LTspice and Linux

[orbanp]

Hello Everyone,

I moved over to Linux and installed LTspiceXVII. It works more or less.

Not working fully is the transistor selection, there is no menu bar in the selection window, the entries can not be sorted.

Not working is the displaying of power dissipation curves in the Waveform Viewer. When pressing the "alt" key over a component in the schematics window the thermometer appears but no curve is displayed in the Waveform Viewer window.

In the help section only the "Contents" tab is displayed, the tabs for the topics and search (or whatever they are called) are missing.

There probably are other things that does not fully work, this is just after some brief use/testing.

Linux is Ubuntu 18.04 with KDE Plasma 5.12.9 front-end (Kubuntu).LTspice is the latest build, 64-bit version.The LTspice Wine environment is set up with the help of PlayOnLinux (v. 4.3.4).LTspice has its own prefix, or virtual drive, and Wine version is 4.21.The Ltspice user group on groups.io mentions that LTspice has been tested under wine for some time, but they do not give any specifics.It would be nice if LTspice worked as under Windows.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks, Peter

[Zero999]

Hello Everyone,

I moved over to Linux and installed LTspiceXVII. It works more or less.

Yes, it mostly works. Fortunately, there are workarounds for most issues.

Not working fully is the transistor selection, there is no menu bar in the selection window, the entries can not be sorted.

Try resizing the window.

Not working is the displaying of power dissipation curves in the Waveform Viewer. When pressing the "alt" key over a component in the schematics window the thermometer appears but no curve is displayed in the Waveform Viewer window.

Use both Alt keys, or Windows key+left Alt.

In the help section only the "Contents" tab is displayed, the tabs for the topics and search (or whatever they are called) are missing.

I believe that feature isn't implemented by WINE's Windows help file viewer. You might be able to download a copy of Windows help from somewhere, but I've never bothered. I normally Google most things, rather than using the help file.

There probably are other things that does not fully work, this is just after some brief use/testing.

Linux is Ubuntu 18.04 with KDE Plasma 5.12.9 front-end (Kubuntu).LTspice is the latest build, 64-bit version.The LTspice Wine environment is set up with the help of PlayOnLinux (v. 4.3.4).LTspice has its own prefix, or virtual drive, and Wine version is 4.21.The Ltspice user group on groups.io mentions that LTspice has been tested under wine for some time, but they do not give any specifics.It would be nice if LTspice worked as under Windows.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks, Peter

Interestingly, despite these issues, I've found LTSpice crashes less often, under WINE, than Windows 10.

[orbanp]

Many thanks for the tips!

Resizing the window and using both "Windows" and "Alt" key works!

I am trying to avoid W10. I moved to Linux from WXP, it is now a dual-boot system.Interestingly LTspice is not much faster (actually very little) despite that LTspiceXVII, Linux, and Wine makes use of the other CPU cores as well. I used LTspice IV on WXP and never had any problem with crashing.

Thanks again for the help!

Regards, Peter

[magic]

You may try version IV, it's still available.

[Zero999]

I doubt there will be a significant speed difference between using LTSpice under WINE vs Windows. Some things will be slower, others faster.

Regarding the help file: I've Googled and there are other non-Windows viewers for .CHM files, which are probably better than WINE's built-in viewer.

The older IV version had similar issues, which are due to WINE, rather than LTSpice.

[ve7xen]

Holding Alt while dragging in most Linux DEs is a shortcut to move the window under the cursor, and therefore doesn't get passed to the application. This is a common issue when running non-native apps / frameworks. You might want to investigate removing this shortcut if you frequently run non-native apps.

[magic]

For the record, I have zero problems with LTspice IV except for the ALT issue mentioned above.

Simulation itself should run at similar speed because it's all compiled to native code and memory allocations are done in advance. Any difference would be down to CPU load from other processes, scheduling, etc.

[orbanp]

Thanks for all the comments!

One more question. Copying from one schematics to another does not work either in the Linux environment.
Any workaround to overcome this?

Thanks, Peter

[Zero999]

Thanks for all the comments!

One more question. Copying from one schematics to another does not work either in the Linux environment.
Any workaround to overcome this?

Thanks, Peter

It works for me.

Does it work in Windows?

The only thing I can think of is you're doing it wrong, by attempting to copy and paste, like in most Windows programs, but that won't work in LTSpice, irrespective of whether it's running under Windows or Linux.

