Astronomy Device Control In Slackware-15 and -Current

Posted on Aug 23, 2022 by kingbeowulf

I've updated the INDI libraries and drivers on Slackbuilds.org (SBo). INDI Library is a collection of programs designed to control astronomical equipment, such as, cameras, telescopes, etc. In addition to the drivers and modules provided in the main INDI distribution, there are a number of third party drivers available. For more information on INDI refer to https://www.indilib.org/

Stellarium (https://slackbuilds.org/repository/15.0/academic/stellarium/) has INDI support to directly control telescope positioning. Kstars, included with Slackware's KDE, Provides INDI support via the built-in EKOS client. Besides telescope control, numerous devices are supported, including CCD cameras. Why pay good money for proprietary and expensive telescope GOTO and astrophotography software when perfectly functional opensource alternatives exist?

To get Kstars/Ekos operational in Slackware (or whatever other Linux distribution. I won't judge.), you will need to recompile Kstars. INDI is a compile-time dependency; therefore, the Kstars package included with Slackware does not include INDI functionality.

Feedback is appreciated, for bugs and improvements, via sbo@linuxgalaxy.org

For Slackware (What? Are you still using that *other* distro?), follow this build order. Everything needed is included either in the main Slackware tree or on SBo. Note that the SBo buildscripts for libindi-libraries and libindi-drivers are optional. These include the third party drivers not present in the main libindi build. This list is also the recommended build and installation order. If you do not know what drivers you need (!!), install everything.

Dependency

libev
libnova
wcslib
stellarsolver

[optional for third-pary drivers]
gpsd
libdc1394
libftdi1

INDI

libindi
libindi-libraries (optional)
libindi-drivers (optional)

Kstars INDI Client

Kstars in Slackware-15 is a bit too old. Grab the Kstars source from Slackware current or from https://invent.kde.org/education/kstars/-/branches (version 3.6.0 as of this post). On Slackware current, this should be enough to recompile Kstars so that INDI gets incorporated. Example is for Slackware-current downloaded to '/data/ and assuming KDE is installed.