Linux based Navigation Software for the eepc and XO laptop

[cagney]

Originally Posted by phiggins

As I said previously I tried to install the seafarer_free_edition-1.5.2-1.i386.rpm and had to get a bunch of dependencies and when I installed those they asked for others and so on. I finally gave up... went back to SeaClear...I'm not a professional.

I wrote my own AIS/GPS simulator to test these programs out without having to be on the boat. Surprising the things you find when you can see actual targets and get CPA/TCPA alarms. I found one problem with SeaClear is that is doesn't have sound on the XO when running under wine.


Paul

I'm certainly not a Linux professional, but I have used Linux for many years.
Seafarer is Qt based. Did Qt come up as a dependency when you tried the rpm? If not, see what happens if you first install Qt via yum, and then try the seafarer rpm. How does yum handle dependencies on XO/sugar? One problem might be space ... Qt is a big package.
Another alternative for XO is to give up Sugar and install for example Kubuntu(Ubuntu based on QT/Kde) and only install what you need for navigation. Check this out: One Laptop Per Child News on Software - Operating System.

It could be fun to test your simulator on SeaFarer, but you only have an windows exe file on your site . If you would publish a Linux version, or mail me one, I'll have a go.

Thomas

[alanwesthagen]

Cagney -- I congratulate you on your remarkable good fortune. You seem to have a system with all the support libraries that Barco requires but does not bother to list or document on their site.

You talk so glibbly about the XO. Do you have one? You would do a great service if you could install Barco SeaFarer on an XO and then tell the rest of the world how you did that. I cannot find any information on Barcos web sites. Just claims. No information. No reports of anyone who has accomplished this.

[phiggins]

Cagney,
I got the Qt tar and installed it on my XO (what a monster that Qt is, took 10 minutes to install) then i tried to install SeaFarer but it asked for the same dependencies as I stated in my first post.

I sent you my simulator to test. Hope you can get it to work. This is the GUI version that lists all the AIS information for each ship, has the capability to pause the script and gives sound warning for CPA/TCPA alerts.

Paul

[phiggins]

I decided to boot Ubuntu and finally got SeaFarer installed after installling two dependencies. Trouble is it won't start. I found it in the proper library and double clicked on it (or right click and selected Execute) but it doesn't start... nuthin. Rebooted Sugar

Paul

[Kerry]

Paul,
It sounds like there are a number of us XO owners who recognize the environmental similarities between developing countries and life onboard, and have donated to the G1G1 program to get these rugged little efficient computers. I am one who is following the threads but waiting for the pioneers like you to come to some conclusions. Have you given up on Barcosoft? or are you still hoping to get it working? The successes you have reported on the other thread on XO Navigation are compelling and I am tempted to bite the bullet and install Wine/SeaClear. Is your SeaFarer interest based primarily on the elimination of Wine? thanks,
Kerry

[phiggins]

Kerry,
Good question. I would prefer to use a Linux based piece of software because I'm not all that thrilled with Wine. Most of the things I tried to port to wine on the XO didn't work and I spent many frustrating hours trying different things to get them working. SeaClear does seem to be an exception but for the sound problem which is a big one if you want to use AIS because without it you haven't a clue when an CPA/TCPA alert occurs. But the sound problem may not be a wine problem. I also couldn't get the sound working with Mariner and its a Linux program.

I was hoping that Seafarer would have everything working including the sound. The support from Barco doesn't seem to great. As someone else reported there seems to be no response from them here or on their website.

After studying a few navigation programs by running my simulator against them I think SeaClear has some pretty neat things. One is the way it identifies AIS CPA/TCPA situations by drawing circles ahead of the boat where the collision may occur. It would have been interesting to see how Seafarer did it.

I haven't gave up yet trying to install Seafarer on the XO but for now I'm going to go back to SeacLear and hope someone else with more Linux knowledge then me can resolve the installation problems with Seafarer. At least with my simulator I can povide sound for SeaClear when a CPA/TCPA alert occurs. I may enhance the simulator to be a frontend for SeaClear in real situations.

Paul

[Viking Sailor]

Paul

Have you tried the wine that comes with Picsas (photo software) come from Google? I checked out their web site and they have made over 1000 patches to wine. It was reported on a the computer forum that it worked better then Crossover's wine.

Paul

[cagney]

Originally Posted by phiggins

I decided to boot Ubuntu and finally got SeaFarer installed after installling two dependencies. Trouble is it won't start. I found it in the proper library and double clicked on it (or right click and selected Execute) but it doesn't start... nuthin. Rebooted Sugar

Paul

Paul, instead clicking on the program, try to run it from the command line. You will then get some feedback as to what is going on. I think I had the same problem. In the end it was just a question
of creating the proper symlink to a library.

Thomas

[phiggins]

cagney,

You're right it does give me more info from the command line. It says:
error while loading shared libraries: libsqlite.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.

Was this the error you got? If so, how did you fix it?

Thanks

paul

[cagney]

Originally Posted by phiggins

cagney,

You're right it does give me more info from the command line. It says:
error while loading shared libraries: libsqlite.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.

Was this the error you got? If so, how did you fix it?

Thanks

paul

Yes, that was my error! From Baŕcos comunity site:
"Please make sure that libqt3-mt-sqlite is also installed on your system. This is the sqlite plugin for Qt and is required by Sefarer."
Once you done this you do have a version of libsqlite.so.xx installed on your system. This is what I did:
locate libsqlite.so (I ran this command)
response:
/usr/lib/libsqlite.so.0.8.6
/usr/lib/dbd/libsqlite.so

All that is needed now is to create a softlink :
ln -s /usr/lib/libsqlite.so.0 /usr/lib/libsqlite.so.0.8.6
Adjust according to your own system!

