So am I. At the moment I’m running Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS which comes with an old version oh hamlib. The version of hamlib predates my FT-710 but I did manage to compile the newer hamlib on my system. Seems to be able to control my ft-710 now but I’m really curious to see what WRL puts out, specifically if they are going to link to the system’s installation of hamlib or bundle a version of hamlib… My bet is that they publish an appimage. I’m really hoping it isn’t a flatpack though…
@KI4NAC @WC5B @K9GTT @KE0VWA @N3FAR @M0BOB
I am providing you guys a pre-release linux build of the cat control app below. This will be released on the site hopefully later today once we get the other builds complete for this updated release.
Here is the Ubuntu/Debian deb:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13AjUUKWmx_GFzx_XCr_5-gsSy7MYIstc/view?usp=sharing
Here is the Redhat/CentOS rpm:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UxaZzbhZzXev1kAfOYjDs93FALSJD2r2/view?usp=sharing
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Wonderful thank you.
I do appreciate the preview
Work day is super busy today, but I hope to give it a bit more go soon.
In my brief look, Bravo!
My initial feedback
Installed the rpm version on Arch - lazy install vs making a pkgbuild
Sign in worked
IC7300 with the USB/Serial device picked. A little slower than when I use wfview or rigctrl to connect to the radio but it does get there
Choosing a spot from any of the three browsers I have installed - Chrome, Firefox and Brave (default), the radio changes frequency and mode.
When I turn the VFO or change modes on the radio, the browser sees the changes
WSJTX worked immediately though I didn’t try to make a QSO (I fully expect this will work fine)
not1mm also worked for frequency/mode changes, but not macros. I suspect its rigctrld that is the issue (macros work with wfview, but not with my own installed version of rigtcld either)
Questions
Is there a way to set hamlib net as the interface with the radio? I usually like to have wfview be the actual interface between the radio and other programs (wrl-cat does seem to be doing this itself so I’m sure that would cause a conflict)
Do you plan to package for Arch?
@KE0VWA not for arch not currently.
in the radio drop down there is a selection for hamlib that you could probably use.
Ok
I can probably figure out how to install it the Arch way beyond extract/run
Maybe would give me a good reason to learn how to put something on AUR
For hamlib net, its in the dropdown but there is no way to enter an IP/Port when you choose it (the serial dropdown doesn’t allow freeform)
I was thinking to look in the config where that was stored and override it since the GUI doesn’t have it. I couldn’t find a flat file where that was configured though - guessing its in sqlite?
It would still require the cat app to understand this is not a serial port, but a network address.
Welcome to the fun of linux support 
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@KE0VWA yeah for sure. currently there isn’t support for network addresses in the cat control app even if you were able to modify the config. We have this on our list for a future upgrade though
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Awesome! Just pulled the download. I’ll get it up and running and provide feedback as it comes!
Thanks!
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Played a bit more now that work is over
Did have occasional times where clicking on a Spot would change frequency, but not mode. Resetting the radio, reloading cat, and reloading the browser resolved that.
Figured out why it seemed macros didn’t work - CW sent via CAT doesn’t (at least how I have my radio configured) come back over USB audio so macro execution happened - I just can’t hear it unless I use the radio speakers.
not1mm streaming udp contacts works so contesting = win (technically don’t need CAT for this)
Being able to use external rigctld would still be nice, but not critical
Tonight I’ll see if I can make it work with a 705 over wireless
Thanks again for working on Linux support!!
I am running CachyOS (Arch), is there any way you can provide how you installed using the rpm? I have not ever tried that before.
Update: Disregard… I was able to learn something for a change and got it installed. LOL
OK, so I just played with it for a few mins so far and here is where I am at.
- Was able to get installed on CachyOS (Arch based) after learning how to convert the RPM file using PKGBUILD.
- Was able to get it connected to my IC-7300 but there was a bit of a delay before the USB port showed up on the list and for the actual connection to be established.
- Once it’s up, It appears to be following my tuning great and showing up in the browser logbook! Nice! I did notice however that when it first connects you have to spin the dial to get it to update into the log and also when band changing. Not a big deal and this may be how it is suppose to be as I have never used it on Windows to know. Just putting the FYI out there just in case.
- At first, clicking on spots does not do anything for me. After restarting everything, spots would in fact change the radio by clicking on them but this feature did not work after the first connection was made otherwise.
