ARRL

Register Account

Login Help

Forum Home - Rules - Help - Login - Forgot Password
Members can access, post and reply to the forums below. Before you do, please first read the RULES.

ARRL version of linux

Jan 24th 2014, 22:48

W0BTU

Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0
I am neither for nor against an "ARRL Linux". But if you want Linux software for amateur radio, this is the best place I've found so far:
http://radio.linux.org.au/. They probably have a larger selection of useful stuff than any Linux distro or repo,

73, Mike
www.w0btu.com
Jan 27th 2014, 23:24

WA6SAZ

Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0
Well it is done - not exactly the best release, but it only took me a few days to write the article and creat an ARRL demo disk. So go to my site kiblerelectronics and follow article #31 to see how simple it is to build your own distro.

for the image:
http://www.kiblerelectronics.com/corner/arrl_lxde_i386.iso
for the article:
http://www.kiblerelectronics.com/corner/ccii_31.html
have fun...
Jan 27th 2014, 23:40

WA6SAZ

Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0
Thanks W0BTU for pointing out the AU site. I have been there many times before and was not impressed. I mean when was the last time you saw someone talking about the linux 2.0 kernel? Their latest linux ham distro is dated 2010 and I saw one program dated 1998. I remember downloading some of their programs and being unable to use them since they hadn't been updated. I mention this in my article, that selecting ham packages is a problem, since many are not maintained anymore and I only want current or active stuff. After all you want to be able to do an "apt update" and get security or program patches if needed....
Jan 28th 2014, 16:53

aa6e

Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0
Bill -

I tried out your iso on a new virtual machine under VirtualBox. I could get it to work with the live 486 option, but it doesn't seem to respond to the "install" or "graphical" menu options. Maybe there's something odd about the vm environment, but for now I can see what's what with the live option.

Congratulations on figuring out how to do all this. It's probably not true rocket science, but there are lots of details to be managed.

I would be a little cautious about labeling it as "ARRL", since it's not (yet?) an ARRL project.

I am still unclear why we would advise ARRL to do this -- and take on the user support burden -- when there are many fine existing distributions with their own active ecosystems for support and updates. The problem the League might be more equipped to deal with would be publishing certain Linux applications and injecting them into the appropriate repositories. It turns out there is a good system for Ubuntu, which I think I mentioned, in their “Ubuntu Amateur Radio Software Updates” team -- https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-hams-updates. They publish a "ppa" (supplemental repository) with lots of ham apps: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-hams-updates/+archive/ppa.

The one issue that can be a pain is the long pipeline for getting updates into the major releases -- many months. (Although Ubuntu is on a 6-month release schedule). The PPA system bypasses the pipeline and keeps you pretty well up to date, though it may not be supported as well as the mainline releases.

It is useful to be able to run on really old hardware (486), but I'm not sure that the extra hardware support over, say, Xubuntu is worth the effort since Ubuntu will probably run on anything less than 10 years old. (?)

Thanks for pushing the envelope on ham software!

73 Martin AA6E
Jan 30th 2014, 23:07

WA6SAZ

Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0
Thanks Martin - good catch and good reply.

I caught the missing install stuff - seems default is no install - so have updated images - provide both with and without install now. I also aded the virtual box images for both xfce and lxde desktops. I added a commentary on ubuntu vs debian which points out that ubuntu and xubuntu are really different distro from different teams with different release cycles. I suggest too that it is not a good idea to be using something derivied from a testing branch.

I keep mentioning it - that my biggest problem is figuring out which packages the ARRL wants people to use for articles, but another problem is copyright of material that would be on any official ARRL disk - I can't do it - they have to do it as the owner of the material. Yes - I need to add - "a suggested ARRL demo disk."

So stop by the site again - it has some updates - and I expect to make more over the next few weeks as we find more missing items, and correct a few typos that I am sure are there.
Oct 16th 2014, 23:06

KF6UX

Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0
Has the ARRL ever done a QST quick stats for the computer operating systems in the shack? Windows vs Apple vs Linux and the various versions of Linux. Have been doing some testing with Fedora 20, Debian 7.5 and Ubuntu (Andy's KB1OIQ ham radio version).

73'
Dick KF6UX
Oct 28th 2014, 14:09

WB1GCM

Super Moderator

Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0
Quick Stats suggestion has been passed along to the ARRL Editorial Department
Dec 23rd 2014, 15:33

N0NB

Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0
There is now a Debian Pure Blend for amateur radio:

http://blends.debian.org/hamradio/

At this time it is experimental per the Web page. Also, for anyone wishing to get involved, check out:

https://wiki.debian.org/DebianHams/

From monitoring the mailing list, Iain, 2M0STB, is the main person working on the ham radio blend and appears to welcome additional help.

I am not a member of the team, BTW, just an interested observer.

73, Nate
N0NB.us
Jan 12th 2017, 21:06

WA6SAZ

Joined: Apr 4th 1998, 00:00
Total Topics: 0
Total Posts: 0
Been busy for most of 2015/16 and starting to catch back up with things. Went to the blend site and they have a Debian 8.5 that seems
to have everything, Their project looks goods and should all be a part
of the next release stretch much later this year. I have some updates on my web site and will do more work on blend later. For now their live disk seems to be a good starting point.

Back to Top

EXPLORE ARRL

Instragram     Facebook     Twitter     YouTube     LinkedIn