I have installed OpenCPN which is navigation software that needs a GPS connection. I used the installation for Ubuntu 17 and the program works however when I try to connect my USB GPS dongle the program requires access to a serial port (because NMEA0183 data sent by the dongle is in serial format) An attempt to make a serial connection brings up a message saying I do not have access to serial ports on this system and tells me to exit and run the following in Terminal " sudo usermod-a-G dialout (followed by my username)". This is not a valid command. How do I get permanent access to serial ports?
1 Answer
$ sudo adduser <your_user_name> dialout
You will need to log out and back in again for this to take effect.
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Thank you for that. I tried it and it told me that I was already a member of dialout! however after a restart it has allowed me to connect the GPS dongle. Problem Solved. Now the problem is to get the dongle to get a GPS fix, but that is a dongle issue, not a Linux one.– Norman_ENov 28, 2017 at 20:56