- However, this is where I encountered a pretty nasty bug. Anytime I switched to CW manually on rig or by spot or by using mode drop down, the radio would key and stay keyed until manually mode changing. I could do this by spot clicking something not CW or by manually changing mode on rig, but changing mode on drop down it would continue to stay keyed. When clicking on a spot that was CW it would actually change to CW-R oddly enough. A feature I didn’t even remember the rig had. LOL So while Cat Control is up, I am not able to actually use CW it appears.
- I did encounter another bug that when I switched the browser log from Log to Spotting, it changed the mode to CW and keyed the radio. I have not been able to recreate that again however, so it just happened the one time.
- I was able to get WRL to pull WSJTX frequency so I believe it was sorta working, but when I tried to make a call, WSJTX errored out and crashed. I suspect you can’t run CAT control on both WSJTX (which it has been setup for previously) and use WRL Cat Control at the same time, but I am not 100% sure how to tell WSJTX to yield to WRL if that is what is happening.
- I see the buttons for N1MM and N3FJP but I have yet to get those running on Linux. I tried Not1mm recently in the ARRL DX CW contest and I am betting there is a way for that to work with WRL N1MM as it is basically an Open Source N1MM, but I could not figure it out myself in the few mins I tried. I see KE0VWA was able to get it streaming udp contacts so he is further than I am, but I can only seem to get CAT to work with that via wfview. I see he mentioned the macros on not1mm and I will just note that I have not yet been able to get those macros to work either. Well, I can get them to send cw, but not what I want it to. It will send things other than what it is configured for no matter how the config file is setup including it’s default settings. For me anyway. But that isn’t a WRL issue, just noted it from seeing his comment.
Long story short:
- For SSB operation: Seems to be 100% good to go
- For CW operation: Encountering bugs that make it unusable while operating in that mode.
- Use with external apps: WSJTX - Not able to transmit without crashing and likely user error / knowledge of setup. N1MM & N3FJP unknown due to not installed, but Not1mm I have not been able to get it connected yet. Will play more with it later.
Hope this info helps!!! I am loving the Linux support and even though I have been 100% Linux for almost 10 years now, I am no expert. So however I can help from an “enduser” prospective, just let me know.
@WCB5
wrl-cat (and really almost all ham radio control apps) will start their own instance of rigctld when you configure them with your specific radio and a specific serial port (/dev/ttyUSB0 for the 7300). That is why if you have wsjtx set up with the 7300 in the radio drop down it doesn’t work/crashes because wsjtx tries to start its own rigctrld which creates a conflict
For wsjtx, and now any other program where you would originally have set the radio to your specific model you need to set the radio to “hamlib net rigctrl” with localhost:4532 as the address.
Sound card settings can stay the same
That should get your wsjtx running
I found that the WRL website worked best if I opened it after I had the cat app running and connected to the radio
Issues of CW vs CW-R when using the dropdown
If I’m on 20 or higher, it sets CW
If I’m on 40 or lower, it sets CW-R.
But if I click a spot it works fine regardless of band
I’ve never had it TX at all from doing stuff with wrl cat. I don’t think they implement any rigctrl commands to TX so not sure how that could happen.
I’m not going to mention not1mm any more as its really outside their scope. To be honest I’ve always found it was very flaky
It doesn’t interact with the wrl-cat client in any way. Its just sending rigctl commands to rigctld and so there is nothing they can really do to fix anything related to it
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@KE0VWA Thanks for this break down, and you are correct.
@WC5B if its auto txing i would only assume its something related to radio settings and/or com port/baud settings (although i wouldn’t think the baud rate would have anything to do with it, but you never know). I would try changing the com port and/or just do a quick google search for “yourRadio hamlib settings” and you should get some solid results with the best/correct settings to use.
As far as WSJTX goes, as @KE0VWA mentioned just set the radio drop down in the settings to Hamlib and then make sure PTT Method is set to ‘cat’ and Transmit Audio Source is set to ‘Rear/Data’, Mode is set to ‘Data/Pkt’, which they probably are already set that way.
Then you can follow this guide to get gridtracker, wsjtx/jtdx setup and working together:
Thanks & 73
Brad K4AZE
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My system is a bit older and my installed GLIBC is 2.35 and WRL CAT for linux (1.1.1.1) requires GLIBC_2.38. I think this is what is preventing me from making use of the bundled hamlib. WRL CAT opens fine but the radio selection menu remains empty. Everything else works fine. Chucks!
Thank you for putting out the beta version! I just need to find the time to upgrade my system.
