Garmin Express

What works

Works only after applying the workaround!

• Detection of Garmin devices
  • Approach S10 smartwatch
  • DriveSmart 61 navigation computer
• Software update
  • OS version
  • Device-specific data: Maps and speech files for nav, maps for smartwarch
• Login to and synchronization with Garmin Connect

Works with smaller problems:

• Automatic update of Garmin Express

What does not

1. Does not launch without .NET Framework 4.7.2.
2. With it, initial window drawing is black.
3. Automatic Express update seemingly force closes with a .NET error, then a Wine error.

Workarounds

1. winetricks --force dotnet472
2. Minimize, then restore.
3. Simply relaunch the application, the update was successful.

What was not tested

Detection of and features for every supported device. As long as they all present themselves as mass storage media, it should work.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU: AMD
• Driver: open source

Additional Comments

Tested version: 7.8.0.0
Tested update from 7.8.0.0 to 7.8.1.0.

All tested Garmin devices present itself as mass storage media to the OS. They must be mounted in order for Garmin Express to detect them.

The installation is quite basic. Download the installer with the links provided, e.g. to /tmp. Then proceed to create a new prefix somewhere your user has write permissions to, e.g. in /opt/garmin/:

mkdir -p /opt/garmin/ && cd /opt/garmin/
export WINEPREFIX=/opt/garmin/
wineboot -i

Install the .NET Framework 4.7.2 in there. --force is needed to prevent winetricks from not completing installation because some of the dotnet verbs may be broken:

winetricks --force dotnet472

Now execute GarminExpress.exe in there.

wine /tmp/GarminExpress.exe

That's about it, really. I additionally went into the settings and disabled launch on "boot" to remove possible complications this may cause, if any.

To simplify launching you can create a .desktop file and place it into /usr/share/applications/ to be able to launch it with your DE. Otherwise, export the wineprefix and launch:

wine "/opt/garmin/drive_c/Program Files (x86)/Garmin/Express/express.exe"

All tested Garmin devices present themselves as mass storage media to Linux, so their file system is browsable. If the issue arises that your device is not detected, check if it's mounted read-write. Not all distributions are configured to auto-mount such media.