Ham Radio & Linux - Andys Ham Radio Linux distribution for the desktop.

Finally, a decent replacement for Skywave linux! This is a great starting point for hams that want get into linux. One install for a complete desktop system with nearly all of the available ham radio software already installed and ready to run.
Sourceforge page:
sourceforge.net/projects/kb1o...
Here's the steps that need to be done during installation to fix the one bug I pointed out.
1) After the installation succeeds, it will ask "Continue Testing" or "reboot".
Choose "Continue Testing".
2) Bring up a terminal window. Right click on the background and select
"Open Terminal Here".
3) Type the following commands:
- sudo chroot /target
- /root/bin/fix_account
- deluser xubuntu
- rm -fr /home/xubuntu
- exit
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[@x316RiotMakerx]

I’d have to rewatch. I’m fairly confident your login issue was become you used your call sign as your account name but we’re trying to login with your name. The majority of Linux installers ask for a Name and an account name but you can only login with the account name.

[@ernestgalvan9037]

Absolutely the problem. He used the wrong credentials for the LOGIN . And no, in this case “these little extra steps have to be done” is NOT necessary, you just messed up the login He didn’t pay attention to what he was doing, then blamed the install. Oh, and pedantic mode enabled…. This is not a ‘distribution’, it is a re-spin.

[@loughkb]

You must have missed the text on the screen that said, "This is my 2nd attempt at installing for those of you that noticed the different user name."

[@markanderson8066]

the issue is that the install unfortunately does NOT properly set the username in the target installation. See my post for the fix.

[@robertruth3281]

Thank you much Kevin. This looks really good! I appreciate you bringing it to us!

[@rodrilea1]

Thanks Kevin for this video. Andy's Linux looks like what I have been looking for.

[@jamescstanley5018]

Thanks Kevin, many questions answered in one easy package. I will definitely install on one of my older laptops. Jim M7BXT

[@AG4KN]

I installed it last night on an old panasonic toughbook CF-31 mk4... so far so good! It found my digirig 1.9.

[@marshallvanwagneriii1495]

Looks like I'll load Andy's on my spare PC. Thanks for the video!!!

[@RobertTKlaus]

Same problem, now in August 2023. Threw me for a curve, thanks for the video!

[@ve6hdh992]

Excellent video.

[@kennethblackwell1137]

I'm a long time Linux Mint user and have all that I need at this time, but this really looks great. Hopfully Andy will get the initial setup problem eliminated. Well done.😃😃

[@bobmcconomy9961]

Wow! Kevin, I am with you, who wants to install all of those programs separately and deal with all of the missing dependencies and such. Thanks for this review.

[@kermitdafrog8]

I would.

[@darrellbeard2799]

Thank You Kevin!

[@W6IWN_Radio]

Awesome Linux Distro, I can't wait to try it out... 👍 👍

[@SDR-DXobserver]

Again, a nice video, Kevin. I have tried this OS several times over the past year, but I found that it was not my cup of tea. Lately I changed to DragonOS for my radio hobby and found it better for what I do. I'm also a ham, but spend my time mostly listening with my SDR's on all kind of fronts, from HF to Satellite. DragonOS has a number of decoders and also has the cross OS platform so, you can also use it on a Raspberry Pi. The SDR++ sdr software is also present, and I find it the best and complete software that also runs on a Pi / Windows OS and Android. It also has a server mode, but still in development. I suggest you take a look at DragonOS to see if you like it because there is a lot of development on it. Best 73' Ron - on2ron

[@jampskan5690]

DragonOS is for radio people just like how CaliLinux is for hackers. (I add KDE desktop environment still, for aesthetics)

[@MrMellamoto]

Nice one, a new Linux distro focused on ham radio, downloading as I type. When it comes to testing distros I prefer to use old hard drives and swap them out, dew to the age of my laptop, it doesn't like virtual box so I find swapping out the hard drives suites me better. Great video. Thanks Andy M7KHI

[@kermitdafrog8]

Live ISO.

