HomeGenie Forum
General Category => Troubleshooting and Support => Topic started by: GreenWenonah on December 19, 2016, 01:19:09 AM
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Noticed that the instructions for Raspbian and other Debian OS's is messed up.
wget https://github.com/genielabs/HomeGenie/releases/download/v1.1-beta.525/homegenie_1_1_beta_r525.tgz
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gdebi-core
sudo gdebi homegenie-beta_1.1.r525_all.deb
is how it's listed. Just substitute:
wget https://github.com/genielabs/HomeGenie/releases/download/v1.1-beta.525/homegenie-beta_1.1.r525_all.deb
when you download and it will work fine. I know, I know, anyone should be able to figure this out but to those for whom linux is a black art patiently copying commands into their terminal, this should work better.
Green
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Thanks- I actually just signed on to check and see how difficult it is to install HG on a Raspberry pi. I have been running it on an old netbook and was thinking of switching.
Do you have any recommendations on which model Pi is required/best?
Thanks!
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I'm running on an old B+ I've had laying around for a couple years. Response seems quick enough but I only have a few modules on it. I did notice that when I tried to consolidate my Deluge, NAS, HomeGenie and Calibre servers all onto one Pi, HG got very sluggish. I've just rebuilt my HG all alone in it's own RPi and it's working fine. I'll rebuild the file servers on a separate Pi next.
As for difficulty, just get Jessie up and running, update/upgrade, get it set up as a headless unit. Then follow the instructions to install, noting the deb/tgz mistake. It took me awhile but that's because I wasn't being methodical enough considering how out of practice I am with linux.
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HG does not take a bunch of resources to run, however it does require that anytime an event occurs, it must have resources to act. So if you run other tasks on the RPi that significantly increase average system use, you may run into issues when you want time critical events to happen. IMO, RPi are really cheap and don't use any electricity to speak of (relative to any other option) so I'd just put HG on its own RPi. There may be better options today but as of a 2-3 years ago, RPi was the best, cheapest option. At that time, Gene had a RPi image one could simply extract. Today you have to follow some directions but it's still really easy to get going.
EDIT: I actually posted a set of step-by-step instructions for getting a HG setup running (including email and a few other things). I can try to find it if you can't. Just search for installation instructions and my user name from around a year ago.
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Is this the link you had in mind Bkenobi?
http://www.homegenie.it/forum/index.php?topic=1243.msg7974#msg7974 (http://www.homegenie.it/forum/index.php?topic=1243.msg7974#msg7974)
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Yup, that's the instructions. I think someone else updated them a few months ago to look at something else, but mine should still work just fine.
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If using as a headless server don't forget to disable the boot to desktop. Completely unnecessary and uses resources. Sudo raspi-config let's you do this.
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In the versions of Raspian I've used the GUI doesn't load unless you call it. Perhaps Debian is different. But, I would definitely avoid running the GUI unless you absolutely need it.
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If using as a headless server don't forget to disable the boot to desktop. Completely unnecessary and uses resources. Sudo raspi-config let's you do this.
Excellent reminder... Though I'm not running into any issues as a single purpose server with the GUI running, there's no sense wasting resources on an unused feature.
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I did some install scripts for Jessie minimal..
However as for the PI to use, the later ones as you will struggle with the version of mono otherwise.. also my preference is the one without bluetooth as it fuks up the uarts... however for serial I've given up messing with config and just use chinese usb to ttl converters as they just work out of the box.
for the price of the PI, I run multiple pi's dedicated to just homegenie, they dont do any secondary tasks..
Also install watchdogd to monitor the HG log and restart the box if it stops logging.
David
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It looks like something went screwy with my RPi last night and even my backups aren't loading. The 2 options I see are that the images are all broken (3 cards?) Or, the RPi is toast. I have to play a bit, but it's not currently looking very good. If it's dead, what new board in particular would you recommend? I was thinking RPi B+ since I'm currently on B but I know a lot has changed in the last 2-3 years since I got started.
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I'm using the RPI3 with Jessie and it's working fine. Latest model with the same price tag so that's what I'd opt for.
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Thanks for the info. I was able to get one of the backups running. I'm not sure what happened to it the first time I tried to load it, but eventually it worked. If things go south again, I'll pick up the new RPi.
BTW, it looks like the RPi website no longer offers debian-wheezy. Does anyone know why wheezy went away? I don't know the difference between it and jessie, so maybe that would make it obvious.
...
looks like Jessie is an update under the hood that would be better to use. I'll update to that if I have to start over again.
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Wheezy development has basically come to an end. Mono 4 has sorted a lot of issues with the VB compatability too. A fresh install of Wheezy plus Homegenie and a restore of your HG backup should get you up and running.
