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Any Linux Users out there?


Gewitty

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The question arises from a discussion on another topic thread recently. I'm doing a bit of research to discover how many geocachers users Linux rather than Windows.

 

Most of the GPS manufacturers make software and firmware available for Windows users, but very few offer support to Linux converts. The rationale seems to be that there are so few Linux users out there that it's not worth their while to offer Linux versions of their apps. But times are changing and Linux is becoming a significant force in the market.

 

Given the techno-savvy nature of geocachers, it occurred to me that this particular demographic might just have a higher than normal percentage of Linux users.

 

So, if you are a Linux user, maybe you could just reply with a quick post and also state which flavour you use.

 

I would have done this easier as a poll, but this forum doesn't seem to support them, so I'll have to do the sums by hand!

 

Regards,

Dave

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The question arises from a discussion on another topic thread recently. I'm doing a bit of research to discover how many geocachers users Linux rather than Windows.

 

Most of the GPS manufacturers make software and firmware available for Windows users, but very few offer support to Linux converts. The rationale seems to be that there are so few Linux users out there that it's not worth their while to offer Linux versions of their apps. But times are changing and Linux is becoming a significant force in the market.

 

Given the techno-savvy nature of geocachers, it occurred to me that this particular demographic might just have a higher than normal percentage of Linux users.

 

So, if you are a Linux user, maybe you could just reply with a quick post and also state which flavour you use.

 

I would have done this easier as a poll, but this forum doesn't seem to support them, so I'll have to do the sums by hand!

 

Regards,

Dave

 

I user Ubuntu Linux on a laptop and desktop, but not for Geocaching because of the lack of support. I have another laptop/desktop for this. I had switched my Pocket PC over to Linux, but switched back to WM6 to use it for paperless geocaching.

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I, too, use Ubuntu on my laptop. I have been VERY frustrated with the lack of support for linux. Mapsource, nope. Garmin Webupdate, nope. Send geocache to garmin device (on Geocaching.com) nope. GSAK, nope. Wherigo builder, nope.

 

Thank goodness for GPSBabel, it allowed me a little freedom to use the laptop. But, I broke down, and elbowed my way onto the kids computer with runs Windows XP. :laughing:

 

Adam

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I just got a Asus EEEpc 900 running Linux on Monday. I have my open-source program GPSTurbo running on it already displaying both Garmin Maps and Google maps. The funny thing is loads GPX files about 3 times as fast as my PC with Windows XP.

I also ordered a USB dongle GPS for it so I hope to have it doing realtime tracking as well as soon as the GPS arrives.

eeepc.jpg

GPSTurbo page

 

Kevin

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I'm Linux-only user. Short time ago I bought Colorado as my first GPS. There is no problem with Colorado, because you can mount it and use it as a disk device. But I'm missing general tools for gps data manipulation and visualisation :laughing: Best I found is Viking, but it's far from satisfactory :wub: I'm about to write something by myself, but it will take some time, because I still don't have enought know-how about GPS data manipulation :wub:

 

The question arises from a discussion on another topic thread recently. I'm doing a bit of research to discover how many geocachers users Linux rather than Windows.

 

Most of the GPS manufacturers make software and firmware available for Windows users, but very few offer support to Linux converts. The rationale seems to be that there are so few Linux users out there that it's not worth their while to offer Linux versions of their apps. But times are changing and Linux is becoming a significant force in the market.

 

Given the techno-savvy nature of geocachers, it occurred to me that this particular demographic might just have a higher than normal percentage of Linux users.

 

So, if you are a Linux user, maybe you could just reply with a quick post and also state which flavour you use.

 

I would have done this easier as a poll, but this forum doesn't seem to support them, so I'll have to do the sums by hand!

 

Regards,

Dave

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My frustration with waypoint transfer tools under UNIX/Linux was the original motivation for GPSBabel. See: http://www.gpsbabel.org/people/robertlipe.html Mac and Windows came later.