[@flapjack9495]

This looks like a very promising Linux distro for ham use! As a long-time Linux/XFCE user, a few notes: To resize a window in XFCE, hold down the alt key and click-and-drag the mouse. Drag roughly horizontally and you can make the window wider without changing the height, same with dragging vertically to resize the height without changing the width. Drag diagonally and you can do both at once. It can be tricky to get the diagonal angle such that xfce's window manager realizes what you're doing - dragging from near the lower right corner of the window helps. This is confusing and counterintuitive to me - I'd much rather have thicker window borders that could be easily grabbed - but that's what the XFCE devs decided to use as a default for some reason. It's not a problem to have programs show up in multiple menu categories. That's actually a feature. Sometimes programs fit into more than one category so you can specify multiple categories in the .desktop file. As you noticed, your preferred video settings only get applied on login. They're specific to the user. The login manager's display resolution is often set to a minimum viable resolution for maximum compatibility with even the most oddball monitors. There's a way to tweak that - probably by digging into the lightdm config files - but it's been ages since I've done so, so I can't remember exactly where and how.

[@roberth2045]

Nice video, i'm loading it up.

[@blacksmock445]

Looks like a good Linux Distro. I shall definitely give it a try. I agree with your comments re Skywave. Navigation was unnecessarily difficult. Gorizont is a good Ham Radio Distro. Its creator had problems with Dream DRM too, so he ran the Windows version under Wine. I did the same on my PC and it works fine and made it easy to add additional AAC decoder, using advice from Windows users.

[@kenlanier2131]

Haha you used your callsign for the username on the first install of the virtual machine. :) Great video Kevin

[@loughkb]

You must have missed the text on the screen that said, "This is my 2nd attempt at installing for those of you that noticed the different user name."

[@avrumo]

KEVIN, You Done it Again, peekin' my curiousity syndrome ! lol,, Really enjoying your Ham and Travel Life Path . Say hello to the Rat packers from W5heh AJ . Above all have Fun ! TNX for an awsome intro Andy's Ham Linux Software . Happy Trails. 73

[@mayshack]

The reason for the resolution issues is that Andy didn't include the virtualbox driver with the distro. You can install the driver manually after you select "mount guest additions CD" and it will automatically change the resolution as you change the window size. Also, the menu having duplicates is common on ubuntu and its derivatives, it depends on what categories the desktop file says it should be included in. You can manually fix the menu under the applications widget config menu if it bothers you.

[@edbeckerich3737]

Nice, he's now on 22.04! Very current Ubuntu!

[@muddyexport5639]

Thank you!

[@terryleach5108]

Thanks for the neat video. I have been playing with dragonos on Lubuntu 20.04 which has some ham radio related stuff but is primarily a spin for SDR with the ability to connect to SDRplay using open source programs such as gqrx, cubicsdr and sdr++. I will be adding this along side. 73s de Terry, WA5ZKP

[@mabuhaydxstitchamateurradi9908]

Cool share Kevin !

[@tommiehinman1349]

Thank you

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

the two modules required to build DREAM Four1(Vec_IO_DP &data,int sign) realft(Vec_IO_DP &data,int sign) are all in the Tombe Numerical Recipes in C++

[@KuehncIncorporated]

Thank You Kevin!!! The "Extra" steps resolved the user/password issue for me. 73 Charlie K5EHN

[@eddy2561]

Kevin, its refreshing to see an honest review of Linux and its not the great OS some claim it to be - I've been using Linux since the 1990's and it has its problems. 73/K6SDW

[@kelvin0mql]

I gave myself some intentional challenges for Field Day this year, including only using what I could get to work on a Linux Mint laptop. That turned out to be "not much". Had to use VOX for FT8 (though that was the most successful thing I did). Very much looking forward to giving this a whirl to see if it magically fixes my CAT-over-USB failures on that particular old laptop. Fingers crossed.

