Version 2.0.991

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi All,

there are new versions below with the following tweaks:-

Improved accessibility of dropdowns on mac and windows.

Fix that could cause side tone to continue in keyboard cw.

Fix for waterfall speed changing on window resize.

Support for pipewire audio on linux, this will fallback to portaudio if pipewire is not available. It should support loop back devices now.

https://www.sparksdr.com/download/SparkSDR.2.0.991.win64.zip
https://www.sparksdr.com/download/SparkSDR.2.0.991.win32.zip
https://www.sparksdr.com/download/SparkSDR.2.0.991.linux-x64.deb
https://www.sparksdr.com/download/SparkSDR.2.0.991.linux-x64.rpm
https://www.sparksdr.com/download/SparkSDR.2.0.991.osx.zip
https://www.sparksdr.com/download/SparkSDR.2.0.991.osx.arm.zip

rpi versions to follow.

73 Alan M0NNB

[Ronald Meier]

Hi,

I am trying to install .deb package on raspi5 with sudo apt install SparkSDR.2.0.991.linux-x64.deb (command run from the download folder in terminal).

However I am getting error message:

E: Unable to locate package SparkSDR.2.0.991.linux-x64.deb
E: Couldn't find any package by glob 'SparkSDR.2.0.991.linux-x64.deb'

Am I missing something (ie not a very experienced Raspi user).

73 Ronald PH7R

Op donderdag 10 oktober 2024 om 13:59:29 UTC+2 schreef ahop...@googlemail.com:

[Doug Lung]

Thanks for the CW fix Alan! 

I'm running into a problem starting it on my Fedora 40 laptop. I get the following message:

SparkSDR
starting
use egl False use gpu True
System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'SkiaSharp.SKImageInfo' threw an exception.
---> System.DllNotFoundException: Unable to load shared library 'libSkiaSharp' or one of its dependencies. In order to help diagnose loading pr
oblems, consider using a tool like strace. If you're using glibc, consider setting the LD_DEBUG environment variable:  
/usr/share/SparkSDR/libSkiaSharp.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
/usr/share/SparkSDR/liblibSkiaSharp.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
/usr/share/SparkSDR/libSkiaSharp: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
/usr/share/SparkSDR/liblibSkiaSharp: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

  at SkiaSharp.SKImageInfo..cctor()
  --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
  at Avalonia.Skia.SkiaPlatform.Initialize(SkiaOptions)
  at Avalonia.AppBuilder.SetupUnsafe()
  at Avalonia.ClassicDesktopStyleApplicationLifetimeExtensions.StartWithClassicDesktopLifetime(AppBuilder, String[], Action`1 )
  at SparkSDR.Program.Main(String[]) in /home/runner/work/sparksdr/sparksdr/src/SparkSDR/Program.cs:line 102

I'm downloading and building the SkiaSharp library from Git (taking a whlle) and will let you know if that solves the problem. The only files in /usr/share/SparkSDR are:

bash-5.2$ cd /usr/share/SparkSDR/
bash-5.2$ ls -l
total 73496
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 74789407 Oct 10 00:52 SparkSDR
-r--r--r--. 1 root root   464344 Oct 10 00:51 SparkSDR.pdb

No lib files. 

Will let you know if installing Skia solves the problem after I get it built. 

73,

Doug

AH6DL

[Doug Lung]

Got it working by copying files from a /usr/share/SparkSDR backup with a 2022 date and that got it starting. Will test it later but at least it starts now! Looks like it might be a packaging problem with the RPM. 

           --Doug

[Jim]

Installed SparkSDR 2.0.991.linux-x64.deb on a Lenovo laptop running Ubuntu 22.04.1. PipeWire audio sounds loud and clear!

Jim N7IHQ

[Doug Lung]

On my Fedora 40 install using the RPM, the only files showing in /usr/share/SparkSDR after installing 2.0.9.991 were SparkSDR and SparkSDR.pdb.

The older /usr/share/SparkSDR files from my btrfs snapshot didn't work, but I got them by installing the .975 RPM, copying the /usr/share/SparkSDR directory to a backup, then installing SparkSDR 2.0.991 and copying the missing files from the backup directory. 

