GPSBabel Frequently Asked Questions

When will GPSBabel support my favorite thingy?
As soon as programmer with the skill, resources, and time implements it.

GPSBabel isn't developed by a company; it's done by volunteers. Much of the development is done by people solving their own problems. Sometimes, if you ask nicely, and your request is reasonably sized, developers will implement things for you.

I told it to name my file "foo" and it had the nerve to name my file "foo" instead of "foo.something". What's up with that?
The names you give GPSBabel are exactly what it uses. It doesn't try to "guess" anything from the file name. (As perspective, we support about 5 different types of file traditionally named ".wpt" and about as many named ".pdb". Rather than guess, we let you name things exactly as you want them.
I have a serial Garmin with a USB serial adapter and am getting errors involving "SetupDiEnumDeviceInterfaces" in Windows or "Found no Garmin USB devices."
The "usb" option should only be used if you really have a Garmin unit that speaks USB such as a 60C, 76C, VistaC, or a Quest. If you have a unit that doesn't really have USB (Like a III, a V, or an ETrex) and are using a USB/serial adapter, you should choose the appropriate serial option that corresponds with whatever device your adapter is providing.
Why is GPSBabel a DOS program?
It isn't. GPSBabel for Windows is a Windows command line program, sometimes known as a "console mode" program. It requires Windows, it uses Windows API, and it doesn't rely on memory extenders to get around the 640K memory limit of DOS.
What's the worst way to get help with a problem?
There may be worse ways than this, but it's a start.
  • Vaguely describe a problem you're having some place other than the GPSBabel-misc mailing list
  • don't list the operating system in use
  • don't list the versions of anything involved
  • don't offer a test case.
  • Be evasive when asked about the precise steps to reproduce the problem.
How do you spell that again?
The preferred spelling of the name is "GPSBabel" with four capital letters. Though some references to its namesake ("Tower of..." or "...fish" allow the last two letters to be interchanged, we prefer "el". Consistent use of this spelling helps searchers, both web-based and human.

GPSBabel Not-So Frequently Asked Questions

There are a handful of questions that come up more than once but not really enough to be considered "frequent". I'll put them here in the hopes that folks actually look...

GPSBabel OS issues

When I run GPSBabel.exe, I get an error 'procedure entry point SetupDiEnumDeviceInterfaces couldnot be located in the dynamic link library setupapi.dll'
When we added support for Garmin USB devices, we needed support from the underlying OS to do it. Windows NT3 (and presumably Windows 95) don't have this support and will return the above error. Either use an older version of GPSBabel or send bribes to the GPSBabel developers to get a "usb-free" build.

GPSBabel Licensing Issues

I want GPSBabel to be library, so I can use it my the program I'm developing. Why can't I do that?
The license chosen by GPSBabel allows you to do that if your program is GPL and you distribute the source. It expressly prohibits linking with other programs that are not GPL except via the standard command line interface.