I need some help with ASTAP. Anytime I am trying to get a capture solved in Ekos, after saying "starting ASTAP" I always get the message " ASTAP failed". I have downloaded the necessary index files for the offline Astrometry solver, and it works as long as the target is not too far off, but I have some experience with ASTAP from before and I really like it. Find it more reliable too.
What do I need to do to get it running. It is a guider set up with ASI224MC. Picture captures fine, no issues, solving is. I am not even sure if ASTAP is started by Ekos.

I would assume you also downloaded the separate ASTAP star database? It’s required for solving, and gets installed in the ASTAP folder. I also find that I need a little bit longer exposures for ASTAP so that more stars appear in the image to be solved.

No I did not download star database. How do I do that for ASTAP?

Check out www.hnsky.org/astap.htm
For each computer/OS, he lists a way to download ASTAP, as well as a way to install a "G17 star database".
You need them both for ASTAP to work.

I never got astap to blind solve. So before polar alignment, I'll double click Polaris in the kstars star map, then do an ASTAP solve with "do nothing" checked to set the camera wcs. Then run polar alignment.

Never works unless I track Polaris in kstars first.

What camera are you using? I find that ASTAP is not working with my PoleMaster or with my guide cam, but it works flawlessly and extremely fast with my imaging scope. FOV is not that much different for the WhiteCat imaging scope (~240'x170') vs my guide scope (~130'x100'). The difference is the star shape. A cheap guide scope, like the ZWO, suffers from distortion and ASTAP does not seem to like that at all. It always fails on me when I use the guide scope, but it works immediately when I switch over to the imaging scope, using the same star field. And yes, the FOV is calculated correctly when I switch the scopes in the solver.
By contrast, Astrometry.net is much more forgiving, no problem with solving either the PoleMaster or guide cam images, but it takes about 5x longer than ASTAP. So after PA I just switch over to ASTAP for the remainder of the session.

My main imaging camera is an Olympus Em-5. It does not tether with software to control exposure. I do not know a way if the images could be downloaded from the cam to Rpi4.
The guide cam is a ASI224MC and the guide scope is this: www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B088D37YMZ/ref=...04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I do not have a captured image with it but I did not notice any star deformation on this scope.
I do understand star deformation, I had that issue with a guide scope before, stars looked horrible and made guiding more difficult as well. This one is pretty good.