AmateurRadio.com

Welcome to Episode #062 of Linux in the Ham Shack. Today Richard has decided he’s going to talk a bit (OK, a lot) about Winlink, AX.25 and packet radio under Linux. In the meantime, I get to discuss some useful Linux utilities like modprobe, wget and the SysV init script system. So get comfortable in your easy chair, put on your headphones and relax for a deep dive into packet radio with Linux. Captain Nemo has nothing on us.

73 de The LHS Guys

Promo:

• Ohio LinuxFest will be held September 9-11, 2011 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, OH.
• Linux in the Ham Shack promo from the Low SWR guys. Thanks!

Announcements:

• Our best wishes for a speedy recovery to MadamMoo!
• Our regular hosts are joined by Torsten, XE2/K5TOR.

Topics:

• Firefox 4 has been out a while, and version 5 beta is available at the time of recording. Our hosts discuss. The first thing Russ noted, was the increase in speed! Look for versions 6 and 7 before the end of the year. (As I write this, version 6 has been released. -Ed.)
• Kudos to The Linux Link Tech Show (TLLTS) and their interest in amateur radio. One of the hosts, Joel, aka “gorkon”, W3RAZ, has recorded a couple podcasts for Hacker Public Radio: Episode #738 is an introduction to amateur radio, and Episode #756 explains the basics of radio. Another TLLTS host, Allan, is N3MAW.
• Leo LaPorte of This Week in Tech has started a podcast about amateur radio. (It’s Ham Nation with Bob Heil, K9EID, and Gordon West, WB6NOA, under the TWiT banner and with Leo’s support and occasional participation. By the time you read this, Leo has his license and is now W6TWT. -Ed.)
• Russ describes the Linux from Scratch project that provides instructions for building your own custom Linux system, entirely from source code. Russ plans on providing more details of his experience with Linux from Scratch on a future episode of the QSK Netcast.
• Our hosts tried Ubuntu 11.04, Natty Narwhal, and discuss it, good and bad.
• Russ also tried Fedora 15, and liked the default desktop environment.
• Richard likes PCLinuxOS, and SUSE Linux.
• Linux Mint gets a mention, too.
• In future LHS episodes, look for information about svxlink, an EchoLink client for Linux, and codec2, an Open Source and patent-free audio codec.
• Torsten has had problems installing CQRLog on a 64-bit machine. Russ recommends installing the ia32-libs package to provide the needed 32-bit libraries. In Debian-based distributions, you can install that package with the command “apt-get install ia32-libs”. More information about running 32-bit programs on a 64-bit machine with Debian-based Linux is here.

Contact Info:

• Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
• 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:

• “Vacancy” by Assembly Line Gods, from their album Control (Volume 1).
• The music in Episode #063 is provided with kind permission by Assembly Line Gods from their recent EP release, Control (Volume 1). The track is called “Vacancy.” Follow ALG on Twitter and Facebook and buy their new tracks at iTunes. Thanks, guys!

Hello, new and faithful listeners. Welcome to the sixty-first-eth installment of Linux in the Ham Shack. If anyone has been paying attention lately, a lot of podcasters are packing up their gear and moving on to other things. Many more have moved into much more irregular release cycles. We on the other hand are coming back stronger than ever. New releases are on the way. We’ll be back to every two weeks starting with Episode #062 and we’re hitting our stride again. We may not be the best or most listened to podcast out there but at least we still are a podcast. So thanks for tuning in, as always, and please let your ham radio and Linux enthusiast friends know about us. Linux in the Ham Shack lives on. ¡Vámonos!

Introduction:

• Introductions, chit chat, a bit about the Dayton Hamvention, Texas Linuxfest, and the Belton hamfest.
• LHS will be at several events this summer:
  • SouthEast LinuxFest (SELF), June 10-12 in Spartanburg, SC. (Yes, I know, by the time you hear this episode, it’s come and gone.)
  • Huntsville Hamfest August 20-21 in Huntsville, AL.
  • Ohio Linuxfest September 9-11 in Columbus, OH.
  • Stop by and say hello to Russ and Cheryl!
• Richard may be attending the Texoma Hamarama October 21-22 in Ardmore, OK.
• Russ tells us about the sewer failure at Dayton. Only two restrooms in Hara were working Saturday afternoon. Apparently it was fixed by Saturday evening.

