Trying to get a BU-353-S4 USB GPS receiver to work on Ubuntu 16.04

[Chuck Lyon]

I am working on a 64-bit machine on which I installed the Ubuntu stock image. I am also using the Mate  desktop and have  installed gpsd and gpsd-clients.

I know this is supposed to be easy. I  see posts all over the internet stating that this  device is "known to work" However, FoxtrotGPS is not able to read any gps data. Furthermore, gpsmon /dev/ttyUSB0
returns the following:

gpsmon:ERROR: device open of /dev/ttyUSB0 failed: Permission denied - retrying read-only
gpsmon:ERROR: read-only device open of /dev/ttyUSB0 failed: Permission denied

while sudo  gpsmon /dev/ttyUSB0 returns a full set of GPS data.

I found some GPSD installation instructionsl that state:

Ensure that device permissions will enable gpsd to read from and write to GPS devices even after it drops root privileges. If you are running Fedora Core, Ubuntu, or stock Debian you can skip this step, as the stock configuration has the right properties.

and:

Before dropping privileges, gpsd will ensure that it has access to devices given to it on the command line by forcing their group read and write permissions on.

So, in spite of  the fact that it shouldn't happen in Ubuntu, does the gpsmon behavior indicate that the permissions are wrong and "sudo" is forcing them to read/write? If so, exactly do I have to do to check and fix them?

Also, I found a suggestion to run gpspipe -w to test gpsd. Here is the result of that:
{"class":"VERSION","release":"3.15","rev":"3.15-2build1","proto_major":3,"proto_minor":11}
{"class":"DEVICES","devices":[]}
{"class":"WATCH","enable":true,"json":true,"nmea":false,"raw":0,"scaled":false,"timing":false,"split24":false,"pps":false}

Is this normal output? or is the fact that {"class":"DEVICES","devices":[]} is an empty array a problem? or something else?

[Jeremiah Bess]

It sounds like you need to allow your user account to access the USB serial device. Add your user account to the dialout group. You may need to log out/log back in to gain the new access. I had a similar issue with the programming cable for my ham radios. If you are unfamiliar on how to add yourself to a group, let us know.

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Jeremiah Bess

[Chuck Lyon]

Thanks, Jeremiah. This looks like progress. "gpsmon /dev/ttyUSB0" now works without "sudo". However, cgps and Foxtrotgps still can't see the data. So, it looks  like there's still another piece to the puzzle.

[Jeremiah Bess]

What errors are you seeing? 

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Jeremiah Bess

[Chuck Lyon]

There really aren't any errors as such. Just  data streaming continuously from /dev/ttyUSB0 while programs that rely on gpsd can't see any of  it. So, I'm going to skip gpsd  for now and see if I  can get java script to read the data directly when I get to the gps module of my project. Thanks for the tip on adding a user to the  group. I'm sure that will come in handy.

[Jeremiah Bess]

Another thought, are the programs you are running, are they running under your user name or a different one? 

[Scott Vargovich]

Jeremiah,

You're a Ham???  I didn't know that.  What's your call?  I'm KE8CQC and WQXJ287 on GMRS.  I'm an Extra class.  What class are you?

Scott

On Apr 26, 2017 21:24, "Jeremiah Bess" <jeremi...@gmail.com> wrote:

It sounds like you need to allow your user account to access the USB serial device. Add your user account to the dialout group. You may need to log out/log back in to gain the new access. I had a similar issue with the programming cable for my ham radios. If you are unfamiliar on how to add yourself to a group, let us know.

On Wed, Apr 26, 2017 at 7:22 PM Chuck Lyon <chuckl...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am working on a 64-bit machine on which I installed the Ubuntu stock image. I am also using the Mate  desktop and have  installed gpsd and gpsd-clients.

I know this is supposed to be easy. I  see posts all over the internet stating that this  device is "known to work" However, FoxtrotGPS is not able to read any gps data. Furthermore, gpsmon /dev/ttyUSB0
returns the following:

gpsmon:ERROR: device open of /dev/ttyUSB0 failed: Permission denied - retrying read-only
gpsmon:ERROR: read-only device open of /dev/ttyUSB0 failed: Permission denied

while sudo  gpsmon /dev/ttyUSB0 returns a full set of GPS data.

I found some GPSD installation instructionsl that state:

Ensure that device permissions will enable gpsd to read from and write to GPS devices even after it drops root privileges. If you are running Fedora Core, Ubuntu, or stock Debian you can skip this step, as the stock configuration has the right properties.

and:

Before dropping privileges, gpsd will ensure that it has access to devices given to it on the command line by forcing their group read and write permissions on.

So, in spite of  the fact that it shouldn't happen in Ubuntu, does the gpsmon behavior indicate that the permissions are wrong and "sudo" is forcing them to read/write? If so, exactly do I have to do to check and fix them?

Also, I found a suggestion to run gpspipe -w to test gpsd. Here is the result of that:
{"class":"VERSION","release":"3.15","rev":"3.15-2build1","proto_major":3,"proto_minor":11}
{"class":"DEVICES","devices":[]}
{"class":"WATCH","enable":true,"json":true,"nmea":false,"raw":0,"scaled":false,"timing":false,"split24":false,"pps":false}

Is this normal output? or is the fact that {"class":"DEVICES","devices":[]} is an empty array a problem? or something else?

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[Jeremiah Bess]

Moved conversation off LUG so the rest of you aren't bored with Ham talk, lol.

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[Scott Vargovich]

I got my tech in Dec 2015.  Upgraded to General this past October.  Upgraded to Extra at our local hamfest last month.  I'm having a ball with it.  Unfortunately our living situation and budget will not allow me to have a shack.  I have a Kenwood Commercial Radio and 6 HTs.

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[Jeremiah Bess]

Ah nice. We have mostly Baofengs, a Yaesu FT-60, and I recently installed a FT-2900 in my truck.

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