OpenCPN 5.6.0 Released

[bdbcat]

CatNewBee...
A little more information, please:
1. What device are you using?
2. What Android version?
3. Where are your charts loaded? Internal, or SDCard?



Some tips:
1. Start by removing all charts, and verify that the base maps (green land, blue water) are shown, and zoom/pan correctly.

2. Add one chart directory, report results.
3. Add more charts, etc...


Dave

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

CatNewBee...
A little more information, please:
1. What device are you using?
2. What Android version?
3. Where are your charts loaded? Internal, or SDCard?



Some tips:
1. Start by removing all charts, and verify that the base maps (green land, blue water) are shown, and zoom/pan correctly.

2. Add one chart directory, report results.
3. Add more charts, etc...


Dave

HUAWEI MediaPad M5
Android 8.0.0
on a separate data partition on the SD Card.

Cannot add a directory, as there is no dialog any more to go back to /storage/, instead only device and one partition out of 4 is shown, what should not be used for OpenCPN data, but for other purposes.

However, the installed charts are accessed properly, OpenCPN has write permissions granted on the root of that data partition. Only the dialog doesn't offer it as location anymore.

There is not enough space on the randomly chosen partition from OpenCPN to migrate all the thousends of files, it has other purposes and this is not a viable solution.

Will have to try to find an old apk to revert the installation to an older version without this restrictions.

[bdbcat]

CatNewBee...
Moving to OpenCPN for Android Forum.
Please follow.


Thanks
Dave

[terry g]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

5 December, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

The OpenCPN Development Team is proud to announce the release of OpenCPN Version 5.6.0.
OpenCPN Version 5.6.0 is available for immediate download.

This version is a feature upgrade and maintenance release of OpenCPN.

OpenCPN is a cross platform electronic navigation system (ECS) supporting a variety of cartography standards and hardware interface protocols. Versions are available for linux, Windows, Raspberry Pi, and MacOS computer architectures.

Some features of OpenCPN include:
- Quilted Raster(RNC) and Vector(ENC) digital chart display.
- Support for MBTiles photo and geographical chart overlays.
- Industry standard GPS receiver interfacing, with "moving map" on-screen vessel tracking.
- AIS receiver interfacing with configurable target safety monitoring.
- Integrated Route, Track, and Waypoint database, with industry standard Import/Export capabilities.
- Tide and Current prediction, with on-screen overlay of predicted data.
- Broad International Language support.
- PlugIn architecture allowing on-going third-party functional enhancements.


OpenCPN is released under the GPLV2 license. The executable program and its source code are available for immediate, free, and unlimited download from github.com.

As a successor to OpenCPN Version 5.2.4, OpenCPN Version 5.6.0 contains new features and enhanced functions.
Among them are:

- Incorporate extensive user feedback to resolve various UI flaws and functional errors.

- Support extended display resolutions and modes, including Dark Mode on supported platforms.

- Extend Plugin system program interface, enabling new new classes of Plugins with enhanced features.

- Increased performance in all areas, particularly when using OpenGL graphics acceleration.

- Improved reliability over all supported platforms.


We hope you enjoy the new features of OpenCPN Version 5.6.0, and look forward to your continued feedback.

Download OpenCPN Version 5.6.0 at
https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/r.../Release_5.6.0

For Plugins, documentation, and other useful information, visit our support website at:
https://opencpn.org

The OpenCPN Development Team
Dave Register, Lead Developer

I haven't been able to open the link to the download, have tried many times with no success. Any advice gratefully received TIA

[bcn]

Is there any special reason why you want to install 5.6.0 when the actual release is 5.6.2?

[terry g]

Actually trying to install the latest version and get directed to "github" and the message that the link can´t be found?

[nohal]

Here? https://github.com/OpenCPN/OpenCPN/r.../Release_5.6.2

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by bcn

Is there any special reason why you want to install 5.6.0 when the actual release is 5.6.2?

Yes, because the new version screws up my storage management on my partitioned sd card in android by migrating my charts to a different location without asking for permission and is much slower then the older version - almost unresponsive on touch for zooming or panning.

Will wait until it is sorted or will stay with the last good working one (5.2.8 [81] I found on another device).

It is a pitty on Android, one cannot undo a bad update when it wrecks previous functionality

[bdbcat]

CatNewBee...
Let us be clear:
"by migrating my charts to a different location without asking for permission"
"and is much slower then the older version"


1. The migrate wizard does nothing without multiple opportunities to cancel. Of course, on Android 11, if you do not migrate your charts, then the normal legacy chart installation locations will be inaccessible.


