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How to get the Forerunner 305 to work under Ubuntu?

rated 0 times [ 7] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 7176 / 2 Years ago, tue, july 19, 2022, 8:01:16

I just recently installed Ubuntu on our desktop PC and my father uses an Forerunner 305 GPS wristwatch when he goes out for a jog.

On Windows he always used the the program Garmin Trainingscenter to import the data gathered during his run (things like the route he did, speed, distance etc.). I searched on internet and saw that Pytrainer was a program which offered the same features and also had support for the Forerunner 305.

So I installed it but when I press the "import" button, initially it looks like he is importing the data (the Forerunner gives a bleep and a progress bar is running). But when he is done, nothing shows up in the program.

Is there someone here who also has this GPS watch and got it to work under Ubuntu? If so, is there something I am doing wrong? I am using the latest version of Pytrainer (version 1.9.2-dev) and "gpsbabel" (a program needed to communicate with the watch) that came with Ubuntu 12.10.

Update 7 February

I was just experimenting and I tried an import via the garmin-forerunner-tools package instead of gpsbabel. Although results didn't show up in Pytrainer, it did create a .dump file in the ~/.pytrainer/tmp folder. I tried to manually import that file and that actually showed up in Pytrainer! :D

Alright, it's a very dirty workaround but we at least know that communication and exporting works. Now to just let Pytrainer import automatically when I press the button

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allally

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2 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago cretanol · Accepted Answer

Alright. Somehow I got it to work by myself.. I am not sure how I did it, but if you are, like me, having trouble getting your Forerunner 305 to work on Ubuntu, I'll describe what I did here.

If you haven't already, install Pytrainer trough the Ubuntu Software Center.

You'll also need to install an extra library in order to communicate with the Forerunner so execute this command in the terminal, or search for the package in the USC: sudo apt-get install garmin-forerunner-tools

Now open up Pytrainer and open in the menu Tools > GPS Device Plugins

Select the "Garmin via garmintools" option and press "Preferences"

Enable the plugin by selecting the "Enable" option under Status.

Now connect your Forerunner to the PC with the USB cable and go to File > Import from Garmin GPS Device (via garmintools)

Notice that your device gives a beep and a progress bar will show. It might seem like the program crashed (Pytrainer turns grey) but after a few seconds it should come back to live, and your activities should show up in Pytrainer!

If you run into problems, make sure that there is an recorded activity that is not older than 30 days! Pytrainer will not import activities that are older than that. You can change this default value in the preferences.

I also saw somewhere on a site that it might fail to import your tracks when there is one with a special character in it's name. So make sure you won't name any tracks with special characters.

Took me a while to figure all this out since there is not a whole lot of information about it on the internet. I hope this is of use for some more people running into problems!