Install How-To

Installing GpsActionReplay can be done on any system. However, it requires a Java Virtual Machine to be installed previously.

Indeed, rather than being platform dependant, a Java program is dedicated to a more general machine, a "Java Virtual Machine". Any system provided with this virtual machine behaves exactly the same way as other systems as far as Java programs are concerned. It's the reason why the same GpsActionReplay program runs on every platform.

It is a 3 steps installation which will be fast if you've got an ADSL (or so) connection

1. Install Java

You need to install a JRE (Java Runtime Environement) from the java.sun.com site.

If you use Windows, the best is to use the automated process on http://www.java.com/en/download/windows_automatic.jsp

Otherwise, here are the tips for a manual installation: Go to java.sun.com site and download the Java that fits your system. To complete the Java installation, you may have to add to your "path" environement variable the path to the bin directory of your Java installation. Concretely, assume you installed Java in C:\j2sdk1.4.0\. Go to Start then Setting Panel, then System then advanced then environment variables then select PATH, and add to it, at its end, ;C:\j2sdk1.4.0\bin (don't forget '\bin', which is the directory in which are located the Java bin programs). In order to verify Java is fully installed, just try to type "java" (in a shell, in an MS-DOS like box), and look if your system recognize it or not (if so, it should say to you how to use this command, else it should say java isn't a valid command name. in this latter case, please check your path, it must be wrong).

2. Upgrade Java to enable serial port communications

Nota: if you don't want to use the direct download from GPS, you can skip this point 2. GPSAR should launch anyway, but won't provide downlaod as long as this library isn't installed.

Since GpsAR 2.3, direct download tracks from Garmin GPS is provided. However, your Java Virtual Machine must be prepared to that, by adding the COMM library.

For Linux and Mac users, please refer to rxtx.org on the web to see how to install "rxtx" and "comm" libraries.

For Windows users, here is how to do:

A- Install comm.jar:

B- win32com.dll:

C- Setting the porperties:

A+B+C Automatic procedure:

~Erwin~ provides a program here:
gps_install.exe that should do it all for you... Haven't tried it myself since it's already installed on my machines, but feedback from users seems to be good!

3. Install GpsActionReplay

• Download the latest release of GpsActionReplay from www.gpsactionreplay.com. You get a zipped file whose name looks like "distributionGPSAR30.zip" depending on the release available at the time you download it.
• Unzip it. With windows, you may use WinZip or any other relevant software. With linux, use the unzip command.
• Once unzipped, you get a distributionGPSAR folder, that contains some files and sub-folders. To run GpsAR, double-click on gpsar.jar. If this doesn't work, don't worry, it means your system isn't configured to automatically launch jar software. You can type java -jar gpsar.jar in a Linux shell or, with windows, in the kind of MS-DOS ugly box. Warning : you must be in the right directory before you type this command. More simple, you can double-click the gpsar.bat file with windows.
• You may want to create a shortcut to GpsAR so that you can launch it from the desk or even from the Task bar. It's very useful to prevent from ever being to look after the right folder each time you want to use it.
  BUT be carefull: you have to really make a shortcut and move this shortcut to the desk, not to copy the file to the desk. Indeed, if you copy the file, you will experience problems when running it: it won't find it's necessary files (except if you copy them on the desk, but don't do this !), in particular the maps... But if you make a shortcut, the gpsar.jar is still located in it's original place, in the distributionGPSAR directory, and will be able to find such resources as the maps (in the cartes directory).
  Concretely, here is the way to do:
  • Put the distributionGPSAR directory (and all that comes with...) wherever you want (for example in C:\).
  • Right-click on gpsar.jar and choose "make a shortcut".
  • Move this shortcut (cut-paste) on your desk, or even in the TaskBar.

Problems, Questions?

Check our dedicated forum here: www.gpsactionreplay.com/forum to look for an answer, or to post your question.