Obviously, this is a summer holidays post, not work related. One of my long-term popular posts on this blog is about Using Garmin eTrex Vista HCx with Ubuntu 14.04LTS & QLandkarte GT. That post has the info about how my eTrex is set up to connect to Ubuntu and to use OpenCycleMap, which still works for me. This post is just about the route planning, which has moved on. In short I use Google Maps in cycle mode plot the route, mapsToGPX.com to download a GPX of that route, gps babel to simplify and transfer the GPX file to the eTrex, and QMapShack to view and manage the various GPX files on Ubuntu. For navigation en route I follow a planned track on eTrex and/or on my phone using OSMAnd.

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Note (added July 2018) this article was written in Aug 2015. Since then both Ubuntu and QLandkarte have changed. I’ve written an update about Cycle route planning for Garmin eTrex Vista on Ubuntu 18.04

I have a rather old Garmin GPS eTrex that I use for GPS on walking holidays and cycle rides. I use it with OpenCycleMap contour maps downloaded from talkytoaster. To plan routes and manage the routes, tracks and maps on Ubuntu I use QLandkarte GT.  This summer was the first time I used this combination on my new PC, and I found some of the config difficult because the info I could find (e.g. this from GPS babel) related to old versions of Ubuntu (not surprising, this garmin is from the Ubuntu Feisty era). What needs doing seems similar but how you do it has changed.

I edited /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist to stop Ubuntu loading the garmin_gps module.  I don’t know if this is necessary, but everything I want seems to work with it there. That file now looks like:

# stop garmin_gps serial from loading for USB garmin devices

blacklist garmin_gps

The to make sure that the Garmin is automounted r/w for all users when plugged in to a USB post I created /etc/udev/rules.d/51-garmin.rules , with the content

SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="091e", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"

I found the lsusb and the gpsbabel utility  useful in testing the connexion. With it installed and the etrex plugged in I now see

phil@shuttle$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:8001 Intel Corp. 
[...]
Bus 003 Device 004: ID 091e:0003 Garmin International GPS (various models)

phil@shuttle$ gpsbabel -i garmin -f usb:-1
0 3834401962 694 eTrex Vista HCx Software Version 3.40

And then in QLandkarte I can go to setup | general and under the “device and xfer” select Garmin in the main drop-down and EtrexVistaHCx in the Device Type (other Device options left blank) and happily transfer routes and tracks between the PC and the GPS.