oe7drt-website/content/posts/2021-08-12-running-n1mm-logger-on-linux/index.md

---
title: Running N1MM Logger+ on Linux
summary: >
  This is my attempt to properly install N1MM Logger+ on my main computer
  running Manjaro/Ubuntu Linux.
date: 2021-08-12
last_modified: 2022-08-30
categories: [amateur-radio]
tags: [linux,windows,n1mm,emulation,wine]

---

## We need to talk again (an Update)

{{< alert note "Update" >}}
This is an update, the post was originally published on August 12<up>th</up>,
2021. Most of the content has changed.
{{< /alert >}}

So in this update I would like to re-phrase and/or re-arrange this article to
become something like a tutorial. I was thinking about making N1MM Logger+ my
main logging application, but I'll stick with CQRLOG for now.

But I still want a nice howto on how to install this tool on a linux computer.
There we are and we should go right into this!

Some other articles that I researched and they might be interesting to you too:

- <https://www.scivision.dev/n1mm-logger-linux-wine/> (2020-05-31)
- <https://www.n0nb.us/blog/2018/12/running-n1mm-logger-with-wine-on-debian-buster/> (2018-12-03)
- <https://www.nf8m.com/nf8m/n1mm-on-linux/> (2018-07-25)

## Let's install N1MM Logger+

**on Manjaro Linux** in a 32bit environment (wine).

Create a 32bit wine prefix (in winecfg: select Windows 7):

~~~console
$ env WINEPREFIX=/home/dominic/.wine-n1mm WINEARCH=win32 wine wineboot
$ env WINEPREFIX=/home/dominic/.wine-n1mm WINEARCH=win32 wine winecfg
~~~

So there is a ~500MB windows in my home folder, I will back this fragile
directory up into an archive:

~~~console
$ tar -cJf wine-backup-n1mm-$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S).tar.xz .wine-n1mm/
~~~

Next on the list: _.Net Framework 4.6_:

~~~console
$ env WINEPREFIX=/home/dominic/.wine-n1mm winetricks --force
~~~

Choose `Select default wine prefix`, choose
`Install Windows-DLL`, select
`dotnet46` and hit <kbd>OK</kbd>

This brings up a few error messages---confirm them and move on. In the end we
should see the _.NET Framework 4.0_ installation tool.

{{< figure src="01_dotnet40.png" alt=".NET Framework 4.0 Installation" caption="" >}}

Once the installation is finished, close the window and the installation of
version 4.5 should start. After that select <kbd>Restart Later</kbd>
and the installation of version 4.6 should start too.

{{< figure src="02_45restart.png" alt=".NET Framework 4.5 restart dialog" caption="" >}}

Select <kbd>Restart Later</kbd> again and you're done with .NET.

If you like, you could just create another windows-backup archive in case
something goes wrong at the next installations. It's the same command as before,
as it would create a timestamped filename anyway. My wine prefix `.wine-n1mm` now
is ~1.2GB big.

~~~console
$ tar -cJf wine-backup-n1mm-$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S).tar.xz .wine-n1mm/
~~~

This time it took about three times longer than the first time, FYI.

Now just download and run the Full-Installer and the Update-Installer files.

- <https://n1mmwp.hamdocs.com/>

Navigate to `DOWNLOADS` >>
`PROGRAM FILES` >> `FULL INSTALL`

{{< figure src="03_fullinstall.png" alt="Full Install Menu" caption="" >}}

Like above, but navigate to `DOWNLOADS` >>
`PROGRAM FILES` >>
`LATEST UPDATE FILES`

{{< figure src="04_update.png" alt="Update Menu" caption="" >}}

After moving into the directory where our installation files reside, we tell wine
to start the installers:

~~~console
$ cd Downloads/
$ env WINEPREFIX=/home/dominic/.wine-n1mm wine N1MM-Logger-FullInstaller-1.0.8954.exe
~~~

Unselect `Finish and restart...` and close the installer.

~~~console
$ env WINEPREFIX=/home/dominic/.wine-n1mm wine N1MM-Logger-Update-1.0.9243.exe
~~~

Unselect `Run N1MM Logger+...` and close the installer.

