Help / FAQ

[jdeveloper]

Hi,
Which map vendor would you recommend for commercial merchant navigation that will work with OpenCPN? Previously, I used Transas NaviSailor and its maps but I read that the format is not supported by OpenCPN. I need similar professional level maps with merchant navigation routes, port infrastructure, pier numbers, etc. Not sure which map vendor that works with OpenCPN provides this professional level maps. Can you recommend something?

[nohal]

OpenCPN is not a certified Ecdis system, it will not help you fulfill the Ecdis carriage requirements regardless of the charts you use.

OpenCPN supports S57 and S63 charts. Those are the exact charts every certified Ecdis system uses (although sometimes encoded in it's own proprietary format), directly form the hydrographic offices, distributed through the official VARs that cover the whole world. The tested VAR for S63 charts is https://chartworld.com/. They are expensive, except for a few places where they are free (USA, New Zealand, European inland waterways).

Where https://o-charts.org charts are available, the chart material is exactly the same as the S63 charts, only without being recognized officially as fulfilling the carriage requirements. At a fraction of the price of S63.

[bcn]

To add: using S-63 charts OpenCPN is listed as an ECS - not ECDIS - by the IHO.

[Antipole]

Originally Posted by rgleason

Is there some nmea0183 tool that would process VDR nmea file, adding and correcting the checksums? This would be very useful and save time creating test files for instruments and watchdog.

When the JavaScript plugin pushes out an NMEA sentence, it appends or corrects any checksum, so the following script probably does what you want. It runs but I have not fully tested it.

For the fancy line-by-line processing of a potentially very large file, you need the forthcoming plugin v3, available now in my beta repository. Updated User guide here.

File = require("File");

vdrFile = new File("??VDR file");
doLine();

function doLine(){
	sentence = vdrFile.getTextLine();
	OCPNpushNMEA0183(sentence);
	if (!vdrFile.eof()) onSeconds(doLine, 1);
	}

[P_Dub]

After making a few points in making a route the last version 5.9.0-1062, freeze and you can not name the mark. Any one knows the reason for this ( Windows 10 pro )? I would appreciate. Many thanks.

[rgleason]

Awesome Tony. I hadn't thought of javascript. This will save considerable time when making testing files for nmea0183 because right now we have to construct the nmea sentence then cut and paste it into a checksum calculator and then cut the answer and paste it back into the file.


Automation of the checksum for a VDR_pi file will save a lot of time. Thank you.



[QUOTE=Antipole;3865389]When the JavaScript plugin pushes out an NMEA sentence, it appends or corrects any checksum, so the following script probably does what you want. It runs but I have not fully tested it.

For the fancy line-by-line processing of a potentially very large file, you need the forthcoming plugin v3, available now in my beta repository. Updated User guide here.

[CODE]

[jdeveloper]

Originally Posted by nohal

Sure, opencpn is in the bookworm-backports repository for all the architectures Debian still supports as you can see at https://packages.debian.org/bookworm-backports/opencpn

What you won't get are the 3rd party plugins - not being built for 32bit x86 Linux and other exotic architectures as pretty much nobody is using them anymore.

I tried to install that OpenCPN port to 32 bit Linux but UI doesn't launch. I suspect it requires GTK 3 or GTK 4. I have LXDE desktop which is built on GTK2. Can you confirm which desktop would be appropriate to run OpenCPN 32 bit Linux version?

[nohal]

Any, some with glitches. What does "UI doesn't launch" mean exactly? I highly doubt LXDE is the problem, it is what pretty much everybody using OpenCPN on a Raspberry Pi has.

[jdeveloper]

Originally Posted by nohal

Any, some with glitches. What does "UI doesn't launch" mean exactly? I highly doubt LXDE is the problem, it is what pretty much everybody using OpenCPN on a Raspberry Pi has.

I am getting following error when trying to launch OpenCPN installed for Debian Bookworm. I had to download and install it as apt install says there is no version available for this package.

root@Acer:~# opencpn
ALSA lib pcm.c:2666:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.rear
ALSA lib pcm.c:2666:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.center_lfe
ALSA lib pcm.c:2666:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM cards.pcm.side
ALSA lib pcm_route.c:877:(find_matching_chmap) Found no matching channel map
ALSA lib pcm_route.c:877:(find_matching_chmap) Found no matching channel map
ALSA lib pcm_route.c:877:(find_matching_chmap) Found no matching channel map
ALSA lib pcm_route.c:877:(find_matching_chmap) Found no matching channel map
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server request channel
jack server is not running or cannot be started
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server request channel
jack server is not running or cannot be started
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
ALSA lib pcm_oss.c:397:(_snd_pcm_oss_open) Cannot open device /dev/dsp
ALSA lib pcm_oss.c:397:(_snd_pcm_oss_open) Cannot open device /dev/dsp
ALSA lib pulse.c:242:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused

