[Xastir] Tutorial?

[Kurt]

As others have mentioned, that's the current stickler with Xastir.  Noeasy portable map solution without an Internet connection.There were some options out there but they went away.
In the meantime, while waiting for things to get sorted out with Xastir,switch to YAAC (http://www.ka2ddo.org/ka2ddo/YAAC.html) as it's java based and can use OSM maps that you can download and have the device read intoits database for off grid use.  It's in the instructions.  You can downloadall of North America but it will take overnite or a day to get the file readinto YAAC for use. (Depending on processor speed.)  Once it's in, it's readyto go.  One stickler for YAAC is you have to set the filter for the packetsbut there's a link you can peruse that you can click from within the program.Another thing is the setup can be squirrelly.  I've had the machine whack itselfwhen opening it and if it says "do you want to save the settings" even though it tells you it's gibberish, save them so you can pull them up and re-edit themwithout having to start from scratch.  If a babe in the woods you can start with using the wizard and it works pretty good.  Comprehensive help is available fromwithin the application.
Oh yeah, you have to have Java up and running in your Linux box to get this working.
With Xastir, once you get it set, it's rock steady seemingly forever or untilthe local digi control operator changes some settings on their end.  Only thenmight you have to diddle with it.
I have some of he old map solutions so I still use Xastir because I likethe way it's setup and there are some good options that can be takenadvantage of.  The other great thing is plain NMEA data can be piped intoXastir and a perl script can convert it to a "pseudo" APRS packet so Xastirplots it as if it's an APRS station but is actually just converting the NMEAwords into "APRS". http://www.ece.uah.edu/~jdw/rockets/gps2aprs.txt
Out of all the programs out there. UI-View, Xastir, YAAC, APRSIS32/APRSISCE, SAR Tracketc.  None of them are perfect and there are features in each one I like. I suspect other folksout there are of the same persuasion as I.  No single one is perfect.
The other thing to remember is that every freaking program out there is going to have a learning curve.  Some are steeper than others.  With Xastir if something was going funny on me or an online map link went dead, I just post here and the more "able" are willingto answer to help out. Don't simply give up.  Just play somewhere else for awhile and keep an eye open here.
Kurt KC9LDH
      From: Mike M <kf7mbk at gmail.com>
 To: xastir at lists.xastir.org 
 Sent: Friday, December 11, 2015 7:48 PM
 Subject: [Xastir] Tutorial?
   
I'm about ready to jump off a bridge.  I get ham radio is all about
learning, but this whole map deal makes me want to give up the hobby.

I am about at hour 5 of playing around with xastir and still have nothing
but the default (and useless) world map.  None of the built in online maps
work.

After lots of hair pulling I find out that the OSM map server has long
since disappeared.  2 hours wasted trying to figure out why it was saying
it was loading tiles but no tiles ever ended up in the cache.

I have an osm map file I use with aprsdroid of the whole US.  I thought I
could use this file.  45 minutes googling and searching the file system to
figure out where to put it (every site I went to told me something
different, and where it actually was wasn't any of them), dumped the .map
file in there, reindexed and the map does not appear in the list.  The
folder I put it in does, but not the map.  Does xastir not support these
types of files?

Is there an up to date tutorial on how to get maps working?

Thanks
-Mike
KF7MBK
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