Haltech Haltech Tuning in Linux: The Solution
12-17-12, 09:51 AM
#1
Haltech Tuning in Linux: The Solution
I know this has been brought up before, and nothing has resulted from it...so I figured it out last night. The following is NOT a linux native solution and it does not use Wine. I tried using ECU Manager in Wine (version in the Ubuntu 10.04 Repositories) and couldn't figure out why it didn't behave properly. Same thing with our EPCs, no go in Wine. However, the ECU does appear as a USB device without needing a driver in Linux. I am running Ubuntu 10.04 in a rather antiquate Dell Dimension 4550 desktop with an ATI Radeon 9800 XT video card (128mb) and 768mb of PC2700 DDR ram.
Download VirtualBox 4.2, not the Open Source Edition included with linux distros. Install Windows XP in it as outlined in the guide, with a sufficiently sized C:/ drive and give it a suitable name such as "XP Inside". Boot up XP Inside to check everything is good, then install ECU Manager through an ISO image.
Now it gets interesting. Vbox 4.2 has USB Support. In the Virtual Machine Settings under the USB tab, check "Enable USB Controller". If you click the USB plug with a Plus on it (right side of empty white field), it will list every USB device connected. As soon as you plug the Haltech into a USB port, it will show up as "Silicon Labs CP2012USB to UART Controller". Click on it and it will make XP Inside always see it. I've tested this on the motherboard's USB ports, the Dell-specific front ports, a USB 2.0 PCI controller card and a 3.5" card reader that is daisychained to the controller card. All work flawlessly.
If you don't get the regular "Hardware Ready for Use" bubble in XP Inside, unplug the ECU and plug back it. Once you have it show up in XP Inside, try connecting in ECU Manager and it should work the first time. But 3D graphs don't work...
In the XP Inside Settings under Display, Enable 3D Acceleration and give it enough video memory. Haltech says 128mb, but I did 96mb with no issues so far. Boot XP Inside in Safe Mode (F8 during startup), then go into VirtualBox's Device menu and select "Install Guest Additions". Check "Direct3D Support" (Requires being in Safe Mode) and continue the install. Reboot in Normal Mode, open ECU Manager and go to the Fuel tab. 3D works now
Known Bugs: Drag'n'Drop doesn't work yet. Would be very useful if it did to share stuff between the Host and Guest OSes. I've read that running a Linux Guest in a Windows Host has these work, but the opposite apparently doesn't for some reason. The developers are working on a fix, but I don't know when it will come out yet. For now, just use a flash drive, via USB Devices under the Device Menu.
Shared Clipboard works for text only AFAIK. Files don't copy between Host & Guest OSes. Not sure about things like image sections from MSPaint, but it might...
Enjoy tuning your car in Linux now...
Download VirtualBox 4.2, not the Open Source Edition included with linux distros. Install Windows XP in it as outlined in the guide, with a sufficiently sized C:/ drive and give it a suitable name such as "XP Inside". Boot up XP Inside to check everything is good, then install ECU Manager through an ISO image.
Now it gets interesting. Vbox 4.2 has USB Support. In the Virtual Machine Settings under the USB tab, check "Enable USB Controller". If you click the USB plug with a Plus on it (right side of empty white field), it will list every USB device connected. As soon as you plug the Haltech into a USB port, it will show up as "Silicon Labs CP2012USB to UART Controller". Click on it and it will make XP Inside always see it. I've tested this on the motherboard's USB ports, the Dell-specific front ports, a USB 2.0 PCI controller card and a 3.5" card reader that is daisychained to the controller card. All work flawlessly.
If you don't get the regular "Hardware Ready for Use" bubble in XP Inside, unplug the ECU and plug back it. Once you have it show up in XP Inside, try connecting in ECU Manager and it should work the first time. But 3D graphs don't work...
In the XP Inside Settings under Display, Enable 3D Acceleration and give it enough video memory. Haltech says 128mb, but I did 96mb with no issues so far. Boot XP Inside in Safe Mode (F8 during startup), then go into VirtualBox's Device menu and select "Install Guest Additions". Check "Direct3D Support" (Requires being in Safe Mode) and continue the install. Reboot in Normal Mode, open ECU Manager and go to the Fuel tab. 3D works now
Known Bugs: Drag'n'Drop doesn't work yet. Would be very useful if it did to share stuff between the Host and Guest OSes. I've read that running a Linux Guest in a Windows Host has these work, but the opposite apparently doesn't for some reason. The developers are working on a fix, but I don't know when it will come out yet. For now, just use a flash drive, via USB Devices under the Device Menu.
Shared Clipboard works for text only AFAIK. Files don't copy between Host & Guest OSes. Not sure about things like image sections from MSPaint, but it might...
Enjoy tuning your car in Linux now...
12-18-12, 09:22 PM
#5
Please note in the first post:
I switched to linux 4 years ago, following some homework on Carputers. Windows' track record was far from stellar in my dealings with XP between 2002 and 2009. Every 6-12 months meant a complete reinstall as a result of someone blinking in Fiji, which broke Windows entirely. After seeing how well Ubuntu 8.04 worked for me, my mom jumped to Ubuntu as well, following the predicted XP failure on her computer.
Switching to Linux is surprisingly anticlimactic since the default browser is Firefox, the included IM client is Pidgin (they make a Windows version too) and there's a comparable application for just about anything that a normal person would use on a day-to-day basis.
Anyway, quite a few people actually LIKE the idea of a system that works, doesn't fall apart on its own, is open source and open box too (Mac is Closed-Box AKA non-standardized hardware). Add a nice frontend such as NGhost and it makes for happy carputing. With the right mods to Nghost, it could be tweaked to display the Haltech's virtual gauges in the usual double din touchscreen display.
Overall, what I'm conveying here is that if my rather old 2.8ghz Pentium 4 desktop computer can do the job sufficiently, one of those newfangled NanoATX systems that can be packaged in a double din box can do it just as well while serving one's gauge needs in the same manner as the R35 GT-R.
I am running Ubuntu 10.04 in a rather antiquate Dell Dimension 4550 desktop with an ATI Radeon 9800 XT video card (128mb) and 768mb of PC2700 DDR ram.
Switching to Linux is surprisingly anticlimactic since the default browser is Firefox, the included IM client is Pidgin (they make a Windows version too) and there's a comparable application for just about anything that a normal person would use on a day-to-day basis.
Anyway, quite a few people actually LIKE the idea of a system that works, doesn't fall apart on its own, is open source and open box too (Mac is Closed-Box AKA non-standardized hardware). Add a nice frontend such as NGhost and it makes for happy carputing. With the right mods to Nghost, it could be tweaked to display the Haltech's virtual gauges in the usual double din touchscreen display.
Overall, what I'm conveying here is that if my rather old 2.8ghz Pentium 4 desktop computer can do the job sufficiently, one of those newfangled NanoATX systems that can be packaged in a double din box can do it just as well while serving one's gauge needs in the same manner as the R35 GT-R.
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