 

I used Linux almost exclusively for my geocaching needs (minus the occasional map upload or printing of a big map) for about six years. I still visit it from time to time and keep GPSBabel running there, but it's not my primary platform these days.

 

Contrary to popular press, I'm actually seeing the GPSBabel traffic in Linux shrink over time. Fewer downloads, fewer contributions, fewer code changes.

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I'm doing a bit of research to discover how many geocachers users Linux rather than Windows.

 

What is Windows? ;-)

 

I'm using Linux only since I finally deleted my OS/2 a couple of years ago. First it was SuSE, but since Gutsy Gibbon it is Ubuntu.

As long as I was caching with Etrex and Palm V, all I needed was gpsbabel and cachemate. Since I've got one of that great Colorados I directly put my pocket query gpx files on the USB-drive "Colorado" and don't need any other software. (Well occasionally I gpsbabel a track to Google Earth).

 

PS. I have to comit I did use Wine to get my maps from Mapsource into the Colorado

Edited by rabe
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I use fedora 7 and 9 at home and open suse 10 for my work machines. I have had the same frustration with linux/software manufacs.

 

I have come up with a decent solution for me though. http://virtualbox.org

 

basically you install xp in a virtual machine running in linux. it runs about 90% to native and allows you to make a snapshot of the machine. every time it boots up, it boots from the same point in time. it works great and is fairly easy to get working.

 

lots of documentation on it as well...

 

free to use of course.

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All my PC are running Ubuntu. Only my laptop has dual boot with XP for some university programs that I didn't found versions running in Ubuntu.

 

There were some compatible versions but teachers didn't liked them.

 

Using Ubuntu solved lots of problems at home, specially my father's desktop who was a magnet for virus and worms.

 

Since I have an yellow Garmin eTrex, using Linux isn't a problem. :D

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hi!

 

I am primarily a Mac user these days, but a long-time linux user also.

A Red Hat kinda guy I am, having F9 under VMWare Fusion, and

F8 x86_64 at work.

 

I would really like to see more Linux possibilities for a GPS user,

and the current trend for umpc laptops like already posted EeePC

makes it all more and more interesting.

 

My frequent use case is mountain biking, so I would like to be able to

 

- track my bike trips, convert to .kml/kmz to share and

show over Google Maps

 

- design a route with waypoints by clicking on a map on a linux workstation,

upload that to a GPSr and pedal away

 

Sophisticated geocaching functionality would of course be very welcome.

Also, using different freely obtainable map content like openstreetmap.org

etc. would be interesting

 

Not a coder by any means, but I am interested in all GPS-related

Linux development, and I could consider contributing to open source

projects wherever my skill set and schedule allows.

(commenting on feature set :-D, testing on Fedora, localisation (.fi))

 

--bronx

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I've been a linux user since, um, well a really really long time since I can't remember. I almost never use windows and when i do it's frequently to load garmin maps to my GPS. Now with the ability to put maps from openstreetmap into my garmin without touching windows my motivation to use windows is much lower.

 

There wasn't, however, any decent geocaching database tools for linux. I ended up cobbling together a bunch of scripts to do what I needed with gpx files which worked well till I decided I really needed something properly designed. After that I started the GeoQO open source project for doing geocaching and generic waypoint management. It's quite powerful, but hardly perfectly-friendly yet.

 

On Fedora (which is what I use) you can try "yum install geoqo" to try it. On anything else, the instructions are a bit more painful because of pre-requisites. However, I think that's about to be solved distributing a pre-compiled version in the near future.

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I use Linux about 25% of the time right now (mainly work-related) but none of it has been for geocaching. If I could find some tools to replace my Windows setup (GSAK and a Garmin Colorado) I'd probably use Linux a lot more. I'll take a look at this GeoQO thing and see if it's something that might work along with the resources others have linked to above. Thanks for the links, and the thread. I prefer not to use Windows unless I have to. :D

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I'm playing with Ubuntu also. I have not been able to install GeoQO for the life of me but I'm in contact with the developer who hopefully will help me. Linux will take off as soon as the process is less arcane, less technical, like the evolution of Windows from DOS.

