Downloading and Installing tk7
on Linux-Based Systems

Version 0.5

tk7 runs in the X Windows System graphical environment and is independent of your desktop manager (e.g., KDE or Gnome). tk7 has been tested on a 1400 MHz AMD Athlon® based computer running Red Hat® Linux® 9.0.

This is experimental software and probably contains defects. It remains under development. When available, newer versions of tk7 will be made available for download at this web site.

Downloading and Installing tk7 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/tk7
  3. Download the gzipped version of tk7, tk7-0.5.tgz into the installation directory you created earlier.
  4. Untar the file after downloading it: 
    cd /home/username/tk7
tar -zxvf tk7-0.5.tgz
    This will create a new subdirectory, named tk7.0.5 and place the files there.
  5. Define and export tk7, a new environment variable to point to the installation subdirectory just created. 
    tk7=/home/username/tk7/tk7.0.5
export tk7
    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 .tk7rc configuration file if you have one from a previous installation.
  7. To ensure the tk7 environment variable is made known within X Windows, you should logout, login again, then restart your graphical user interface before using tk7 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 (.tk7) file as a backup before making any changes.
  3. See the Release notes.
  4. tk7 presumes the wish windowing shell is in your PATH.

Revised May 19, 2003