use watch under Linux!?

It should mount as a USB storage device and then you could move the activity files over manually.

They will be in Garmin's FIT format so if Runalyser won't take those in natively then you'll have to find another utility to convert them.

I have read of at least one user here that uses Linux with a Forerunner. Trying searching for Linux and maybe you can see him a message.

Yes you can use offline if your app and O/S is able to read the FIT files on the watch.

AFAIK Linux is not officially supported by Garmin however.

Yes, you can, but it's not as easy as it is on a Windows or OS X machine. When you plug the watch into your Pi, it should mount as a disk, and you should have access to the FIT files it records that way. When I plug my Edge 800 into my Mac Pro, the relevant files are in /Volumes/GARMIN/Garmin/Activities. I just plugged my Edge into my Raspberry Pi (a Model B) and after I finally got it manually mounted, I could see the directories on it but not the files, so there's something to be sorted out there.

So far as doing updates, you need to download the update file (a good place to find them is http://www.gawisp.com/perry/), place it at the appropriate place on your watch (on my Epix, it would be /Volumes/GARMIN/Garmin on OS X) and then restart the watch, which installs the update.

Hello

I am using the Forerunner 235 with Linux (Ubuntu 15.10 64 bit). Just plug your watch with the USB plug, the watch is then seen as an external disk and you can fetch exercices files within garmin connect web site (add manually tab).

If you have difficulties, just ask here and I will post screenshots.

For FW update, I will try it today. I keep you informed here.

Thanks for the answers. "Runalyze" can handle FIT files, this is not a problem at all and with the upgrade files sounds good as well.

How about the GPS updates? I read that the forerunner has something simliar to TomTom "QuickGPS" (to find gps satellites faster).

PS: started a second thread with the same questions, sorry for that :-(

I don't have a Windows or Mac machine anywhere in the house and only use BSD/Linux...

After having issues with insurance over the paper trail of a previous "nothing found" medical issue - I'm loath to willingly put any personal health data anywhere on any cloud that I don't directly control.

Therefore, the selling point for the Garmin FR235 was that it behaves like USB storage when plugged into a computer.

I myself use Golden Cheetah http://www.goldencheetah.org/ which has traditionally been focused on cycling - but has been including more running and swimming features over the last few versions. Golden Cheetah runs locally on Windows, Mac & Linux.

I'm very interested to learn more about your installation of "Runalyze" as I didn't realize you can run that locally.

Features that I have been able to do with Linux.

• Mount FR235 as USB and
  
• Copy off activity FIT files and upload into Golden Cheetah
  
• Make backups of the watch software using "dd"
  
• Upgrade watch software by copying the file to the watch and activating "upgrade" in the system menu
  

Features that I have not been able to do with Linux.

• Install Custom Watchfaces, Data Fields, Widgets or Apps (I have to use Garmin Mobile Connect for Android)
  

The gotchas I have found:

• Garmin Mobile Connect is not feature complete compared to PC version...
  
• Garmin Mobile Connect is not standalone and must have connection to the Garmin Cloud!
  
• Garmin Mobile Connect also has many bugs... (flipping units, not setting sleep time etc...)
  
• Garmin Mobile Connect cannot install Watchfaces, Data Fields, Widgets or Apps without syncing all data on the watch to the Garmin Cloud!
  
• If you turn off "Auto Sync" in Garmin Mobile Connect - installing or configuring Watchfaces, Data Fields, Widgets or Apps doesn't work correctly.
  
• You cannot define what data is uploaded to the Garmin Cloud! Everything gets sucked-up. You can only define what is displayed.
  

This means that I have inadvertently uploaded data to the Garmin Cloud which I wanted to avoid.

I need to research how to extract the 24x7 monitoring of movement, steps and calories.
Once I have worked that out - I'll request Garmin delete my data from their Cloud.

The script was too long when retaining a leading info section, so here it is as a separate chunk:

# The Garmin Forerunner 220 and 620 (FR220 and FR620) make use of a so called
# EPO file (Extended Prediction Orbit) from the GPS-chip manufacturer MediaTek.
# Normally the file is downloaded from Garmin when the watch is connected
# through USB or WiFi (7 days worth of data) or via Bluetooth Low Energy
# connecting through a mobile app (3 days data). The EPO file describes where
# the GPS satellites are, in such a manner that it assists location and results
# in a very quick first lock - usually about 5 to 10 seconds.
#
# This information can be downloaded from MediaTek as well, in a much larger
# file, comprising 30 days of satellite data - 276480 bytes vs Garmin's 64512 -
# but only 28 days with valid data seem to be present at all times. Day 29
# and/or 30 have all their satellite number fields zeroed out (00). That
# circumstance appears to cause the Garmin watch to silently reject the file
# and reach an ordinary satellite lock time of 30-60 seconds. Therefore we must
# crop the MediaTek file and, at the most, use the first 258048 bytes. BUT,
# even with such a clean file, the Garmin watches use only a max of one-digit
# days, ie 9 days of data.
#
# epodownload.mediatek.com/EPO.DAT
# epodownload.mediatek.com/EPO.MD5
#
# Both files are updated on the server once per day, around 00:05 - 00:10 UTC.
# Satellite position data is adjusted each day, ie we gain more accuracy the
# fresher the file, but I have found it fully adequate to use one week old data.
# The (cropped) EPO.DAT file must be renamed EPO.BIN and placed in the watch
# directory REMOTESW (eg: /media/GARMIN/GARMIN/REMOTESW ). From there it is
# swallowed and integrated in some invisible system space.
#
# The file content is largely undocumented, but each GPS data segment begins
# with three bytes defining date, then the fourth byte refers to satellite
# number 1-32. Date is expressed as hours since "Sun Jan 6 00:00:00 UTC 1980".
# A strange epoch, but it is "The timescale origin (time zero) of GPS System
# Time" and "GPS Week count start" according to:
# www.navcen.uscg.gov/ who link to the document:
# www.navcen.uscg.gov/.../ICD200Cw1234.pdf in the section:
# "3.3.4 GPS Time and SV Z-Count."
#
# Other facts about the file structure gleaned from the document:
#microchip.ua/.../SIM28&SIM68R&SIM68V EPO-II_Protocol_V1.00.pdf
# '* The basic unit of an EPO file is GPS satellite data, the data size of a GPS
# satellite data is 72 bytes.
# * One EPO SET contains 32 GPS satellites data.
# * The data size for an EPO SET is 2304 bytes (72 x 32).
# * Each EPO file contains several EPO SETs. The file size must be a multiple
# of 2304.
# * An EPO SET is valid for 6 hours. Therefore, there will be 4 EPO SETs for
# one day (2304 x 4 = 9216 bytes).'
#
# In fact, those six hours are reflected in the date bytes, which are incre-
# mented by six for each EPO SET. The method for converting the date bytes in
# linux can be expressed as: Grab the first three bytes - read as hexadecimal
# Eg: 60 95 04 then swap to correct order 0x049560 which is decimal 300384
# Now multiply these hours with 3600 to get seconds = 1081382400 and add the
# 315964800 seconds that existed between Unix epoch 1970-01-01 UTC and the
# GPS epoch, which results in 1397347200. This number fed through the "date"
# command like so: "date -u --date=@1397347200" reveals
# "Sun Apr 13 00:00:00 UTC 2014"
#


