From time to time I hear Ham Radio Operators complain that there should be a Ham Radio LiveCD. Let's use the TODO space below to build a list of features we want to see in a Ham Radio LiveCD.
I've chosen the Ubuntu distribution, which is based on Debian, as a basis for the LiveCD. We will use the GNOME desktop environment. Any new tools we need to develop will be written in the Python language and use the GTK+ toolkit where practical. New graphical tools that are written must conform to the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines as closely as possible.
Why don't we use your favorite Linux distribution? In one word: Debian. Ubuntu gives us access to the already substantial Debian Ham Radio repository. Ubuntu also has a very straight forward and documented process for creating a LiveCD using standard Debian packages. I tried all of this with Fedora Core and gave up because we would have to replicate all of the work put into the Debian packages and then some. We'd have to maintain our own versions of everything. We'd never get any new work done. And there is plenty we need to do!
The main problem I foresee is that most Debian Ham Radio packages, and thus Ubuntu, are lacking some important bits like GNOME menu entries, icons, and meaningful documentation. This is usually because the upstream project maintainers (the guys who wrote the software) don't provide these things. We will need to fix these problems either by writing add-on packages or by patching the programs themselves (and submitting the patches upstream). We may also want to consider updating old software that hasn't been updated in years.
We need to provide easy access to documentation on the programs we write and fill in missing documentation for other packages. GNOME on Ubuntu makes documentation very easy because the GNOME help system is interfaced into Debian's well organized documentation. This is another reason to use GNOME on Ubuntu. Another project I've been considering is interfacing a search engine into the GNOME help system. This would give me another incentive to do so.
What programs would be useful to Ham Radio Operators?
You can browse the available Debian packages here:
Let's add new items to these lists:
- gnumeric - Spreadsheet application
- abiword-gnome - Word Processor
- glabels - Label making program for address labels and such.
- mdnsresponder - Multicast DNS: ZeroConf, Apple Rendezvous, etc.
- libnss-mdns - Name-Switch-Service provider for multicast DNS.
- howl-* - All the tools to use multicast DNS.
- gmfsk - PSK31, PSK63, MT63, MFSK, RTTY, THROB, FELDHELL Terminal
- gpsk31 - PSK31 terminal
- xcall - Packet program with basic DX cluster support
- xlog - Contest logging application with Cabrillo
- xastir - APRS, GPS, Mapping, Messaging, Weather, etc
- qsstv - SSTV and WeFAX
- kpsk - Multi-conversation PSK31 terminal
- multimon - Basic AFSK/FSK Packet, POCSAG, DTMF decoder
- hamlib-config - PyGTK program to configure Hamlib RPC Rig
- rigtuner - PyGTK program to control radios via Hamlib.
PyGTK app to configure Soundmodem
PyGTK app to create/backup/restore all ham software configurations that we know about. This way you don't have to enter your name, callsign, location, grid square, etc 16 times into 16 different programs. And so you can backup some or all of your program configurations and data to floppy, USB key, network share, etc. This program needs to understand GNOME-VFS filenames so you can save to Windows shares, FTP servers, SSH servers and so on.
xastir-sounds, xastir-maps, xastir-counties and what else? I think maps are troublesome due to poorly documented copyrights. But we need something. It's not like we can provide XASTIR without maps. Shapefiles for the entire US, let alone world, are unreasonably large.
- Add ham radio desktop backgrounds (wallpaper)
- Customize the default desktop environment using Sabayon (http://www.gnome.org/~seth/blog//sabayon)
- Find out why icons for newly added programs are missing and fix.
- Add icons for new programs, create new menu called "Ham Radio"
- Custom boot loader splash screen. Easily done. Need artwork.
- See if we can default (casper?) to English, United States, American English.
- If we can default language/keyboard provide an "ask" boot option.
- Default networking to ZeroConf (Rendezvous) 169.254. addresses if possible.
- Default graphics modes to 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480 if possible.
- Setup mdnsresponder config files so it announces services it is providing. Might be good for setting up an adhoc network on field day or whatever.