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DEV-NOTES - Development notes for the cal_sta_server Java code
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Author: John Sexton
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Date: 3/20/11
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SUMMARY:
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-Tried to install Sun's Java Comm API, doesn't work for 64-bit machines.
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-Changed from open source IcedTea Java 6 to Sun's Java 6.
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-Tried to install RXTX library. Need special version for 64-bit. Does not
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   allow you to open any port, only can open what it scans.
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-Downloaded RXTX source code, added "arduino" and "robot" port prefixes
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   to RXTX library, compiled it and installed it on Marvin.
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USEFUL JAVA LOCATIONS:
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/usr/lib/jvm -
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   location of java installations
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/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/ext -
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   java extension .jar files (like RXTXcomm.jar) go here (for Sun's Java)
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/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/amd64 -
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   the librxtx______.so files go here (for Sun's Java + 64-bit)
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   /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/amd64
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                     ^               ^
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                Sun's Java       64-bit architecture
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USEFUL WEBSITES:
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http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Serial_Programming/Serial_Java -
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   General overview of serial programming in Java.
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http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17802_01/products/products/javacomm/reference/api/index.html -
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   API for javax.comm / gnu.io
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http://www.capybara.org/~dfraser/archives/29 -
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   Article describing how to edit RXTX source code to add port prefixes.
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http://rxtx.qbang.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page -
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   RXTX development wiki. Very good resource for installing and obtaining
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   source code.
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http://www.cloudhopper.com/opensource/rxtx/ -
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   Location of 64-bit compiled binaries for RXTX library.
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NOTES:
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Java does not play nice with serial ports right out of the box. You must
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install additional libraries to gain the ability to speak to serial ports
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in Java. The most common library that I found is the JAVA COMMUNICATIONS
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API LIBRARY.
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== Sun's Java Communications API ==
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Sun does a very poor job of maintaining this library (after all, they
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support platform-independent development and this is difficult when a
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serial port inherently relies on the underlying hardware). My first
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attempts to successfully listen over a serial port involved using Sun's
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implementation of the Java Communications API. It was difficult to find a
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good download of this online, but I eventually ended up using an Oracle
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website (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/index-jsp-141752.html) to
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obtain the library. Followed installation instructions and successfully
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installed, but when I tried to run a program I got an error which cited
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the ELF compiled binary file. Also mentioned the word size might be wrong.
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This error was confirmed online where I found support for the fact that
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Sun/Oracle only supports 32-bit versions of the Java Communications API
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and doesn't support windows. All of these limitations led me to abandon
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using Sun's version.
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== RXTX Library ==
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I found an open source library called the RXTX library which follows the
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Java Communications API exactly (except it's called 'gnu.io' instead of
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'javax.comm'). The development website
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(http://rxtx.qbang.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) was very useful. I was
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able to successfully install the RXTX library, but when I tried to run
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sample code, Java seg-faulted (OMG... XD). In an attempt to fix this, I
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removed the open source IcedTea java and installed Sun's Java, but the
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error still remained. I then traced the error back to the Thread function,
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so I believe the problem is not actualy with the RXTX functionality that
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we need and instead has to do with using threads with the RXTX library.
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I proceeded to write a small Java program to test the
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RXTX library, and discovered that you can only address ports which the
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library finds on its own. This was a problem because the library only
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looked for a few prefixes and did not show the 'arduino' or the 'robot#'
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nodes in the /dev folder. I found an article online
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(http://www.capybara.org/~dfraser/archives/29) which describes how
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to edit the source code for the RXTX library to include more ports. I
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used the link included in the article to obtain the source code, but when
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I edited the necessary source file (RXTXCommDriver.java), recompiled it
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into a .jar file again (had to remove a 'import javax.comm.*' line from
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the source file which seemed strange to me), and transfered it into the
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proper directory (/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/ext) it did not work.
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Java threw an error which I can't remember the content of at the moment
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(but it wasn't a seg-fault like the thread error). To obtain a better copy
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of the source code, I again resorted to the RXTX development wiki
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(http://rxtx.qbang.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page). I downloaded a recent
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copy of the source code, unzipped it, ran '/configure', and ran 'make'.
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I received some errors, but there was still a brand new 'RXTXComm.jar'
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file in the folder now, so I proceeded to install it
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(replace the RXTXComm.jar file in the
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/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/ext folder). To my relief, my test program
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did NOT throw an error this time. I did get a warning that looked like this:
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WARNING:  RXTX Version mismatch
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        Jar version = RXTX-2.2
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        native lib Version = RXTX-2.2pre2 
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(versions are not the same as the versions I saw, but I did have a mismatch
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warning). To solve this, I just went back to the development wiki and
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found the version that made these two lines agree (turned out to be 
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rxtx-2.2pre2). Now (finally), my little test program can find the 'arduino'
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and 'robot#' ports and listen to them!
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Hope this helps for anyone who has to take this project up after me!