The only difficulty I see with HG now is with development halted, with further Wheezy updates HG might begin to encounter compatability issues.
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Development halted?
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According to Gene he has taken a break to work on the documentation. Maybe I misread his previous post.
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Link to a previous post from Gene
www.homegenie.it/forum/index.php?topic=1721.15 (http://www.homegenie.it/forum/index.php?topic=1721.15)
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Ahh.. that's ok then as its not leaving the project :D
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There aren't too many more features Gene probably sees as necessary at the moment and with the majority of the code functioning correctly (not very many current issues on github) he probably figured now is a great time to document things. I'd rather documentation get accomplished than add new features when users don't know how to use the current ones!
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Absolutely agree Bkenobi. The only problem that may arise is for the people who insist on having the latest version of any software. If an application doesn't develop in line with an OS or it's other dependencies it tends to break at some stage. This is quite common in the Linux world. Of course for those who do not tinker all should be fine for the moment.
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Right. And that's why I'm currently several versions back. I have a couple backup SD images, so I am planning on taking one up to the current version to see what I'm missing. But, I have a stable setup that doesn't upset my wife, so I keep it there unless I need to fix something. I've learned!
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The only change on the current version that's benefited me is the camera screens. Much slicker than previous versions. Again that's just my opinion using mainly x10 and cameras.
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Do you guys do anything on your Pi to keep the clock sync'd up?
I hate it when my current HG computer gets out of sync... Is there a network time sync or something you do ?
Thanks!
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I don't remember doing anything about it. But, it looks like it's already set up as is. If you have /etc/ntp.conf set up correctly, I believe it will keep your time synced correctly automatically.
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Thanks, And BTW- your instructions worked very well! Thanks!!
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I just looked a bit further and realized that there is a service running for ntp on my RPi.
pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo service ntp status
[ ok ] NTP server is running.
I haven't looked at the program to determine the settings, but assuming it's using the /etc/ntp.conf file, it looks correct to me (but what do I know :o).
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I am new to the pi still... are you ssh'ing into it to get a terminal from remote or are there other new fangled ways to get to a pi terminal?
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Putty on Linux for remote access in my case.
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Putty on Windows here. I suppose you could plug a monitor and keyboard in, but ssh is way easier.
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Hey Bkenobi,
Your instructions state this with regards to cloning the SD Card:
11) backup utility (RPI-CLONE)
git clone https://github.com/billw2/rpi-clone.git
sudo cp rpi-clone/rpi-clone /usr/local/sbin
Backup to usb flash drive:
sudo rpi-clone sda
Restore everything: (untested!)
sudo rpi-clone sda sdb
Is this still the method you use and if so, have you determined if the restore command works?
Thanks!!!
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I don't actually restore. If I need to recover a broken RPi image, I swap the card from the USB reader into the SD slot and create a new backup from that one. I never tried the restore so I just listed what the RPi-clone documentation stated.
Does it work? Yes! I had an image go bad last month and one of my 2 backups worked fortunately. I don't know why, but 1 failed too. I'm glad I had a second (older) backup sitting around. MicroSD is cheap (8GB for ~$4 at Fry's last I bought one, probably cheaper now). Creating a backup takes zero effort and runs in the background so not making one is poor form.
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Got it. I am backup mad-man. I have about 10 people backing their computers up to my basement and I backup to three different states. I use crash plan for all of that.
Anyhow, I digress. I dont really understand how you get the backup image from the USB stick back onto a new SD card... just copy the files? I'll have to read up on that when I get that far... soon. :)
Thanks as always!!
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This can be best performed in Windows
Take your working HG SD card and pop it into an SD card reader. Load a copy of Win32disk imager. Click on the little disk icon beside the path bar. That will give you the option of clicking on your SD drive. Double click on the SD drive. All the files on your SD drive will load in the window.
The next step is to select the READ option on Win32 disk imager. You will see the progress bar work away. When it completes remove the SD card from the drive. Go to directory where the Read file was saved, Downloads in my case and there you have an exact image of your HG working app.
To restore that saved image pop a blank formatted SD card of the same or larger capacity into your SD drive. Click on the disk icon on Win32 disk imager and locate that saved image from your hard drive. Double click on the image file and this time select the WRITE option and once again the progress bar will work away until completed.
You now have an exact image copy of your HG application to load on any RPI you require.
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I have never done programming and hope not to have to for this project.
I purchased a RPi to use exclusively with HomeGenie to run my X10 devices, this is to replace an old windows laptop that only runs ActiveHome Pro software and long overdue to be replaced.
I got the RPi and installed raspbian without issue.
