Release for Modern Linux?

[kuri05]

Can we get a current release for modern Linux? It looks like the last official release with binaries was in 2014.

I use Linux as my core OS.
QT4 hasn't been supported in a few years, but that's what the current release binaries are compiled for.
Do you have any recommendations for getting FreeSSM running on more modern Linux installs?

Specifically, I'm running Kubuntu 22.04

Library info:
ii libqt5core5a:amd64 5.15.3+dfsg-2ubuntu0.2 amd64 Qt 5 core module

I'm not fully opposed to compiling myself, but I prefer to use published packages whenever possible. It saves so much time and effort for management and troubleshooting.

[kuri05]

Ahhh, I see the Readme is pretty easy to follow. I was thrown off by the release-deb's dependencies.

I still recommend a more recent release with modern binaries and QT5 support at least. But I'm installed and running. Looks good! I can't wait for my VAG-COM adapter to arrive to try it out.

If you'd like help making the Linux deb packages, let me know.

[jschinnerer]

How did you manage to build from source?
I have xUbuntu 22.04.5 LTS and there are multiple issues right from the start.
There are multiple errors on includes for header files starting with "ui_" that simply do not exist in the source files.
If I comment those out (with no idea whether the includes are wrong or the files not existing is wrong), eventually I get a "not found" for an include on QWidget, because the source assumes the path for Qt4 but that was changed to its own subdir in Qt5. I've no idea how to compensate for that.

Did you install the old Qt4?
Or somehow hack the build so the includes for QWidget found it in the Qt5 dir structure?
And what about the mysterious "ui_" header files that have includes but don't exist?

[ArizonaAombeez]

jschinnerer I have Exactly the same issue, the versions of everything move on so quickly that the instructions do not align anymore. Unless you're 'in the know' or a regular QT dev I guess it's not as simple as following the instructions. Is anyone able to give us a hint to follow, or update the instructions? Many (many) Thanks - have tried multiple times over the years, with different versions of QT too.

Ref: Windows 10, QT 5.15.0 as that was the farthest back the archive went when installing, and path set for mingw810_32

[ldeploynoob]

How did you manage to build from source? I have xUbuntu 22.04.5 LTS and there are multiple issues right from the start. There are multiple errors on includes for header files starting with "ui_" that simply do not exist in the source files. If I comment those out (with no idea whether the includes are wrong or the files not existing is wrong), eventually I get a "not found" for an include on QWidget, because the source assumes the path for Qt4 but that was changed to its own subdir in Qt5. I've no idea how to compensate for that.

Did you install the old Qt4? Or somehow hack the build so the includes for QWidget found it in the Qt5 dir structure? And what about the mysterious "ui_" header files that have includes but don't exist?

I just successfully built the app on my Ubuntu 20.04 virtual machine. I have not tested it on a car yet, but the build proceeded just fine by following the README,txt instructions in the source code here.

I installed Qt 5.12.8 from Ubuntu package repositories.

I believe the "missing" files with "ui_" are generated when you first execute the "qmake" command. Then when you execute the "make" command, you will not get these missing file errors.

Did you start your build with a "make" command without first running "qmake" as instructed in the README here?

No idea how this thing works by compiling in a Windows environment, but I know the code here worked just fine compiling in my Ubuntu VM.

I would like to build a .exe file for Windows, but my first efforts at cross compiling from the Ubuntu VM were a failure.

I installed MXE from their tutorial here: https://mxe.cc/#tutorial

Then I opened a new terminal, changed into the FreeSSM-master directory, and entered, "/usr/lib/mxe/usr/i686-w64-mingw32.static/qt5/bin/qmake"

That executed perfectly, and it generated the ui_ files among other things.

Then I tried entering "make", and it choked on a few "no such file or directory" errors because the source files were set up with the Windows backslash convention (eg. "windows\serialCOM.h"). So I changed them all to Linux forward slash convention (eg. "windows/serialCOM.h"), but otherwise left them alone.

I ran "make" again, and no more "no such file or directory" errors.

I thought I had it beat, but the process then stopped with the following error, and I'm now stumped.

Weird, given that it compiled just fine for Linux after running qmake as instructed in the README instructions here, but it seems that the cross-compile efforts of using qmake with MXE have broken something. So no Windows .exe for me yet.

src/SSMprotocol.cpp: In constructor 'SSMprotocol::SSMprotocol(AbstractDiagInterface*, QString)':
src/SSMprotocol.cpp:29:8: error: 'CUtype' is not a class, namespace, or enumeration
  _CU = CUtype::Engine;
        ^
make[1]: *** [Makefile.Release:17855: release/SSMprotocol.o] Error 1

[ArizonaAombeez]

Thanks for all the useful hints above, great to get the feedback. So I've had time to dig deeper and have thus far...

Run qmake, files makefiles are updated in the root/build folder (again this is win 10, with Qt installed, paths updated etc)

when trying to run mingw32-make it fails with - from src\main.cpp:21:src\Engine.h:26:23: fatal error: ui_Engine.h: No such file or directory

Using your fav Ai I've discovered that:
FreeSSM.pro includes ui/Engine.ui \ in the 'FORMS' section
so either UIC is not being called properly or something else is wrong in the build config :(

From ChatGPT - "The error indicates that the ui_Engine.h file, which should be generated from Engine.ui by the uic tool, was not created or is not in the expected location. Since the .pro file already includes the .ui file under the FORMS section, the problem likely lies with the build system not processing the .ui file correctly."

