[WT-support] Icom IC-9700 under Linux/Wine

[Bob Wilson, N6TV]

Thanks for the video.  Is SAT MODE off?  Commands to obtain VFO B frequency
don't work if SAT mode is ON.  I can't see VFO B in the video to determine
if the VFO B reading is accurate or not.  Win-Test has to poll the radio to
get the VFO B frequency, even when CI-V Transceive is ON.  Those periodic
polls could hang things if Win-Test gets no response, and the request times
out.

Since it's WINE, not Windows, all the communication has to be emulated, and
there could be buffering bottlenecks.  I have never used WINE so I don't
know much about its limitations.

This AI-generated summary provides some suggestions such as sudo commands
which may help.

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/using-wine-under-linux-serial-6OWs5_PPQ6Sei4IHbUO7hw

Does the Linux "TOP" command or Windows Task Manager show CPU spiking to
100% when it hangs?  Is there an equivalent of Windows PowerCFG.CPL command
you can run to select "High Performance" mode under "Advanced Settings",
instead of the "Balanced" mode, the Windows default?  In High Performance
mode you can set USB Suspend to OFF, and minimum CPU speed to 100%, but
that may not apply under WINE.

If none of those suggestions help, I think the only alternative is to try
using OmniRig with polling instead of the native CI-V support.  Note that
this works best with CI-V Transceive OFF (which it sets automatically via
commands in IC-9700.INI).  There are also other variants like
IC-9700-DATA.INI for FT8 operation and IC-9700-SAT.ini to enable satellite
mode operation.  The Win-Test response will be much more sluggish as you
rotate the knob, and you can't key CW and SSB over the OmniRig COM port,
but you can use the second COM port for keying and OmniRig for rig control.

73,
Bob, N6TV


On Wed, Mar 18, 2026 at 3:07 AM Ralf Schueler <dl4mw at schueler.ws> wrote:

> Thanks Bob, you are a really huge source of knowledge.
>
> I followed the hints, but the main problem stays. But with the CI-V
> settings the control comes back in shorter time and doesn't seem to go
> forever, like it can be without the CI-V settings.
>
> I made a video for demonstrating the behavior
>
> https://cloud.dl4mw.de/s/kjQtdraC4MZkXMg
>
> Jens is indeed also a member of our group ;-) but runs a different QTH
> with a bit different equipment.
>
> This special issue I'm targeting now is special for running Win-Test under
> Linux. With windows, it's OK.
>
> Like Jens said, there are also issues under Windows, but I will not mix
> them here. We have their problems with switching the bands. Very often
> after changing the band in Win-Test the transceiver changes the band for
> half a second than jumping back (also in Win-Test). It seems that a pending
> frequency read from the transceiver changes it back. But this is hard to
> reproduce, perhaps it only occurs with transverter bands, perhaps the PC
> speed is a factor. But, this is under investigation, has no connection to
> the Linux problem  and should not be part of this discussion.
>
> 73 Ralf
>
>
>
> Am 17.03.26 um 22:19 schrieb Jens Wagner:
>
> Hi Bob,
>
> we do not use Omnirig. We are using the native Win-Test implementation.
> And in addition to Ralf I must consider that the problem occures on Windows
> too.
>
> The problem seems to belong to the CAT handling in the 9700. As we are
> using the 705 these problems seems to be absent.
>
> 73s Jens/DH1AKY
>
> Bob Wilson, N6TV <n6tv at arrl.net> schrieb am Di., 17. März 2026, 18:22:
>
>> Icom rigs work best (under Windows) with CI-V Transceive ON (in the Icom
>> menu), CI-V box in Win-Test enabled, POLLING DISABLED.
>>
>> Note that if you use any program that uses OmniRg for rig control, such
>> as Log4OM, it changes the Icom menu to CI-V Transceive OFF as soon as it
>> connects, and it doesn't change it back.
>>
>> 73,
>> Bob, N6TV
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 17, 2026, 9:09 AM Ralf Schüler <dl4mw at schueler.ws> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> some PCs in our contest group use Linux and run Win-Test. It's not
>>> native but works fine so far.
>>>
>>> But one of the major problems is the CAT interface to the IC-9700
>>> transceiver. While CW and PTT work fine all the time without
>>> interruptions, the frequency reading from the transceiver as well as the
>>> possibility to set a new VFO frequency or band is interrupted frequently
>>> for about 10 -20 s.
>>>
>>> It seems to be a timing issue with polling the transceiver.  And, it is
>>> independent if CI-V is checked in the interface dialog or not.
>>>
>>> We understand that it is hard to integrate and test every RIG and
>>> especially under such exotic conditions like Linux.
>>>
>>> But would it be possible to get access to the source code that we can
>>> try to fix it by our self.
>>>
>>> vy 73
>>>
>>> Ralf, DL4MW
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> support mailing list
>>> support at win-test.com
>>> https://lists.win-test.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/support
>>>
>> --
>> support mailing list
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>>
>
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