131 in the North Hall. Russ and Cheryl will be there. Stop and say hello.
  • LHS will also be at the Southeast Linuxfest, June 10-12, 2011, in Spartanburg, SC. Russ will be giving a talk on Saturday, and Russ and Cheryl will be at the LHS booth.

Feedback

  • Dan writes in about a Linux discussion he had at his radio club on March 8, and he mentioned LHS. Dan is also recording his own podcast, "Every Day Linux Use". Good luck with that, Dan, and let us know where to find the podcast when it's released.
  • B.B., KC5PIY, writes about an article in the February 2011 issue of Linux Magazine discussing the OpenHatch project. B.B. shares his thoughts about how OpenHatch may apply to the podcast and amateur radio. Russ and Richard respond. Unfortunately, when this was recorded, the OpenHatch website was down. (From the OpenHatch website: "OpenHatch is an open source community aiming to help newcomers find their way into free software projects.")
  • Rick, K9AO, sent some detailed instructions for building SVXlink, an open source Echolink client, under Linux, and we're including it in it's entirety here. As you may recall from episode 56, Russ had problems with compiling the program.Hi Russ,
    I thought I'd send along the method that I have used to successfully build SVXlink under Mandriva 2010.2 and Ubuntu 10.10. I built the source on Ubuntu 10.10 late last year, so don't have access to that machine at the moment. I built SVXlink from the latest SVN checkout on this Mandriva box, but this method also works fine for the release tarball.

    I don't know if you generally use SVN projects, but I'm thinking that you likely do if you are as interested in helping to shape the development of actively developed projects.

    I create a directory called SVN in my home directory, and then do the SVN checkouts from there. Using the SVN checkout command below will create a subdirectory in the folder that you run it in, and then you can do the install from there. You likely are already familiar with this.

    Here are the specifics:

    --------------------
    Get the source:
    svn co https://svxlink.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/svxlink svxlink
    cd to the below directory:
    Build the source branch in /svxlink/trunk/src
    From there:
    make realclean
    make
    su to root
    make install
    --------------------

    If there are any missing deps, these will show up as the compile progresses. As you already know I am sure, you need the devel packages to match the deps to build from source.

    You will see errors, or what looks like errors as the build progresses after a realclean command. But if all of the needed libs and devels are there, the build process will create the necessary configs and then build the app. If you are concerned that the app might not have built correctly, doing another make will have the terminal scroll through the build process rapidly and then complete. If you get that far, do the root install. Then qtel from the terminal will bring up the client.

    There are a number of branches of the source code for SVXlink in development. I recommend the above main trunk first.

    There haven't been any changes in the Qtel client for a while, so if all you are after is the client part of SVXlink there is no advantage to using cutting-edge SVN. There has been quite a bit of development going on in the server part, so experimenting with the SVN and joining the SVXlink devel list might be a good idea.

    Hope that helps, and keep up the good work.

    Rick, K9AO

Contact Info:

  • Contact Richard at kb5jbv@gmail.com, Russ at k5tux@lhspodcast.info, or both at the same time at info@lhspodcast.info.
  • Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
  • Leave us a voice mail at 417-200-4811, or record an introduction to the podcast.
  • Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
  • Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
  • LHS merchandise is available at the SHOP! link on Web site. Check out the Badgerwear or buy one of the other LHS-branded items at PrintFection.com/lhs or Cafe Press. Thanks!
  • Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.

Music:

  • To be added.

LHS Show Notes #058

Posted on by Russ Woodman

Introduction:

Announcements:

Feedback:

