gpsd doesn't work automatically after restarting the system

Solution 1:

In case anyone else has the same problem with their GPS, I'm posting the solution that got my GPS working on my Ubuntu system and on my friend's Ubuntu system,without having to run manual commands after restarting Ubuntu.

I can reboot my system with a GPS plugged in and gpsd just works. I can unplug my GPS and plug in a different GPS (or vice-versa) and the system detects the change and gpsd uses the new GPS.

The fix was to add some entries to the /etc/default/gpsd configuration file. Here are the entries that I added to /etc/default/gpsd:

START_DAEMON="true"

USBAUTO="true"

If your /etc/default/gpsd file has a DEVICES line like the one below, you should change the DEVICES line to an empty string. I.e., if you have something like this: DEVICES="/dev/ttyUSB0" Change it to this: DEVICES=""

Note that you have to edit the /etc/default/gpsd file as root, so start your editor using sudo. Not sure if it was necessary, but after I saved my changes, I rebooted my Ubuntu system.

I hope this info helps other GPS users.