MapSource

What works

Finds and displays the maps installed on the system. Downloads, edits and uploads waypoints, tracks and routes to and from the Garmin GPS receiver.

What does not

Does not transfer maps to or from the GPS receiver.

Workarounds

What was not tested

USB connectivity.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

• GPU:
• Driver:

Additional Comments

The impossibility of transfering maps drastically reduces the usability of the application. The application did not run at all under earlier versions of Wine (0.9.33 and below)

Garmin eTrex Legend, Mapsource, and TOPO maps running on Linux

Hardware:

Garmin eTrex Legend

USB to serial converter

Sony laptop running Fedora 12 and Kernel 2.6.32.9-67.fc12.i686.PAE

Software:

Wine 1.1.38

Winetricks (helpful for later versions of MapSource)

Windows Fonts (needed to get the buttons to show on later version installations > 6.11.x)

MapSource 6.11.5

Garmin TOPO base map patch

Garmin TOPO map version 3 (I think, it's an old version but the landscape hasn't changed)

MapSource Background.

So far I've successfully installed MapSource from the old version 3 to version 6.15.11. MapSource 6.11.5 is the most compatible thus far so I will explain the how to get that to work. MapSource version 6.12.x-6.13.x work but all the way-point icons become shaded black and it doesn't look that good if you've got several defined way-points on one map. However, those versions will function. Garmin has gotten heavy with the Visual Basic scripting in order to make the software more appealing (eye candy) on MapSource versions 6.14.x and greater. This makes the program run very sluggish, and some missing icons like highway numbers are not visible on the base map. In addition, you will need to install gdiplus and vb5run (MS Visual Basic 5 runtime) which you can install using winetricks, before installing MapSource version 6.14.x and above.

1) Install the version of wine listed above using the yum package manager, along with any required dependencies. As everyone knows, “shit breaks with updates”, so keep a copy of that version of wine along with the dependencies in case you upgrade wine later and find that MapSource no longer works. Configure wine to suit your needs. I have mine setup to mimic Windows 2k and using Alsa, even though I don't need sound, because it gripes about pulseaudio sometimes on startup.

 

2) Get winetricks, a handy shell script that lets you easily install windows extra files that may be needed to get future windows software to install.

 

3) Install the windows core fonts using winetricks by typing sh <location of> winetricks and hit enter. It will pop-up a dialog box of stuff you can install. Install corefonts.

 

4) Your usb to serial converter, needed if your using a non-usb capable Garmin device, such as the eTrex Legend, should automaticly be detected at /dev/ttyUSB0 once plugged in.

 

5) Check your device listing.

ls -l /dev/ttyUSB0

crw-rw----. 1 root dialout 188, 0 2010-03-12 01:31 /dev/ttyUSB0

Make yourself part of the dialout group, or whatever group name shows up. Add the group to your user ID using “System/Administration/Users and Groups”, or whatever you use to change group designations.

Side Note:

You can also create a specific link for your GPS device via a udev rule (thanks to Patrick C.F. Ernzer to point that out). Create a file in "/etc/udev/rules.d/" (this is the location in Fedora 12), containing the following, all on one line:

BUS=="usb", SYSFS{idProduct}=="0003", SYSFS{idVendor}=="091e", KERNEL=="ttyUSB*", SYMLINK+="garmin"

This creates a new device "/dev/garmin" that is a link to the ttyUSB device of the GPS.

*I have not tried the option in green above, so I do not know if this works, but it is an option if you have multiple USB devices and your Garmin GPS may not always be listed at ttyUSB0 when plugged in.

6) After changing group assignment, log out of and back into Linux.

7) With your Garmin device plugged in, make a symbolic link from ~/.wine/dosdevices/com1 to /dev/ttyUSB0.

ln -s /dev/ttyUSB0 ~/.wine/dosdevices/com1

8) Install MapSource version 6.11.5. I copied the Topo CDs I have to the hardrive and installed the earlier version of MapSource that came on the CD via the hard drive, then I upgraded to version 6.11.5. Test the installation of MapSource by running it. You should also be able to communicate with your Garmin device by now via MapSource.

Side Note:

To install MapSource without having an older version already installed, add this to ~/wine/system.reg:
[Software\\Garmin\\Applications\\MapSource] 1260041480

@=""

"InstallDir"="c:\\Garmin\\Mapsource\\MapSource.exe"

*I have not tried the option in green above, use cation in trying the above step because I don't know if it works. Always make a backup copy before editing configuration files.

9) My Topo CDs came Disc 1 – West region, which included the original Mapsource and install files on it including West map files. Disc 2 – East Region, Disc 3 – Alaska and Hawaii. Since I copied the contents to the hard drive and installed from that location. I then had to copy the contents of disc 2 and disc 3, primarily the .img map files to subdirectories under disc 1 (TOPO_US_WEST) as such.

TOPO_US_WEST (main folder containing disc 1 contents)

|---West (directory with .img map files)

|---East (directory with .img map files)

|---Alaska (directory with .img map files)

|---Hawaii (directory with .img map files)

I had to do this because in all of the versions of MapSource that I installed, the unlock maps wizard in MapSource would not load. Step 9, moving the files around allowed me to view the detailed Topo maps as opposed to just the base map in MapSource. You can also use the ~/wine/system.reg file to designate the locations of your map files (.img).

10) Install the Garmin Topo base map patchusing wine, if your using Topo maps.

One last note: There is a garmin-gps module with the newer distros. If you need this you can load it by doing modprobe garmin-gps as root. You can add this statement e.g. to /etc/modules or /etc/modprobe.conf or whatever file your distribution uses, so that it is taken automatically into account on the next reboot. This apparently isn't necessary for what I am doing. It may not apply to usb-serial converter cables.

That's it ENJOY, everything I've found works. It may seem like a lot of steps but it's not. It took me all day to get this shit working because Garmin has shitty installers and also fails to support Linux.