[pskmail] Fldigi problems on Xandros eeePC
- From: Rein Couperus <rein@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: pskmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2008 18:15:28 +0200
As the proud owner of both PC701 and PC900 eeePC's with a Xandros linux distro
on them I have done some
testing with the fldigi/pskmail combination, and I have come across some
problems.
The first tests were done with Fldigi-2.07. The binary provided by w1hkj
installed without croaking and
operation was flawless most of the time. The problems encountered:
* Entering text into the TX window of fldigi sometimes killed fldigi, including
the X-server.
* There was an obvious buffer overflow in fldigi which resulted in the client
sending ramdom text
from its memory for a random amount of time.
* It has turned out that this happens also on other (UBUNTU) installations
using 2.07.
Second test with fldigi -2.10-3:
* Fldigi binaries higher than 2.07 will not run on Xandros because they are
compiled with an
incompatible Glibc (2.4) which is not available on Xandros.
* Installing Glibc 2.4 on Xandros breaks most of the apps, so that is not an
alternative.
* Installing another OS on the eeePC is too difficult for most users.
* I then installed a statically compiled binary from Berlios.de. It runs well,
but it has the same
problems as version 2.07 on the eeePC, so that was no improvement.
Third test with fldigi 3.0:
* I tried to compile fldigi on the eeePC but that failed miserably because of
incompatibilities with
the libraries.
* I downloaded a statically linked version of 3.0 from Berlios.de (which has
been removed since...)
The results are the same as with 2.07. It runs well until you enter text into
the TX window. If you do, the
X server crashes on the fldigi SEGFAULT 80% of the time.
* Fldigi 3.0 misses the --profile emc option. The result is that the 800x480
display of the
PC701 is too small for fldigi, and you have to shift the app around with
alt-leftmouse to operate some
of the buttons. This is a pity as the combination of PC701, pskmail and fldigi
makes an ideal package
for mobile stations.
The TX text insertion SEGFAULT also occurs randomly if pskmail is not started
(right after a reboot).
I have emailed W1HKJ and told him about the problem.
Meanwhile I am using fldigi 3.0 only as a pskmail modem, and make sure I don' t
use
the TX window (bummer, I just build a CW keying circuit to use the eeePCV as a
portable CW keyboard).
For use in a pskmail server fldigi 3.0 is now recommended, and I also included
the bin image into the
new client 1.0 package. For the server you don' t need the TX window. The sweet
spot instability
problem seems to be solved on 3.0.
If a buffer dump on the frequency occurs, just be patient, it will stop at some
point in time.
73,
Rein PA0R
pa0r.blogspirit.com
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