[@udoisaenko9247]

Hi Kevin, nice video. Just a hint: if you try to resize a window with the mouse and it's difficult to hit exactly the window's border with the mouse, just hold the "alt" key, rightclick the mouse only NEAR one of the borders (or corners) and then move the mouse. 73 Udo, HB9ERD/DL3GN

[@nekotherion7317]

o/ Keep up the good work

[@markanderson8066]

If you forget to fix the user stuff before the reboot, not to worry. It's still just Ubuntu/Linux! After boot login as user xubuntu, with no password. Then type sudo adduser and follow those prompts. Then make yourself a super user: usermod -aG sudo username. Then reboot and verify you can do sudo. If all that works, then do suddo deluser xubuntu and the rm step. Yeah, I didn't read the instructions either, lol. Thanks Andy!!!! WB2SMK

[@markanderson8066]

oops, forgot to add - thank you Kevin!!!

[@kellingc]

Is there a copy of echo link on there? I've gotten EZNEC to work under WINE, and there are other ant modeling that is native linux. I wonder if WIRES would work under WINE.

[@kennethausten]

Was unable to install last time. Installation failed. The early version was ok and still use it on my main station. Not tried the latest version as it's over a year since I last tried. I will download the latest version. Been using Linux for 25 years and seen it grow. FT,8 works well, along with fldigi. Also have Ham pi on the raspberry pi. Good OS nowadays. Thanks for your input.

[@W4TRI]

I have a Dell Optiplex 7010 I'll try this on. It will get two 500GB SSD drives and some better memory. Have you tried the Build-a-Pi system yet? I'm having some trouble getting it going right now on my Pi-400. Probably user errors.

[@mm7wabanamateurradiowomble30]

NOTE: If You want to Boot this on an older PC that will not boot from USB stick the .ISO image file provided will boot of USB stick only. It is NOT bootable when burned straight to a DVD. You will have to pfaff about and find a way to make a bootable .ISO image before burning to disc. Wasted last of my DVD+R discs finding this out so still don't have a bootable DVD disc for it yet to use on old laptop, bit of a pain as the laptop has Real RS232C DB9 serial port and cables for CAT control of the old FT-747GX. AHRL does work very well on several PCs that can boot off the USB stick. Will be so much more useful and efficient than WinXP or Vista on the old machines.

[@jeffchapman605]

Kevin, Thank You for putting this together. It took me five or six times of reinstalling to get the login to work. That was what, three months ago?, and still no fix? (By ubuntu, not Andy). I notice that when you ran the login (fix), that you created your ID. The instructions don't say to do that. But, as it turns out, you must or it still doesn't work. I've struggled for several days to get the SDRplay RSP1A working. Still not. I understand that the SDRplay driver is proprietary and therefore not included. Trying to setup the RSP1A as a panadapter for the IC7300.

[@curtstacy779]

Hey Kevin, The documentation you ran across started with file:// it's html based but looks like all local files from the links.

[@loughkb]

Yeah, I noticed that while editing.

[@graham2803]

Hi Kevin! Great video as usual. I am in college getting my degree in Computer Science and installing every single package for my Linux mint setup has been daunting even for me! I will definitely be trying this. One question: I didn't see any Winlink/Pat clients in the video. Does it not come with it? I have tried to install Pat on Mint to no avail. It does not recognize my signalink device. WSJTX and FLDigi run great, not sure why it won't work. I'll definitely be giving this a shot though this week! 73s de KE0SBX

[@BubbaWarbucks]

One of these days developers are going to realize that literally nobody RTFMs...

[@wushock92]

🤣

[@signalscout6020]

Neat. I wonder if he’s addressed the audio setting weirdness in Ubuntu for folks trying to run WSJT-X. I’ve never gotten it or JS8call to TX , presumably because I have an input or output setting wrong, or PAVU us tweaked wrong. I like the simplicity of the desktop.

[@Malibyte56]

I can run WSJT-X under Ubuntu 20.04 LTS running as the host OS, it works fine. JS8Call likewise. I can use the /dev/tty/USBxx devices as the the serial ports when running on real hardware. In the Andy's HRL running in a VM, though, it only gives me one option - USB - as the serial port, and I can't get it configured. I get "Hamlib error - can't connect to USB". I have the virtual USB devices turned on in the VM, including the audio drivers I need to make my Yaesu FTDX3000 work with WSJT-X. Kevin, what is the right configuration for WSJT-X in a VM? Thanks!

