Downloading and Installing tk5
on Linux-Based Systems

This is experimental software and probably contains defects. It remains under development. When available, newer versions of tk5 will be made available for download at this web site.

Downloading and Installing tk5 for Linux

1. You will need Tcl/Tk version 8.4 or later. At the time this is being written, version 8.4 is new and is not yet available in RPM format. Therefore, you will have to download the binary file and run the install.sh script.

   View the installation notes for Tcl/Tk version 8.4. Download and install the free Tcl/Tk software from: http://downloads.activestate.com/ActiveTcl/Linux/8.4.1/ActiveTcl8.4.1.0-linux-ix86.tar.gz . (The file size is about 10.4 MB.)

2. Create a new installation directory on your system, e.g.,
   

   mkdir /home/username/tk5
   

3. Download the gzipped version of tk5, tk5-0.6.tgz into the installation directory you created earlier.
   
4. Untar the file after downloading it:
   

   cd /home/username/tk5
   tar -zxvf tk5-0.6.tgz
   

   This will create a new subdirectory, named tk5.0.6 and place the files there.
   
5. Define and export tk5, a new environment variable to point to the installation subdirectory just created.

   tk5=/home/username/tk5/tk5.0.6
   export tk5
   

   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 .tk5rc configuration file if you have one from a previous installation.
7. To ensure the tk5 environment variable is made known within X Windows, you should logout, login again, then restart your graphical user interface before using tk5 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. Be sure to read a memory image from your radio and save it in a template (.tr5) file as a backup before making any changes.
3. See the Release notes.
4. tk5 presumes the wish windowing shell is in your PATH.