So far as doing updates, you need to download the update file (a good place to find them is ...

No, that place doesn't have all the relevant files. Go directly to Garmin. I've compiled a list of FR630, FR230 and FR235 relevant update files, with example download names and the exact install file names. It was done mainly for a FR630 but you should be able to decipher it for the other watches. Common files for all watches are what I call _Timezonemap_, _GPSfirmware_, _Displayfile_ and _Antfile_.

The .rgn files of this generation are _Timezonemap_ and _Languagefile_. They must have a header removed before installation, like this:

tail --bytes=+61 downloadedfilename.rgn > installfilename

All .gcd files can be installed unmodified - as long as they are correctly renamed...

download.garmin.com/.../ [FileName]

_Betafile_ Forerunner630_313Beta.zip
www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp
Mirror: www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp

FR230-Beta: 9918 9919
FR235-Beta: 9920 9921

_Watchfirmware_ GARMIN/GARMIN/GUPDATE.GCD Forerunner630_310.gcd
www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp
Mirror: www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp

FR230: 9512 9513
GARMIN/GARMIN/GUPDATE.GCD Forerunner230_310.gcd

FR235: 9574 9575
GARMIN/GARMIN/GUPDATE.GCD Forerunner235_310.gcd

( FR235 opticalhrfile: 9578 9579
GARMIN/GARMIN/REMOTESW/GUP2369.GCD Forerunner235SensorHub_220.gcd )

_Timezonemap_ GARMIN/GARMIN/GMAPTZ.IMG TimeZoneMap_1602.rgn
www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp
Mirror: www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp

_GPSfirmware_ GARMIN/GARMIN/REMOTESW/GUPDATE.GCD GPSChipsetTypeM5_300.gcd
www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp
Mirror: www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp

_Displayfile_ GARMIN/GARMIN/REMOTESW/GUP2159.GCD ForerunnerDisplayA1Firmware_210.gcd
www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp
Mirror: www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp

_Antfile_ GARMIN/GARMIN/REMOTESW/GUP2423.GCD ANT_BLEN3Firmware_210.gcd
www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp
Mirror: www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp

_WiFifile_ GARMIN/GARMIN/REMOTESW/GUP2196.GCD Wi-FiA1Firmware_200.gcd
www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp
Mirror: www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp

_Touchfile_ GARMIN/GARMIN/REMOTESW/GUP2197.GCD Forerunner630Touchscreen_962.gcd
www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp
Mirror: www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp

_Languagefile_ GARMIN/GARMIN/TEXT/SWEDISH.LN2 Forerunner630,Text,Swedish_210.rgn
www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp
Mirror: www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp

[Mirror numbers are 1 above main]
All FR630 language main page numbers: 9514 9582 9584 9586 9588 9590 9592 9594
9596 9598 9600 9602 9604 9606 9608 9610 9612 9614

All FR230 language main page numbers: 9516 9616 9618 9620 9622 9624 9626 9628
9630 9632 9634 9636 9638 9640 9642 9644 9646 9648

All FR235 language main page numbers: 9652 9654 9656 9658 9660 9662 9664 9666
9668 9670 9672 9674 9676 9678 9680 9682 9684 9686

_HRM-Run_ GARMIN/GARMIN/REMOTESW/6B175202.GCD HRM-Run_660.gcd
www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp
Mirror: www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp

_HRM-Tri_ GARMIN/GARMIN/REMOTESW/6B174302.GCD HRM-Tri_420.gcd
www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp
Mirror: www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp

_HRM4-Run_ GARMIN/GARMIN/REMOTESW/6B232702.GCD HRM4-Run_330.gcd
www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp
Mirror: www8.garmin.com/.../download_details.jsp


I check for updates once a week, but the script is a bit convoluted... Won't publish it here. Would need a bit of a rewrite for a FR235 anyways.

@Fletnix: How about using GitHub to spread/publish the code?

Sorry to post a slightly different question but is it possible to disable the EPO.BIN file? I basically don't care about having the fast acquisition times and I would prefer to "soak" my 735xt and download ephemeris data straight from the satellites (like the good old days).

I tried setting the EPO.BIN file to "read only" but Garmin Express overwrites it anyway...

Any other thoughts?