Running CHIRP on Linux¶

This page describes how to get the newer python3-based CHIRP-next running on Linux.

Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Raspbian, etc¶

Install prerequisite packages:

$ sudo apt install git python3-wxgtk4.0 python3-serial python3-six python3-future python3-requests python3-pip

Fedora and compatible¶

This was tested on Fedora 37 with python 3.11.
The same procedure should work on all current versions of fedora running python3.

Install prerequisite packages:

sudo dnf install python3-pip python3-wxpython4

The next steps should work for all versions of linux using pip.¶

Use pip to install the following packages as your regular user.

pip install wheel attrdict3

Download the latest .tar.gz file then install it with pip. For example:

pip install chirp-20230322.tar.gz

Now you can test it from the command line with

chirp

If that does not work try

~/.local/bin/chirp

The executable is installed as ~/.local/bin/chirp (or as /usr/local/bin/chirp if sudo was used to do the install).

The first time chirp is launched from the command line it should pop up a prompt to add the .desktop file.
Select "yes" if you want to have the icon on the activities menu to launch chirp.

If the command "chirp" does not work please check your path to verify it is complete. The command "echo $PATH" should show "/home/<username>/.local/bin:" at the beginning. If not that can be fixed by editing ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile to add that to the existing $PATH. If the path is configured properly then chirp should be able to launch with the "chirp" command.

Note that the device used as the comm port may be either /dev/ttyUSB0 or /dev/ttyACM0 so the user might need to verify which port is available. Chirp does not seem to automatically detect the /dev/ttyACM0 port so the user may need to select the 'custom' port and enter it manually.

Following the steps above (without sudo) installs the app as a user level app and it will only be accessible to that user.

Once chirp is properly installed, upgrades to newer versions are done with two simple steps:

1. download the newer .tar.gz file.
2. pip install --upgrade chirp-<version>.tar.gz

Serial port permissions¶

Note that you may need to add your users who want to use CHIRP to the group that owns the serial ports. This issue is often indicated by an "access denied" error when accessing serial port. Determine the group ownership of your serial port like this (assuming ttyUSB0):

$ stat -c %G /dev/ttyUSB0
dialout

Now you need to add your user to that group. On most Linux distros this is accomplished with:

sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER

Be sure to use whatever group the above stat command reported.

You will then need to log out and back in (or maybe even reboot) for it to take effect.

(Optional) Newer wxPython¶

You may want to install a newer wxPython, depending on what your distro ships. For Debian-derived distros (including Ubuntu and Mint) you can do that with a command like:

pip3 install -U -f https://extras.wxpython.org/wxPython4/extras/linux/gtk3/ubuntu-20.04 wxPython

Check the directory listing for other distro versions and use the closest match to what you're on. NOTE that this will not work for non-x86_64 machines (like the Raspberry Pi) as there are no binary builds for those platforms.