[@signalscout6020]

@@Malibyte56 Mind sharing your input/output selections? I run mint and have seen responses to this question all over the map. Mostly choosing "pulse" or "Burr_brown***" for both. Neither work for me.

[@Malibyte56]

@@signalscout6020 Which radio are you using? I am on a Yaesu FTDX-3000, so my setup will probably be different than yours. Under Settings/Radio, under CAT control, I have /dev/ttyUSB0 for the serial port; 38400 baud (which is the setting I have on the radio), 8 data bits, 2 stop bits, no handshake, RTS high. Under PTT Method, I use DTR, port is /dev/ttyUSB1, Mode is USB, Split Operation = Rig. Under Settings/Audio, I do have Input = alsa_input.usb-Burr-Brown_from_TI_USB_Audio_CODEC-00.analog-stereo and the alsa_output version under Output. I also have both "remember power settings by band" checked. Hope maybe this helps. I believe you HAVE to use the "Burr-Brown" pair to make this work, though you said it didn't for you. Maybe it was some other setting(s) that was/were the problem.

[@signalscout6020]

@@Malibyte56 it’s an ic-7300, bought specifically for the big user community, the same reason I started using Mint 😂. There seem to be a lot of different ways to skin a cat with pulse audio and I’m. It sure what I’m doing wrong, or if it’s my laptop’s sound.

[@Malibyte56]

@@signalscout6020 Just out of curiosity - have you been able to successfully test the CAT control in the settings (I believe it's under Settings/Radio)? If that doesn't work it usually means that your serial port settings are wrong.

[@independentprepper1]

Do you have a program in Linux that would transmit out of a hack rf one

[@ManuelPinner]

Kali And Ubuntu Linux are the Two Besy Destos!

[@billbrown3414]

I just tried the latest version. The user/password problem was not fixed. Also the latest versions of some software is not included (WSJTX version was 2.5x; 2.6 is available)

[@jasoncreed6396]

Hello I'm new to ham and very new to andys ham radio installs. I am wondering if my old intel5 1.7 cpu is compatible?

[@loughkb]

Yes, should work fine. Linux is really good with old hardware, often performing way better than windows did on the same hardware.

[@jasoncreed6396]

@loughkb thank you for your help.

[@jasoncreed6396]

@@loughkb thank you

[@brenthaberer7172]

How do you hook up your ham radio?

[@loughkb]

That depends on your radio. Newer radios often have a USB port. One cable to the computer provides both a serial and audio interface, hosted right in the radio. Older radios can be connected through an external interface box like the commercial Signalink, or my (much cheaper and easy to build) DuinoVOX. :-)

[@michaelmullins3396]

Like Kevin had to do , I tried to install, many times, and had the logon issues also. At the end of the installation ,it only gave me the option to Reboot, not the option to continue testing. as a result I was not able to get into the terminal mode to make the changes after reboot, thus not able to login... Anyone have had the same problem, or ways to resolve.. Mike ZL2MY

[@loughkb]

At the end of the install, try hitting ctrl-alt-t to bring up a terminal.

[@brentandpaulasadventures2082]

Yes, I'm having the same problems and I can't change the boot order because it won't save. So right now I have a brick. User: Ubuntu and Pass: Linux don't work either.

[@brentandpaulasadventures2082]

I continued trying thinks and found xubuntu as a login

[@Tocsin-Bang]

I've spent days trying to install AHRL, no joy at all. Gave up and moved to Mint.

[@juliopy9dm]

And which contest program to use on Linux, for those who are beginners and don't understand much about commands. A program made only for Linux , does it exist ?Top vídeo . 73 de PY9DM

[@BoGy1980]

it not let you in, not cause of a bug, but because of a clear case of PEBKAC (problem exists between keyboard and chair). You try to log in with "kevin', but that's not your username; you entered your radio call as a username, kevin was your full name connected to the username but you cannot login with that. Look for yourself @14:00 ... so all you did was in vain... u would've known the correct username if u just did "cd /home" in a console and then "ls" so you would see the active usernames.. that xubuntu one is only for the LIVE version

[@loughkb]

You didn't read the text on the screen where I said "this is my second attempt for those of you that noticed the different username". It was my second install attempt and I had used kevin as a username that time.

