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Thoughts after a six hour marathon re-install.

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  • Thoughts after a six hour marathon re-install.

    I've fed since 2015, initially on a Pi v1, then Windows, then a Pi Zero. Also on Linux Mint and a Macbook. Just stating that to show I have a bit of experience.

    When I got the Pi Zero (when Windows was depreciated) I simply stuck in the card from my original Pi and all was well. Months later I had range issues which turned out to be the DVB-T stick. So as I had replaced that I decided to re-format the card and re-install everything to bring it all up to date. This is what happened - and I'm sure, had I been a new feeder, I would have given up.

    Formatted card, installed Rasbian (without the educational stuff), added "ssh" and wlan settings in the root. It's headless so I could then use the terminal on a Mac to get VNC server running etc with raspi-config. All fine.

    Went to the FR24 share-your-data which gives a link to this page: https://forum.flightradar24.com/foru...Raspberry-Pie=

    That post dates from 19th May 2015 and surely should no longer be linked to?!?!

    Anyway I followed the instructions and it didn't work. It was lightpd causing most of the errors. It hadn't installed correctly I think. But I couldn't re-install it, I couldn't re-configure it, I couldn't remove it. I followed loads of instructions by abcd567 posted all over the place but nothing worked. FR24 feed was fine, it was all dump-mutability with a FAIL - receiver - down every time. And I did try as DVB-T, ModeS (Beast) TCP etc and lots of variations of Host/IP. After about six hours I gave up. If I'd been a newbee I would have flogged the Pi Zero on eBay at that point almost certainly.

    Then I spotted an Oblivian post which had a link to wiedehopf's GitHub to install dump1090-fa. Ran the command. Everything installed. All running perfectly. It's here:

    https://github.com/wiedehopf/adsb-sc...or-dump1090-fa

    So the moral of all that, and the reason for this post, is that I'm sorry to say that I think the installation instructions available for a new feeding person to follow on this forum are abysmal. It may be that the minimal FR24 image is fine but most people with a shiny new Pi are likely to want to install raspbian or something aren't they? And then they should have a simple list of basic instructions to follow to set up a feed for FR24. No criticism intended of anyone's hard work - just my observations from my re-installation.
    Last edited by aka_pseudonym; 2019-11-24, 19:47.

  • #2
    Not if you use the similar scripted installs mentioned on the how to feed website.

    There's no need to follow the manual steps as outlined. It's a secondary option if the automated one fails and needs to be checked step by step. And as such buried away underneath the primary script
    -- OR if you want to do it manually step by step, follow instructions below ---


    That particular thread is closed/locked out. And good luck trying to get website changes. Only seems to be done when multiple people ask the same questions so are spotted and added to the FAQ list (like adding photos and why don't they show has been clarified a lot more recently after repeated questioning)

    There's no reason to get confused. Nor do the manual anymore. As the image takes care of 1, the scripted install the other.

    Attached Files
    Posts not to be taken as official support representation - Just a helpful uploader who tinkers

    Comment


    • #3
      There's nothing stopping FR24 from adjusting their scripting by the way to do similar checks/balances before proceeding and provide more output like wiedehopfs' as it proceeds.

      Just seem to take the stance of our way or high way over functionality. And blindly do things.

      You can download the file on windows to see they're just text with commands it runs in order. Many you will see common with the manual steps.

      And part of the signup script then spawns the dump1090 installer and web portion if DVBT chosen. (which is what breaks things)

      #!/bin/bash

      # Stop on first error
      set -e

      # to skip any questions from APT
      export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive

      AUTO_SIGNUP=0

      while getopts "a" opt; do
      case $opt in
      a)
      AUTO_SIGNUP=1
      ;;
      esac
      done

      if [ "$(id -u)" != "0" ]; then
      echo "This script must be run as root" 1>&2
      exit 1
      fi

      apt-get update -y
      apt-get install dirmngr -y


      # Import GPG key for the APT repository
      KEY_ID=40C430F5
      apt-key adv --recv-key --keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net ${KEY_ID} || \
      apt-key adv --recv-key --keyserver pgp.mit.edu ${KEY_ID}


      # Add APT repository to the config file, removing older entries if exist
      mv /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak
      grep -v flightradar24 /etc/apt/sources.list.bak > /etc/apt/sources.list || echo OK
      echo 'deb http://repo.feed.flightradar24.com flightradar24 raspberrypi-stable' >> /etc/apt/sources.list

      apt-get update -y
      apt-get install -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confdef" -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-confold" -y fr24feed

      # Stop older instances if exist
      systemctl stop fr24feed || echo OK

      # Run the signup wizard
      if [ $AUTO_SIGNUP -eq 0 ]; then
      fr24feed --signup
      chmod a+rw /etc/fr24feed.ini

      # Restart the feeder software
      systemctl restart fr24feed
      fi

      echo "Installation and configuration completed!"
      Posts not to be taken as official support representation - Just a helpful uploader who tinkers

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by Oblivian View Post
        Not if you use the similar scripted installs mentioned on the how to feed website.

        There's no need to follow the manual steps as outlined. It's a secondary option if the automated one fails and needs to be checked step by step. And as such buried away underneath the primary script
        [/B]

        That particular thread is closed/locked out. And good luck trying to get website changes. Only seems to be done when multiple people ask the same questions so are spotted and added to the FAQ list (like adding photos and why don't they show has been clarified a lot more recently after repeated questioning)

        There's no reason to get confused. Nor do the manual anymore. As the image takes care of 1, the scripted install the other.
        No, that's where it all went wrong! It says "if you are running a Raspberry Pi with a DVB-T stick". I ran that - at that point I had the DVB-T stick plugged in but there was no dump1090 installed. It said it hadn't found dump1090 and would install it at startup I think - something like that. But it encountered errors with lightpd and that was that. I was totally stuck. I couldn't un-install dump1090-mutability using the add/remove software thing in Raspbian either - it was running from a re-boot, and sudo systemctl stop/kill/nuke it didn't work. And I couldn't get it working either. It wasn't until I put dump1090-fa on it that mutability stopped so I could remove it.

