Tag Archives: Java

Legacy BTS Site manager on Linux

EUTRAN, LTE, Mobile Networks, Notes, Software, , , , ,

Another post in the “vendors thought Java would last forever but the web would just a fad” series, this one on getting Nokia BTS Site Manager (which is used to administer the pre-Airscale Nokia base stations) running on a modern Linux distro.

For starters we get the installers (you’ll need to get these from Nokia), and install openjdk-8-jre using whichever package manager your distro supports.

Once that’s installed, then extract the installer folder (Like BTS Site Manager FL18_BTSSM_0000_000434_000000-20250323T000206Z-001.zip).

Inside the extracted folder we’ve got a path like:

BTS Site Manager FL18_BTSSM_0000_000434_000000-20250323T000206Z-001/BTS Site Manager FL18_BTSSM_0000_000434_000000/C_Element/SE_UICA/Setup

The Setup folder contains a bunch of binaries.

We make these executable:

chmod +x BTSSiteEM-FL18-0000_000434_000000*

Then run the binary:

sudo ./BTSSiteEM-FL18-0000_000434_000000_x64.bin

By default it installs to /opt/Nokia/Managers/BTS\ Site/BTS\ Site\ Manager

And we’re done. Your OS may or may not have built a link to the app in your “start menu” / launcher.

You can use one BTS manager to manage several different versions of software, but you need the definitions for those software loaded.

If you want to load the Releases for other versions (Like other FLF or FL releases) the simplest way is just to install the BTS site manager for those versions and just use the latest, then you’ll get the table of installed versions in the “About” section that you can administer.

Installing Calix CMS Java tool on Ubuntu in 2025

Notes, Software,

Ah, another post in my “how to make software work that was made with Java in the 1990s” post, except Calix last updated this software in 2022 – make of that what you will…

This time is Calix Management System (CMS), the Java app for managing equipment in exchanges / COs from Calix.

On Ubuntu 24.04 LTS it requires JRE version 8:

sudo apt install openjdk-8-jre
sudo apt install execstack

With that installed I could install CMS

/install.bin LAX_VM /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/bin/java

Then it came time to run it, I chose to install in my home directory in a folder named “Calix” (default).

First you’ve got to make their startup script executable:

~/Calix$ chmod +x Start\ CMS

Then we need to modify it to point to the openjdk Java 8 binary, the simplest way is to just add the LAX_VM on startup:

~/Calix$ ./Start\ CMS LAX_VM /usr/lib/jvm/java-8-openjdk-amd64/bin/java

And you’re in.