Topic: PulseAudio

• Richard’s son is trying to start his own computer repair business and recently he received a call from Misha who wanted him to fix a sound issue on her Sony Vaio, which dual-boots Windows 7 and Ubuntu 11.04. Sound worked fine in Windows, but not in Ubuntu, and she preferred using Ubuntu. After working with the machine for a while, he figured out that PulseAudio was the problem, and replacing it with ALSA fixed it.
• While researching the problem, Richard discovered PulseAudio problems exist on more than just the Sony Vaio. He also found PulseAudio problems with Ubuntu, Fedora, Open Suse 11 or higher, Arch Linux, Zen, and Sabayon, and with both Gnome and KDE desktops.
• Two sites in particular were helpful:
  • [SOLVED] sony vaio sound problem
  • Fix Ubuntu Audio Problem in Sony Vaio
• Russ and Richard discuss Linux audio problems, and the current state of PulseAudio, particularly with WINE. Russ notes that he’s had no sound problems under Linux Mint.
• Russ describes various ways to troubleshoot PulseAudio issues on Linux.
• In Gnome, right-click on the speaker icon and select sound preferences. From here you can examine the hardware, choose a sound profile, configure your inputs and outputs, and see which applications are using PulseAudio.
• There are a variety of utilities useful for debugging PulseAudio problems:
  • paman (PulseAudio Manager Utility). Install it with the command “apt-get install paman”. It tells you a lot of information about PulseAudio, including “sinks” and “sources”. You can also use it to set volume levels with greater control than with the desktop audio manager.
  • paprefs (PulseAudio Preferences Panel) Install it with the command “apt-get install paprefs”. Allows you to perform advanced functions such as connecting PulseAudio servers together, send sound from one server to another, create virtual sound devices, etc.
  • pavucontrol (PulseAudio Volume Control) Install it with the command “apt-get install pavucontrol”. Allows you to see every application that accesses PulseAudio, set volume levels per channel, and other configuration settings.
  • pavumeter (PulseAudio VU Meter) Install it with the command “apt-get install pavumeter”. Creates a VU Meter window that displays your audio levels.
  • padsp, pamon Install with the command “apt-get install pulseaudio-utils”. pamon will allow you to capture the bytes of audio data. padsp allows you to pipe the audio from an application that does not normally support PulseAudio, into PulseAudio.
  • Remember, you can use the “man” command for help on any of these commands. For example, in a terminal type “man padsp” for help on the padsp utility.
• Check out Ted’s sound card programs for ham radio. They are all now PulseAudio compatible.

Contact Info:

• Contact Richard at [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
• 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.

Okay, so we managed to take a two month hiatus and we didn’t even know it was going to happen. Happen it did, though. Because of that, Episode #062 and #063 will have some dated information but most of it has been edited out and the stuff contained within that will be timeless has been left in.

I (Russ) will admit to shirking my duties to some degree. Many things are going on in my life right now and I just didn’t want to deal with editing or recording of late. Richard has also had his share of life problems and we’ve both been out of pocket a few times between Episode #061 and now. I suspect our absence is coming to an end and regular production of LHS will soon resume.

Thanks to everyone for hanging in there with us. We now return you to your irregularly scheduled podcast.

73 de The LHS Guys

Linux in the Ham Shack would like to be involved in more community events and we need your help to do it. Please check out our new Ambassador Program and let us know if you’re willing to participate. Help us make the world a better place for free software and amateur radio.

73 de The LHS Guys

Promo:

• The 3rd annual Southeast Linuxfest is scheduled for June 10-12, 2011 in Spartanburg, SC.

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 [email protected], Russ at [email protected], or both at the same time at [email protected].
• 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.