• InstallPage

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Installing D-RATS

Currently, D-RATS does not need to be "installed" in the conventional sense. Extracting the zip or tar archive and running the application directly is all that is required

Windows

There are two ways to run D-RATS on windows: you can get the latest binary release or use the source. Most users will prefer to get the binaries as this is more conventional on the platform.

Binary Release

• Download the latest d-rats-X.Y.Z-win32.zip release from the DownloadPage

• Unzip to a directory
• Run the d-rats.exe file within

Source Release

While it may look daunting, most of the packages below are small, install in seconds, and don't require a reboot. The advantage of using a source release is that updating requires only a few kilobytes of a download. It also means that you can grab a snapshot of the development tree at any time to get the latest features.

• Install Python

• Install required packages:

  • GTK

  • pyCairo

  • pyGobject

  • pyGTK

  • win32all

  • pyserial

• Download the latest d-rats-X.Y.Z.zip source release

• Unzip to a directory and run the d-rats.py program

Linux

If you're running linux, you probably already know what to do. Install the required packages for your distro:

• Debian/Ubuntu: apt-get install python-serial python-gtk2 python-libxml2 python-libxslt1

• Fedora/RedHat: yum install pygtk2 libxml2-python libxslt-python python-feedparser #

• CentOS 5........ : yum install pygtk2 libxml2-python libxslt-python python-feedparser #

  • Get pyserial: http://rpms.netmindz.net/el5/i386/RPMS.extras/pyserial-2.2-4.el5.noarch.rpm

After those packages are installed, download the source and extract the contents. Then you should just be able to run the d-rats file or repeater file to start that application; ie ./d-rats and ./repeater, in the extracted tar destination path. Use ./d-rats.py and ./repeater.py on earlier versions, if former does not work, and check the path. Some versions executed from subfolders.

Porting d-rats to the Asus Eee PC 2G Surf

• You must install all of the packages and the d-rats code on the internal flash drive…it will not work with the application on an SD card. There is plenty of space available for all the necessary libraries and code. You can place maps, etc. on the SD card if you wish.
• First step…you need to update the list of repositories on the Eee PC to be able to load the Python libraries used by the d-rats application.
  • This is accomplished by following these steps:

    • Bring up a terminal window (ctrl-alt-t)

    • Get to the root directory (cd /)

    • Issue the command to become a super-user:

      • sudo su

• Open the sources.list file in the nano editor:

  • nano /etc/apt/sources.list

• Add the following lines after all the other lines:

deb http://xnv4.xandros.com/xs2.0/upkg-srv2 etch main contrib non-free''
deb http:/dccamirror.xandros.com/dccri dccri-3.0 main''
deb http://www.geekconnection.org xandros4 main''

• Save the editor changes (ctrl-o)…hit enter to confirm

• Exit the nano text editor (ctrl-x)

• Type:

  • apt-get update

• Next, you need to install all of the required Python support packages. These include:
  • python-serial
  • python-ibxm2
  • python-libxslt1
  • python-gtk2
• To install these, type the following for each:

  • apt-get install python-serial

  • apt-get install python-ibxm2

  • apt-get install python-libxslt1

  • apt-get install python-gtk2

• Next step is to get the latest d-rats-X.Y.Z.zip source release

  • Download this from DownloadPage

• Decompress this file to the /home/usr directory. I found the easiest way to do this is to open the file manager and open the file, then copy the contents over to the /home/usr folder.

• You are now ready to run the program. Do this by typing:

  • ./d-rats

• The program should now run, bringing up the d-rats application. Please note that you will need a USB-serial port dongle to communicate with your radio. You need to set the com port to this in the application. It should look like: /dev/ttyUSB0.
  • Be sure to set your baud rate. The IC-92AD requires 38400.

MacOS X

• Go to http://www.macports.org/install.php and follow the directions there

• Once macports is installed, you can open a terminal and install the dependencies:

% sudo port install py25-gtk py25-serial py25-xml py25-hashlib
% sudo port install -f py25-libxslt

This will take a long time. When it's done, you should be able to download the latest source release, untar it, and run:

% /opt/local/bin/python2.5 d-rats

Next, you need to determine the device name for your serial port. To do this, try the following:

% ls /dev/cu*
m

Select the likely candidate from the list. Once you determine the correct device, go into "Main Settings" in D-RATS, and go to the "Data" tab. Change the "Serial Port" field to the device and hit "Save".

NOTE: You will almost definitely want to select the "D-RATS does flow control" option, also on the data tab.

The following USB adapters and associated device names may help you determine the correct one to use: