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Installing VarAC on Linux/raspberry64 using WINE

There are numerous tutorials for installing VarAC (and VARA) on a Linux/Pi.

As some installtions can be different than others, we have brought to you 3 tutorials from our VarAC community member.



VIDEO (by KM4ACK)

 



Installation kit (By K7MHI @kellykeeton)

 

Follow these instructions on this github page:




MANUAL (By K7MHI @kellykeeton)

 


This is how it looks...

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I assume this will work on 32bitDebian (had a report of no) I do run in 64bit mode bullseye RPi4 fully updated to the day of this post. the very nice Build-A-Pi project is also used to load ham software.

There are some nice tools for ham radio included in this project.


1. Install WineLink

WineLink deploys WINE with a full Winlink RMS version and VARA using this following project script. We only need the WINE and the VARA modem part of it but this installer simplifies the installation.


2. Install WINE fonts that are needed by VarAC

sudo apt install ttf-mscorefonts-installer

Also follow the instructions here to install "Segoe UI Emoji" font which is also required by VarAC.


3. Download VarAC

Download, unzip and place the files in the ~/.wine/drive_c/VarAC directory


4. Launch VarAC

Using the following command. You can use in a menu.desktop object:

env WINEDEBUG=-all wine /home/pi/.wine/drive_c/VarAC/VarAC.exe

I had to launch a few times and get the settings saved and working but it did work with no major issues! using a IC-705.


5. Enable "Linux compatible mode" in VarAC settings


You can do it by directly editing the VarAC.ini file using the following command:


sed -i 's/LinuxCompatibleMode=OFF/LinuxCompatibleMode=ON/' ~/.wine/drive_c/VarAC/VarAC.ini

Or alternatively you can launch VarAC and do it through the settings menu:

  • Go to Settings --> Rig control & Vara configuration

  • Check the "Linux compatible mode" checkbox:

  • Click Save & Exit


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OS/HW specific configuration

by @kellykeeton 

 


Pi5 & Bookworm:

Pi5 only bookworm 16K pagesize is incompatible with wine/box (Dec42023)

  • Switch to 4k-page by adding 'kernel=kernel8.img' to /boot/config.txt

  • Reboot


To manually install VARA and VarAC on a Pi:

  • Load up Pi-Apps via http://pi-apps.io 

  • run: wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Botspot/pi-apps/master/install | bash

  • Use the Pi-Apps GUI navigate to Tools->Emulation

  • Install Box86 (also installs wine)

  • Install DLL with winetricks by running "winetricks" from CLI

  • Press OK for 'default prefix'

  • Choose install a DLL or component

  • Select some needed DLL and press OK to install

  • comdlg32ocx, pdh-nt4, vb6run

  • Download Vara, VarAC

  • Install them all, if you install VarAC first it will open the Vara Modem download page

  • from CLI you can run setup’s with "wine setup.exe"

  • copy all the OCX files in VARA rather then set paths or register

  • cp ~/.wine/drive_c/VARA/OCX/* ~/.wine/drive_c/VARA/


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