{"id":6403,"date":"2025-06-20T13:08:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-20T18:08:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/?p=6403"},"modified":"2025-06-21T21:51:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-22T02:51:37","slug":"upgrading-a-baofeng-5rh-pro-radio-firmware-on-linux-ubuntu-24-04","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/20\/upgrading-a-baofeng-5rh-pro-radio-firmware-on-linux-ubuntu-24-04\/","title":{"rendered":"Upgrading a Baofeng 5RH-Pro radio firmware on Linux (Ubuntu 24.04)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/ecwi2hbsEnQ?si=KXpsLyIASxhNNiEV\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I bought a <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/45xOKDr\">Baofeng 5RH-Pro radio<\/a> which claims GPS and APRS broadcasting features built in so that I could test my other radio and computer APRS setup inexpensively.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, it arrived with firmware 2.0.2, but to get (somewhat) working APRS beaconing you need to upgrade it to firmware 2.0.9.\u00a0 \u00a0Getting software for the Baofeng radios is a fraught experiance. There isn&#8217;t a &#8220;main website&#8221; to download it from, you are supposed to go through individual dealers, and the amazon seller provides a personal username \/ password to download software from a 3rd party website that isn&#8217;t sketchy at all&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sketchy-software-directions.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6404\" src=\"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sketchy-software-directions.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"324\" height=\"191\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sketchy-software-directions.png 324w, https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/sketchy-software-directions-300x177.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 324px) 100vw, 324px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\nPlus, I&#8217;m not even 100% sure that the CPS programming software (which typically is used to set up the saved channels and settings without having to type everything into the radio directly) can also upgrade the firmware. [Plus, at least one vendor on VirusTotal flagged it as having malware.]<\/p>\n<p>[I really anti-recommend the 5RH-Pro as the out of the box experiance is abismal, unless you need a very inexpensive radio that (with a lot of work) can be made to beacon APRS packets with positions from the built in GPS reeiver.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/44bFcvB\">Buy the K6 instead<\/a> if you don&#8217;t need GPS\/APRS, as you can program it using CHIRP on linux without jumping through any hoops and the default firmware on it worked great for me..]<\/p>\n<p>Anyways, before putting in the effort of setting up a virtual box with a windows install just to run this questionable CPS software, which may or may not actually upgrade the firmware, I asked the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/808920029174333\">Baofeng User Group (on Facebook) <\/a>and eventually found a file\u00a0 (<span class=\"x6s0dn4 x78zum5 x1a4bs9z x1iyjqo2 xs83m0k x1xegmmw xeuugli\"><a class=\"x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x1ejq31n x18oe1m7 x1sy0etr xstzfhl x972fbf x10w94by x1qhh985 x14e42zd x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x14z9mp xat24cr x1lziwak xexx8yu xyri2b x18d9i69 x1c1uobl x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz x1heor9g xkrqix3 x1sur9pj x1s688f\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/808920029174333\/permalink\/10065199056879671\/\"><span class=\"x193iq5w xeuugli x13faqbe x1vvkbs x10flsy6 x1lliihq x1s928wv xhkezso x1gmr53x x1cpjm7i x1fgarty x1943h6x x4zkp8e x41vudc x6prxxf xvq8zen x1s688f xzsf02u x1yc453h\" dir=\"auto\"><span class=\"x1lliihq x6ikm8r x10wlt62 x1n2onr6 xlyipyv xuxw1ft\">5RH_engtool_fw_v2.7z) <\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span>uploaded by &#8220;Larry Ficken&#8221; which worked for me.<\/p>\n<p>This 7zip archive\u00a0 contains a &#8220;radio.exe&#8221; (which does NOT flag in Virus Total, so that&#8217;s one point less of sketchyness when compared to the vendor suggested files&#8230;although you are still running an exe you downloaded from a random dude on FB, so there is that&#8230;.)\u00a0 and a firmware file &#8220;BF_5RH_501_v2_0_9.dat&#8221; which successfully upgraded my radio to 2.0.9 where the APRS positioning beacon system (mostly) works.<\/p>\n<p>Now, it&#8217;s still a windows EXE file, but I was able to run it successfully under Ubuntu Linux 24.04 using WINE and MONO.\u00a0 To do this I had to:<\/p>\n<p>Linux: Installed wine &amp; mono<br \/>\nDownload wine-mono.msi from the official WineHQ site (matching the version of Mono I had on my Linux setup)<br \/>\nrun &#8216;wine uninstaller&#8217; from the command line (choose\/install the wine-mono.msi file)<\/p>\n<p>Check that my \/dev\/ttyUSB0 (USB serial port for my K1 programming cable) was linked to COM4 in ~\/.wine\/dosdevices<\/p>\n<p>Run &#8216;wine regedit&#8221; at the command line and confirm that COM4 was set up correctly in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Wine\\Port<\/p>\n<p>(On mine, it was listed as &#8220;COM4:&#8221; so I removed the &#8220;:&#8221; from the end and that made things work.)<\/p>\n<p>Finally, I was able to type &#8220;wine radio.exe&#8221; at the command line and the very simplistic firmware updater tool loaded and successfully ran:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/radio.exe-screenshot.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-6405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/radio.exe-screenshot.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"661\" height=\"249\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/radio.exe-screenshot.png 661w, https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/radio.exe-screenshot-300x113.png 300w, https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/radio.exe-screenshot-500x188.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 661px) 100vw, 661px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This successfully upgraded my radio&#8217;s firmware.\u00a0 [It may also be possible to use wine to run the CPS programming software under Linux&#8230;.but I haven&#8217;t tried that, because CHIRP works great with my K6 radio, and I really recommend you buy radios that CHIRP supports, especially if you are running Linux as your main OS.]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I bought a Baofeng 5RH-Pro radio which claims GPS and APRS broadcasting features built in so that I could test my other radio and computer APRS setup inexpensively. Unfortunately, it arrived with firmware 2.0.2, but to get (somewhat) working APRS &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/20\/upgrading-a-baofeng-5rh-pro-radio-firmware-on-linux-ubuntu-24-04\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[161,160,162],"class_list":["post-6403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-5rh-pro","tag-baofeng","tag-ham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6403"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6411,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6403\/revisions\/6411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.summet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}