Hi everyone.
I have an EQ6 mount and other devices compatible with INDI, which I usually use with an Astroberry RPi4. However, this post is about connecting them via a laptop with Linux (sometimes I have to use this setup), by using EKOS.
My laptop runs Opensuse Tumbleweed, updated, with kernel 6.2.10, latest version of Kstars and libindi (indiserver says version 2.0.1, Protocol 1.7).
In order to connect my EQ6 mount (old version, black, serial port, handset version 3) and bypass the handset, I have to use a serial-to-usb EQDIR cable with the FTDI R232 chipset. The "ftdi_sio" module (and also modules "usbcore" and "usbserial" as dependencies) is loaded at startup, and the dmesg command correctly recognises plugging in and unplugging of the cable: see screenshot.
Also, the stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 command spits out the following:I'm not an expert of stty, but it seems to me this is quite standard and there should not be any big issue.
Anyway, when I start Ekos and try to connect the mount with the correct EQmod driver, the Indi log at the bottom is stuck on just the first line, saying: “Starting INDI services…” and nothing else happens. Also, looking at the text Log files in “/home/user/.local/share/kstars/logs”, there’s a constant line printed by INDI: [ org.kde.kstars.indi] - Driver "EQMod Mount" failed to start. Retrying in 5 seconds…” and of course after 5 seconds the same warning again.

I also tried to launch the command “sudo service indiserver status” before running ekos, but and it says “no such service indiserver”.
Therefore I think the problem may be that INDI is not started and I cannot start it for some reason.
Any suggestion on this, please?

Thanks in advance
Renzo

Bump up

Any idea? The only suggestion I can find around is about launching "indiserver", but as I wrote I get an error message.

I feel like it should be something pretty easy for an experienced user or developer (like the ones in this forum) to help with, even with just a link to a guide (maybe I'm not reading the right tutorials).

Thanks in advance for your time

if you are using eqmod maybe you haven't installed the eqmod driver (which doesn't come with libindi as it lives in the 3rd party drivers)

If you get messages about launching drivers, indiserver is (most likely) running. If in the profile editor the Mode: is 'Local', EKOS will launch it. Verify this (from a console/terminal) using 'ps aux | grep indiserver'.
So it means it cannot talk to the mount controller.
I don't have an EQ6, only an Vixen GP-DX with EQ3/5 upgrade kit. For that one I either need the synscan driver to go via the hand controller, or an EQDIR cable that connects to the port where usually the hand controller is plugged in.
You mention the mount has a serial port. Are you sure you need the EQDIR and not just a simple USB-to-serial converter?