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by aka_pseudonym View Post

          it was running from a re-boot, and sudo systemctl stop/kill/nuke it didn't work. And I couldn't get it working either. It wasn't until I put dump1090-fa on it that mutability stopped so I could remove it.
          Choosing the DVBT conforms to the hinted expectation, that no other feeders are present. So runs on-demand (not background like the dump1090-fa checks) as the feeder starts. Wiedehopf takes it a step further, checking for, stopping, removing and replacing with the start-on-boot version option and reconfiguring the fr24 config file at the same time

          Like I say, easy enough for them to replicate. Implementing it however...

          But that's why we try and step in and point the nose of people in strife. Normally do so sooner than 6hrs in

          Posts not to be taken as official support representation - Just a helpful uploader who tinkers

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Oblivian View Post

            And part of the signup script then spawns the dump1090 installer and web portion if DVBT chosen. (which is what breaks things)
            Yes, quite! If someone has a Pi and a DVB-T stick logic says they'll choose option 1. And they can't be expected to have trawled through all the posts saying - "no - choose 4". I realised quite early on that was what had bust it, what I couldn't do is find a way of mending it. And I presume because of the very restrictive permissions on Raspbian you can't change anything using the http://192.168.x.x:8754/settings.html page because it won't save. It'd be hopeless for a new user.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Oblivian View Post

              But that's why we try and step in and point the nose of people in strife. Normally do so sooner than 6hrs in
              I'm obstinate - don't like asking!

              Comment


              • #8
                Settings page should save settings fine. Often you have to do it twice though :/

                But also won't stop say Dump1090 if run-on-demand and crashed or de-linked for whatever reason away from the feeder - normally stops it when you go re-start/stop also in that case.

                The downside to an always-on version means you may need to know a couple of more commands to stop it separately for any changes that require it. But usually a reboot fixes that.
                Posts not to be taken as official support representation - Just a helpful uploader who tinkers

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Oblivian View Post
                  Settings page should save settings fine. Often you have to do it twice though :/


                  Nope. Just tried multiple times on different options. When you click "save" it just reloads the page as it was before. Re-starting the software doesn't help. I'm sure that's a Raspian permissions thing.

                  But this is odd. In /etc there's still a dump1090-mutability folder with a config.js file in it. It's all map settings. But I can't find a dump1090-fa config file anywhere. Raspbian on a Pi Zero is so incredibly slow it takes 20 minutes to search for anything with the file manager. And everything is saved as root. I'll shove the card into a Linux machine at some point and have a play.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    There should never be a config.js in /etc, only in /usr/share/dump1090-fa (or -mutability)

                    /etc/default has settings files that may actually be more interesting.

                    And you most likely don't have the permissions correct on /etc/fr24feed.ini because for the web page modifying that to work it needs to be writeable by all.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by wiedehopf View Post
                      There should never be a config.js in /etc, only in /usr/share/dump1090-fa (or -mutability)

                      /etc/default has settings files that may actually be more interesting.

                      And you most likely don't have the permissions correct on /etc/fr24feed.ini because for the web page modifying that to work it needs to be writeable by all.

                      The only file in /usr/share/dump1090-fa is start-dump1090-fa (and the folders). In /etc/default is the config which is fine (I used your script to set the gain to -10 which it shows).

                      /etc/fr24feed.ini has the right settings in it (recognisable from the "127.0.0.1:30005") and the permissions are view:anyone, change:anyone, execute:nobody but it won't update from the web page. Just doesn't!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by wiedehopf View Post
                        There should never be a config.js in /etc, only in /usr/share/dump1090-fa (or -mutability)

                        /etc/default has settings files that may actually be more interesting.

                        And you most likely don't have the permissions correct on /etc/fr24feed.ini because for the web page modifying that to work it needs to be writeable by all.
                        Are Raspbian/Debian permissions recursive? The /etc folder is "changenly owner" and the owner is root. Would that stop someone other than root changing a file inside it?

                        (And why has this post put an orange instead of a "o" and keeps putting it back when I try and remove it?)
                        Last edited by aka_pseudonym; 2019-11-24, 23:14.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Yeah no clue why the website stuff doesn't work, anyway if you know how to use the ini file that's not important.

                          The config.js you are looking for is in the html subfolder of the folder mentioned, obviously.
                          tar1090 has its own config.js so don't confuse the different interfaces.

                          just be happy it works, you still need to get to grips with how stuff interacts.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Is there now a solution for the problem that changes to the configuration over 8754/settings.html cannot be saved?

                            I just installed FR24feeder on a new RPi (3 B) and have big problems, although I chose option 4 (ModeS Beast) during installation.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Lufthansa View Post
                              Is there now a solution for the problem that changes to the configuration over 8754/settings.html cannot be saved?

                              I just installed FR24feeder on a new RPi (3 B) and have big problems, although I chose option 4 (ModeS Beast) during installation.
                              I'v just set my RPi 4 up and notice in the feeder setting has set option 4 as "ModeS Beast (TCP)" and the guides on this forum say it should be set to ModeS Beast (USB/SERIAL). So dose that mean the number has changed?

                              Comment

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