Hello Tim

This is my first post on your forums, although I read many posts and replies here to get tips and ideas.

I would like to ask a question, would you consider creating a version of Plan-G to work in Linux. Do you have the skill set to do this. Why I ask is that I use Ubuntu, now upgraded two days ago to version 17.10 Artful Aardvark, as much as I use Windows 10, and I run X-Plane 11 on it, along with the freeware FlightGear. I have tested a number of Linux distro's and have found Ubuntu to be the most game/SIM friendly and best performer for games/SIM's.

In some ways XP11 runs far smoother and better under Linux O/S than it does under Windows 10. There are some shortfalls, in that there are a number of X-Plane fat plugins not compiled to work under Linux, but overall I find the Linux experience better. Hence my request to port Plan-G to Linux.

I went through as many of the posts as possible and it looks like I might be the first requesting this.

Regards
Andrew Brown
South Africa

YoungGun

You need to make a copy of your original SimConnect.xml file then edit it as such. you don't need the rest of what's in the orginal file, hence the backup.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?>

<SimBase.Document Type="SimConnect" version="1,0">
  <Descr>SimConnect Server Configuration</Descr>
  <Filename>SimConnect.xml</Filename>
  <Disabled>False</Disabled>

  <!-- Local IPv4 Server Configuration-->
  <SimConnect.Comm>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol>
    <Scope>local</Scope>
    <MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
    <MaxRecvSize>4096</MaxRecvSize>
   <DisableNagle>False</DisableNagle>
    <Address></Address>
    <Port>4507</Port>
  </SimConnect.Comm>

  <!-- Global (remote) IPv4 Server Configuration-->
  <SimConnect.Comm>
    <Disabled>False</Disabled>
    <Protocol>IPv4</Protocol>
    <Scope>global</Scope>
    <MaxClients>64</MaxClients>
    <MaxRecvSize>4096</MaxRecvSize>
   <DisableNagle>False</DisableNagle>
   <Address></Address>
    <Port>4507</Port>
  </SimConnect.Comm>

</SimBase.Document>

Do this to the simconnect.xml on both computers. Now you need a tool to connect them together, one side needs a client running, the other needs the server app running. You can start with the free FSHost and FSHost client from the Chocolate Software guys. You would install the FSHost on the laptop and run it, and the FSHost client installed on the desktop and run it. But there are a few tricks to do to both to get them to link the two PC's and SimConnect. Without repeating what's already posted go to this link http://www.chocolatesoftware.com/fshost/ and look for the sticky "Run FSHostClient from second computer? (was: WideFS?)" Instructions are given here to get Simconnect working with this app. Here are also two links of others getting SimConnect to work between two PC's with P3D. The one link refers to FSX, but it's the same way in it's workings for P3D.

http://forums.bvartcc.com/index.php?topic=4950.0
http://www.prepar3d.com/SDKv2/LearningCenter/utilities/simconnect/simconnect.html

Another easier way to setup, although payware and does not need Simconnect, is to purchase Peter Dowson's FSUIPC and WideFS, the WideClient is free. Unfortunately only the paid for version of FSUIPC and WideFS works. You download the free WideClient and install (actually create a folder somewhere on the drive and extract the files into it) it on the laptop. Then run the wideclient.exe found there. It will open a simple empty box, you can grab the edges and shrink it right down to make it unobtrusive. Then on the desktop install FSUIPC and WideFS, this will install into the SIM you are using, in your case P3D.

Start P3D, all the way to the aircraft on the runway. If you window the SIM (Alt + Enter) or it's already in a window mode you will see on the top left of the bar an indication of "WideServer waiting for clients" or if it finds the client "WideServer connected". If connected, which I am sure it will be, you can then run a weather engine like ActiveSky, map program like Plan-G etc, on the laptop. In the settings of these programs, tell it to use FSUIPC as it's remote connection, they will connect and talk to your SIM on the PC, as if on the same drive.

I personally use both the FSHost / client and FSUIPC / WideFS too, so I am familiar in getting them working. I've never bothered with the other methods, mentioned in the two links.

