A Quick-Start guide to using Xastir
This is an abbreviated quick-start guide to getting Xastir up and
running without digging too deeply. More in-depth documentation on
operating Xastir can be found at the Operating wiki page.
Starting Xastir:
DO NOT RUN XASTIR AS THE ROOT USER!
NEVER RUN XASTIR AS THE ROOT USER! You're risking the
security of your system by attempting it. Create another regular
user on your system and use that user for all of your normal
activity. This goes for any other normal activity on the system as
well. Only use the "root" account for maintenance activities, not
for regular user activities. You'll thank me later!
Assuming you want to start Xastir up in the English language, you
can type (from an xterm window):
xastir
which will start up the program without giving you back a
command-prompt in your xterm window (until Xastir exits), or you can
type (from an xterm window):
xastir &
which will start Xastir in the background, giving you back your
xterm for more commands. The typical way to start it is with
"xastir &". Of course you can get fancier and attach it to your
window manager's menus or create an icon on your desktop which
starts it. Those are operating system/window manager-specific, so
we won't cover how to do that here.
The first time you start Xastir it will show a default map of the
world plus pop up the File->Configure->Station dialog. Enter a
callsign on that dialog and press the OK button.
Enabling weather alert shape highlighting in the United States
If you've configured in ShapeLib capability, you'll need to run
/usr/local/share/xastir/scripts/get-NWSdata as the root user in order
to get the NOAA data files you'll need for the weather alerts. The
script requires "wget" in order to work. Run this script periodically
(once every six months perhaps?) to keep your weather alert maps
up-to-date. If you're not in the U.S. or one of it's possessions then
you can safely ignore this download.
Enabling weather alert highlighting outside the US
At the moment, we don't have functioning weather alerts outside the
US. This is primarily because we don't have any functioning scripts
that download appropriate shapefiles from other countries, and have no
way of finding them. Help from the user community would be greatly
appreciated.
Choosing your basic map
The default map you get when starting Xastir for the first time is a
world map. Which world map you get depends on how you built Xastir:
with the bare minimum build you get an ancient, inaccurate line map.
If you built with shapelib support, you'll get a more detailed and
more modern world map.
If you enabled GraphicsMagick and curl then there are many online
map options available immediately in the map chooser. I recommend
Online/OSM_tiled_mapnik.geo. This is a much more detailed,
world-wide map that will serve well for most use cases.
You will find your options for maps in the Map Chooser.
Configuring Xastir:
Menu tear-offs
Note that the menus have a dashed line near the top. If you
click on that dashed line it acts like a cut-line for the menu and
detaches that menu from the main menu. You can then move that menu
off to another area of your screen. You might try that with the
File->Configure menu at this time.
You have the main parameters set now. Next is to enable some
interfaces so that you can see some packets come across. Easiest
might be the Internet interfaces, assuming the computer you're on
has Internet access and is hooked up to it currently.
Setting yourself up with an Internet APRS feed
-
Run "callpass" in another Xterm window in order to generate your
Pass-code number. Save that number as you'll need it for each
Interface dialog where you might need to authenticate your callsign.
Of course you can always run callpass again if you forget it!
-
Go to Interface->Interface Control menu to open the Interface
Control dialog, then click on "Add", which will pop up a dialog box
for chosing the interface type.
- Click "Internet Server". Another dialog will come up that
allows you to enter the Host, and the Port.
- Enter your Pass-code number here. You may choose "Activate on
Startup?" and the "Reconnect on NET failure?" options on this box,
which tell Xastir to start the interface every time Xastir starts up,
and to try to reconnect if the connection to the server drops.
- You may also assign a comment to this interface which describes the
interface better for you.
- Click "OK" to create the interface. If you checked "Activate on
Startup?" then the interface will start as well and you'll be
receiving packets.
- If you didn't select "Activate on Startup?" in the interface
property dialog it will not start up automatically. You can start it
manually by highlighting the interface you just created in the Interface Control
dialog, then clicking "Start."
Finding a server and filtering your feed
Browse "http://www.aprs2.net/" to find a reasonable set of servers
to start with. Another possibility is to use "rotate.aprs2.net"
port 14580, which theoretically should rotate among the available
second-tier servers. See "http://www.aprs2.net" for more info.
You'll need to put in a filter string, such as "r/35/-106/500" which
shows you stations that are within 500km of 35dN/106dW (Thanks for
that one Tom!). For additional filter settings check out:
https://www.aprs-is.net/javAPRSSrvr/javAPRSFilter.aspx
- Start that interface from the Interface->Interface Control dialog if
it's not started already, by selecting the interface and clicking the
Start button. You'll see icons in the lower right
toggling and see callsigns in the lower left status box if packets
are coming in.
One thing about configuration: Most things don't get written to
Xastir's config file until you choose either "File->Configure->Save
Config Now!" or you exit Xastir. Map Selections however are
immediate.
Creating other interfaces
See Interface Setup for guidance on setting up
additional interfaces of various types.
Old statement about other interfaces
* Creating/starting interfaces for other types of devices is
similar. If you're wanting to create AX.25 kernel networking ports
you'll have to refer to the HAM HOWTO documents and perhaps the
linux-hams mailing list for help, though we provide a brief example
for a simple set up in Simple-AX25 and documentation of our
AX25 Interface on our wiki page. For AGWPE connections refer to
that AGWPE docs and mailing list.
It's recommended that if you run a local TNC, you run it in KISS
mode. You can do that via the Serial KISS TNC interface, or via
AX.25 Kernel Networking ports.
Some of the more esoteric types of interfaces may require some
questions on the Xastir list. Don't be afraid to ask them as we've
all been there before.
Various ways to manipulate Xastir
You may interact with the Xastir application using keyboard and mouse.
The specific operations you can do are enumerated in
Keyboard-And-Mouse-operations .
In addition to these basics, you have other ways of bending Xastir to
your will.
Changing the Language
See Languages.
