Downloading and Installing tk545
on Linux-Based Systems

Version 1.4

tk545 runs in the X Windows System graphical environment and is independent of your desktop manager (e.g., KDE or Gnome). tk545 has been tested on a 1400 MHz AMD Athlon® based computer running RedHat® Linux® 7.2 with kernel 2.4.7-10. and Tcl/Tk version 8.3, patchlevel 8.3.3.

This is experimental software and probably contains defects. It remains under development. When available, newer versions of tk545 will be made available for download at this web site.

Downloading and Installing tk545 for Linux

  1. Download and install the free tcl and tk RPMs for your system. You can search for download locations at http://rpmfind.net. If the rpmfind server is unavailable, you can download them from the Tcl Developer Xchange at http://tcl.activestate.com or from http://www.scriptics.com.
  2. Create a new installation directory on your system, e.g., 
    mkdir /home/username/tk545
  3. Download the gzipped version of tk545, tk545-1.4.tar.gz into the installation directory you created earlier.
  4. Decompress and untar the file after downloading it: 
    cd /home/username/tk545
gunzip tk545-1.4.tar.gz
tar -xvf tk545-1.4.tar
    This will create a new subdirectory, named tk545.1.4 and place the files there.
  5. Define and export tk545, a new environment variable to point to the installation subdirectory just created. 
    tk545=/home/username/tk545/tk545.1.4
export tk545
    To make the change permanent, you must add the two lines above to your shell's profile, e.g., /home/username/.bash_profile if you use the bash shell.
  6. Remove the .tk545rc configuration file if you have one from a previous installation.
  7. To ensure the tk545 environment variable is made known within X Windows, you should logout, login again, then restart your graphical user interface before using tk545 for the first time.

Notes

  1. Make sure your serial port has both read and write permissions for the user who will run the program.

    For example, I use /dev/ttyS1 as the serial port to connect the radio. If I type in a console window: 

    ls -l /dev/ttyS1
    the output shows the permissions: 
    crw-rw-rw-    1 root     uucp       4,  65 Aug 15 06:40 /dev/ttyS1
    Notice that /dev/ttyS1 is readable and writeable by everyone (user, group, and others).

    Login as root or run the su program to assume root privileges. Then, change the permissions and exit. 

    chmod   ugo+rw   /dev/ttyS1
exit
  2. See the Release notes.
  3. tk545 presumes the wish windowing shell is in your PATH.
  4. Power your NRD-545 receiver on before starting tk545 or else the program will freeze.

Revised October 29, 2002