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Re: gps support

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On 14/06/2011 16:52, ray wrote:
> On Tue, 14 Jun 2011 13:25:37 +0200, David Brown wrote:
>
>> On 13/06/2011 23:23, General Schvantzkoph wrote:
>>> On Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:20:47 +0000, ray wrote:
>>>
>>>> I happened to note today at the local Fred Meyer that they have a
>>>> bunch of electronic stuff on sale for 30% off. So, started me
>>>> wondering about support for :
>>>>
>>>> tomtom XL340s
>>>> garmin nuvi 1250
>>>>
>>>> Anyone have any direct experience? Web search indicates that garmin
>>>> devices may be decently supported.
>>>
>>> There is no Linux support for Garmins however an XP VM on KVM works.
>>> The performance of the USB link on KVM is poor, the update to my Garmin
>>> was an overnight job but it does work. WINE doesn't work, you need a
>>> Windows VM.
>>>
>>> You will need to identify the Garmin's USB port before you attach it to
>>> the VM, lspci will do the the trick. Once you know which port it is you
>>> can connect the port to the VM and then boot it, install the Garmin
>>> software and then reboot it. I don't know if VirtualBox does a better
>>> job of this because I'm a KVM user.
>>
>> I'm a VirtualBox user - USB works very well with it (at least with a
>> Linux host - guest USB with a Windows host can be unreliable).  I have
>> no problem using my Garmin GPS within a VirtualBox XP machine, and no
>> complaints about the speed.
>
> No offense, but I don't have an MS license. I'm also of the opinion that
> if you have to run MS in a virtual machine to accomplish something, then
> you've gained very little by running Linux in the first place.

If you don't have a windows license, you can't run windows in a virtual 
machine (well, you /can/, but not legally...).  If you are not running 
windows, you can't use software that requires windows drivers - Wine can 
handle Win32 applications, but not drivers (and ReactOS is not yet very 
stable).

That means you can't use Garmin's GPS's - or at least you can't update 
them via a PC.

If you find an alternative GPS maker that has decent support for Linux, 
I'd like to know for future reference - I would much prefer to support a 
manufacturer that supports Linux, and I would prefer not to have to use 
a virtual machine to update it.

But for now, I have a Garmin GPS and I update it using a Virtual Box 
WinXP machine.  Maybe it's not ideal, but it is practical.  In the real 
world, it is seldom practical (or even possible) to live up to all one's 
ideals.


As for the advantages of running Windows in a virtual machine on a Linux 
host - there are /many/ advantages.  For most things, I can use Linux. 
For some things, Windows is the better (or only) platform - so I use 
that.  I sometimes also use different Linux distros within virtual 
machines too - there are lots of good reasons for virtualisation.

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gps support ray <ray@zianet.com> - 2011-06-13 19:20 +0000
  Re: gps support General Schvantzkoph <schvantzkoph@yahoo.com> - 2011-06-13 21:23 +0000
    Re: gps support Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2011-06-14 07:37 +0200
    Re: gps support David Brown <david@westcontrol.removethisbit.com> - 2011-06-14 13:25 +0200
      Re: gps support ray <ray@zianet.com> - 2011-06-14 14:52 +0000
        Re: gps support "Dave {Reply Address In.Sig}" <noone$$@llondel.org> - 2011-06-14 19:23 +0100
          Re: gps support ray <ray@zianet.com> - 2011-06-14 22:23 +0000
        Re: gps support Henrik Carlqvist <Henrik.Carlqvist@deadspam.com> - 2011-06-14 23:57 +0200
          Re: gps support ray <ray@zianet.com> - 2011-06-14 22:22 +0000
            Re: gps support Jim Whitby <nospam@whitby-jr.org> - 2011-06-14 23:06 +0000
              Re: gps support ray <ray@zianet.com> - 2011-06-15 00:29 +0000
          Re: gps support General Schvantzkoph <schvantzkoph@yahoo.com> - 2011-06-15 03:24 +0000
        Re: gps support General Schvantzkoph <schvantzkoph@yahoo.com> - 2011-06-14 22:05 +0000
        Re: gps support David Brown <david@westcontrol.removethisbit.com> - 2011-06-15 11:02 +0200
          Re: gps support ray <ray@zianet.com> - 2011-06-15 13:46 +0000
            Re: gps support General Schvantzkoph <schvantzkoph@yahoo.com> - 2011-06-15 15:44 +0000

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