While attempting to program a new Leixen VV-898 I kept on getting the error. No debug.log was ever recorded, but it seems to have dumped to STDOUT.

chirpw¶

(process:17763): Gtk-WARNING **: Locale not supported by C library.
Using the fallback 'C' locale.
ERROR: -- Exception: --
ERROR: Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/chirp/ui/clone.py", line 249, in run
self.__radio.sync_in()
File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/chirp/drivers/leixen.py", line 430, in sync_in
raise errors.RadioError("Failed to download from radio: %s" % e)
RadioError: Failed to download from radio: Radio refused program mode

ERROR: ----------------
ERROR: Clone failed: Failed to download from radio: Radio refused program mode
ERROR: --- Exception Dialog: Failed to download from radio: Radio refused program mode ---
ERROR: None

ERROR: ----------------------------

Program & System information:

root@Agis:~/.chirp# chirpw --version
CHIRP daily-20170311 on Linux - Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS (Python 2.7.12)
root@Agis:~/.chirp# uname -a
Linux Agis 4.4.0-66-generic #87-Ubuntu SMP Fri Mar 3 15:29:05 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
root@Agis:~/.chirp#

As seen, I have run this as root and also as a mere mortal account which belongs to the dialout group, and also ran it as a sudo command.

ttyUSB0 is the device:

root@Agis:~/.chirp# ls -al /dev/ttyUSB0
crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 0 Mar 11 19:42 /dev/ttyUSB0

Device information (output from dmesg):
[72072.580771] usb 1-5.2: new full-speed USB device number 16 using xhci_hcd
[72072.686664] usb 1-5.2: New USB device found, idVendor=067b, idProduct=2303
[72072.686677] usb 1-5.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
[72072.686683] usb 1-5.2: Product: USB-Serial Controller
[72072.686688] usb 1-5.2: Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc.
[72072.688251] pl2303 1-5.2:1.0: pl2303 converter detected
[72072.690313] usb 1-5.2: pl2303 converter now attached to ttyUSB0

This is the cable that came with the radio, ordered from Amazon.

Radio info:
Leixen VV-898 10W
Mobile Transceiver DC:13.8V
S/N: 160812G2345

Version: V1.05

Troubleshooting steps attempted:
Upgrading to latest (today) chirp
Set volume at MAX and on quiet frequency
Even tried the FTDI Cable I use for my other rig that has an RJ-45 connection
Attempted as normal user, and as sudo, and as root itself, same error
Verified permissions

Radio never says: "waiting" as reported by other users.

Though it probably doesn't matter, here is the information on the CPU itself and the processor flags:
davebb@Agis:~$ lscpu
Architecture: x86_64
CPU op-mode(s): 32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order: Little Endian
CPU(s): 4
On-line CPU(s) list: 0-3
Thread(s) per core: 1
Core(s) per socket: 4
Socket(s): 1
NUMA node(s): 1
Vendor ID: GenuineIntel
CPU family: 6
Model: 76
Model name: Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU N3700 @ 1.60GHz
Stepping: 3
CPU MHz: 1160.750
CPU max MHz: 2400.0000
CPU min MHz: 480.0000
BogoMIPS: 3198.38
Virtualization: VT-x
L1d cache: 24K
L1i cache: 32K
L2 cache: 1024K
NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0-3
Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes rdrand lahf_lm 3dnowprefetch epb tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid tsc_adjust smep erms dtherm ida arat
davebb@Agis:~$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 2280 (rev 21)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 22b1 (rev 21)
00:0b.0 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Device 22dc (rev 21)
00:13.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Device 22a3 (rev 21)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Device 22b5 (rev 21)
00:1a.0 Encryption controller: Intel Corporation Device 2298 (rev 21)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Device 2284 (rev 21)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 22c8 (rev 21)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 22cc (rev 21)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 22ce (rev 21)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Device 229c (rev 21)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation Device 2292 (rev 21)
02:00.0 Network controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8188EE Wireless Network Adapter (rev 01)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 07)

Hope this information helps. Been looking at different sites and it seems so easy to program, but running into this error without any feedback on the radio reporting anything.