Good luck

Regards
Andrew

Hi Tim

Thanks for your direct reply. Yes I can post screenshots, my client is 60KM's away, and I won't be going out that way in quite a while, nothing planned ahead. But I'll try and get a Teamviewer session linked to the XP machine, take screenshots, or get the client to take some and email to me. Yes I also found it very bizarre, and the W7 computer is working fine with PG. The strange thing is it worked once with an older version of PG on this XP computer, a few weeks back when I set it all up. The next evening the client telephoned me to say that there were black squares all over his XP computer PG, I though he was having me on, but he was right.

It seemed whatever I had done to make it work that first time I cannot reproduce, and it all fell over when the computer had some time to be completely powered down, more than 24 hours. I brought his database home to my two W7 computers with no issues. Yes I see that about the database files and their contents, so I am at a loss at the moment to offer a fix. My gut feel of my many years still tells me that I need to look at this computer as the prime suspect, the video drivers and possibly the .net version/s installed on it.

It has been hammered twice by malware, which I cleaned up in the past, and the few weeks back when I started to clean out this computer and install PG onto it. I advised him that I could not support this machine, unless he got proper payware malware protection, thankfully he did (Kaspersky Internet Security 2015). I've made sure that on updating PG to the latest version I had KIS temporarily turned off, as I am fully aware of some programs being interfered with while doing an install.

And I have given this XP computer a thorough cleanup with tools such as MalwareBytes and Kaspersky, Piriform CCleaner and Defraggler, Steven Gould's Clean-Up, and Macecraft's Powertools, all of these I trust with my IT life, and having been used by myself successfully without issues, since they were first available.

Agreed with the tongue in cheek statement of computers not reading the same rule books. I have just set up 16 identical computers with FSX for a school and their SIM learning academy, and I found different issues on many of them even though everything was the same hardware wise and software wise. So yeah go figure, I suppose the base sand used to create the electronics is also not the same!!!!

I'll get some screenshots to you as soon as I can.

Regards

Hello forum members

This is my first post on this forum. I would presume my problem advised here, if not resolved, can be forwarded to Tim. I have succesfully used Plan-G for many a year now, so this is a first for me in discovering a fault. One of my business clients, like me, enjoys virtual aviation, and asked me to help him set up two computers to be linked, one running Win7 and the main one for FSX, and an older machine running WinXP used to run Plan-G. He has a registered version of FSUIPC with WideFS / WideClient, and I can succesfully link the two computers with WideClient.

There is only an installation of FS9 on the older XP machine, and I have downloaded the appropriate versions of Plan-G for both operating systems. The XP machine runs the database update for FS9 with no issues, but because there is no installation of FSX on it, I run the database update on the Win7 machine, and copy it over to the XP machine into the Plan-G data folder, overwriting the default one there. And here is my problem, when I start Plan-G, wherever there is an airport and surrounding info related to it, it is a black square. I have tried to export the files as CSV's and import, I have updated the nVidia drivers on the XP machine and I have fulfilled the Plan-G .Net requirement, and made sure that XP has the last and latest updates available. I have tried all settings available in Plan-G and the different maps, the results remain the same. The fresh installation of Plan-G is clear on the maps, it's only when I apply the FSX database update that the black squares appear. So to date nothing fixes the black square issue, and I don't have another XP computer running FSX to see if it is a O/S database creation issue.

The XP machine is really old, a P4 2.3GHZ, with an 80GB HDD, 512MB of RAM, and a nVidia Geforce FX5200 (I can upgrade this video card to an unused nVidia Geforce GTX520). There is nothing else running on this computer except it's O/S, FS9 and Plan-G. My 39 years of IT tells me that the problem could be with this very old hardware, but I need to clear up any issues that might be coming from Plan-G in incompatiblity, or that I have exposed a bug.

I look forward to any feedback and help.

Regards

Hello Tim

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit on my main machine, and Windows 7 Pro 64bit on all of my other computers. I've abandoned Windows XP a long time ago to move into the 64bit world.

I know this might be off-topic, but would love to see a Linux version. Not sure if you use Linux, but I run FlightGear 3.0 and X-Plane 9.70 and 10.25 on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Long Term Support - until 2019) also known as Trusty Tahr.

Regards