[Xastir] No stations display on Xastir

[Rich Garcia]

Well tonight Xastir finally is showing a stream of data coming across my
Incoming Packet Data screen. I have no idea why it did not work last
night unless the aprsfl.net server was down. Problem is that the
stations are not displaying on my screen, I don't have any maps
installed yet but I should still see icons showing up.

I have generated a validation number for my callsign but even though I
have entered my data I am not showing up on Findu. I looked at my
interface information and it shows connecting ?? I am connected if not I
would not see any data! Bottom right of the display shows a Yellow
something on top a red box on the bottom left and a green box on the
bottom right with a red arrow pointing Left above it.

I am assuming that the bottom left box is telling me I am not connected
to outgoing data but the bottom right is telling me I am connected with
the arrow meaning incoming data ?

Any ideas on what to look for, I do have a few of the stations features
clicked on so I should show something.

Rich K4GPS

[Curt Mills, WE7U]

Post by Rich Garcia
Well tonight Xastir finally is showing a stream of data coming across my
Incoming Packet Data screen. I have no idea why it did not work last
night unless the aprsfl.net server was down. Problem is that the
stations are not displaying on my screen, I don't have any maps
installed yet but I should still see icons showing up.

Yes, you should.

Post by Rich Garcia
I have generated a validation number for my callsign but even though I
have entered my data I am not showing up on Findu. I looked at my
interface information and it shows connecting ?? I am connected if not I
would not see any data! Bottom right of the display shows a Yellow
something on top a red box on the bottom left and a green box on the
bottom right with a red arrow pointing Left above it.

Top line has color-coded type of connection (TNC/GPS/Internet/etc).
Middle line has arrows showing which direction data is going in.
Bottom line is status of connection. Green = good. Red = bad.

Post by Rich Garcia
I am assuming that the bottom left box is telling me I am not connected
to outgoing data but the bottom right is telling me I am connected with
the arrow meaning incoming data ?

Sound correct.

Post by Rich Garcia
Any ideas on what to look for, I do have a few of the stations features
clicked on so I should show something.

Since we've had more than one person ask recently, here are some
quick thoughts on the subject. Any more to add? Probably should
get this or something like it added to the FAQ (Reuven?).


Why are stations not showing on my screen?
------------------------------------------

1) You may have clicked on the "File->Configure->Defaults->Activate
Alternate net" button. This will put you into a separate group on
APRS where only that group will show on your screen.

2) "Stations->Filter->Data" and/or "Stations->Filter->Display"
togglebuttons may be set in such a manner that nothing shows on your
screen.

3) You may not have received any stations yet (although your own
station should be showing, at 0N/0W if you've just started Xastir
for the first time).

4) If you're hooked to a TNC, your TNC might be set incorrectly,
making it impossible for Xastir to parse the data. Each packet
should appear as one line coming in, not two. No timestamps should
be added by the TNC itself.

5) You may be using an unsupported TNC, making it impossible for
Xastir to parse the data.

6) You may not have gotten the symbols.dat file installed in
/usr/local/xastir/symbols/ (default location on a lot of systems).

7) You may not have run the "callpass" program to generate the
proper string to use in connecting to internet servers, or you may
not have entered that string in the correct place for each internet
interface (in the Properties menu for each).

[Rich Garcia]

I have tried all of those and double checked at least 4-5 times. The ONLY
ONE thing I did not check was the symbols.dat file, just getting started
here so I am clueless how this works in Linux.

I will try that as soon as I re-boot, hopefully I will have time this
weekend to set up a 2nd box for Linux only. Anyone have 64megs or more of
72pin sims they want to part with ?? I would like to try to find 4x32 but
would settle for 4X16 all I have is 4X8 and 32megs just don't cut it for me.

Rich K4GPS


From: Curt Mills, WE7U [mailto:***@tc.fluke.com]
SNIP>>
Why are stations not showing on my screen?
------------------------------------------

1) You may have clicked on the "File->Configure->Defaults->Activate
Alternate net" button. This will put you into a separate group on
APRS where only that group will show on your screen.

2) "Stations->Filter->Data" and/or "Stations->Filter->Display"
togglebuttons may be set in such a manner that nothing shows on your
screen.

3) You may not have received any stations yet (although your own
station should be showing, at 0N/0W if you've just started Xastir
for the first time).

4) If you're hooked to a TNC, your TNC might be set incorrectly,
making it impossible for Xastir to parse the data. Each packet
should appear as one line coming in, not two. No timestamps should
be added by the TNC itself.

5) You may be using an unsupported TNC, making it impossible for
Xastir to parse the data.

6) You may not have gotten the symbols.dat file installed in
/usr/local/xastir/symbols/ (default location on a lot of systems).

7) You may not have run the "callpass" program to generate the
proper string to use in connecting to internet servers, or you may
not have entered that string in the correct place for each internet
interface (in the Properties menu for each).

[James Jefferson]

For what it is worth, I can't get xastir working properly on my new Mandrake
9.1 laptop. Everything compiles (shapelib, festival, imagemagick, ax25 kernel
support) just fine and the program runs.

The problems:
1) None of my shapefiles in /usr/local/xastir/maps show up, but the the
directory structure does. The directories and files have proper permissions
and the data is valid.
2) Stations don't show up. I see data in the view packet data window, but
nothing besides my icon shows up on the map. Only on one occasion did the
stations show up on the map.
3) The tigermap doesn't time out. With a 20 second timeout xastir still hangs
for > 1 minute until the tigermap server returns an image. So the map
eventually gets displayed, but xastir stands still until then.

With all that said, the problem appears to be Mandrake 9.1 or something about
my particular installation. Most of my testing was with the latest CVS files,
but I tried re-compiling and running previously working versions of xastir
and I got the same result - no stations and no shapefiles.

-Jim