It then goes on to recommend updating either the headers in the code, or the makefile. At this point I believe it's taking me down the wrong path as this builds for other people. What config could I have wrong on the windows system that might cause this conflict? Is the file named correctly in the above example, going from Engine.ui to ui_Engine.h (proving that UIC is working)??

I opened the .pro in Qt and had no idea how to configure it, I set a kit to default (mingw32) but no dice. Build options were greyed out etc.

Cheers 👍

[ldeploynoob]

A follow-up, to describe some significant success with cross-compiling FreeSSM for Windows in a Ubuntu VM terminal. [Edit: and ultimately a complete success.]

I took the hint that the build error that I faced above was exactly the same as was as reported in this thread, where the user was building natively on Windows: #69

@vladr suspected the error message was generated because of using Qt 5, and @vladr reported success using Qt 6 instead.

So I attempted to install Qt 6 on Ubuntu 20.04. But that's not easy and I ultimately made a dog's breakfast of that VM, so I just started over with a new VM of Ubuntu 22.04.5

Unfortunately I didn't find an easy way to add MXE or Qt Creator in the new Ubuntu 22.04.5 VM without building them both from source.

So I started by building MXE, following the tutorial to first clone it from github into a local /opt/ folder, and then running make. This worked for building many modules of MXE, but the compiler eventually came to a dead stop compiling glib-2.83.2 with this message:

"ERROR: could not get https://github.com/mesonbuild/wrapdb/releases/download/pcre2_10.44-2/pcre2-10.44.tar.bz2 is the internet available?"

This was very weird because not only was the internet available, but that file had already saved itself into the /pkg folder.

Unfortunately by that point, the build process had not done anything useful for building a Qt cross compiler, so it looked like the experiment had failed.

But on further investigation, it appeared that not every MXE module needs to be built for the purpose of cross compiling FreeSSM anyway. I followed the suggestion of Yılmaz Durmaz in this thread from only a year ago, and so then I executed the command make qt instead of make in the MXE folder:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10934683/how-do-i-configure-qt-for-cross-compilation-from-linux-to-windows-target/13211922

After I did that, it installed Qt 4.8.7 for MXE, and this worked adequately for building FreeSSM. But if I get ambitious I will try make qt6 or at least make qt5 in the MXE folder [see edit below], and then see if I can cross compile FreeSSM with a newer version of Qt. I'm still not sure why Qt 5.12.8 in Ubuntu 20.04 crashed with the error I described above.

Once the make qt process was complete, and I added the relevant paths to the Ubuntu system, I changed directory into the FreeSSM-master folder from the terminal, and then executed the command:

/opt/mxe/usr/i686-w64-mingw32.static/qt/bin/qmake

This generated the set-up files. I then entered the make command in that folder, and to my amazement the build process completed with a new FreeSSM.exe file in the FreeSSM-master folder.

I just tested that .exe file on a Windows 11 laptop with a 1080p screen. The type font was not perfect, but it was useable.

It connected to the car with a Tactrix Openport 2.0 without problems, showing Protocol SSM2/ISO-14230 and baud rate of 4800.

Screen shot attached showing the slightly janky fonts.

An infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite number of Ubuntu VMs will eventually produce a FreeSSM .exe file, quod erat demonstrandum.

Edit: I got ambitious today, and had another attempt at compiling Qt6 for MXE. The error I described above occurs at the MXE make stage when it's compiling glib (the "is the internet available?" error), and it repeated again when either of the commands make qt5 or make qt6 were issued from the terminal in /opt/mxe/.

So I guess compiling glib is only necessary for Qt5 and Qt6, but not for Qt4.

So because of that problem, I previously could only get MXE to work with make qt, and that command only installed Qt 4.8.7.

I eventually figured out that my Ubuntu VM was missing libpcre2-dev, and this caused the "is the internet available?" problem in building MXE. The MXE tutorial website lists all the dependencies that are supposed to be required for Ubuntu, but they only say to install libpcre3-dev. That's an important omission.

Once I installed libpcre2-dev, I issued the command make qt6, and it worked to build Qt6 for MXE. No more "is the internet available?" error. It built and installed Qt version 6.8.1 for MXE.

With Qt6 for MXE now properly installed, I tried a new cross-compile from a fresh FreeSSM-master folder. I first modified the source files in /src with "forward slash" instead of "back slash" as described above, to account for the Windows file system convention. Then in the terminal I changed to the FreeSSM-master directory, and issued the command,

/opt/mxe/usr/i686-w64-mingw32.static/qt6/bin/qmake6

Once that completed with a message about creating "./qmake.stash", I then issued the command make.

And it just worked! It generated a new FreeSSM.exe file of about 25 MB whereas the previous one generated by Qt 4.8.7 was only about 16 MB.

This new .exe file works perfectly on my Windows 11 laptop, with no distortion of the screen image, and it connects to the ECU without any issue.

So my Ubuntu VM cross-compile project for Windows is a complete success. Done & done, thanks to all the contributors here. I hope what I have written here helps someone else.