Xoom Quad Band Int'l Armel Running OpenCPN

[armido]

I have succeeded installing OpenCPN on my Motorola Xoom Quad Band Int'l Tablet and will be posting steps I took to help others avoid problems I encountered along the way to success. Need a break now though!

Armido

[bobmor99]

Hi Armido,
Looking forward to your details. Can your Xoom handle vector charts?
Cheers

[armido]

Bobmor99

It is OpenCPN that manages vector charts, aka C-Map charts, not the Xoom.

You are viewing this thread for one of several reasons:


You are considering replacing your laptop with a tablet because the tablet is more compact and energy efficient than the computer; but before making the move want to be sure OpenCPN can be installed and work on an armel tablet.

You already own a tablet and want to install OpenCPN, but presently no windows, .deb or .rpm package is available for your tablets armel architecture. Unfortunately, if you have a M.S. Windows system this thread will not help you in any way. If your tablet has the Android operating system read on - because at it's core Android sports a Linux "kernel".

You have nothing better to do than spend your time taking risks; dismantling things to see how they work and whether or not you can put them back together...

If you are a big risk taker no amount of precautionary drivel will deter you from doing what is necessary to get OpenCPN on your tablet. As for the rest of you, take heed. Initial steps required to get OpenCPN on your tablet are risky. You can end up with a relatively expensive paperweight, and in the very least will end up with an unenforceable warranty on your tablet. So, if life and vessel insurance and warranties are indespensable necessities in your life you may not want to proceed. If you have never seen a prompt ( > ) or used a console command to accomplish work on a computer; and are comfortable yeilding control over your computer's system to Android, Microsoft Windows or Mac OS, you may not want to proceed. On the other hand, if you want to "break out of jail" and do what you wish with your tablet then read on! Still, if you are not already a Linux user with experience using a console and Linux (Unix) commands, doing everything necessary to get OpenCPN on your tablet comes with a relatively steep learning curve.

I encourage you to relax and approach this challenge as you would any sailing endeavor. Maintain your sense of humour,and above all keep trying if at first you don't succeed. Be patient, and take frequent breaks. Challenges always seem easier to surmount, and confusion yeilds to clarity by the time you return. Good luck!

Step 1:

If you have any version of Motorola Xoom you will want to begin here: [Root] Universal Xoom Root - ANY XOOM ANY UPDATE - xda-developers

Note: You will need to work from a desktop computer with the mentioned software installed on the desktop. Also, download the necessary files to your tablet from the "Google Play" Market. Simply click on the Google Play icon on your tablet and use the search engine to locate the files.

Follow the instrictions to a "T", and take your time.

Once you have successfully "rooted" your tablet and by doing so voided your warranty go to step 2. Note that you can restore your tablet to it's original state if you need to - at a cost. You may have to start over if you want OpenCPN on the tablet again. There is a backup program available from the Google Store called "Titanium Backup" that may back up your Linux installation (including OpenCPN). But it will probably be the non-free version. I do not know it's capabilities at the moment but intend to find out.

Step 2: At the moment there is no Linux flavor available that can replace Android outright. There have been successful installations, but due to the nagging problem of proprietary drivers, some hardware won't work. If you can live without sound, wireless and such you may want to give it a go. Risks will be considerable though. Instead, I recommend you download from Google Play the "Linux Installer" by Galoula. Note that there is another installer available "Complete Linux Installer" with good reviews, based upon the same principle as "Linux Installer". Have not used it though, which is why I recommend the latter.

Install from Google Play the Android Terminal Emulator and Android VNC Viewer. The viewer is necessary to access your Linux desktop. The terminal is not only used in conjunction with Linux Installer, but essential later on when we will install OpenCPN.

Once you have Downloaded and installed one of the two installers available from Google Play, install the distribution and desktop you prefer. I had trouble trying to install combinations other than Debian XFCE. So, at this time I recommend installing Debian "Stable" (Squeeze) and XFCE.

Follow instructions from inside Linux Installer, use the package manager from inside the installer to start ssh and VNC (not same thing as Android VNC), update apt and upgrade your system. If you have followed instructions, ssh and vnc are loaded - the settings for Android VNC are correct you should see an XFCE desktop when you click on "connect" from inside Android VNC.

Istructions for installing OpenCPN to follow. Need one of those breaks I mentioned.

[armido]

O.K., Moving on now to getting the files needed to install OpenCPN on your tablet and doing the actual installation. You will need a good internet connection from here on.