 

In the meantime I'm feeling smug at cheating MS from obscene profits by using Win 2K Pro on one of my laptops. I have not yet found an app that won't run just as well as on XP and that includes Google Earth.

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I'm playing with Ubuntu also. I have not been able to install GeoQO for the life of me but I'm in contact with the developer who hopefully will help me. Linux will take off as soon as the process is less arcane, less technical, like the evolution of Windows from DOS.

 

I think I have GeoQO almost packaged into a single binary (and that will include a single windows binary too I think).

 

Give me another week and I think I'll have it done.

 

(I really need to find someone to maintain a debian (Ubuntu) package for it...)

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I'm a relatively new Linux(Ubuntu) user.

I have to say I'm a little intimiated by GPSBabel since it's all command line.

Currently I still use our Windows XP desktop machine to load waypoints to my yellow garmin etrex, but I'd like to start exclusively using my Ubuntu laptop for everything.

Synaptic showed me GPSman and GPStrans in addition to GPSBabel....GPSman appears to have a decent GUI, but isn't connecting with my Garmin. The documentation on their site makes almost no sense to me.

 

Is there a GUI application for Ubunutu that would allow easy transfers to my Gamin, or is there a GPSBabel for new users help page to get me started with that?

Thanks.

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Is there a GUI application for Ubunutu that would allow easy transfers to my Gamin, or is there a GPSBabel for new users help page to get me started with that?

Thanks.

 

Take a .gpx file from your pocket query and just run this:

 

gpsbabel -i gpx -f THEFILE.gpx -o garmin -F /dev/ttyUSB0

 

If your device is connected to your USB port. If it's an older serial device, then use /dev/ttyS0 instead.

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Is there a GUI application for Ubunutu that would allow easy transfers to my Gamin, or is there a GPSBabel for new users help page to get me started with that?

Thanks.

 

Take a .gpx file from your pocket query and just run this:

 

gpsbabel -i gpx -f THEFILE.gpx -o garmin -F /dev/ttyUSB0

 

If your device is connected to your USB port. If it's an older serial device, then use /dev/ttyS0 instead.

I think by default that will transfer only waypoints. If you want to transfer tracks, add the -t option. Like this:

gpsbabel -t -i gpx -f THEFILE.gpx -o garmin -F /dev/ttyUSB0

For routes, use -r instead.

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I've been a linux user since, um, well a really really long time since I can't remember. I almost never use windows and when i do it's frequently to load garmin maps to my GPS. Now with the ability to put maps from openstreetmap into my garmin without touching windows my motivation to use windows is much lower.

 

There wasn't, however, any decent geocaching database tools for linux. I ended up cobbling together a bunch of scripts to do what I needed with gpx files which worked well till I decided I really needed something properly designed. After that I started the GeoQO open source project for doing geocaching and generic waypoint management. It's quite powerful, but hardly perfectly-friendly yet.

 

On Fedora (which is what I use) you can try "yum install geoqo" to try it. On anything else, the instructions are a bit more painful because of pre-requisites. However, I think that's about to be solved distributing a pre-compiled version in the near future.

I am running Fedora but egads, there are still a lot of prerequisites! I got everything going except the XML Parser. Even after installing a couple of versions I couldn't get Geoqo working.

 

--> Finished Dependency Resolution

1:perl-Pod-Escapes-1.04-30.fc9.i386 from installed has depsolving problems

--> Missing Dependency: perl = 4:5.10.0-30.fc9 is needed by package 1:perl-Pod-Escapes-1.04-30.fc9.i386 (installed)

Error: Missing Dependency: perl = 4:5.10.0-30.fc9 is needed by package 1:perl-Pod-Escapes-1.04-30.fc9.i386 (installed)

Edited by Team GPSaxophone
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I am running Fedora but egads, there are still a lot of prerequisites! I got everything going except the XML Parser. Even after installing a couple of versions I couldn't get Geoqo working.

