Garmin Express - Linux support please

Garmin Connect is being taken away? No, it's not, it's a web site, and you can view it and interact with it the same as anyone else. There is still one way for Linux users to upload tracks, with manual imports (the same way I always uploaded tracks until Express gained the ability to automatically sync on OS X). There's a problem for the Garmin devices that use ANT+ to sync, but none of the current ones do except Vivofit so far as I know, so Garmin has been moving away from that impediment. Doesn't the Linux software that can run the ANT+ stick still work, and isn't that open source so that someone else can take up development if the original developer doesn't want to any more? The new devices are all mass storage so far as I know, and that's straightforward to deal with since they mount as disks. The plugin is going away, but it's going away for everyone.

Instead of spending time getting Express to run under WINE, why doesn't someone write a replacement? For a mass storage device, Express does two things. It automatically uploads anything that's new, and keeps track of whether there's an update for the device. It seems to me that the first could be done by a simple script in one of Perl/Python/etc. once the upload method is understood, and that could be figured out by watching what Express sends over the network and seeing if that could be mimicked. The second is a little harder, since you have to figure out where Garmin stores updates (what to do with them is already well understood). Again, watching what Express sends out will help.

I've used linux as well as Windows and OSx pretty much ever since they've been released. But come on, get real.... linux at 2% of market share is not a major OS.

That could be right.... but major servers for Internet use linux OS (almost 95%) other servers use FreeBSD (*nix system) 4% and only 1% use a microsoft system. Moreover a lot of ADSL boxes that people use to connect to the Internet use linux system (Orange boxes....)! So every company is almost 100% indebted to linux systems to make e-business, this could be taken into account when companies like Garmin deny to their linux user customers the right to register and update their maps...

Hi Schinder,
For any other Linux users reading the thread - there's already some effort to get Garmin Express working under wine, but it's not looking too good so far.

Every attempts I made to have it working with wine did not succeed!

Worst: I installed a virtual machine with windows-7: when I want to add my nuvi 2689LMT, GarminExpress kills windows and the next attempt to run GarminExpress is impossible: I have to reinstall it!

major servers for Internet use linux OS (almost 95%) other servers use FreeBSD (*nix system) 4% and only 1% use a microsoft system

None of those servers need to run Garmin Express... The only thing that counts is the number of Linux desktop users.

None of those servers need to run Garmin Express...

ah! ah! we can argue in the same way: "nobody can download GarminExpress without linux servers and boxes" This is a short minded answer...

The only thing that counts is the number of Linux desktop users.

Here too, some short minded answer! The real statistic that could be taken into account should be: "how many linux users use a garmin gps...."

It is always pityfull to talk with profiteers

So tell us, how many Linux users use a Garmin GPS?

And while you're at it, break it down into which distro they're using. After all, Garmin isn't going to open the source of Express (otherwise we wouldn't be having this discussion), so you'll have to let them know where they should concentrate their efforts.

Back in the day when the 305 came out I wrote my own Linux program to upload activities. It wasn't distribution specific, and would work on any distribution. This complaining about different distributions is just a smokescreen.

There was a time that they changed to using Bing mapping software instead of Google, until pressure from their users made them add Google mapping back in. I think they had hired some Microsofties who were trying to get Bing in the door. That is probably also the reason they don't want to have their software work on Linux.

These days I upload data from my 310xt and 910xt using Uploader (which is an Android program) and have for the past year. The only time I ever need Windows is for downloading workouts.

Edited to note that for the 920xt, it can be attached as a USB mass storage device which then allows downloading and uploading data in Linux. Communications in the Garmin world have always been problematic, but this is at least a failsafe method of moving data back and forth.

Yes, distro still matters. It's been years since I used Linux on the desktop, so I don't know all the details any more, but for something with a GUI component like Express windowing system matters (back when I ran Yellow Dog Linux on a Mac Performa 6400 it was GNOME vs. KDE) and the packaging manager (RPM still exists, I think, and yum is about all that's left of YDL). Garmin would still have to make choices. Nowadays I use Linux remotely via an OS X desktop, so I don't have to deal with any of that any more.

You're response back in the day is exactly what I would have expected of a Linux user, and I wonder where that went. Can't desktop Linux users code any more? Isn't anyone trying to write an Express replacement? On OS X, Express consists of a daemon that runs all the time in the background and does all of the work and the GUI component. Your code might still work for the upload part unless Garmin is actively trying to stop it.

It is always pityfull to talk with profiteers

Maybe your gripe should be with the "free minded" people that are not stepping forward to write a program that will work with a Linux OS. Leave us "pityfull profiteers" alone! <GRIN> (poking fun, don't go ballistic)

Probably hard to calculate how much "profit" Garmin is making from a code they give away that interacts with a web site they don't charge for. If you don't like Garmin, fine, buy other devices (none of which support Linux so far as I know).