Open the Android Terminal. You will see a blank screen with the aforementioned prompt >. Type into the terminal "linuxchroot" and press <enter>
Your Linux file system will be 'mounted' and rendered fully accessible. To view the linux filesystem structure open Ghost Commander and 'navigate' to /data/local/mnt/Linux. Be careful in whatever you do while navigating the file system and issuing commands from within the terminal. You are working at all times within a 'root' environment and can destroy your installation! Just saying. Take a look around. The file 'home' filesystem is where you will be installing OpenCPN source files and working on them from within the terminal, not Ghost Commander. Note that you can create directories, copy, move, rename and delete files from within Ghost commander as part of this project. But the rest must be done from within the terminal.


OpenCPN has a number of "dependencies that must be downloaded and installed in your new Linux system. We also need to install files to enabling compiling OpenCPN and other files....,, So, lets do this first.

Copy and paste this into the terminal at the prompt;

"apt-get install libglu1-mesa libgl1-mesa-glx zlib1g bzip2 gpsd gpsd-clients xcalib libgtk2.0-dev gettext git-core cmake libgps-dev build-essential wx-common libglu1-mesa-dev libgtk2.0-dev libbz2-dev libtinyxml-dev libsdl1.2debian_all debhelper dev-scripts dh-make dpkg-dev fakeroot lintian diff patch" <enter>

Files above will have dependencies of their own so more files than listed above will download and install.

have any problems here, let me know...


Enter the '/home' directory from within the terminal by typing "cd /home" <enter> then type "mkdir Downloads" <enter> Repeat this step to create "Downloads2" and "Downloads3"

Next type "cd Downloads" <enter>

Again, make certain you are connected to the internet.

Copy and paste into the terminal this command:
"git clone git://opencpn.git.sourceforge.net/gitroot/opencpn/opencpn" then press <enter>

Wait until the download stops, then type "cd Downloads2" <enter>

Copy and paste this command at the prompt:
"git clone git://gitorious.org/wxwidgets/wxwidgets.git" then press <enter>

Wait until the download stops then type at the prompt: "cd wxwidgets" <enter>

Copy and paste this command at the prompt;
"./configure --enable-plugins --enable-menus --enable-tooltips --enable-gif --enable-xpm --with-gtk=2 --with-libpng --with-libjpeg --with-libtiff --with-opengl --with-sdl --with-regex --with-zlib" <enter> (Note that the period before "/" must be included!)

When the configuration process stops type at the terminal prompt: "make debian-dist" <enter>

If the make debian dist process stops without errors, type at the terminal prompt: "cd _dist_dir" <enter>
Then "cd wxGTK-2.9.2" <enter>

"./configure" <enter>
"make" <enter>
"make install" <enter>

At the terminal prompt copy and paste: "update-alternatives --install /usr/local/bin/wx.config wx.config /usr/local/lib/wx/config/gtk2-ansi-release-2.8 2" <enter>

At the terminal prompt copy and paste: "update-alternatives --install /usr/local/lib/wx.pth wx.pth /usr/local/lib/ 2" <enter>

Same as above: "update-alternatives --list wx.config" <enter>
This step should confirm wx.config path is as above
Samo: "update-alternatives --list wx.pth" <enter>
Should confirm wx.pth as above.

Unless I have missed something, we should be able to move on to doing OpenCPN next!

[armido]

Configuring and installing OpenCPN:

Assume in commands below you have the Linux system mounted ("linuxchroot") from within Android Terminal and commands are being entered at the prompt>

"cd /home/Downloads/opencpn" <enter>
"mkdir build" <enter>
"cd build" <enter>
"cmake -D CMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE:BOOL=TRUE /home/Downloads/opencpn" <enter>

Provided the last command executes with no errors, continue to the next command.

"make" <enter>

If the "make" command continues to 100%, OpenCPN has installed and is ready to use.

You are already working in a mounted Linux system so all you need to do now is start "Linux Installer", Switch to the Distribution Manager by clicking on the divided rectangular icon at the bottom of GUI. Click on "ssh". Click on "vnc". Open Android VNC Viewer. Make sure the settings are:

Name: "Copy of linuxchroot", Address: "127.0.0.1", Port: "5900", User Name: "linuxchroot" and enter a password you will remember. The same password must be used in the VNC server.

From within Android VNC Viewer click on "connect". You should see the XFCE desktop.

