WARNING: This is a large download! The ZIP file is 5.4 GB!
IMPORTANT! Download this file to a NTFS-formatted disk, since traditional FAT or FAT32 format disks can't accommodate individual files larger than 4GB. Any USB flash drives or external hard disks used to transport this setup between computers will also have to be NTFS- or ExFAT- formatted to handle the over-4GB file.
The ZIP archive contains:
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NOTE: An .ISO file is a single-file “snapshot” of the contents of an entire CD-ROM or DVD. It can be used to recreate (i.e. “burn”) a physical DVD, or it can be “mounted” to the operating system and used directly as a virtual CD/DVD drive. |
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NOTE: The Virtual Machine can be run on MacOS or Linux by downloading and installing versions of the freeware VMware Player for these other OSes. The VMware Player included in this package is only for Windows. This bundle has been tested and verified to run on Windows versions 7, 8.x, and 11. Ver 15.5 of the VMware Player is not the most recent, but takes up far less disk space than the current release. |
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NOTE: This utility will not be needed for Windows versions 8 and later, since these versions of the OS have a built-in ISO mounting function. Open the Windows File Explorer, locate the downloaded .ISO file and right-click on it. From the pop-up context menu, choose "Open with..." and select "Windows Explorer". A new virtual DVD drive will "auto-magically" appear using an unused drive letter on the system. |
After burning a DVD or mounting the .ISO file as a virtual DVD, viewing the disk’s contents will reveal two folders:
The virtual machine files are contained in the folder
\Virtual_Machine .
The installer for the VMware Player required to open & run the VM is located in the folder
\VMware-Player-Install
1. Copy the \Virtual_Machine folder to your hard disk. The VM can not run from a DVD (real or virtual) since it needs read/write access. For the same reason, do not run the VM from a flash drive – the constant write access when UIview is running will quickly wear out the limited number of read/write cycles of a flash drive. However, an 8GB or larger flash drive is ideal for transporting the VM setup from one host to another.
2. Run VMware-player-15.5 located in the Player Install folder to install & setup the virtual machine player on your hard disk.
3. Start the VMware Player program, click on “Open a Virtual Machine” browse to the Virtual Machine folder and select u2003-UIview.vmx .
4. On the resulting screen, click the green arrow to actually start the virtual machine, or click “Edit virtual machine settings” to change what hardware is “borrowed” from the host machine.
5. If you are challenged by a login screen with a prompt for a password.on startup, leave the password field blank and just click on “OK”.
You may wish
to place the contents of the DVD image on an 8GB or larger flash drive, to do
installs on multiple machines. This is particularly useful for installs onto
tablets, light-weight laptops, and "netbook" mini-laptops that lack optical
drives.
After the copy / install and re-boot, locate the file u2003-UIview.vmx ("VMware Virtual Machine File") in the \Virtual Machine folder on your hard disk. Double-click it to launch the virtual machine using the VMware Player. You may wish to place a shortcut to this file on your Windows desktop, to conveniently start the VM in the future.
Further Notes On Using the UIview Virtual Machine |
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This DVD contains a comprehensive ready-to-run UI-View installation packaged in a virtual machine file ready to use with the VMware Player ver 6 or higher. This installation can be run on any platform supported by VMware players. I.e. it can be run on Linux or MacOS systems as well as on Windows hosts, by using the version of the VMware Player appropriate for the OS..
This setup is based on Windows "Micro2003". This
is an unofficial distribution of Windows 2003 (the server edition of Windows XP)
that has been stripped down to the bare minimum required to run UIview and
Precision Mapping. It lacks Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, Outlook,
and various other home multimedia "fluff". It occupies about half the hard
disk space normally required by Windows XP or Server 2003.
This UIview virtual machine installation is ready to run, once a call sign, name and registration code are entered.
On the first-time run, you will be
prompted for callsign (without SSID), name and registration number.
Originally UIview was a paid-for product that required a $15 fee to acquire
the unlock registration code. The program is now an orphan, following the
death of its author over 15 years ago.
Generate the registration code with the "UIview Register Gen" on the desktop.
Enter the matching callsign, with
any desired SSID, in "Setup, Station Setup".
Separately, for login to the
APRS Internet System, use the "APRS Passcode Gen" to create the
5 or 6 digit number based on your callsign. This number is the same for any
APRS application that logs into the APRS-IS with a given callsign. Enter this into the "Validation
number" field of the "Setup, APRS Server Setup" dialog. Note
that "APRS server login required" must be checked before a number can be
entered.
After you finish configuring tweaking the UIview installation, you may want to have UIview start automatically when the VM is started. Copy the desktop shortcut for "UIview" and paste it into the Start Menu "Startup" folder. On each boot, UIview will then start automatically.
The virtual machine has a video driver and virtual display (the desktop window) with a nearly unlimited number of resolutions and pixel counts – far more than any physical video card/driver. Just drag the lower-right corner to resize the VM’s display to the desired size, just like any other window on the desktop.
The virtual machine is configured to automatically select a network address on the same network that the host is on. If the host has Internet access, the virtual machine will also have access as soon as it starts up.
Moving Files Into or Out
Of the VM
Since the host and the VM are literally two different computers on the same LAN, one can use the usual Windows network file sharing technique; i.e. share a folder on the host and browse for it in "My Network Places" at the bottom of the File Explorer tree in the VM. Note that with Win 7 and later hosts, you will have to override the default "128-bit file encryption" on shares, and set it to the 56-bit encryption used by WinXP and earlier. (Again, Server 2003 is actually a variant of WinXP.)
