Raspbian installation instructions

[GreenWenonah]

Noticed that the instructions for Raspbian and other Debian OS's is messed up.

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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:

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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

[kevinvinv]

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!

[GreenWenonah]

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.

[bkenobi]

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.

[kevinvinv]

Is this the link you had in mind Bkenobi?
http://www.homegenie.it/forum/index.php?topic=1243.msg7974#msg7974

[bkenobi]

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.

[petediscrete]

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.

[bkenobi]

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.

[GreenWenonah]

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.

[[email protected]]

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

[bkenobi]

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.

[petediscrete]

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.

[bkenobi]

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.

[petediscrete]

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.

[[email protected]]

Development halted?