Want a program to display tons of Amateur Radio-related information? Many believe the only way to have a Geochron-like display is to install Linux on a dedicated system such as a Raspberry PI or a compatible PC or Laptop. Well, you can do that and have a reliable system displaying this beautiful screen on a large TV monitor. But, what if you don’t have a Raspberry Pi or spare PC? You can run the application in a little-known Linux sub-system environment in Windows.
With a few simple commands, you can run Linux programs like Hamclock in Ubuntu WSL. To learn more about Windows Linux Subsystem (WSL), click https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/about.
Let’s get started. First, you will want to make sure your system is up-to-date with all system updates. Next, let’s install Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS from the Microsoft Store, follow the link https://www.microsoft.com/store/productId/9MTTCL66CPXJ to install. Follow the prompts to create your user and password.
At the command prompt do the following:
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get upgrade
- sudo apt install curl make g++ xorg-dev libx11-dev zip
- cd
- rm -fr ESPHamClock
- curl -O https://www.clearskyinstitute.com/ham/HamClock/ESPHamClock.zip
- unzip ESPHamClock.zip
- cd ESPHamClock
- Now, enter “make” to get a list of the resolutions and options available.
The following targets are available (as appropriate for your system)- hamclock-800×480 X11 GUI desktop version, AKA hamclock
- hamclock-1600×960 X11 GUI desktop version, larger, AKA hamclock-big
- hamclock-2400×1440 X11 GUI desktop version, larger yet
- hamclock-3200×1920 X11 GUI desktop version, huge
- hamclock-web-800×480 web server only (no display)
- hamclock-web-1600×960 web server only (no display), larger
- hamclock-web-2400×1440 web server only (no display), larger yet
- hamclock-web-3200×1920 web server only (no display), huge
- hamclock-fb0-800×480 RPi stand-alone /dev/fb0, AKA hamclock-fb0-small
- hamclock-fb0-1600×960 RPi stand-alone /dev/fb0, larger, AKA hamclock-fb0
- hamclock-fb0-2400×1440 RPi stand-alone /dev/fb0, larger yet
- hamclock-fb0-3200×1920 RPi stand-alone /dev/fb0, huge
- In this example, I want to use a web browser to access Hamclock with a resolution of 1600×960;
- make -j 4 hamclock-web-1600×960
- sudo make install
- To run Hamclock silently or as a service, type “./hamclock-web-1600×960 &” press enter. this will execute the service and list its corresponding service number.
Hamclock can now be accessed from the web browser on http://127.0.0.1:8081/live.html or
from the rest of your network on http://[IP/HostName of Windows 10 machine]:8081/live.html
HAMCLOCK SUPPORT (Not ME )
Hamclock details and information is at https://www.clearskyinstitute.com/ham/HamClock/
Enjoy and 7 3
Jim, W4JLP