FoxtrotGPS/libgps w/ fso-gpsd (was: [FOSS-GPS] Questions about foxtrotgps)

[Joshua Judson Rosen]

James Hiebert <james at hiebert.name> writes:
>
> FOSS-GPS:
> 
> I have been using tangogps on my Neo Freerunner (running debian) for a about
> a year and have been very pleased with it.  A couple weeks ago, after a
> package upgrade tangogps simply stopped working.  I haven't quite figured
> out why, but I suspect it had something to do with the change in protocol
> for gpsd that occurred at about the same time. _Supposedly_ I'm supposed to
> use a wedge package, fso-gpsd which interfaces with the Freerunner's dbus
> interface to the gps chip and acts like gpsd. However, attepting to install
> fso-gpsd removes both tangogps and foxtrot gps.

It looks like the libgps19 package is currently marked as Conflicting
with fso-gpsd; so, when you try to install fso-gpsd, libgps19 is removed--
and since we depend on libgps19, out *we* go....

There are a couple of relevant bug-reports (now merged) filed in the BTS:

    http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=562611

    http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=562592


Going by the discussion there, it looks like the `Conflicts: fso-gpsd'
was added to libgps19 as a way of dealing with an issue where
fso-gpsd had been marked as `Provides: gpsd' (and it looks like
the fso-gpsd package maintainer ultimately agreed that it was
at least somewhat bogus for the fso-gpsd package to do that,
since the `Provides: gpsd' has since been removed from fso-gpsd).

> Which brings me to my questions:
> 
> 1) Does foxtrotgps directly support the dbus interface to the gps?
> I presume that the answer is 'no', but would be willing to work on
> programming such a feature with a little guidance from someone who
> knows more about this than me.  Or is there some other way to get
> foxtrotgps to listen to the gps chip?

It should be sufficient to run fso-gpsd, and then we can talk to that
through libgps. But maybe I should emphasise "should"...:

As you noted, the preferred gpsd protocol has changed from the one
that fso-gpsd currently supports. At least for the time being, libgps
supports talking to servers using both the new *and* the old protocols;
but since the old protocol has entered a deprecation-cycle (which means
that, at *some point*, it'll be dropped entirely unless someone shows
up with a reason why it can't be), it seems like the best option
at this point is probably be to update the fso-gpsd compatibility daemon
so that it supports the new protocol and actually continues to do
what it's supposed to do: provide a gpsd-compatible interface.

Would you be willing/able to contribute toward updating fso-gpsd?

-- 
"Don't be afraid to ask (λf.((λx.xx) (λr.f(rr))))."