If so, you will most likely find OpenCPN in the main menue under "Education" of all places!

Click on the OpenCpN icon and with luck the program will start.

Enjoy!

[bobmor99]

Hi armido,
That's a great piece of work you did.

I mistakenly thought the Xoom had the TI OMAP chipset and that you might have run into similar problems I am having trying to compile OCPN (aka "O" (maybe one day it will be shortened to "o")) natively on the Beagleboard-xM (BBXM). ticki has already successfully cross-compiled O for the BBXM and made the image available. (Thanks again, tiki.) I'm trying to keep it simple and do everything on the BBXM. Vector charts don't display on O/BBXM, hence my question about vector charts on O/Xoom.

I'm just a daysailor and am mainly tinkering with O/BBXM to learn about hardware and open source software development. That's the itch I'm scratching. Maybe one day I'll get good enough to submit a patch.

Cheers and regards

[armido]

FORGOT TO RECOMMEND YOU SIZE THE LOOP FILE TO EIGHT GIGABYTES

[ted073]

Armido,

At this very moment i'm following your instructions on installing OpenCPN on the Xoom!

I'm wondering how long the 'make' command will take for wxwidgets and OpenCPN.

Also I had some trouble with the 'git' command but that's because I have a very bad internet connection. I am on board now and use a usb internet dongle, so I downloaded the .tar sourcecode from sourceforge.

I hope to get everything running, wonderful work you've done.

[armido]

Ted,

You may have a problem with the cumpressed version of OpenCPN. Hope not. But whenever possible you should use the most recent source code, which comes from the git repositoty.

wxWidgets can take more than an hour depending upon your computer's cpu type and amount of ram. OpenCPN, a couple of minutes at most. Please note my very last post which corrects an oversight. The reason I recommend an 8 Gb loop filesystem is because you will be downloading a lot of development files, may want to try more than one window manager (Kde and or Gnome), and while you can place your charts on an external sd card, you may decide to put them in OpenCPN's default location - /usr/local/... I use an external micro sd.

Your provider may be blocking git... I curcumvented my provider by installing "orbot" from Google Play. Worked like a charm!

Contact me if you need more assistance.

Armido

[armido]

NOTE! ATTENTION PLEASE!

...there is one more very important command following "make" when compiling OpenCPN! What else but "make install" !

Sorry for the oversight folks. Must have needed a break!

armido

[armido]

Another NOTE!

If you attempt to start OpenCPN from the main menu it is likely the program may not start. This is because the menu item has registered "opencpn" as /usr/bin/opencpn" which is incorrect. I could find no method for changing this in the main menu. So, create a desktop shortcut to /usr/local/bin/opencpn. You may also start the program from within the console (aka terminal) by typing at the prompt > "/usr/local/bin/opencpn" <enter>.

armido

[nohal]

armido...
To install to /usr, which is where packaged software should be installed according to LSB, use

cmake -DPREFIX=/usr -D CMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE:BOOL=TRUE /home/Downloads/opencpn

when configuring the build
The shortcut will work then...

Pavel

[armido]

Pavel,

Thanks for the input. Happy to know people who actually know what they are doing are reading this thread. Too bad there appears to be no option for editing already posted comments. I'd sure like to add the comments regarding recommended size of loop file and "make install" where they belong!

Interesting that OpenCPN has defaulted to /usr/local ever since I compiled and installed my first attempt. Also, is a program compiled and installed from source considered a "packaged" program like .rpms & .debs?

Thanks,
armido

[nohal]

armido...
Well, this is kind of a mess and our installation procedures are not yet 100% in this respect - the stuff you manually build and install with "make install" can go to usr/local without problem, but anything from a .deb or .rpm should end up in /usr, otherwise tools like lintian report tons of errors and for example latest Ubuntu refuses to install such a package through the gui tool.
cmake is caching the values, so once the prefix is set, it stays set until you delete CmakeCache.txt or change it - Means once you used -DPREFIX, it should persist and not reset to the default /usr/local even if you invoke just cmake .. next time

Maybe it would be good to transfer your posts to the developer part of the wiki at opencpn.org (anybody with an account there can do it) as the knowledge accumulated in the threads tends to get lost and, as you've noticed, can't be improved over time. I will have more to this subject myself as soon as I dig my Snowball from under that pile of garbage that accumulated over it during the past few months

Pavel

[armido]

Pavel,

Any easy way to transfer this thread over to opencpn.org, or do I have to copy and paste?!

armido