Introduction

This is a brief guide on how to install CHIRP on Linux Mint 21.x / 22.x. Since CHIRP’s linux app is a python app it is a bit unusual in practice and when following the current instructions results in errors so in short this is what worked for me the last time I tried to install CHIRP.

Installation with Errors

1. Start by visiting the CHIRP Downloads page

2. For Linux Mint 21.x - 22.x the correct variant of CHIRP is CHIRP-next, find the download link on the above-mentioned downloads page.

3. For Linux the file to download is named chirp-YYYYMMDD-py3-none-any.whl you may need to right-click and select “Save link as…” option to start the file download otherwise the browser may load the binary file in the browser window if you click the link as named, if you see a page of strange text PK����uI,[\Y½"��� ������chirp/__init__.pysöð, this is what happened hit the back button in your browser and try the link again with right click option as mentioned above.

4. While here also click the SHA1SUM link by clicking on the link. When the .whl finishes download run the following command and make sure that the hash output of the downloaded .whl file matches the hash listed next to the .whl file in the SHA1SUM file.

   

sha1sum chirp-YYYYMMDD-py3-none-any.whl

5. Since we are trying to install for Linux find the details here link back on the CHRIP Downloads Page

6. For Linux Mint run something like the following as the above link indicates

sudo apt install python3-wxgtk4.0 pipx

7. Install CHIRP from the latest .whl file that was downloaded above

pipx install --system-site-packages ./chirp-YYYYMMDD-py3-none-any.whl

8. At this point I got an error something about “yattag package may not be installable in pipx” after taking a look at the Troubleshooting I was able to find the command to fix my issue and that was the command as follows:

sudo  apt-get install python3-yattag

9. Then I re-ran the following successfully.

pipx install --system-site-packages ./chirp-YYYYMMDD-py3-none-any.whl

10. Finally, I was able to run CHIRP.

chirp

11. When CHIRP first opens pay attention to the dialog that pops up and if you want to click the option in the dialog to allow CHIRP to create the program shortcut. This will allow CHIRP to have a launcher icon that you can search for or click on to be able to start CHIRP without using the terminal command chirp everytime.

Conclusion

CHIRP was not too difficult to install, but its linux program is a python app, and it did require some more work than most typical linux apps. This did take more debugging and reading all the fine print to get it all sorted and successfully installed than the usual Linux app does. Hopefully these Notes will be helpful to get you through it faster than it was for me.