Install on Linux Mint 20.3 Una with Yaesu FT-950 / SCU-17

Hi all

I ran into some problems following the guides in this forum and these

https://oe7drt.com/posts/2021-10-03-winlink-and-vara-on-linux/

https://www.varac-hamradio.com/forum/manuals/installing-varac-on-linux-raspberry64-using-wine

(other versions with apparently different DLL requirements)

So here is my setup with a 10yr old Intel core i5-M540 notebook:

System: Kernel: 5.4.0-136-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.4.0 Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.20 wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal

Versions wine-5.0 (Ubuntu 5.0-3ubuntu1) VarAC v6.3.3 VARA HF v4.7.1

Rig / HW-Setup: Yaesu FT-950 with Yaesu SCU-17 interface, shwoing up as /dev/ttyUSB0 and /dev/ttyUSB1 in Linux and COM33 / COM34 in Wine. Picture of settings below.

Installation

I have other wine prefixes running other software with different needs, so I put all inside a new prefix. This is what I did:

WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/hb9fsv/.wine32-test/ winetricks -q vb6run
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/hb9fsv/.wine32-test/ winetricks -q vcrun2015
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/hb9fsv/.wine32-test/ winetricks -q dotnet461
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/hb9fsv/.wine32-test/ winetricks -q winbind
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/hb9fsv/.wine32-test/ winetricks sound=alsa

(I messed all up trying to install dotnet471, after which VarAC was complaining about a missing MSCOREE.DLL.)

If I remember correctly, VaraC should already run at this point. I downloaded the files mentioned in the links above and copied them over to the wine prefix. With VarAC I did the same after unpacking it in Linux:

cp Downloads/VARA/Put_in_System32/* .wine32-test/drive_c/windows/system32/
cp Downloads/VARA/pdh.dll .wine32-test/drive_c/windows/system32/
cp -r  Downloads/VARA/VARAC .wine32-test/drive_c/VaraC

Now it was time to install the VARA TNC:

WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/hb9fsv/.wine32-test/ wine Downloads/VARA/VARA\ setup\ \(Run\ as\ Administrator\).exe 
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/hb9fsv/.wine32-test/ wine .wine32-test/drive_c/VARA/VARA.exe

VARA was now running stand-alone. After configuring VarAC, it started up automatically.

Running

I use now these commands to start VarAC:

cd .wine32-test/drive_c/VaraC/
WINEARCH=win32 WINEPREFIX=/home/hb9fsv/.wine32-test/ wine ./VarAC.exe 

I have to cd inside the VarAC directory because VarAC complained about not finding the CAT commands file.

Configuration

CAT controlled frequency changes didn't work, so I had to tweak the CAT commands file, see this post.

Auto-logging still pending, I'll keep this post updated.

Settings on Yaesu FT-950

Menu items differing from default settings:

055 DATA PKT SFT set to 0 (zero)

So hope it helps anyone to meet you on the bands!

vy 73 Martin HB9FSV