2. Slowness of 5.6.2 on Android 11 is very likely due to Android 11 "scoped storage" model. This model is well known to be orders of magnitude slower on SDCard access. No telling what it will do on a partitioned SDCard. There is no way to "opt-out" of scoped storage on Android 11.


As I have mentioned elsewhere, Google is slowly squeezing away the utility value of SDCards, in the interests of security. There is a lot of negative user feedback regarding this policy online. Perhaps Google is listening?





Anyway, I'm glad you have found an older version that does the job for your configuration.


Dave

[hans-martijn]

On a RPi 4 8gb with Ubuntu 22.04 64bit and OpenCPN 5.6.2 (flatpak) O crashes when connecting with a signalk server, but keeps working with only nmea0183 connections. I had the same problem on raspi os, and I had this problem since 5.0.

Am I doing something wrong?

-Hans

[CatNewBee]

Originally Posted by bdbcat

CatNewBee...
Let us be clear:
"by migrating my charts to a different location without asking for permission"
"and is much slower then the older version"


1. The migrate wizard does nothing without multiple opportunities to cancel. Of course, on Android 11, if you do not migrate your charts, then the normal legacy chart installation locations will be inaccessible.


2. Slowness of 5.6.2 on Android 11 is very likely due to Android 11 "scoped storage" model. This model is well known to be orders of magnitude slower on SDCard access. No telling what it will do on a partitioned SDCard. There is no way to "opt-out" of scoped storage on Android 11.


As I have mentioned elsewhere, Google is slowly squeezing away the utility value of SDCards, in the interests of security. There is a lot of negative user feedback regarding this policy online. Perhaps Google is listening?





Anyway, I'm glad you have found an older version that does the job for your configuration.


Dave

Dave, thanks.

Not my cup of tee, I am on Android 8 and don't plan to go for Android 11 or 12 any soon, I don't care about Android 11 stupid setup for new file permissions, nor does my tablet.

It would be an easy IF statement to decide on what OS version the app is running and leave the charts alone.

Also if the migration Whiz can read my charts, why not then OpenCPN too?

[bdbcat]

CatNewBee...
" I am on Android 8"
This is new information to me.

"It would be an easy IF statement to decide on what OS version the app is running and leave the charts alone."
Indeed, and that is exactly what we do. There is virtually no change in file system operation with O562 on Android 8. No need for migration, no scoped storage, etc.


Are you reporting that the O562 Chart Migration wizard started automatically on an Android/8 tablet?

I sure would like to see your logfiles when running O562 on that tablet..

Dave

[CatNewBee]

I don't know about the whizzard, but my charts showed up on a different partition deep down under

android/data/org.opencpn.opencpn/...

There was no dialog or warning that some migration takes place in the background, the screen was just blank and it was loading forever.

Then eventually the charts got displayed, but touch for pan and zoom was unresponsive - like hanging for 2 up to 5 second and then jumping somewhere. I tested some raster charts over cm93 and it was weird, when I zoomed out usually the next raster shows up, and only if there is none the system defaults to cm93 - not after the update. The cm93 was always popping up over the next raster chart. Quite annoying. With the very slow response of the system it was simply no longer usable.

Some research on the internet brought me to look at the directories and there were copies of my charts on the new location. Also I could no longer select the drive/ partition I have used as source for data, only the general android data partition on the sd and the internal storage. However in the settings the proper old chart location was still shown, but you cannot edit it anymore, only choose the android partition and the internal storage.

I finally could uninstall and sideload an older version, now it works like before the update, i see all partitions and can select what I want. Uninstalling purged any local files like tracks and logs and settings unfortunately and I had to reconfigure the whole UI again for some hours until I got it back with the right font sizes and information depth - still struggling with some.

But the system is now working and responsive again for single finger and two finger gestures and everything is back in its place.

[CatNewBee]

Sorry, if I was a little "upset" about the new features, you guys do a great job usually and haven't had such issues before with opencpn.

It was just my stupidity, we were about to leave the Bahamas on a 2 days passage to Jamaica and I had a couple of GB data left over on my SIM, so I decided to spend it on updating apps on all devices the last evening before departure to not waste it. Didn't expected to screw up my tablet that way, that I loose my backup navigation.

Fortunately the cell service was not too fast, so I could not update my phone - where I later found the old installation and could extract it.

[bdbcat]

CatNewBee....
Thanks for the detailed feedback.
This is indeed strange. The code queries the Android OS version active, and should do nothing to relocate chart files if the reported version is less than 11. I have verified this on Android/8, locally.


I am suspicious that there may be a version report problem with your specific tablet.


If possible, I would like to see your logfiles. There are two files:
1. opencpn.log
2. /stroage/emulated/0/Android/data/org.opencpn.opencpn/cache/OCPN_logs/OCPN_logcat.txt


Thanks
Dave