Try this. Open both schematics: the one you want to copy from, the source, and the one you want to copy to, the destination. Click Window, tile horizontally/vertically, to get both schematics on the screen, select the source, click on the copy button on the toolbar and select the part for the schematic you want to copy. Select the destination schematic, the parts from the source will appear and will follow the mouse. More the parts to the correct place and left click to place them, or right click to abort.

[orbanp]

Hi Zero,

Thanks for the help!
I have been using Ltspice under Windows for more than 15 years or so... Copying between schematics has been working ever since they have fixed that feature up.
Now as you suggest, if the schematics windows are tiled next to each-other (I tried it vertically), the copying works. If the schematics windows are are full size and you switch between them by clicking on their tabs, the copying does not work.
Most interesting (or frustrating)!
Regards, Peter

[StillTrying]

If the schematics windows are are full size and you switch between them by clicking on their tabs, the copying does not work.

Do you mean the maximized copying doesn't work in Linux, copying between maximized schems seems to work in Windoze.
But you do only get 1 chance at clicking the new tab, if you click on a second tab the copy stuck to the mouse just vanishes.

[Ed.Kloonk]

I run, very occasionally, LT spice in a very locked-down VM. That means a version of LT spice setup and running under wine in a linux VM, on a Linux host.

Only use it for very basic stuff and basic theory if I'm not near my actual bench or the bench has too much going on already, if you know what I mean.

I learned a long time ago, whilst Wine is very good, you need to contain it in a VM once you get it how you want it for every win software package. *buntu and variants will mess with your system, and your head if you're not careful, if you fall for the stupid rolling (read: unnecessary updates).

So yeah, sandbox the shit out of it. Set it up in a VM and snapshot it. Buy the extra computer memory if you have to. But don't run win exe's on wine on ubuntu on bare metal because their policy regarding wine is all over the place. Build yourself your own walled garden.

HTH.

[Ed.Kloonk]

As an aside, I should convey some gratitude to our Dear Leader, Dave who some years back did a EEVblog episode on LT spice. Up until that point I was using a old version of the real McCoy spice from the '90s that cost thousands and had a parallel port dongle which I had to nurse into the 2000's. When Dave dropped that video on LT Spice, it was like a huge weight was lifted.

[Zero999]

Hi Zero,

Thanks for the help!
I have been using Ltspice under Windows for more than 15 years or so... Copying between schematics has been working ever since they have fixed that feature up.
Now as you suggest, if the schematics windows are tiled next to each-other (I tried it vertically), the copying works. If the schematics windows are are full size and you switch between them by clicking on their tabs, the copying does not work.
Most interesting (or frustrating)!
Regards, Peter

I've never tried to copy between maximised windows before. Ctr-tab works, to copy between schematics, but is only useful if the destination schematic is on the next tab. It won't work if you flick between more than two schematics.

Another problem people have with LTSpice under WINE is Ctrl+M to start a new line on the edit text/SPICE directive doesn't work. The solution is to use Ctrl-Enter instead.

[orbanp]

Hello Everyone,
Thanks for the help, LTspice under Linux is getting better with the above tricks.
 On area that is really awkward, is the file selection, the opening of files.LTspice seems to remember the last directory, however it does not display it.Going up or going back in the directory tree does not seem to be working either, I have to start from the root again to find the right directory.Is there a trick to this?Under Wine the other Windows programs seem to have the same problems with file selection...
Thanks, Peter

[Zero999]

Hello Everyone,
Thanks for the help, LTspice under Linux is getting better with the above tricks.
 On area that is really awkward, is the file selection, the opening of files.LTspice seems to remember the last directory, however it does not display it.Going up or going back in the directory tree does not seem to be working either, I have to start from the root again to find the right directory.Is there a trick to this?Under Wine the other Windows programs seem to have the same problems with file selection...
Thanks, Peter

Sorry, I don't know what you're talking about. LTSpice displays directories fine for me. Please be more specific and post some screen shots, showing the problem.

[orbanp]

Hi Zero,

This is how the file selection looks for me.As mentioned, the green arrows do not do anything, I have to start from the root.
Very annoying.
Thanks, Peter

[magic]

That's not normal and it has to be a bug in the version of wine supplied by your distribution if it happens in all applications.

[julian1]

The dialog box to add a block text/comment gives the hint,

Type ctrl-M to start a new line.

But it doesn't seem to work under wine. (Hitting return just closes the dialog).

Has anyone encountered this or know a workaround?

[magic]

For whatever reason ctrl-M doesn't work, but ctrl-enter does.