 Doug, AH6DL

[Doug Lung]

I've got SparkSDR 2.0.991 running on my Fedora 40 laptop, but the audio isn't working. Lots of ALSA lib errors:

ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1000:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave

ALSA lib pcm_dmix.c:1000:(snd_pcm_dmix_open) unable to open slave
Expression 'ret' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 1742
Expression 'AlsaOpen( hostApi, parameters, streamDir, &pcm )' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 1774

What's strange is if I open a bookmark from the old program, the audio will play for a few seconds then fade out. Changing the audio device doesn't help. Directly selecting the alsa hardware device crashes the program and I have to reboot to get any audio back:

Expression 'alsa_snd_pcm_start( stream->playback.pcm )' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 2928
Expression 'AlsaStart( stream, 0 )' failed in 'src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c', line: 4248
op sf
SparkSDR: src/hostapi/alsa/pa_linux_alsa.c:3391: OnExit: Assertion `data' failed.
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

It looks like it is trying to use pipewire or Alsa's pulse audio driver. I'll try uninstalling that and see if it help but that may cause problems with Quisk. 

73, Doug AH6DL

[Doug Lung]

Uninstalled pipewire-pulseaudio but that caused major problems with other programs (lost my volume controls) and didn't solve the SparkSDR issues. Reverting to 2.0.975 for now. 

[Doug Lung]

I managed to get 2.0.991 working on my Fedora 40 Thinkpad X1 laptop after removing the previous install, deleting the configuration directory and then doing a fresh install and manually copying the library files from .975 to the /usr/share/SparkSDR directory. The "pipewire" selection did not work but I was able to select the speakers and headphone entries listed below it and they worked. 

Testing the CW feature, the macros work but it does not respond to characters typed in the text box unless i append the text to a running macro. Doing that I did not have any stuck sidetone issues but if I paused typing it dropped out of transmit and would not come back when I started typing again. I switched back to .975 and verified the text box worked in it as it should, but it had the issue with the stuck sidetone. 

Did anyone else have a chance to try the RPM on Fedora with any better luck? 

73, Doug AH6DL

Let me know if there is anything I can do to help with the troubleshooting! 

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi Doug,

it does appear rpm packaging has gone wrong. I suspect your new cw issue is because part of the fix is in one one of the missing files.  If your really keen you could extract them from the .deb file (sparkcore.so and libpipewireaudioprovider.so are the key ones). 

I'll try and fix the rpm.

73 Alan M0NNB

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi Ronald,

sudo apt install ./SparkSDR.2.0.991.linux-x64.deb might work or depending on your distro right clicking on the deb might give you an install option.

73 Alan M0NNB

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi Ronald,

just realized you are using the wrong version for rpi, I have only just published the ram version here https://www.sparksdr.com/download/SparkSDR.2.0.991.linux-arm64.deb

73 Alan M0NNB

[Ronald Meier]

Alan, top thks.

Op zaterdag 12 oktober 2024 om 10:46:17 UTC+2 schreef ahop...@googlemail.com:

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

The 64 bit rpi version is here https://www.sparksdr.com/download/SparkSDR.2.0.991.linux-arm64.deb

It was built on bullseye to avoid glibc version problems but the version of pipewire on pi os bullseye is not compatible with the one in bookworm so
it was built with a newer version of pipewire. If this causes issues on older distros deleting libpipewireaudioprovider.so will force it to use portaudio.

73 Alan M0NNB

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi Doug and All,

I have fixed the rpm packaging issue, the link and version have stayed the same so downloading again should work.

73 Alan M0NNB

[Doug Lung]

Hi Alan, 

I installed the updated SparkSDR RPM and it is working perfectly! Many thanks! 

73, Doug AH6DL

[Jim]

SparkSDR.2.0.991.linux-arm64.deb works fine with clean audio on Raspberry Pi 4 Bookworm OS with PipeWire.

Jim N7IHQ

[Steven Sostrom]

Audio works well on Raspberry Pi OS and Ubuntu, both using pipewire.

Audio works on DietPi, which does not have pipewire.

It seems that the device that was selected at the time SparkSDR is started is the only one that works.

To switch audio devices, select another device and restart SparkSDR to use that device.

When switching audio devices back and forth, sometimes a device will disappear from the list.

Virtual audio cables do not appear as a selection.

I also noticed that FM has audio compression. When there is a few seconds of silence, I can hear the background noise increase dramatically.

There are no AGC controls available on FM.

This is not what an audiophile would want with music.

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi, thanks for the report,

I so far can't recreate the fm issue here unless I set squelch to -180, this enables agc for reasons I can't remember . Settings of squelch other than -180 should have no agc on FM.  If this is not the cause it would be interesting to see a copy of your settings directory, which might give me a clue.

73 Alan M0NNB

[Steven Sostrom]

On FM, my squelch for some reason changed to -80. AT this setting, I did not experience the compression.

At your suggestion, I tried -180 and the compression was there. Thanks for the tip.

Today, on DietPi Bookworm without pipewire, pulse is the only device working and it has occasional choppy/garbled audio.

The hdmi device worked yesterday and was not choppy.