I’ll throw my system info below:
WRL CAT for Linux Beta Version 1.1.1.1
Installed on Pop!_OS, app does not populate radios supported by Hamlib / does not does not populate “Select Radio Model” list.
Environment
OS: Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS
Kernel: Linux pop-os 6.17.9-76061709-generic #202511241048~1764704751~22.04~b24b425 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Tue D x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
hamlib: 4.6.5 (built from source then made a package so APT can register it)
libhamlib-utils: 4.3.1-1build2
libhamlib4:amd64: 4.3.1-1build2
Connection: FT-710 USB to PC
Errors:
wrl-cat-control
EXE PATH : /usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/rigctl
ARGS : [ ‘-l’ ]
ERROR : Error: Command failed: /usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/rigctl -l
/usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/rigctl: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version GLIBC_2.38' not found (required by /usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/rigctl) /usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/rigctl: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version GLIBC_2.38’ not found (required by /usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/libhamlib.so.5)
/usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/rigctl: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.38’ not found (required by /usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/libhamlib.so.5)
at genericNodeError (node:internal/errors:984:15)
at wrappedFn (node:internal/errors:538:14)
at ChildProcess.exithandler (node:child_process:422:12)
at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:518:28)
at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1104:16)
at Socket.<anonymous> (node:internal/child_process:456:11)
at Socket.emit (node:events:518:28)
at Pipe.<anonymous> (node:net:343:12) {
code: 1,
killed: false,
signal: null,
cmd: ‘/usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/rigctl -l’
}
Error occurred in handler for ‘hamlib-rigctl’: /usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/rigctl: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version GLIBC_2.38' not found (required by /usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/rigctl) /usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/rigctl: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version GLIBC_2.38’ not found (required by /usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/libhamlib.so.5)
/usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/rigctl: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.38’ not found (required by /usr/lib/wrl-cat-control/resources/linux-x64/libhamlib.so.5)
My GLIB:
ldd (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.35-0ubuntu3.13) 2.35
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Architecture Description
++±==============-================-============-=================================
ii libc6:amd64 2.35-0ubuntu3.13 amd64 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii libc6:i386 2.35-0ubuntu3.13 i386 GNU C Library: Shared libraries
Have you updated your packages lately?
Try opening a terminal and doing:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt dist-upgrade -y
let that run and install all the updates on your machine.
After that try and do a system upgrade by:
sudo pop-upgrade release upgrade
You may have to at the -f flag to force the update but im not sure, im not familiar with PopOS.
Doing a quick google search says:
"Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS ships with glibc 2.35, which is older than the required glibc 2.38 for certain applications like ShadPS4 or newer R packages.
- Direct Solution: Upgrade to Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha, which includes glibc 2.39 and should resolve the issue. This version is available for testing but is not stable for production use."
If none of the above is possible or doesn’t work i can try and look at creating a Flatpak version of the cat control app but thats going to take some time to figure out.
Thanks & 73
Brad K4AZE
Ya it is really weird as all settings in Rig seem to check out and it works with wfview and other data apps that use CAT and CW keying with rigctrld and hamlib etc. I will review everything and report back.
Update: I seem to have found a setting that breaks the auto key. I want to test and see if apps that allow cw sending still work however. I am not sure if it breaks that or not. I believe it was the USB Send setting with DTR and RTS and OFF. I am not sure if setting OFF breaks that function on other apps or not. GOing to test it. I guess its not a huge deal. It’s not something I use a lot but I was wanting to try at some point lol.
2nd Update: I am so stoked. Not only is CW sending working on other app (not1mm) but that app is actually COMPLETELY functioning now. I will not list all the issues I had with it in the last contest as it’s not the focus of the thread, but it now is working completely as intended!!! This is awesome.
Also, I made the Rig change in WSJTX and insta-fix. I threw my callsign out on 10M just to check and JA1SJV came back for a very awesome DX Check lol. Instantly logged into my WRL Logbook!! Now that is cool brothers!
VIP for life. Keep up the good work and thank you for putting in the time for us on Linux. It is VERY much appreciated. I don’t get on Social Media all that much but I will start posting maps! lol
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@K4AZE
Yeah, the reason for my old packages isn’t because I haven’t upgraded the packages, it’s because I’m running an LTS build from 2022, Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS == Ubuntu Jammy or whatever the code name is which I mentioned in the bug report.
I have to upgrade soon but first I need to backup my system in case the release upgrade goes south.
Thank you again for willing to make a Flatpak though! I’ll get back to you when I upgrade Pop_OS!
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