How to run FORScan on Linux

[FORScan]

Author: Valentin Marinov, Bulgaria (Ford Escape Hybrid 2007). Edited by: Dmitry Lyubitskiy (Mazda Familia), Dick Saarloos (Ford Fiesta Mk6.5, Dutch Fiestaclub http://www.fiestaclub.nl)

In Wine emulation under Linux, FORScan was unable to detect the COM port until I added the following registry entries (by editing the file ~/.wine/system.reg):

WINE REGISTRY Version 2
;; All keys relative to \\Machine

#arch=win32

[Hardware\\Devicemap\\Serialcomm] 1015709345
"Serial0"="COM1"

Clarification from Dick Saarloos (Ford Fiesta Mk6.5, Dutch Fiestaclub http://www.fiestaclub.nl):

As a Linux Kubuntu user I had some troubles to get it working under WINE1.6 but found the solution. In the HOWTO you just mention its enough to edit the ~/.wine/system.reg but could not activate the COM - USB port within FORscan.

I got it running after changing/configuring some settings within Kubuntu 13.10, 14.04

a. after plugging in verification with LSMOD showed the adapter visible as lp2303 and usbserial (easy so far)
b. with ls -la /dev/tty* the adapter will be visible as /dev/ttyUSB0 and can be simply tested with a console program like screen /dev/ttyUSB0 (interrupt screen with unplugging the adapter)
c. I made my username member of the dialgroup. First check with id-Gn. With sudo adduser dicks dialout I became member of the dialgroup. Checked it with id-Gn
d. for WINE you have to create a symbolic link for the com1 device with ln -s /dev/ttyUSB0 ~/.wine/dosdevices/com1

Without this symbolic link no com device will be seen in wine/dosdevices

To get it working for Bluetooth ELM is very simular like the way it has to be done with a USB ELM. So user/group policy is the same.

a. With LSMOD the modules rfcomm and bluetooth must be visible
b. If blue-man is installed, start blueman, start search device, add the OBDII adapter by means of the "green plus", click on the PIN-key and type in 1234, trust the device with the yellow star, click on configure and select for Serial Port. Wait for message that device is available via the rfcomm0 port
c. Check with ls -l /dev/rfcomm0 is available
d. Change for WINE by editing the file ~/.wine/system.reg the entry for Bluetooth the Serialcomm setting to COM5:

WINE REGISTRY Version 2
;; All keys relative to \\Machine

#arch=win32

[Hardware\\Devicemap\\Serialcomm] 1015709345
"Serial0"="COM5"

e. Create a symbolic link for the com5 device with ln -s /dev/rfcomm1 ~/.wine/dosdevices/com5

FORScan runs fine under WINE but after disconnecting the Bluetooth adapter it does not reconnect automaticly as it does under XP. The only possibility to reconnect as I found out till now is to delete the Bluetooth device and to configure it again.

[FORScan]

Here is an experience on how to run FORScan on Mac OS under Wine:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=853#p2727

[FORScan]

Update from Time_Lord:

The problem with using a symbolic link that makes com1 point to /dev/ttyUSB0 is that the USB device is not always guarenteed to be ttyUSB0.

I would recommend you go one step further and have an entry in/etc/udev/rules.d/10-local.rules, you will to create this file if it does not exist.

My 10-local.rules file has the following entry:

SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0403", ATTRS{idProduct}=="6001", SYMLINK+="elm327"

This may need to be modified for your system (see below), the entry should be all one line, capitalization etc matters! What this will do is when the device is plugged into the sytem it will create a ttyUSBx entry like before and then it will automatically create a symbolic link called /dev/elm327 which it will then automatically point to whatever ttyUSB device the system assigns giving you a fixed device name to use.

Now you can simply create in your ~/.wine/dosdevices an symbolic link pointing to /dev/elm327 eg "ln -s /dev/elm327 ~/.wine/dosdevices/com1"

The values I used for idVendor and idProduct may not match your device and you'll need to identify the correct entries, there are several ways to do this, the easiest is simply plug the device in and then type "dmesg | tail -15", (performed on a Fedora system) you'll get something very similar to this:

extra lines removed
[522120.236103] usb 1-1: new full-speed USB device number 21 using xhci_hcd
[522120.405985] usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001
[522120.405994] usb 1-1: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[522120.405999] usb 1-1: Product: FT232R USB UART
[522120.406003] usb 1-1: Manufacturer: FTDI
[522120.406006] usb 1-1: SerialNumber: A9009fB7
[522120.408974] ftdi_sio 1-1:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[522120.409031] usb 1-1: Detected FT232RL
[522120.409259] usb 1-1: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

notice the entries for idVendor and idProduct, those are the values to use, you can also use the serial number but I've found that on cheap devices the serial numbers either are reused on multiple devices or are simply not set and show "0"

After updating the rules in udev make sure you either restart udevd or simply restart your system and next time you plug in the device you'll get two entries in /dev, one /dev/ttyUSBx and /dev/elm327 (or whatever you choose to name it)