Astronomy Device Control In Slackware-15 and -Current

chrisretusn · 08-28-2022, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tweedle

@chrisretusn

Me too, for a long time. Guess it's a GNOME thing?

Last time I used GNOME was in 2005.

SW64 · 08-28-2022, 07:42 PM

I was able to get Ekos to work with my DSLR. Now it's just heavy. No more awkward positions to push the shutter button or review the images for focus/exposure checks when the telescope is pointing high up in the night sky.

Ekos has simulators built in. Playing with them was how I found the 'DSLRs' sublist in the CCD pulldown. It was neat to watch Ekos move an imaginary telescope's aim sight around the night sky in KStars and trigger a series of actual captures in my DSLR at different unseen targets. The camera, with its dust cover still on, was clacking away on my desk and offloading black pictures onto my computer. Now I need to mount it on my telescope and give it real targets.

The 'DSLRs' sublist has these following entries: Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Sony, Fuji, and GPhoto. Plug in your DSLR via its USB cable, ensure it's not off or sleeping, and enter in the commands in your terminal. If it found your camera and pull down images, it is a good bet your DSLR will work with Ekos. I suspected the GPhoto entry is meant for some Point&Shoot cameras and maybe webcams (edited: nope, it's a generic driver that works with all camera; see here).

Code:

gphoto2 --auto-detect
gphoto2 --port usb: --capture-image-and-download

kingbeuwolf, thank you!

SW64 · 04-12-2023, 11:20 AM

I was able to get EKOS working again in KStars today.

In sbopkg, I rebuild/reinstalled the dependencies as listed in kingbeowulf's original post. If left alone, compiling KStars 5.6.4 wouldn't include the 1.9.7 INDI libraries. To fix this, I grabbed the tar.gz source files from https://github.com/indilib/indi/releases/tag/v2.0.1 and from https://github.com/indilib/indi-3rdp...ses/tag/v2.0.1 to bring the slackbuild scripts for libindi, libindi-libraries, and libindi-drivers up to date. After INDI libraries's compilation and installation, the KStars 5.6.4 slackbuild script then compiled with INDI 2.0.1 libraries built in and I have a working EKOS again.

Hope this helps someone else.

kingbeowulf · 04-23-2023, 05:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SW64

I was able to get EKOS working again in KStars today.

... to bring the slackbuild scripts for libindi, libindi-libraries, and libindi-drivers up to date. After INDI libraries's compilation and installation, the KStars 5.6.4 slackbuild script then compiled with INDI 2.0.1 libraries built in and I have a working EKOS again.

Hope this helps someone else.

Thanks for the heads up. It's on the to-do list. I'm a bit behind on all my updates (medical issues) for SBo, etc., but I will get to them eventually!

kingbeowulf · 10-23-2023, 07:32 PM

Slackware Current Changelog:

Code:

Sun Oct 22 19:30:42 UTC 2023
...
kde/kstars-3.6.7-x86_64-1.txz:  Upgraded.
  It's time for KStars in Slackware to be less of a toy and more of a useful
  tool. The required dependencies have been added for EKOS, the INDI client
  included in KStars, which will allow for computer control of astronomy
  devices. Additional deps and drivers may be required, but these are runtime
  dependencies. See (for example) gpsd, libdc1394, libftdi1, libindi-libraries,
  and libindi-drivers, all of which can be found on slackbuilds.org.
  Huge thanks to Edward W. Koenig for the detailed writeup - it was extremely
  helpful! :-) Here's a link to the article:
  https://www.linuxgalaxy.org/kingbeowulf/astronomy-device-control-in-slackware-15-and-current/

I will continue to maintain the INDI drivers and libraries on SBo. AND buy more astronomy stuff to control!

Thank you, Pat, for adding INDI to the main tree. I can hardly wait to test. Much appreciated.

chrisretusn · 10-25-2023, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingbeowulf

I will continue to maintain the INDI drivers and libraries on SBo. AND buy more astronomy stuff to control!

Thank you, Pat, for adding INDI to the main tree. I can hardly wait to test. Much appreciated.

If you are like me and prefer to use Stellaruim and you want to use the new libindi-2.0.4, you will need this patch for TeleScopeControl plugin to compile with the new libindi-2.0.4 package.

https://github.com/Stellarium/stella...238a24758312bc

kingbeowulf · 11-13-2023, 12:59 PM

UPDATE:

I will be updating the INDI stuff on SBo this week for version 2.04. At least with my ZWO camera we are golden for both Slackware64-15.0 and Current with Kstars. Don't forget, for current you only need to install libindi-{libraries,drivers} and related dependencies since libindi (and its deps) are now included in current.

I'm waiting on delivery of the Sky-Watcher AZ-GTI GOT mount and am itching to test, assuming the rain ever let's up. I'll take a look at stellarium as well.

Why did I move to the Pacific NW again?