JMRI & Linux Mint

[Steven B]

A year or two ago breathed new life into an old Windows laptop by fitting an SSD and Linux Mint.

 

I've never been able to get JMRI work reliably on it though. Last night I tried with both a Sprog 2 and Digitrax Zephyr Xtra (DCS52) but with only limited success. Using either hardware I can drive a loco and "identify" a decoder. However, I can't reliably program decoders as most of the time clicking on the "Program" button does not open the programming window. The software just sits there apparently doing nothing.

 

I've tried multiple restarts of JMRI and the laptop. Installing the current version (4.22) hasn't improved things.

 

Any ideas?

 

Steven B.

[Nigelcliffe]

It should work - check all the settings in preferences, particularly the "defaults" tab. 

 

But it will be less effort to run it on a Raspberry PI.    

 

I gave up with the "run linux on an old laptop" as too much trouble.  

 

Nigel

[Steven B]

Thanks for the suggestion Nigel. I'll double check the preferences.

 

The laptop does just about everything else I need it to except for running JMRI reliably. A Pi based system is tempting but lacks the convenience of a laptop. For the price of a Pi-Top I could get Windows 10 running on the current laptop.

 

A Pi-Sprog is temping but currently out of stock - I assume I'd be able to use with the Zephyr Xtra or a Locobuffer connected via USB is required?

 

Steven B.

[Nigelcliffe]

I use a PI with lots of different DCC system connections, so yes, a LocoBuffer USB or Zephyr-USB connection would work.   

You don't need a Pi-Sprog, unless you want another system. 

 

You could use the PI in "headless" mode (no screen, no keyboard) - so would only need the PI, and connect to it from your laptop. 

That would be either a remote-desktop connection, or could run JMRI in one of its networked configurations (eg. LocoNet over TCP).    It should work "out of box", but you may need a temporary screen/keyboard to get things going if any of the key networking things fail to work first time correctly.   See the JMRI build offered by Steve Todd for the PI.

 

 

- Nigel

 

[D9020 Nimbus]

As this is a Java-based program, it may be sensitive to the version of Java you have installed. Normally Linux distros don't have Oracle Java, so it might be worth checking. If you have more than one version of Java installed, you need to see which is actually active (this is determined by the "alternatives" settings).

 

You could try typing java - -version (two consecutive hyphens—I've put a space between them here so it doesn't look like a dash) and see what it says.

Edited March 2, 2021 by D9020 Nimbus
Clarification

[Crosland]

5 hours ago, Steven B said:

A Pi-Sprog is temping but currently out of stock - I assume I'd be able to use with the Zephyr Xtra or a Locobuffer connected via USB is required?

 

You can plug your existing SPROG into a Pi's USB socket in the meantime.

 

There will be new stock but we are relocating this week.

 

Andrew Crosland

www.sprog-dcc.co.uk

[KingEdwardII]

17 hours ago, D9020 Nimbus said:

Normally Linux distros don't have Oracle Java, so it might be worth checking.

It is certainly worth checking which version of Java you have installed, although since some of the JMRI functions operate OK, this would not be my first suspicion for explaining the problem. Oracle JDK is not mandatory.

 

"java --version" on a command line will tell you what's installed.

 

I have openjdk version 11.x on my Raspberry Pi400 Linux system and it works fine.

 

You may want to check out the error messages etc. from JMRI.

 

There is the system console:

https://www.jmri.org/help/en/package/apps/SystemConsole.shtml

 

Then there are the more detailed (and complex) logs:

https://www.jmri.org/help/en/html/doc/Technical/Logging.shtml

 

This might give you a clue as to what is happening when you try to open the programming window.

 

Yours,  Mike.

[Steven B]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check my Java version and see what error messages I get.

 

I'm just surprised that it will control a loco and identify the decoder but won't open the Programming window within DecoderPro. I'd have thought it would be all or nothing.

 

Steven B.

[Nigelcliffe]

12 minutes ago, Steven B said:

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll check my Java version and see what error messages I get.

 

I'm just surprised that it will control a loco and identify the decoder but won't open the Programming window within DecoderPro. I'd have thought it would be all or nothing.

 

Steven B.

 

Take a copy of the JMRI console log, and put a question on the jmriusers forum on groups.io.    That's where the tech expertise hangs out. 

 

( I doubt its the Java version.   JMRI hasn't changed the Java version requirements in many years, and a dozen major releases.    There is a Java change coming, probably for the next major release in the summer of 2021. ). 

 

- Nigel