If you don't need simultaneous
access to files or folders on both machines, the simplest way to exchange
them is to place them on a removable USB storage device such as a flash
drive or external hard disk. When such a device is plugged into the
host while the VM is running, VMware normally detects it and offers to
detach it from the host and connect it to the VM instead. It will then show
up in the usual manner: a new local drive letter in the File Explorer tree.
If VMware doesn't "automagically" do this, pull down "Player, Removable
Devices" at the top of the virtual machine's window, and identify the
removeable device in the list. Click on it's entry and choose to attach it
to the VM.
If you choose to use a hardware TNC with this UIview setup, you are likely to have to deal with serial<-->USB converter "dongles". When such a device is plugged into the host, VMware passes it to the VM as a native USB device (not as a COM port). You have to provide the appropriate driver IN THE VM to recreate the simulated COM port. Drivers for all common serial-to-USB converter chipsets have been pre-placed in the VM.
This includes FTDI, Prolific, Edgeport and Silicon Labs (the chip used in the built-in serial-over-USB links in recent Yaesu and Kenwood transceivers, including the TH-D72 and TH-D74 APRS handhelds). Note that these drivers will also normally accommodate puck-type USB GPS devices plugged into the host since these units are actually serial internally with one of the same serial<-->USB converter chips built-in.
The virtual machine’s virtual hard disk has been set to a maximum of 10GB; more than enough for Windows 2003 and the UIview setup. The virtual disk is "rubber” and initially occupies far less space on the host. As files are added to the VM, the hard disk file will gradually expand up to it’s upper limit. You can increase the VM’s disk size in the VMware control panel. As packaged, the virtual hard disk file initially occupies about 6.8 GB.
Precision Mapping 9.0 and the PMap Server 9.0 are provided, along with several static maps. The stand-alone Precision Mapping program offfers far more display options (road types displayed, colors & line styles for roads & borders, political vs physical relief coloration, etc) than the PMap Server does inside UIview.
The "Copy Precision Mapping 9 Settings" shortcut will transfer Precision Mapping display options to UIivew. [This only works with the PMap Server inside UIivew - it will have NO effect on static maps!]
The UIview scheduler script "SCHEDULE.txt" is set to automatically:
The UZ7HO Soundmodem app uses the computer's soundcard as a software TNC for either 300 baud HF or 1200 baud VHF APRS operation. The VMware virtual machine can connect to & use the host machine's soundcard for this application. The Soundmodem emulates the AGW Packet Engine soft TNC, but with better performance and more features. To use the Soundmodem with UIview, pull down "Setup, Comms setup" from UIview's menu bar. Pull down the list "Hostmode" and select "AGWPE". Running the Soundmodem in the virtual machine may involve considerable fiddling with the VMware control panel to map the correct sound system on the host into the virtual machine.
For the best performance, least CPU
loading, and easiest setup, install the Soundmodem in the host machine instead. Then TCP/IP link to
it from UIview running in the VM. By doing this you are passing only a few dozen
ASCII text characters per second over TCP/IP from the host to the VM, instead of 100s of K/second
of sampled digitized audio data directly from the host's soundcard. This vastly
reduces the amount of data that has to pass between the host and the VM, and the
number of CPU interrupts that need to be serviced to do this. To setup and
link the Soundmodem on the host machine:
Install a copy of the UZ7HO
Soundmodem" in the host and configure it to use the correct soundsystem.
Start the VM and enter "Setup, Comms
Setup" in UIview.
Pull down "Host mode" and select
"AGWPE" . Then click "Setup" .
In the resulting dialog, change
"localhost" (which always means "this machine") to the IP address or name of
the host machine.instead.
Note that the Soundmodem in the host
must be started and running, before starting the VM.
An installer for the UZ7HO Soundmodem is in the root directory of the DVD for installation into the host machine. (A working copy of the Soundmodem is already installed inside the virtual machine.)
========= UI-Webserver Operation========
An alternate scheduler script, stored under the file name "SCHEDULE-Webserver.TXT" additionally starts up the UIwebserver and starts capturing the current map every two minutes. You must rename this file to simply "SCHEDULE.txt" after renaming the current "SCHEDULE.txt" to something else such as "SCHEDULE-save.txt". I.e. the UI-scheduler exclusively looks for a file called "SCHEDULE.txt" and automatically runs it if found. Exit and restart UIivew to make the new schedule effective. You will also have to run "File, UI-Captioner Setup" once to edit the overlay text/time stamps placed on the captured map images.
The custom webpage "index.html" located in the folder \UIview\UI-webserver\Special Pages is used by the webserver to display the captured map. It can be edited to suit your requirements with the MS Frontpage HTML editor provided. Note that the webserver IP port number is defaulted to 14439 (think of the 2-meter APRS frequency in North America) rather than the more customary port 80 for web servers. I.e. to view the webserver display, you would enter http://servername:14439 into a web browser. The port number can be changed in the UI-Webserver application.
[If you are running the UI-webserver on a home DSL or cable connection, not using the default port 80 will (in most cases) avoid being blocked by your ISP for running a server on a home connection.]
Updated 26 September 2023