[phiggins]

Cagney followed your instructions I got the libqt3-mt-sqlite installed it and did a :
locate libsqlite
/usr/lib/libsqlite3.so.0
/usr/lib/libsqlite3.so.0.8.6

then I linked:
ln -s /usr/lib/libsqlite3.so.0.8.6 /usr/lib/libsqlite.so.0
this is opposite the way you said, the other way gives error.

Then I was able to bring up Seafarer under Ubuntu OK. Loaded a chart, defined a port then started my simulator and for a few brief seconds it worked, I could see my ship on the chart. But then it got:
./seafarer: symbol lookup error: ./seafarer: undefined symbol: sqlite_open
then it died.

I also notice it has these messages when it first Seafarer starts (event without sending it anything):
Session management error: Authentication Rejected. reason : None of the authentication protocols are supported and host-based authenication failed.
QSqlQuery::value: not positioned on a valid record - got this 4 times

I tried uninstalling Seafarer and reinstalling but I still get the above messages on startup and if I try to snd it messges it dies with the same error.

I will post this on Barco's website too.

Paul

[phiggins]

One other thing. I changed the simulator to only send GPS RMC sentences without any AIS messages and it works OK.

Does anyone else who has Seafarer installed get those startup messages? Must have something to do with sqlite.

Paul

[cagney]

Originally Posted by phiggins

Cagney followed your instructions I got the libqt3-mt-sqlite installed it and did a :
locate libsqlite
/usr/lib/libsqlite3.so.0
/usr/lib/libsqlite3.so.0.8.6

then I linked:
ln -s /usr/lib/libsqlite3.so.0.8.6 /usr/lib/libsqlite.so.0
this is opposite the way you said, the other way gives error.

Then I was able to bring up Seafarer under Ubuntu OK. Loaded a chart, defined a port then started my simulator and for a few brief seconds it worked, I could see my ship on the chart. But then it got:
./seafarer: symbol lookup error: ./seafarer: undefined symbol: sqlite_open
then it died.

I also notice it has these messages when it first Seafarer starts (event without sending it anything):
Session management error: Authentication Rejected. reason : None of the authentication protocols are supported and host-based authenication failed.
QSqlQuery::value: not positioned on a valid record - got this 4 times

I tried uninstalling Seafarer and reinstalling but I still get the above messages on startup and if I try to snd it messges it dies with the same error.

I will post this on Barco's website too.

Paul

I know...I mix up the syntax for ln some times

I followed your instructions to get your simulator going.It works, and I can confirm that SeaFarer crashes the second it receives AIS/GPS messages from your simulator.

If I start SeaFarer with the simulator going you can just see the position and surrounding ships for maybe 1 sec, then...crash.
If I stop the simulator SeaFarer works alright, but crashes once I start the simulator.
My error messages where like this:
QSqlQuery::value: not positioned on a valid record
QSqlQuery::value: not positioned on a valid record
SQL error: near "'47.51463": syntax error
Segmentation fault

The third line gave different values off course and wasen't always present. The last line is significant though.
From Wikipedia: "A segmentation fault occurs when a program attempts to access a memory location that it is not allowed to access, or attempts to access a memory location in a way that is not allowed..."
So for now I assume that there is an internal problem in SeaFarer.
Paul it will be interesting to see if Barco will answer you on their community forum.

Thomas

[phiggins]

Thomas,

Well good to hear someone else has the same problem. I did some google searchesand I found hits where some people say they get problems using the libsqlite3 rather than libsqlite. In your message before you said you did:
ln -s /usr/lib/libsqlite.so.0.8.6 /usr/lib/libsqlite.so.0
but I did:
ln -s /usr/lib/libsqlite3.so.0.8.6 /usr/lib/libsqlite.so.0

Was yours really libsqlite.so.0.8.6 or was it libsqlite3.so.0.8.6 ?
Just want to see if it 3 version that is causing the problem.

I guess what Seafarer is doing is saving the AIS information in the sql database and when it gets an AIS message it trys to see if its one its has already saved information for.

If you want to see it working with just GPS messages then comment out the "os.write(self.mfd, msg)" in two places.

Paul

[cagney]

Originally Posted by phiggins

Thomas,

Well good to hear someone else has the same problem. I did some google searchesand I found hits where some people say they get problems using the libsqlite3 rather than libsqlite. In your message before you said you did:
ln -s /usr/lib/libsqlite.so.0.8.6 /usr/lib/libsqlite.so.0
but I did:
ln -s /usr/lib/libsqlite3.so.0.8.6 /usr/lib/libsqlite.so.0

Was yours really libsqlite.so.0.8.6 or was it libsqlite3.so.0.8.6 ?
Just want to see if it 3 version that is causing the problem.

I guess what Seafarer is doing is saving the AIS information in the sql database and when it gets an AIS message it trys to see if its one its has already saved information for.

If you want to see it working with just GPS messages then comment out the "os.write(self.mfd, msg)" in two places.

Paul

I really did that ln command!!
The result of this command:
cagney@escape2:~ $ ls -l /usr/lib/libsqlite.so.0
is:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Mar 15 09:50 /usr/lib/libsqlite.so.0 -> libsqlite.so.0.8.6
So I think that the problem is elsewhere.
If you have time and want to punish yourself ,
try to run SeaFarer using the "strace" command!
I'll try the simulator with just the GPS-messages tomorrow or so.