 

Yeah, good things are built on the shoulders of giants and in this case there were a ton of things that I was relying on. You shouldn't actually have to do anything on fedora other than a yum install though (which will pull in all those dependencies).

 

I actuall have a "compiled" version of it which is a single binary install, but I haven't finished testing it. I was hoping to finish it last weekend but some other tasks on the weekend took all my time in the end (sigh).

 

If you're having weird dependency issues then something in the package chain probably broke and fedora itself is messed up in some odd way...

 

You could try:

 

yum -x perl-Pod-Escapes install geoqo

 

I think the perl-Pod-Escapes module in fedora needs someone to wack it.

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I'm running Mint and Mepis, both Debian-based distros. I try to avoid M$ products and all costs. I've played with a few mapping and logging programs and several USB and Bluetooth GPSrs. I occasionally move files back and forth to my Colorado under Linux, but anything the requires Mapsource I do on a Windows box.

 

I still have a Windows box because some of the devices I use only have Windows interfaces, and I'm to lazy to get them working in Linux.

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I used to use CentOS 4.4-4.6 on my desk and lap exclusively ... funny, having a windows machine in the house by and large meant that I could ignore it. After pulling teeth, nails and hair to unsucessfully get the printer working again under CentOS 5.2, I moved to Ubuntu this summer on both to get my printer working on the desk and wireless working again on the lap. (other topic, Ubuntu just works, but I hate it ... how frustrating!!!) I nuked ubuntu on my laptop and installed F9 and was relieved. Interestingly and pleasantly the wireless worked out of the box on the laptop. Laziness and "it just works" vs. the work I'll have to do to get F9 to work properly while I'm still working on the laptop is what is currently keeping ubuntu on the desktop.

 

Right now I'm trying to get GeoQo working on the Fedora laptop. I installed it from the repo, but no menu item shows up. Typing "geoqo" at the command line and it says "No package gui available."

 

Any suggestions?

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Most of the GPS manufacturers make software and firmware available for Windows users, but very few offer support to Linux converts. The rationale seems to be that there are so few Linux users out there that it's not worth their while to offer Linux versions of their apps. But times are changing and Linux is becoming a significant force in the market.

 

Has anyone here taken a look at this:

 

http://developer.garmin.com/linux/

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Right now I'm trying to get GeoQo working on the Fedora laptop. I installed it from the repo, but no menu item shows up. Typing "geoqo" at the command line and it says "No package gui available."

 

Wow, I have no idea where that error is coming from. How odd (cause normally I'd know!)

 

That's at the command line in a shell (terminal) window?

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I use Ubuntu Linux.

 

As I use an Oregon which is seen as a mass storage device, I just copy maps from OpenStreetMap and gpx files created as pocket queries straight to the device.

 

Something I find useful is to use gpsbabel to combine multiple gpx files into one with the duplicates removed, because I run multiple overlapping PQs.

 

I've had a little bit of a play with Viking (which is in the Ubuntu repositories) to view gpx files on the computer. It's somewhat useful. From this thread I'll have a look at geoqo and gpsturbo.

 

One thing I find irritating is that you can't register a the Oregon with Garmin without installing some or other browser plugin which requires Windows or OSX. Why one Earth just telling them the serial number doesn't suffice I can't imagine. So far I've not registered, and to be honest if it weren't for the free month's geocaching.com premium membership I wouldn't bother at all.

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Right now I'm trying to get GeoQo working on the Fedora laptop. I installed it from the repo, but no menu item shows up. Typing "geoqo" at the command line and it says "No package gui available."

 

Wow, I have no idea where that error is coming from. How odd (cause normally I'd know!)

 

That's at the command line in a shell (terminal) window?

 

Yes at a command line in a terminal. At the time I happened to be at "the base of the tree" so to speak, but that has nothing to do with it. The install is fairly fresh install with no real tweaking, you know the usual remove evolution from the laptop since the desktop is using it, etc. Using gnome, of course.

 

Yes it was a standard repo install as in "yum install geoqo".