I cannot get HomeGenie to install, I have downloaded it to a USB drive using my Mac, I have downloaded it directly to the RPi, I have done this a number of times.
The HomeGenie install seems to run using the double click option, however, it seems to hang at the very end with the install screen in the "running"mode, the blue line extended to the extreme right but never finishing.
I cancel that and find no HomeGenie in user/local/bin, however I do end up with an X10 folder under user/bin.
I have re-installed raspdian a number of times and repeat the HomeGenie process with the same results.
I am sure I am the issue but cannot figure out how I am creating the problem.
Can you provide advice?
Norm
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Maybe the concept of rpi-clone is not understood. The idea is to take the SD card that the RPi is running off of and duplicate it exactly onto another SD card so that it can be swapped in should the primary card fail. Since RPi only has one SD slot, you simply need to install the backup SD into a USB adapter. I prefer microSD since that's what phones use and microSD to SD adapters come with all cards anyway. I purchased the smallest microSD to USB adapter I could find on ebay and insert that into one of the USB ports. You can set up a cron task to automatically backup to the SD or do it manually when you make a major change.
Anyway, the contents of the backup are exactly the same as the primary card so there is no transfer required. Simply swap the backup card in for the primary and reboot the RPi. If you are looking for a way to backup the image to a different location (e.g., Windows file server), I'd recommend using Win32DiskImager and creating an image. That will be rather large since it will backup the unused space as well (the image will be the same size as the card used). However, it will allow you to restore to a new card from that image should the SD fail.
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Hey Norm,
Have you tried following the instructions mentioned on the first page of this post? There is a link to some instructions that bkenobi wrote up awhile back. I followed them and they worked great for me.
You may want to change the path to the HG version though in that step. I am using 525 but the instructions list 500.
Thoughts?
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Raspberry guys... is it important to link the hg logfile to a location not on the SD card to prevent failures?
I see that bkenobi linked his logfile to a NAS ... is this important do you think?
THanks!
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Theoretically writing to the same sector repetetively will eventually lead to failure of that location on the card. If the OS does not pay attention, it will write to that spot and could result in file or OS corruption (depending on the data being written). It is therefor preferable to reduce the number of spurious writes to the card if possible. HG writes a lot of data regularly, so my guess would be a small card could experience a failure at some point. I believe the OS keeps track of writes and doesn't go to the same spot if possible so as long as the SD is not close to full, it will be less of an issue.
I was writing to my NAS for a while but had an issue the last time I set up the image such that I couldn't get the Samba link open prior to writing files to it thus breaking things. The result was files wrote locally to the same location the Samba share was intended to be mounted. I opted to stop logging after testing as an alternative as I didn't want to add extra wear to the SD. If you can get Samba working correctly, I'd recommend that if you want to keep logs all the time.
Again though, HG writes to a logging system all the time already so you will have some of the wear you are concerned with no matter what you do.
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Kevinvinu, thank you for your response.
I want to make sure I am reading the right Instructions, the ones I am using reference 525 not 500, is this correct?
I have followed both sets of instructions the one where I downloaded the file and double clicked on the icon and the step by step written text inputs, neither resulted in an installation.
Norm
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With regards to logging, I was going to log all my devices to hg's log and then use an ELK stack on a vm to get the logs and visualise them.. so far there is a lot of noise which needs a debug level configurable per component, but I have had no time to do anything with it!
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In my early morning reading I think I discovered my error.
When I first setup the Pi I tried to install the ActiveHome Pro software, this was a mistake and it appears to have been imbedded on the SD card, hence the X10 files that are mysteriously there.
I am going to download a clean version of NOOBS onto a new SD card and try again from the beginning.
I will post if that works.
Norm
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ActiveHome Pro is a Windows only software. Are you saying you tried to install that on the RPi? Maybe I missed something, but just having the AHP installer on the small partition of your RPi SD card image would not cause any issues when running Linux on the RPi.
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Never heard of AHP on an SD card but I'm sure it's been done.
Make sure you format the SD card before you start your HG install. There was possibly a partition on your SD card where those files were stored. A quick format with size adjustment set to on should do the trick.
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Dumb move trying AHP on RPi! Being old and senile is my excuse.
Today I created a new clean formatted micro SD card and downloaded NOOBS.
Raspbian is installed and working fine, still have that x11 folder under usr/bin but I figure it belongs as it cannot be from my previous gaff.
I then downloaded HomeGenie, per instructions, to the Pi and when complete, double clicked the icon as directed. Everything went fine up to the "Committing Changes" screen and then it basically freezes with the blue time line a smidgen from the right but never finished.
