gpsd on Windows (using cygwin)

All you need to run gpsd on Microsoft Windows using cygwin - with ready to use binaries.

gpsd is required by several Open Source programs that deal with GPS receivers: navit, viking, gpsdrive, ... only to name a few. Unfortunately, the gpsd website http://gpsd.berlios.de/ states: "No, we don't support Windows — get a better operating system.". However, with an installed cygwin you can easily run gpsd under Windows with the binaries provided here.

gpsd on Windows (using cygwin)

Status

This software should be considered in alpha status for now. It's not thoroughly tested and is currently a simple console program (no fancy features like an installer, a system service, tray icon or such). However, it works remarkably stable on my test system.

This gpsd is depending on http://cygwin.com/, but it would be desirable to have no such dependency for ease of use. Unfortunately it's not easily possible to port gpsd to Visual Studio - in fact this would possibly mean to reimplement gpsd almost completely.

Serial / USB / Bluetooth

I'm owning a Navilock NL302U, a small GPS receiver with a USB connector. It is connected to the USB port of my PC and internally uses a Serial to USB bridge. So GPS software (including gpsd) simply sees the GPS receiver through a serial connection, Windows will hide the physical connection details, being it RS232, USB or even Bluetooth.

So a typical gpsd configuration looks like this:

It seems that most (all?) recent USB receivers are connected that way. Even GPS receivers connected via Bluetooth usually seem to work with such a "virtual RS232" connection.

The connection between the GPSD server daemon and the client program is done through the TCP/IP network - in fact it's easy to run the client and server programs of a gpsd based system on different computers. You can even have several client programs connected to one server daemon!

Tested with ...

I tested gpsd with my own Navilock NL302U (SiRF III based, ~35 EUR) on Windows XP Professional. A usGlobalSat ND-100 is also reported to work fine.

In general, I would think all GPS receivers that works with Windows and noted on the gpsd hardware page (http://gpsd.berlios.de/hardware.html) should work. Anyway, please report success or failure with different receivers, other Windows versions or gpsd based applications to my contact address mentioned above, so I can add them here.

Windows versions

Windows Version	Works?		Notes
Windows Version	32 bit	64 bit	Notes
Vista	?	?
Server 2003	?	?
XP Pro	Ok	?
2000	?	-
NT	?	-	USB not supported
9x / ME	?	-	cygwin support will be discontinued in 1.7.0
CE	No	-	not supported by cygwin

GPS receivers

Brand	Model	Chipset	Interface	Status	Notes
Navilock	NL302U	SiRF star III	USB	Good	-
Wintec	WBT-201	u-blox Antaris 4	Bluetooth	Good	On very bad receiving situations, may need a longer time (minutes) for a satellite fix.

gpsd based applications

I've done a quick check of some applications using gpsd:

Program	Description	URL	Version tested	Windows port available?	gpsd works?
GpsDrive	GpsDrive is a car (bike, ship, plane) navigation system	http://www.gpsdrive.de/	none (2.10pre6)	No	No
LiveGPS (JOSM)	LiveGPS plugin for the JAVA OpenStreetMap editor	http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/JOSM/Plugins/LiveGPS	11936	Yes: JAVA	Yes
Navit	Car navigation	http://wiki.navit-project.org/index.php/NavIt_on_Windows	0.0.4	Yes, but unstable	No (how to select gpsd?)
RoadMap	A car navigation system for Linux and UNIX	http://roadmap.sourceforge.net/	none (1.1.0)	No	No
RoadNav	Roadnav is an open source street navigation solution	http://roadnav.sourceforge.net/	0.19	Yes	No (unstable behaviour when selecting gpsd)
position	The GNUstep Gps Navigator	http://www.gnustep.it/enrico/position/	none (0.3)	No	No
Viking	Viking is a free/open source program to manage GPS data	http://viking.sf.net	0.9.4.0	Yes	No (how to select gpsd?)

GPSD Programs

The provided zip file below includes the following gpsd programs (tested on my XP machine):

gpsd: the deamon
cgps: text mode gpsd client, e.g. shows lat/lon (needs cygwins ncurses package - not installed by default)
gpspipe: simple gpsd client
cgpxlogger: log position to a GPX file

The provided zip file also includes the following untested programs:

gpsctl: control GPS receiver settings - use with caution!
sirfmon: text mode control tool for SiRF based GPSs - use with caution! (needs cygwins ncurses package - not installed by default)
rtcmdecode: rtcm-104 DGPS protocol decoder

Not included in the zip file are files that are more difficult to compile or with limited use on Windows (e.g. would require an X11 or D-Bus server):

xgps / xgpsspeed / libgps / libgpsmm / libgpsd / gpsprof / gpsfake / gpscat / gpsflash

Install

How to install gpsd on Windows:

Install and test your GPS receiver on Windows with the native drivers and tools (make sure it runs ok)
Install cygwin from: http://cygwin.com/
Download gpsd-2.37-1-win32-bin.zip (598 KB)
Unzip and copy the zip file content into the cygwin bin dir. This is usually: c:\cygwin\bin
Find out the COM port that your GPS receiver uses

Especially the last point can be tricky. The NL302U I own comes with a small Windows test program that displays details like the satellite signals and the virtual COM port number used. If your GPS vendor doesn't provide a helper tool that displays the COM port in use, you can try to have a look at the device manager (Control panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device Manager -> Ports (COM & LPT), you may find something like: "Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COM4)".

