RXCLUS and Linux

Introduction

I currently develop only a Windows version of RXCLUS, although I would be pleased to provide the ham community with a Linux version, but I'm afraid I will not have the time in a foreseable future to do this.

The good news is that the RXCLUS works quite well on current Linux distributions using wine. Wine is not included in a standard Ubuntu installation but can be easily added with the usual package management tools (Synaptic, aptitude, apt-get).

Then RXCLUS can be installed the same way as in Windows. The software itself can be started without errors and most functions are operational.

Tests on an Ubuntu distribution

RXCLUS can be used in good conditions on almost any Ubuntu distribution. (It was already OK in version 5.10 with Wine 0.9.8). It's likely that it will work also in any other distribution.

Here is how it looks in Ubuntu 10.10: (a few more screen captures can be found at the bottom of this page)

What works normally:

program start;
text display (you may have to set a fixed width font like Courier in Options --> Fonts);
calculations;
customization;
telnet connections;
file updates over the Internet (to be checked);
voice alarms, including CW (WAV);
printing.

What is not perfect but usable:

Packet radio with a TNC (may require some configuration of wine - see below);
some fonts are not optimal and some visual alignments not perfect (especially in the Options).

What can't be used:

CW (SYS) alarms, but you can use CW (WAV) or voice announcements instead;
Packet radio with AGW Packet Engine.

Copying your settings from Windows

If you have already installed and customized RXCLUS on a Windows system, you can copy your settings to a Linux system as follows:

In Windows, export your settings into a rxclus.reg file. This is done with Tools --> "Export user settings" in RXCLUS's main menu. You can use the format for Win 2000/XP/Vista;
Copy this file to the Linux machine (for example with an USB key);
In Linux, open a terminal, go to the directory you copied the .reg file to and type the command: wine regedit rxclus.reg (you may get a warning message like: "Unrecognized escape sequence: \U" but the file gets imported anyway);
The next time RXCLUS starts, you may see a few errors due to configured serial ports which are not available in Linux. The use of those ports can be disabled in Options --> Terminals and Options --> CAT.
You may also want to copy your DXCC and IOTA databases which are the files DXCC.DAT and IOTA.dat. Their location can be seen in the "About" window of RXCLUS, under "User data location".

How to use a serial TNC

I first believed this was not possible, but indeed it works, but may be a bit tricky to configure (especially if your TNC is not connected to COM1).

In all cases, a symbolic link needs to be created in the .wine directory located in your home directory. If your TNC is connected to the first serial port, type:

ln -s /dev/ttyS0 com1 ( for COM2: ln -s /dev/ttyS1 com2 and so on )

In RXCLUS, you can configure most parameters of the port, except the port number (no COM ports are shown). Select "Serial" in the Interface panel and the correct Baud rate. This should do the job if your TNC is on COM1.

If you use another COM port, you can set the correct port by editing the user.reg file located in your .wine directory. Search for RXCLUS; this will bring you at the start of the section where all configuration parameters for RXCLUS are located. Then scroll down until you find the "COMPortNr" parameter, which should look like this:

"COMPortNr"=dword:00000001

Replace the "1" by your port number (using the Windows numbering, for example "2" if you need to use COM2).

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