  • Ilan Rabinovitch writes to tell us about the Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE 9X), February 25-27, 2011.
    Thanks, Ilan. Sorry we couldn't include this earlier.
  • Kevin, KB9RLW, writes in response to Episode 51 that he agrees that Linux is a good fit for the amateur radio community for several reasons: added flexibility, security, and more choices. Even Windows 7 is still vulnerable and he points to a recent Sophos test. He keeps a WindowsXP virtual machine, in VirtualBox for those Windows applications he must run, though WINE usually works fine. He's also a fan of The GIMP, OpenOffice, Inkscape, and Scribus. Good points, Kevin, thanks.
  • Dave, KA6YQ, points us to instructions for running the DX Lab suite in Linux, which, unfortunately, just says that you can run their software in a Windows XP virtual machine, which isn't the same as running it on Linux.
  • Rick, K9AO, tells us of a native Linux EchoLink client SvxLink. Russ uses the Windows EchoLink program under WINE, but checked out the program. He tried building it from source, because he's running Debian instead of Fedora, using the posted instructions, without success, but he'll keep trying.
  • Joseph C. sent a donation to the LHS Dayton Hamvention fund. Thank you very much, Joseph!
  • Jonathan Nadeau of Frostbite Systems says that if you want to install the extra codecs in Debian, you must first add the multimedia repository to your sources list file (/etc/apt/sources.list). Add the repo, then install the codecs you want. Linux Mint Debian does much of this by default.
    Richard spent most of a day trying to uninstall Gnash and install Flash... without success. And it's true that IceWeasel and IceDove are the same as Firefox and Thunderbird, but they are one release back. Richard prefers running the current versions.
  • Russ tells us that by adding the following line to your /etc/app/sources.list file 
    deb https://www.debian-multimedia.org testing main non-free

    and then doing an apt-get update, you'll be able to install the non-free codecs.

  • Russ and Richard then talk about removing Gnash: 
    dpkg --remove --force-all gnash
  • Russ recommends GhostBSD if you'd like to play with BSD.
  • John, EI7IG, writes that Episode 53 was a "cracker" and that he's a fan of fldigi, too. He also tells us of APRSISCE32, an APRS client for Windows written by Lynn, KJ4ERJ. John has been running IPV6 in the shack and points us to this article by Geoff Huston. Thanks, John.
  • Larry Bushey and Tom Chaudoir of the Going Linux podcast send their regards.
  • Russ gives an impromptu review of the Linux Reality podcast by Chess Griffin.
  • LHS is a sponsor of the upcoming Indiana LinuxFest, and Lord D. sent his appreciation.
  • Mogens, OZ1AKN, asks for help on a couple of topics.Question: Is it possible to automatically start a program under WINE?
    Russ responds with:To make a program under WINE start at boot, look at /etc/rc.d/skeleton for a sample. Copy the skeleton file to the name of the WINE app you want to start, then edit it to start whatever you want to start, such as /usr/bin/wine/echolink.If you want a program to start when the X session starts, click:
    menu -> system -> preferences -> statup applications -> Add a startup app
    In the dialog, give it a name and add the command: /usr/bin/wine <application path>

    Question: How do you reinstall Windows in a dual-boot setup?

    Russ responds with:

    It's easier to install Windows first, then Linux, as the Linux boot loader will automatically detect Windows and include it in the boot menu. If you install Linux first, then Windows, Windows will overwrite the Linux boot loader.

    Otherwise, if you're trying to repair a dual-boot system, try booting with a system rescue CD to repair GRUB.

    Google "linux boot ntldr " to find instructions to tell the Windows NTLDR to also boot Linux.

  • Tom H. sent a donation to the Dayton Hamvention fund. Thanks, Tom!
  • Frazer writes that the LHS Facebook fanpage seems to be geoblocked in Canada. (Russ has fixed the problem. Thanks, Frazer.)
  • Jim, KG9EQ, discovered the podcast while searching for QSSTV and wrote to share his appreciation for the website. Thanks, Jim.
  • B.B. in the chat room asked if Jerry Taylor has resumed the Practical Amateur Radio podcast. (Richard's comments were recorded before Jerry resumed recording episodes.)
  • Paul, KC9QYB, has resumed his Teen Radio Journey podcast.
  • Brady and Rich recently released another episode of the Low SWR podcast.
  • Finally, a note to the ICQ Podcast: We encourage Colin to talk more!

Contact Info:

  • Contact Richard at kb5jbv@gmail.com, Russ at k5tux@lhspodcast.info, or both at the same time at info@lhspodcast.info.
  • Listen to the live stream every other Tuesday at 8:00pm Central time. Check the LHS web site for dates.
  • Leave us a voice mail at 417-200-4811, or record an introduction to the podcast.
  • Sign up for the LHS mailing list.
  • Sign up for the MAGNetcon mailing list.
  • LHS merchandise is available at the SHOP! link on Web site. Check out the Badgerwear or buy one of the other LHS-branded items at PrintFection.com/lhs or Cafe Press. Thanks!
  • Thanks to Dave from Gamma Leonis for the theme music.