Beware: If you plug your GPS into a different USB port, it might get a new COM port number!

Run gpsd daemon

Stop all programs using the GPS receiver (... including the GPS vendor test program!)
Start a new console window (cmd.exe) and cd to: c:\cygwin\bin
Start gpsd.exe in the console, for example: gpsd -b -N -D 2 /dev/com5 (replace com5 with your own COM port)
If the Windows-Firewall now issues a warning, click the "Don't block" button
After some initial text on the console, nothing happens - that's ok!

The console output now should look like:

C:\cygwin\bin>gpsd -b -N -D 2 /dev/com5

gpsd: launching (Version 2.37)

gpsd: listening on port 2947

gpsd: Unable to start ntpshm. gpsd must run as root.

gpsd: running with effective group ID 513

gpsd: running with effective user ID 1003

gpsd: opening read-only GPS data source at '/dev/com5'

gpsd: speed 4800, 8N1

gpsd: garmin_gps not active.

gpsd: gpsd_activate(0): opened GPS (4)

gpsd: ntpd_link_activate: 0

gpsd: can't use GGA time until after ZDA or RMC has supplied a year.

gpsd: closing GPS=/dev/com5 (4)

... gpsd now waits for a client program to connect!

If you later want to stop gpsd.exe, simply enter Ctrl-C in the corresponding console window.

Run gpsd client

In a new console (cmd.exe), cd to: c:\cygwin\bin and then type:

gpspipe.exe -w

The following text output should show some basic GPS information.

C:\cygwin\bin>gpspipe -w
GPSD,F=/dev/com5
GPSD,X=1226879329.019125,I=Generic NMEA
GPSD,W=1
GPSD,O=GGA ? 0.005 49.439357 11.087195 362.70 22.40 13.60 ? ? 0.000 ? ? ? 3
GPSD,O=GSA ? 0.005 49.439357 11.087195 362.70 22.40 13.60 ? ? 0.000 ? ? ? 3
...

Obviously, the exact text on your console will differ from the above.

To stop the output, press Crtl-C in the corresponding console window.

If you don't have gpsd running, after a few seconds the output will look like:

C:\cygwin\bin>gpspipe -w
gpspipe: could not connect to gpsd 127.0.0.1:2947, Connection refused(111)

Hints / Troubleshooting

If you get an error "Could not find cygwin1.dll", then your probably not running in: c:\cygwin\bin
All gpsd console programs are closed by pressing Crtl-C in the corresponding console window.
Running the GPS receiver for the first time, it may take a few minutes before the receiver has a satellite fix.
In case your GPS gets confused, e.g. if you had run both gpsd and another software using the GPS, try to unplug and replug the GPS.
If you plug your GPS into a different USB port, it might get a new COM port number!
Bluetooth may use very high COM port numbers (COM40 !) that won't work with gpsd (or cygwin?) - try to set a lower COM port number in your Bluetooth software

Support

As I'm no gpsd developer myself, I can only offer limited help in case of any problems - but you can try to ask me anyway through the contact above. If you want to contact one of the official gpsd mailing lists http://gpsd.berlios.de/#mailing-lists, please make sure that you explicitly state that you use this unofficial Windows port!!!

If there's a new official gpsd version available and you'll only find an older version here, let me know and I'll try an update.

Licensing

gpsd (http://gpsd.berlios.de/) is licensed under the BSD license. The sources and binaries provided here have no significant own work from me involved, so the same license applies (the license text "COPYING" is included in both the binary and source zip files).

The binaries are compiled using the cygwin environment. Cygwin is licensed under the GPL (with an "OSI exception") http://cygwin.com/licensing.html. With this exception, it's ok to provide binaries without the cygwin sources, as long as the programs own sources are available under an OSI approved license, which is the case here.

Compile

You won't need the following if you just want to run gpsd!

The following are the steps that I've done to compile gpsd on cygwin, in case you want / need to build your own version ...

Installed cygwin tools, including:
python (2.5.1-2)
gcc (3.4.4-3)
ncurses (5.5-3)
diffutils (2.8.7-1)
docbook-xsl (1.69.1-1)
libncurses-devel (5.5-3)

patch gpsctl.c(line 41): FIONREAD -> TIOCINQ
(I found this hack at: http://www.hyperlogos.org/page/gpsd_on_win32, which is a broken link now)

gpsd-2.37-1-win32-src.zip (753 KB) - the gpsd sources patched as described above

in a cygwin console type:
./configure
make