Tried again but using the command line process described in the installation instructions, seemed Ok until I use the:
'sudo apt-get install grebe-core" command, this comes back as follows;
"Reading Package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
gdebi-core is already newest version
0 upgrade, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 75 not upgraded."
"sudo grebe homegenie-beta_1.1.r525_all. deb" returns as follows;
"gdebi error, file not found: homegenie-beta_1.1.r525_all.deb"
Hope this is not too much information, but I still do not have any /usr/local/bin/homegenie folder and no homegenie files.
I use a satellite internet connection (all we can get here) which is slow but should not be an issue with the setup install process.
There is a statement that HomeGenie requires mono runtime version 3.2 or later, I cannot find any mono runtime files on the Pi but perhaps I am not familiar enough with it to know where to look. I have found mono and it is up into the 4.?.? versions now, are they all usable and how do I ensure I have it?
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Ok you're nearly there.
If it's possible connect a monitor, keyboard and mouse to your RPI. Launch the RPI browser. Search for Homegenie downloads. Select the Linux version and double click to download it.
Now open a terminal session on the RPI. Type the following at the command prompt
sudo gdebi Downloads/homegenie-beta_1.1.r525_all.deb
Copy and paste it to be on the safe side. You'll see the installer working away and follow the instructions on screen. When it completes you will be told to log in the browser to start HG
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I think it would be easier with SSH and just do:
wget https://github.com/genielabs/HomeGenie/releases/download/v1.1-beta.525/homegenie-beta_1.1.r525_all.deb
And then install from whatever place you are in.
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Thank you Petedescrete, it is working, I cannot for the life of me figure what I did wrong as the command you gave I had input before as part of the setup instructions.
Perhaps I will understand as I learn RPi, Raspbian and HomeGenie.
Now to attack HomeGenie and get my X10 devices operating again.
Cheers and thank you all for your help.
Norm
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X10 is automation hardware.
X11 is a network protocol. You'll see references to it a lot in Linux.
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Good to hear Norm. Don't forget to take an image of HG when you have it fully configured. You can then experiment with you working copy to your hearts content knowing that you have a spare working copy on an SD card should you break your system.
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I am updating the installation instructions but found an issue right off the bat. When downloading Raspbian Jessie, if you select a lite build and the date is after November 2016, ssh will be disabled by default. This is an intentional choice by the team apparently intended to improve security. As a result, prior to logging on remotely, a keyboard and HDMI monitor must be used to enable ssh. Alternately, an older release must be used.
I'll document this in the instructions, but I wanted to point it out here, too.
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Got caught out with this last week hence I did all the setup locally including sudo raspi-config and enabled SSH and all the other settings before I reverted to remote operation. The configuration tool has changed quite a bit between releases.
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I installed r525 on jessie 5/2016 last night. I have it mostly configured but didn't have time to finish. Some of the updates take FOREVER! Once I finish updating things and testing that all functionality is still present, I'll upload a new guide. The primary issue seems to be with email, but I'm going to try to get all other features set up and documented as well (samba, mqtt, etc).
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I just realized I didn't upload the guide. The installation went smoothly and I haven't seen any issues, so I'll try to upload it today.
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Thanks! Your guide has been very useful!
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This is the updated guide. It's not all that different, though I did confirm every step works. The one thing to be careful of is using a newer version of Jessie than Nov 2016 will require a local login prior to using SSH as it's disabled by default.
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@bkenobi, just ran the set-up process on RPI3 and after a bit of googling figured that SSH can be enabled by copying a file named 'ssh' (no extention) onto the boot partition of the SD card. That enables SSH without having to login locally.
Best
Pim
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The boot partition is EXT3 formatted. I write the image file from Windows to the SD card. To add a "SSH" file to the boot partition, I'd need to be able to mount the boot partition of the SD card and have write access. Do you have an easy option for how to get the file onto the card without already having a working Linux machine? If so, I'd love to add those instructions to the guide! It seems like using a current version would be much better as going through all the updates from an older version can take hours.
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I just put the SD card into my Windows 10 laptop and create a file called ssh (without extension) on it...
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From memory, there are 2 partitions on the Raspian image. One is the boot partition formatted in EXT3 and the second some kind of windows readable (FAT32?) format. When I've put a RPi formatted SD in my laptop in the past, I was pretty sure I could only see the second partition. But, if you just have to put a file on that partition called "ssh", that would be really easy. I create the card on my PC anyway, so that's simple enough.
Come to think of it, I could just try on a random card this weekend and write up the process.
Thanks!
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Must have been the windows readable partition as that is where I put the file...
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I got busy this weekend and forgot to try this. I'll just add it to the documentation anyway now that you've confirmed.
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Updated to include pim555's ssh setup instructions.