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gpsd-tools

cgps and gpsmon — the two programs you actually reach for when a receiver misbehaves

  • Version recorded: 3.25
  • Categories: gps-gnss
  • Upstream: https://gpsd.io/
  • Needs first: gpsd

What it does

Three terminal programs: cgps, a live fix and satellite display; gpsmon, which shows the raw sentences the receiver is sending; and gpssnmp, which exposes fix and satellite data as SNMP OIDs so an ordinary network monitoring system can watch a receiver.

Why you would want it

The first question about a misbehaving receiver is always whether it has a fix at all, and cgps answers it in one command with no X server and no scripting. gpsmon answers the second question — whether the receiver is saying anything — which matters because a receiver with a dead antenna and a receiver on the wrong baud rate look identical from any higher level.

Before it will work

gpsd running. This is a separate package from gpsd-clients on Debian, which is worth knowing before spending an evening wondering where cgps went.

How it installs

  • apt: gpsd-tools

Known problems

gpsmon can switch a receiver between NMEA and binary mode — its own manual documents the mode-toggling commands and warns about switching dual-protocol units (gpsmon(1), gpsd 3.25, Debian 13) — so run one tool at a time rather than gpsmon and cgps against the same device.

Keeping it current

  • probe: apt policy
  • strategy: apt_upgrade

Source: catalog/packages/gpsd-tools.yaml