Hello Robert,

I have the D72A connected to a RPi 4 via USB and have setup two interfaces in 
Xastir,

One for read-only: where the D72A runs in normal APRS12 mode and one for 
read-write
where the D72A runs in KISS mode (packet12)

Ok.. and I assume you understand you can only use one interface at a time right?


The interface type is "Serial TNC w/GPS on AUX port /dev/ttyUSB0"

This Xastir setting would probably be the correct one to use when the D72 TNC is in "APRS12" mode


When I start the interface, the link status on the Interface Control 
page/window will go to UP, then
something happens (a timeout or ??) and it goes to ERROR.

So this "ERROR" output shows on Xastir (please confirm that). That said, try doing a few things:

1. Try running a serial terminal program connecting to /dev/ttyUSB0 . Once connected and running at the matching serial port speed on your D72 (probably 9600/n/8/1), next make sure the D72 has APRS --> COM port: Output: ON. Once that's enabled, cycle the D72's TNC from PACKET12 to APRS12 and see if you start seeing incoming text. This NEEDS to work so don't go past this until you get things sorted. Once sorted, exit the terminal program.

   2. Back in Xastir, try
2.a. Enabling File --> TNC Logging and then then see what the resulting log file shows
      2.b. Try viewing the incoming TNC data via View --> Incoming data




I can't find any log message that will tell me why the interface status changed.

The Xastir logs go in $HOME/.xastir/logs


I've been using startup/stop scripts that I found out on the 'net for the d72a

Are you using scripts that put the D72 into KISS mode? If so, then the correct Xastir interface type should be "Serial KISS TNC" and not the others.


and been playing around
to try to understand all the commands to the d72a, but point is when the the 
link status is UP
everything seems to work, I see incoming data fine and likely could send out 
messages as well (though
the link errors out so quickly I've not really tried, it seems irrelevant to 
tracing down whatever is causing
the link status to go to ERROR)

What kind of USB to serial cable do you have? Is it NEW or have you had it for a while? I ask because there are an absolute TON of terrible Prolific knockoff cables out there. While many of them seem to work with Linux, Microsoft has outright banned the their driver to support them. I mention all this as these knockoff chips are also known to have short lives. Maybe yours is on it's way out. Do you have another cable you can try?


Just not sure how to trace the ERROR, nor what settings might affect this.

You might try running Xastir from a terminal window and see if any errors are shown from the STDOUT. You also might want to look at the end of dmesg to see if there are serial driver issues being reported too.

--David
KI6ZHD
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