{{< alert note >}}
Please not that those are examples, you need to start the files that **you**
downloaded---they might differ in their version numbers. Also the declaration
of the environment variable is used with the **fish shell**, for bash (maybe the
default shell on most linuxes) you would just omit the `env` at the beginning.
{{< /alert >}}

Make sure to substitute the versions with what you have downloaded---you can
find these files here:

* [Full Install](https://n1mmwp.hamdocs.com/downloads/n1mm-full-install)
* [Latest update](https://n1mmwp.hamdocs.com/mmfiles/categories/programlatestupdate)

You should now have new desktop icons and/or new menue entries (depends on your
desktop environment).

{{< figure src="05_desktopicons.png" alt="Desktop icons" caption="" >}}

You can start the program with these icons or by hand. If you want to start them
by hand from a terminal, you should prepend your command with the wine prefix
that you installed it.

You'll figure that out, the content of one of these desktop icons is:

~~~ini
[Desktop Entry]
Name=N1MM Logger+
Exec=env WINEPREFIX="/home/dominic/.wine-n1mm" wine C:\\\\windows\\\\command\\\\start.exe /Unix /home/dominic/.wine-n1mm/dosdevices/c:/users/Public/Desktop/N1MM\\ Logger+.lnk
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
Path=/home/dominic/.wine-n1mm/dosdevices/c:/Program Files/N1MM Logger+/SkinsAndLayouts
Icon=88F7_N1MMLogger.net.0
StartupWMClass=n1mmlogger.net.exe
~~~

This would probably do the same:

~~~console
$ env WINEPREFIX=/home/dominic/.wine-n1mm wine .wine-n1mm/drive_c/Program\ Files/N1MM\ Logger+/N1MMLogger.net.exe
~~~

{{< figure src="06_errormsg.png" alt="Error message" caption="" >}}

You can click the big error message away, afterwards you get informed that AutoHotkey
is not installed. Click that away too and you're done for now. Setup your station
details and move on with using N1MM Logger+ on linux.

{{< alert info >}}
There might be still bugs as those error messages at the installation of the
.NET Framework didn't came from nothing---for what I've seen so far the menues
are a bit tricky to handle as they tend to disappear when hovering with the mouse.
This might need a few tries to actually open the settings dialog for example.
{{< /alert >}}

Finally, there is a good result I think:

{{< figure src="07_screenshot.png" alt="Example screenshot" caption="" >}}

Hopefully this article was helpful to somebody, as I have been sitting here now
for a while doing all the exact steps from above to verify its validity---the
reason for that was actually because I've seen that this specific article got
read quite a few times and I personally found it a bit confusing myself ;-)

vy 73 de Dominic, OE7DRT (going to bed now)

## Another update (Installation on Ubuntu 20.04)

I recently switched my laptop from Manjaro Linux back to Tuxedos version of
Kubuntu. So let's have a quick look at what I did in this newly created 32bit
windows environment.

~~~console
$ sudo apt-get install wine-stable
$ sudo apt-get install winetricks
$ sudo apt-get install exe-thumbnailer

$ export WINEPREFIX=/home/dominic/.wine-n1mm
$ export WINEARCH=win32

$ winetricks winxp
$ winetricks sound=alsa

$ winetricks -q dotnet46

$ winetricks win7 # Because N1MM Logger+ does not like WinXP, I thought that would be a nice idea to switch over to Windows 7

$ wine Downloads/N1MM-Logger-FullInstaller-1.0.8954.exe
$ wine Downloads/N1MM-Logger-Update-1.0.9275.exe
~~~

Start N1MM Logger+ from within your Application menue. There should be a new
folder called  
`Wine` >> `Programs` >> `N1MM Logger+`