 

Hmmm, maybe this is as much a fedora forum issue then as one for here.

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Well, it took me a bit longer than I planned (it always does) because of lack of time. But! A new release of geoqo is available and it should be very easy for linux users to grab it and install it since it is a single-binary program with all needed prerequisites embedded internally.

 

Main site: http://www.geoqo.org/

Binary Instructions: http://www.geoqo.org/wiki/index.php/Instal..._binary_release

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I just got a Asus EEEpc 900 running Linux on Monday. I have my open-source program GPSTurbo running on it already displaying both Garmin Maps and Google maps. The funny thing is loads GPX files about 3 times as fast as my PC with Windows XP.

I also ordered a USB dongle GPS for it so I hope to have it doing realtime tracking as well as soon as the GPS arrives.

GPSTurbo page

 

Kevin

Costco has the Eee PC 1000 for $479 and it has Bluetooth. Will your software support a Bluetooth GPS(either Linux or XP)? Edited by John E Cache
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I just got a Asus EEEpc 900 running Linux on Monday. I have my open-source program GPSTurbo running on it already displaying both Garmin Maps and Google maps. The funny thing is loads GPX files about 3 times as fast as my PC with Windows XP.

I also ordered a USB dongle GPS for it so I hope to have it doing realtime tracking as well as soon as the GPS arrives.

GPSTurbo page

 

Kevin

Costco has the Eee PC 1000 for $479 and it has Bluetooth. Will your software support a Bluetooth GPS(either Linux or XP)?

My software uses GPSBabel for the realtime GPS tracking so if GPSBabel can get the coords from it then mine will support it. I've never used bluetooth so I don't know what extra steps are required for it.

 

Robert Lipe would be the one to ask about GPSBabel support as it is his baby. :-)

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I just got a Asus EEEpc 900 running Linux on Monday. I have my open-source program GPSTurbo running on it already displaying both Garmin Maps and Google maps. The funny thing is loads GPX files about 3 times as fast as my PC with Windows XP.

I also ordered a USB dongle GPS for it so I hope to have it doing realtime tracking as well as soon as the GPS arrives.

GPSTurbo page

 

Kevin

Costco has the Eee PC 1000 for $479 and it has Bluetooth. Will your software support a Bluetooth GPS(either Linux or XP)?

My software uses GPSBabel for the realtime GPS tracking so if GPSBabel can get the coords from it then mine will support it. I've never used bluetooth so I don't know what extra steps are required for it.

 

Robert Lipe would be the one to ask about GPSBabel support as it is his baby. :-)

I didn't know GPSBabel added the real time tracking feature, thanks. I checked the GPSB site. I suppose a Bluetooth program needs to take the BT serial profile and convert it to Linux serial /dev/tty* or dos com device.
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Actually a noob here and a somewhat noob in Ubuntu. My computer is a Dual boot with XP as primary asnd ubuntu secondary. We have a new laptop with Vista that is real close to getting wiped and ubuntu installed. Linix is rather geeky and I don't have the time to learn all the ins and outs, but I do enjoy working with it. Got a lot of good info here to play with.

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Well, it took me a bit longer than I planned (it always does) because of lack of time. But! A new release of geoqo is available and it should be very easy for linux users to grab it and install it since it is a single-binary program with all needed prerequisites embedded internally.

 

Main site: http://www.geoqo.org/

Binary Instructions: http://www.geoqo.org/wiki/index.php/Instal..._binary_release

 

Wes;

I´m finally back in town and just downloaded the bin version of GeoQo but I´m getting this:

geoqo-linux.bin > Couldn´t display ¨/home/fred/desktop/geoqo-linux.bin¨ No application installed for this file type.

 

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks

Fred

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Long time gentoo user. Have Vista HCx and Topo USA 5.0. Best of both worlds maybe until PN-40 shipping.

 

Use gpsbabel to transfer route from Topo to HCx and tracks from HCx back to Topo.

