Utility/Linux Maturity

ShakataGaNai · 02-27-2008, 06:59 PM

Howdy All,
Before you bite my head off I'm not questioning the maturity of Linux. I am a great follower of the penguin. What I'm trying to understand is the maturity of certain utilities (if you will) for CarPC's under Linux. For many years I have been an admirer of the Car based computer idea. My end goal is to build a system that is more utilitarian based rather than media. In the next few months I'll be able to actually build one. Of course I'd like to it be Linux based. Since I have some time, I thought I should do some research.

Now that I've tried (and failed) to explain myself. Here is my "question". Of the following components listed below - what are the maturity levels for the interfaces with linux:

-AM/FM Radio
-XM Radio
-HD Radio
-OBD-II Access
-GPS Software (Specifically Mapping & Routing)
-Bluetooth (Specifically Hands free calling - this is one of my critical requirements since it will be legally required in Cali here shortly)

Thanks-
-SGN

PS. While this is my first post, I did spend a large amount of time reading over the forum. I realize that some of this information is already posted. But some of it is less than clear as to the actual status of usability)

kev000 · 02-28-2008, 05:44 PM

It is my goal to create a platform where all these things can be achieved. However I don't think Linux has all of what you are looking for without some effort. The pieces are there, but they haven't been put together yet in a very friedly way. I hope this changes soon. here's my take:

-AM/FM Radio - is possible pending you find a receiver that works. Some work through V4L (Video for Linux). mplayer can play radio.
-XM Radio - I don't know if anyone has this working in Linux. If there is a serial interface I'm sure this is possible.
-HD Radio - This is currently being worked on by miatacarpc. It will be ready with nGhost2.
-OBD-II Access - There are Linux Tools to do this. Carman is one. and there are more Linux ones if you google around a bit.
-GPS Software - Navit is the best native Linux GPS software with routing abilities. It will be very promising as it matures.
-Bluetooth - There are programs that can do this. Like many others needs wrapping in a carpc interface (hopefully nGhost2). This is a good reference for handsfree in Linux.

If anyone knows more, has additional info, or can correct me, I appreciate it.

ShakataGaNai · 02-28-2008, 06:49 PM

Interesting. I'm not too concerned with wrappers or not. I haven't found a front end that I like that much yet. I may write my own. Making GTK (and similar) execute command line statements isn't that hard - and works fairly well.

Thanks for the links & Info. I saw another forum thread about XM Radio & someones attempt to get it working in Linux. Guess I'll just have to wait and see on that one.

Eubey · 03-06-2008, 07:34 PM

give nGhost some time. nG 2 is gettin some sweet features, and should be easier to use. if you're willing to spend the time writing your own from scratch, why not try helpin out the nGhost development, because we're always looking for more experienced devs. http://nghost-project.com/

dupa2 · 03-17-2008, 10:30 PM

I actually got couple of things working in the past:

XM radio with XMPCR (usb to serial through built in ftdi), and Roady2 (requires some soldering on the radio, but works with max232 level converter). It uses serial port for comm, and there's some software on the net available.

OBDII - done with the lm327 adapter, there's great library available to support (libodbii) or above mentioned carman.

Bluetooth pretty much works, just not with my blackberry which I find quite reluctant to work.
I managed to start handsfree connection, got about 2 sec of voice, then it dies....

Quote: Originally Posted by kev000

It is my goal to create a platform where all these things can be achieved. However I don't think Linux has all of what you are looking for without some effort. The pieces are there, but they haven't been put together yet in a very friedly way. I hope this changes soon. here's my take:

-AM/FM Radio - is possible pending you find a receiver that works. Some work through V4L (Video for Linux). mplayer can play radio.
-XM Radio - I don't know if anyone has this working in Linux. If there is a serial interface I'm sure this is possible.
-HD Radio - This is currently being worked on by miatacarpc. It will be ready with nGhost2.
-OBD-II Access - There are Linux Tools to do this. Carman is one. and there are more Linux ones if you google around a bit.
-GPS Software - Navit is the best native Linux GPS software with routing abilities. It will be very promising as it matures.
-Bluetooth - There are programs that can do this. Like many others needs wrapping in a carpc interface (hopefully nGhost2). This is a good reference for handsfree in Linux.

If anyone knows more, has additional info, or can correct me, I appreciate it.

triath5147 · 04-03-2008, 12:53 PM

I was looking at Linspire 6.0, I am very new to Linux, and don't understand all of it as of yet, but Linspire has plug in? that makes most windows compatable software work in Linspire? If I read it correctly. Does this mean we could run Linspire as the OS, and than use windows based GPS and the like or Road runner for Front end?

kev000 · 04-03-2008, 09:21 PM

some windows software can be emulated by using Wine/CrossoverOffice/Cedega/Mono. AFAIK, roadrunner is not something that will run in wine. I think it requires external apps like winamp.

There are some Nav apps that also run under wine. I've gotten IG3 to work. It is tricky for a novice though.

Your best bet is native apps. They run the most stable without the hassle of emulation

Tidder · 05-09-2008, 10:56 PM

I have roadrunner+winamp+iGuidance running under ubuntu Hardy with wine 0.9.54. I'm in the preliminary testing phase right now, but will have a more solid review in a couple of weeks after I throw it in the car and see how it does. This is more of a "can it be done" type of thing for me, not much to gain... if anything I'll be losing stability and speed by using wine and linux to run these types of windows progs.

However my test run of iG3 running under wine alone went very well on an 1150 mile trip. Only hiccup I saw was on suspend/resume, my GPS would reattach to ttyUSB1 instead of ttyUSB0 and vice versa, so I had mapped both to com4 and com3 respectively under wine and switched between the two in iG.

I am however really looking forward to nGhost maturity. That looks to be one awesome and promising project.