[@housesOTR]

I got linux all set up on a PC and then found out that my Yaesu ftdx10 only connects via USB with windows. No USB drivers available.

[@flapjack9495]

I did some quick Googling and it looks like at least some versions of Linux have support for the USB-to-serial chip used in the FTDX10.

[@loughkb]

If you find out what serial chip they're using, you can search in synaptic for it and find the firmware file that needs to be installed. With the radio connected, open a terminal and type lsusb -v That will dump all kinds of info on every connected USB device. It should give the brand of the chip they use, like ralink or prism. Once you install the additional firmware files, it will work.

[@charlesschindler1971]

👋

[@ka3kza]

Fix for log in?

[@loughkb]

I'd have to rewatch the video, it's been a long time ago. I think I discussed how to get through the login. Or there might be something in the comments. Like I say it was a while ago.

[@anthonyrosa5006]

I don't know why the programs creator would not simply place the answer for correcting the bug front and center instead of forcing everybody to dig through his page. None of this was obvious even after looking for it many times. I thank this videos creator for dealing with this issue instead of just telling everybody to figure it out for yourselves which to me is a huge F**k off message from the programs creator. There is way too much of that sort of crabby attitude. If you think I'm crabby for posting this then it must not have taken you very long to have found this video because the creator did nothing but create a broken mess with a puzzle at the end. Even this video did not list that the cure for the bug was here not that I'm blaming them. The fact is that you had to dig through many videos before you stumbled through to find the correct video with the answer in the center.

[@ka3kza]

I downloaded and installed Andy's Ham Radio Linux, but my username and password would not work after install. Tried it twice. It's a shame because it looks like a great distribution.

[@loughkb]

I think I talked about how to fix the login in the video and put some of the commands in the video description, if I remember correctly.

[@justawfulgamer7738]

Linux is great for folks who like to constantly fiddle to get stuff working right, as opposed to actually get anything accomplished.

[@loughkb]

Also great for having a stable and reliable system that will continue to work day in and day out without any slow down or degradation. You have to fiddle a bit sometimes to get things going but once they're going they stay going.

[@hodlr8489]

Fooled me I thought you would be able to listen to ham radio

[@loughkb]

Here's a site with a long list of web connected radio receivers that you can use to listen to radio across the entire spectrum. Including ham radio. websdr.org/

[@Slickthirtysix]

I've been trying to get it to work in Hyper-V for a couple of weeks. Just keeps locking up with a flashing cursor. Waste of time.

[@Mr0rris0]

Looks sketchy...

[@JuanSanchez-ik7wx]

talks so slow that drool should be visible.

[@BobtheTraveler-WD8NVN]

🤣 Why are most Radio Hams are more interested about computers than radios ???? 🤪🤪🤪🤪

[@G0USL]

Great review Kevin, I'll be giving that a spin. 73 de GØUSL

[@Malibyte56]

After installing in a VirtualBox VM, I installed the Guest Additions to speed up the GUI a bit, among other things. Works fine with every other VM install (Linux, Winblows or otherwise) I've ever done. This time, it lost my password again, so I can't log in. Ugh. Also, Kevin, please see my reply to Signal Scout regarding configuring it with WSJT-X. I think I will have to configure virtual COM ports to use /dev/ttyUSBxx to get this to work.

[@dennisjoiner3717]

Thanks for the review Kevin. I had just emailed you 2 weeks ago about SDR software, and you suggest GQRX. I'm going to try to get Andy's package on a PC. I'm new to linux, but have wanted to give it a go. This seems like that time! N9XFX

[@danamarcy5414]

Thanks for the fix. VE6KBI Dana

[@steveedwards90]

Hi Kevin that was a good review what I did not see was cqrlog it's what I use and very polished thanks stay well de gw7lop

[@JimAndyAllyn]

It's there. See video at 8:26.

[@steveedwards90]

@@JimAndyAllyn yes got it was listening not really watching my bad ok thanks