 

Tried TopoUSA 6.0 and 7.0 but could not make either work and had to return the softwares. :D DeLorme's 30 day return policy rocks.

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I've been running ubuntu for years now. I've even got an ubuntu themed caches out there (GC1F9NC).

 

Unfortunately, I have not found any solutions for ubuntu that compare to GSAK and the Garmin macro (http://pilotsnipes.googlepages.com/index.html). For this I use Windows XP in virtualbox.

 

I have the Garmin Nuvi 350. The GSAK macro along with the poiloader from garmin work perfect for paperless caching on my gpsr. It formats everything perfectly.

 

I have tried gpsbabel but I can't seem to get it to format the same way the GSAK macro does.

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Long time gentoo user. Have Vista HCx and Topo USA 5.0. Best of both worlds maybe until PN-40 shipping.

 

Use gpsbabel to transfer route from Topo to HCx and tracks from HCx back to Topo.

 

What's your plan to use the PN-40 under Linux? I don't know of any software that implements delbin on Linux or Mac at this time.

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What's your plan to use the PN-40 under Linux? I don't know of any software that implements delbin on Linux or Mac at this time.

 

Don't know what I am going to do until I get one. I know delbin spec is available to public. Guess it is just a matter of time to implement it into a gpsbabel module. Will see.

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Wes;

I´m finally back in town and just downloaded the bin version of GeoQo but I´m getting this:

geoqo-linux.bin > Couldn´t display ¨/home/fred/desktop/geoqo-linux.bin¨ No application installed for this file type.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

 

Sorry for the delay (I was out of town). I think the problem is the .bin extension. Can you rename the file (right click on it to do so) and remove the ".bin" from the end of the name. At the same time, make sure the properties say it's executable and then double click on it again and hopefully it'll work. If that works, I'll create a new version this week that fixes some bugs (with importing; sigh) and also adds the ability to display caches (with dots) on a map!

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Wes;

I´m finally back in town and just downloaded the bin version of GeoQo but I´m getting this:

geoqo-linux.bin > Couldn´t display ¨/home/fred/desktop/geoqo-linux.bin¨ No application installed for this file type.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

 

Sorry for the delay (I was out of town). I think the problem is the .bin extension. Can you rename the file (right click on it to do so) and remove the ".bin" from the end of the name. At the same time, make sure the properties say it's executable and then double click on it again and hopefully it'll work. If that works, I'll create a new version this week that fixes some bugs (with importing; sigh) and also adds the ability to display caches (with dots) on a map!

 

As I detailed in an email to you removing the .bin extension did convert it into an executable file according to Properties but double clicking on it still results in a ¨couldn´t open, no app for this file type¨. I´m doing this in Ubuntu 8.04.

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As I detailed in an email to you removing the .bin extension did convert it into an executable file according to Properties but double clicking on it still results in a ¨couldn´t open, no app for this file type¨. I´m doing this in Ubuntu 8.04.

A similar situation I've seen is the Google Earth installer - you might need to run:

sh filename.bin

in a terminal

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As I detailed in an email to you removing the .bin extension did convert it into an executable file according to Properties but double clicking on it still results in a ¨couldn´t open, no app for this file type¨. I´m doing this in Ubuntu 8.04.

A similar situation I've seen is the Google Earth installer - you might need to run:

sh filename.bin

in a terminal

That doesn´t work either: ¨sh: Can't open geoqo.bin¨

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As I detailed in an email to you removing the .bin extension did convert it into an executable file according to Properties but double clicking on it still results in a ¨couldn´t open, no app for this file type¨. I´m doing this in Ubuntu 8.04.

A similar situation I've seen is the Google Earth installer - you might need to run:

sh filename.bin

in a terminal

That doesn´t work either: ¨sh: Can't open geoqo.bin¨

Here is a guess. If the file is a text file with a #! first line, it may be saying it could not load the shell.

 

For example: #!/usr/bin/perl would fail like your messages if you don't have perl installed.

 

Off topic: Best Buy cracks the $300 netbook mark with Asus Eee PC 900A

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