piHPSDR on a Pi 3B+ - won't start

[Pez]

Hello all,

I have a Pi 3B+ and I have just installed a fresh version of Raspberry Pi OS, and run the updates. I have followed the piHPSDR install instructions here: https://github.com/g0orx/pihpsdr/blob/master/release/documentation/pihpsdr-install.pdf

I have disabled the I/O as requested.

(During install, I didn't get any of the screensaver popup's that are mentioned in the readme... Is this information way out of date perhaps?)

When I click the piHPSDR desktop icon, the hourglass thinks for a few seconds, and then nothing happens. piHPSDR never starts.

I have tried reinstalling, but the same thing happens.

Can anyone here point me in the right direction?

(I'm basically a Windows power user, and I only play Linux when I want to try radio things like this - why are simple things always so hard with Linux!? It's never easy! hihi) 

73

[John Williams]

Best first thing to debug Linux commands is to launch it from a command line and post the errors that result. You can get the command line and parameters from the properties of the icon launcher. Copy it and paste it into an xterm terminal. Bet you are missing a library.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Hermes-Lite" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to hermes-lite...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hermes-lite/410b3d92-cbbd-4210-9233-e672fa341cc0n%40googlegroups.com.

 

[Pez]

Thanks John,

I have no idea what just happened, but I decided to remove and re-install piHPSDR for the third time, and now it opens? I can't explain it. I didn't change anything? But I'm happy about that! :) I will try via terminal if I have these issues again. 

As a separate question, if I wanted to install the fork here:  https://github.com/dl1ycf/pihpsdr  How do I go about this? The readme (at the bottom of the page) points back to the original install instructions for the g0orx version. How am I supposed to install the fork? 

(I can see all the Linux guys rolling their eyes right now, but it's actually hard to work this basic stuff out when the readme info doesn't seem to relate?) Any help is greatly appreciated. 

73

[Ron Lewkowicz]

My guess was that is was recreating the wisdom file during the time it seemed to be not launching.  Running it from a terminal would have shown that.

It seems that the release tarballs in the dl1ycf fork are merely ones cloned from g0orx at the time of the fork.  The date on these files certainly indicates that they are not up to date with the latest development in dl1ycf.

To install this fork I would suggest you will want and probably need to install and compile from source.  Follow these instructions......

https://github.com/g0orx/pihpsdr/wiki/Compiling-piHPSDR-on-Raspberry-Pi-running-Raspberry-Pi-OS

When you clone the pihpsdr git change the URL to point to dl1ycf instead.   It is not a difficult program to compile.  I don't have arm toolchain build on any of my machines currently so I unfortunately can't offer to cross compile a release file for you.  Much better to learn this for yourself anyway.

I have it installed on my laptop and desktop.  I've been using it with my RTL SDR and testing with a Hermes emulator.  Ultimately Pihpsdr is the reason I chose to attempt a purchase of a HL2.  dl1ycf has improved it even more.

If you get stuck on the compile I'll try and help as best I can.  Follow the instructions carefully and I'm sure you will manage just fine.  You managed to get Windows to work so you are already a step ahead of me.

[Pez]

Thanks very much Ron, that helps a lot! I will work though it and report back.

I also found the attached document in this Group, which is very helpful also. (I wish this sort of document was included on the GitHub pages where noobs like me go looking! :) hihi... 

73

["Christoph v. Wüllen"]

I think the basis problem here is that you install from a "binary"
distribution. This normally stops working at the time of the next
OS update.

Perhaps this sounds odd for a Windows user, but the only clean way
to install pihpsdr is to compile it from the sources.

It does not matter whether you take the version from John Melton's github
account or from mine (mine contains some recent updates), but follow the
instructions in

https://github.com/dl1ycf/piHPSDR-compile-from-sources/blob/main/Linux-CompileFromSources.pdf

Several "absolute beginners" have managed to get to a working pihpsdr installation this way.

[Pez]

Thank you once again Christopf. 

Your PDF guide is excellent - It has worked for me, the source compiled OK after a second attempt (I needed to omit GPIO). I learned a lot along the way. Could you add a link to this PDF on your github readme? It would help new players like myself get on the right path very quickly. 

One other thing which is a big annoyance for a Windows user - Why is the program not resizable? I understand it is designed for 7"  screens, but for desktop use, can there be an easier way to change the size (including fullscreen) without having to rebuild / compile the program? Or maybe that is part of the original code that is not easily changed in a fork? 

I found references online to 'line 23' that mention some resolution options that that are no longer in the file... I played around with the display option lines in the make.c file that I could see, but I just couldn't get things to display the way I wanted... I really appreciate the incredible work that goes into these linux programs and why it is the way it is. But it drives us Windows users absolutely insane (or, more insane) : ) hihi 

Best 73

 

[Ron Lewkowicz]

In Christoph's fork the display size defines are moved to appearance.h  In John's version they are originally in main.c Set these to match your display size.  For desktop, laptop I set to 1920 and 1080.

Pihpsdr is designed for full screen touch screen control and is a fixed size.  It does also work well with a mouse and with midi controllers.  Regular Linux desktops can and usually are setup with multiple desktops. Rather than  moving windows around and out of the way with your mouse  run your app in fullscreen mode and use  the Ctrl+Alt+left or right arrow keys cycle between desktops. Each desktop has different apps going.  They can be fullscreen or a number of resizable windowed apps.

John also wrote linhspdr which is another repo on his github.  This is a multi-window app with resizable windows.  Designed to be spread over multiple desktops or multiple monitors. You may prefer this.

Sorry for the learning curve.  Trust me it is much more frustrating going from Linux to Windows.

[V85NPV]

Hello Pez,

To resize PIHPSD you will need to modify ''main.c'' in the source and re-compile .

just before the include <gtk/gtk.h> on the to of the main.c file i have added

#define MAX_DISPLAY_WIDTH 1800

#define MAX_DISPLAY_HEIGHT 920

and also in line 250

display_width=1800

display_heigh=920

not the cleanest modification but it works . you will need to replace the figures with yours to fit your screen resolution

73s Didier

[V85NPV]

Hello, 

Just to summarize PIHPSDR screen resolution  

If you are using G0orx release :

just before the include <gtk/gtk.h> on the top of the main.c file you will need to modify or to add the following lines:

#define MAX_DISPLAY_WIDTH 1800

#define MAX_DISPLAY_HEIGHT 920

Then you need to recompile

PIHPSDR from Christoph DL1YCF release: 

You will need to modify the apparence.h file 

#ifdef ANDROMEDA
#define MAX_DISPLAY_WIDTH  1200
#define MAX_DISPLAY_HEIGHT 600
#else
#define MAX_DISPLAY_WIDTH  800                      // Default: 800
#define MAX_DISPLAY_HEIGHT 480                      // Default: 480
#endif

Then you need to recompile

73s Didier

[Pez]

Thanks so much Didier. I will recompile on the weekend and try some of these options.

73