Install on Windows, macOS or Linux

NMEA Simulator X is distributed free of charge and without commercial code-signing certificates. This keeps the project independent of paid developer programs, but it means Windows and macOS show a warning the first time you start the application. The warning is expected, and this page describes exactly what to click. See ADR 0005 for the reasoning.

Every package contains both the desktop application, NMEA Simulator X, and the command-line tool, nmeasim.

Downloads

Download from the releases page. Replace <version> with the release number, for example 1.0.0.

System	File	Requirements
Windows, installer	NMEASimulatorX-<version>-win64.exe	Windows 10 1809 or later, 64-bit
Windows, no installation	NMEASimulatorX-<version>-win64-portable.zip	Windows 10 1809 or later, 64-bit
macOS, Apple Silicon (M1 and later)	NMEASimulatorX-<version>-macos-arm64.dmg	macOS 13.3 or later
macOS, Intel	NMEASimulatorX-<version>-macos-x86_64.dmg	macOS 13.3 or later
Linux, x86_64	NMEASimulatorX-<version>-x86_64.AppImage	glibc 2.39 or later: Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 13, Fedora 40 or newer
Linux, ARM 64-bit	NMEASimulatorX-<version>-aarch64.AppImage	glibc 2.39 or later, for example Raspberry Pi OS based on Debian 13
Linux, any distribution with Flatpak	NMEASimulatorX-<version>-x86_64.flatpak	Flatpak 1.12 or later
All	SHA256SUMS.txt	Checksums of every file above

Verify what you download

Compare the checksum of the file with its line in SHA256SUMS.txt before you bypass a security prompt, and download only from the releases page.

Windows (PowerShell)macOSLinux

Get-FileHash .\NMEASimulatorX-1.0.0-win64.exe -Algorithm SHA256

shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS.txt --ignore-missing

sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS.txt

Package managers

Manifests for winget, Scoop, a Homebrew tap and Flathub are prepared with every release and are being submitted to those repositories. Until a listing appears there, install from the downloads above; the commands for each package manager are given below for when it does.

WindowsmacOSLinux

Installer

1. Run NMEASimulatorX-<version>-win64.exe.
2. Microsoft Defender SmartScreen shows a blue window titled Windows protected your PC saying that it prevented an unrecognized app from starting. It offers only Don't run. Click More info: the window now shows App: with the file name and Publisher: Unknown publisher, and a second button. Click Run anyway.
3. User Account Control asks Do you want to allow this app from an unknown publisher to make changes to your device? Click Yes.
4. Follow the installer. On the Install Options page, choose Add NMEASimulatorX to the system PATH for all users (or for current user) if you want to use nmeasim in any terminal, and tick Create NMEASimulatorX Desktop Icon if you want one.

The application is added to the Start menu. It is installed in C:\Program Files\NMEA Simulator X, where nmeasim.exe sits next to NMEASimulatorX.exe. When you install a newer version, the installer reports that NMEA Simulator X is already installed and offers to uninstall the old version first; answer Yes. Uninstall from Settings → Apps.

Portable ZIP

1. Right-click NMEASimulatorX-<version>-win64-portable.zip, choose Properties, tick Unblock at the bottom of the General tab and click OK. Without this, Windows marks every extracted file as downloaded and SmartScreen asks again for each one.
2. Extract the ZIP anywhere, for example to a USB stick, and run NMEASimulatorX.exe in the extracted folder. If SmartScreen appears, proceed as for the installer.

The command-line tool is nmeasim.exe in the same folder. Settings are stored in the user's registry, not in the folder.

winget and Scoop

winget install DimitriosKafetzis.NMEASimulatorX   # installer
scoop bucket add extras
scoop install nmeasimulatorx                      # portable, with nmeasim on the PATH

Disk image

1. Choose the image for your Mac: Apple menu → About This Mac shows Chip: Apple M… for macos-arm64 or Processor: … Intel … for macos-x86_64.
2. Open the .dmg and drag NMEASimulatorX onto the Applications folder next to it.
3. Start NMEA Simulator X from Applications. macOS shows a dialog "NMEASimulatorX" Not Opened: Apple could not verify "NMEASimulatorX" is free of malware that may harm your Mac or compromise your privacy. It offers Done and Move to Trash. Click Done.
4. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security and scroll to Security. The message "NMEASimulatorX" was blocked to protect your Mac. has an Open Anyway button next to it. Click it, confirm Open Anyway in the dialog that follows and authenticate with your password or Touch ID.
5. The application starts. From now on it opens normally, until you install a new version, which asks once more.

Why not right-click → Open?

Since macOS 15 the right-click shortcut no longer bypasses Gatekeeper for applications that are not notarised. Open Anyway in System Settings is the supported way. The application is ad-hoc signed, which Apple Silicon requires for it to launch at all, but it is not notarised by Apple.

The command-line tool is inside the application. To use it from a terminal:

sudo ln -s /Applications/NMEASimulatorX.app/Contents/MacOS/nmeasim /usr/local/bin/nmeasim
nmeasim --version

If macOS blocks nmeasim itself the first time, approve it with Open Anyway in the same place, or remove the download quarantine from the whole application once: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/NMEASimulatorX.app.

Homebrew

brew install --cask dimitrios-kafetzis/tap/nmeasimulatorx

The official Homebrew cask repository no longer accepts applications that are not notarised, so the cask lives in the project's own tap. Homebrew installs the same disk image, puts nmeasim on the PATH, and the first start needs the same Open Anyway step.

Flatpak

The Flatpak runs on any distribution and gets its libraries from the KDE runtime on Flathub:

flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install --user NMEASimulatorX-<version>-x86_64.flatpak
flatpak run io.github.dimitrios_kafetzis.NMEASimulatorX
flatpak run --command=nmeasim io.github.dimitrios_kafetzis.NMEASimulatorX --version

Once the application is listed on Flathub, flatpak install flathub io.github.dimitrios_kafetzis.NMEASimulatorX installs it with automatic updates, on x86_64 and ARM.

AppImage

chmod +x NMEASimulatorX-<version>-x86_64.AppImage
./NMEASimulatorX-<version>-x86_64.AppImage

AppImages need FUSE 2; if the file does not start, install it (sudo apt install libfuse2t64 on Ubuntu 24.04, sudo dnf install fuse-libs on Fedora) or run it with --appimage-extract-and-run. The command-line tool is inside:

./NMEASimulatorX-<version>-x86_64.AppImage nmeasim --version
ln -s "$PWD/NMEASimulatorX-<version>-x86_64.AppImage" ~/.local/bin/nmeasim
nmeasim run --stdout --duration 5

A link named nmeasim starts the command-line tool; any other name starts the desktop application. The AppImage needs glibc 2.39 or later; on older distributions use the Flatpak.

Debian and RPM packages are not published, because no distribution ships the Qt version the application needs (ADR 0016).

Serial ports

Serial port access requires membership of the dialout group on Debian-based systems (uucp on Arch):

sudo usermod -aG dialout "$USER"

Log out and in again for the group change to take effect.

Check the installation

nmeasim --version

prints NMEASimulatorX and the version, for example NMEASimulatorX 1.0.0. Help → About in the desktop application shows the same. Continue with Your first simulated voyage.