ALSA lib pulse.c:242:(pulse_connect) PulseAudio: Unable to connect: Connection refused

ALSA lib pcm_a52.c:1001:(_snd_pcm_a52_open) a52 is only for playback
ALSA lib confmisc.c:160:(snd_config_get_card) Invalid field card
ALSA lib pcm_usb_stream.c:482:(_snd_pcm_usb_stream_open) Invalid card 'card'
ALSA lib confmisc.c:160:(snd_config_get_card) Invalid field card
ALSA lib pcm_usb_stream.c:482:(_snd_pcm_usb_stream_open) Invalid card 'card'
Cannot connect to server socket err = No such file or directory
Cannot connect to server request channel
jack server is not running or cannot be started
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
JackShmReadWritePtr::~JackShmReadWritePtr - Init not done for -1, skipping unlock
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 0: HDA Intel: ALC260 Analog (hw:0,0)
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 1: HDA Intel: ALC260 Digital (hw:0,1)
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 2: HDA Intel: ALC260 Alt Analog (hw:0,2)
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 3: sysdefault
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 4: front
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 5: surround40
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 6: surround51
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 7: surround71
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 8: iec958
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 9: spdif
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 10: lavrate
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 11: samplerate
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 12: speexrate
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 13: a52
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 14: speex
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 15: upmix
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 16: vdownmix
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 17: default
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 18: dmix
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 0: HDA Intel: ALC260 Analog (hw:0,0)
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 1: HDA Intel: ALC260 Digital (hw:0,1)
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 2: HDA Intel: ALC260 Alt Analog (hw:0,2)
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 3: sysdefault
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 4: front
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 5: surround40
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 6: surround51
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 7: surround71
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 8: iec958
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 9: spdif
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 10: lavrate
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 11: samplerate
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 12: speexrate
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 13: a52
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 14: speex
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 15: upmix
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 16: vdownmix
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 17: default
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 18: dmix
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 0: HDA Intel: ALC260 Analog (hw:0,0)
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 1: HDA Intel: ALC260 Digital (hw:0,1)
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 2: HDA Intel: ALC260 Alt Analog (hw:0,2)
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 3: sysdefault
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 4: front
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 5: surround40
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 6: surround51
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 7: surround71
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 8: iec958
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 9: spdif
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 10: lavrate
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 11: samplerate
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 12: speexrate
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 13: a52
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 14: speex
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 15: upmix
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 16: vdownmix
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 17: default
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 18: dmix
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 0: HDA Intel: ALC260 Analog (hw:0,0)
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 1: HDA Intel: ALC260 Digital (hw:0,1)
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 2: HDA Intel: ALC260 Alt Analog (hw:0,2)
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 3: sysdefault
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 4: front
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 5: surround40
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 6: surround51
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 7: surround71
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 8: iec958
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 9: spdif
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 10: lavrate
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 11: samplerate
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 12: speexrate
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 13: a52
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 14: speex
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 15: upmix
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 16: vdownmix
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 17: default
02:52:53: Debug: Device: 18: dmix
02:52:53: Error: Unable to initialize GTK+, is DISPLAY set properly?

[nohal]

You should not need to download anything if you enabled the bookworm-backports repository.
Anyway, nothing is missing and it should work. Is the DISPLAY environment variable set on your system? If it is not your X session does not work correctly, you may try export DISPLAY=:0.0 before starting OpenCPN.
And of course all this assumes you actually do this in your X session with GUI and a terminal emulator running in a window, not for example connected over SSH or in a text terminal session.

[nohal]

And of course doing all this as root is a very bad idea.

[P_Dub]

Why do you keep making new update indicating making a parallel installation instead of doing upgrade installation? Version 5.9.0-0-1156etc is still like that.

[nohal]

You keep installing the CI builds, those are not regular numbered releases and do not behave as such. Do I really have to tell you this over and over again?

[P_Dub]

I want let you know anymore. Thanks.

[Jon Hacking]

A user on the FB OpenCPN Users forum has found a bug:

If you click the "Change Color Scheme" button on the left once (medium dark) then the text of the not-yet-activated Plugins disappears, because the background becomes the same color as the text.

Repro:

1. From a full-bright display, click the Change Color Scheme button once to get to the medium-dark display
2. Click Options, & go to the Plugins tab
3. Scroll down to see plugins that are not yet activated

Result: The text for those plugins is invisible, as it's the same color as the (now darkened) background.

This is now Github issue 3707.