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398 lines
11 KiB
398 lines
11 KiB
---
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title: MMDVM hotspot on Archlinux
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summary: I wrote down the installation of a forked DStarGateway with a slim
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dashboard based on Javascript on a Raspberry Pi 2.
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date: 2024-01-29T09:41:00+0100
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#lastmod:
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categories:
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- amateur-radio
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tags:
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- archlinux
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- dstar
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- hotspot
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- linux
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- mmdvm
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- raspberry-pi
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# showBreadcrumbs: true
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# showDate: false
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# showReadingTime: false
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# showWordCount: false
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# showPagination: false
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# feed_exclude: true
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# site_exclude: true
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# some help
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#
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# highlighting with highlights
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#
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# use table, as inline creates a padding around
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# and it pushes the text more to the right side (end of screen)
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#
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# ~~~html {linenos=table,hl_lines="3-6"}
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# ~~~html {linenos=inline,hl_lines="1,3-6"}
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draft: true
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---
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## Installation ala wiki pages
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I usually setup any Raspberry Pi without screen and keyboard but I make use of
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the [serial console](https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/configuration.html#configuring-uarts).
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![Raspi 2 with wires connected to GPIO Pins GND, RXD and TXD](setup_console.jpg "I haven't changed a thing of the initial configuration")
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### Preparations (microSD card)
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Partition the microSD card.
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~~~console
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$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda
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~~~
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~~~
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Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
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/dev/sda1 2048 411647 409600 200M c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
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/dev/sda2 411648 15759359 15347712 7.3G 83 Linux
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~~~
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Format filesystems.
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~~~console
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$ sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1
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$ sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
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~~~
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I am curerntly in `~/mnt`.
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~~~console
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$ mkdir boot root
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$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 boot
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$ sudo mount /dev/sda2 root
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$ wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-rpi-armv7-latest.tar.gz
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$ sudo bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-rpi-armv7-latest.tar.gz -C root
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$ sync
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$ sudo mv root/boot/* boot/
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$ sudo umount boot root
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~~~
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So, place the microSD card in the Raspberry Pi and boot it up (with the serial console connected).
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### First start
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There are the following two users pre-defined:
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| Username | Password |
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|------------| -----------|
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| _root_ | _root_ |
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| _alarm_ | _alarm_ |
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I prefer my username as _dominic_, so I changed it:
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~~~console
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# usermod -l dominic -d /home/dominic -m alarm
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# groupmod -n dominic alarm
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~~~
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{{< alert circle-info >}}
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The user _alarm_ may come from **A**rch**L**inux **ARM**.
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{{< /alert >}}
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So the first real thing is upgrading the system. We start as this:
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~~~console
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# pacman-key --init
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# pacman-key --populate archlinuxarm
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# pacman -Syu
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~~~
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Some general system administration tasks as time setup network setup etc...
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I'm using NetworkManager on the Raspi so I install it
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~~~console
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# pacman -S networkmanager
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# nmcli device wifi connect {network-ssid} --ask
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~~~
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Now we may login via ssh.
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## Installation of DStarGateway
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I prefer compiling as normal user so I login as _dominic_. We will need some packages.
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~~~console
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$ sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel wget boost man-db gtest
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~~~
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I hope I got all that we need, if you run into errors, just install the missing ones :wink:
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~~~console
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$ mkdir git && cd git
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$ git clone https://github.com/F4FXL/DStarGateway.git
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$ cd DStarGateway
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$ make
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~~~
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This ran for 38 minutes -- I will not forget to add `-j4` the next time :face_with_rolling_eyes:
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You would now typically install the files but this is the part that made me stop for a while.
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Whatever I was doing, it won't work automated. I'm not a developer, but to me this looks like as
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if `make -C` enters the directory before it runs the top-level Makefile so the `export ...` lines
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never get executed and the Makefiles in the sub-directories will never know about them. I didn't
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want to dive deeper into this and decided to just install the rest by hand.
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~~~console
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$ sudo make install
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~~~
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It will break, but at least install the binary files into `/usr/local/bin`. Also install the
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hostfiles (will need the program _wget_).
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~~~console
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$ sudo make newhostfiles
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~~~
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Copy the systemd unit files to the right directory per hand:
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~~~console
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$ sudo cp debian/* /usr/lib/systemd/system/
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~~~
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{{< alert >}}
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Inspect them because you may edit some paths.
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{{< /alert >}}
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Also have a look at the configuration files in `/usr/local/etc/`.
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Enable the services, but I don't start them yet (except for a short test) because
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the hotspot will connect to the DSTAR reflector but we can't talk or hear anything.
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Once they are enabled, they will autostart at the next reboot.
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To enable the services:
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~~~console
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$ sudo systemctl enable dstargateway.service
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$ sudo systemctl enable dgwtimeserver.service
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~~~
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Because the `make install` did not finish before, I have to manually install the
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`Data` folder contents (AMBE files, Hostfiles). I could not get this to work the
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way it was described in the repository, but I installed them this way:
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Move to the `Data` directory and add the following line on top of the file:
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~~~make
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export DATA_DIR=/usr/local/share/dstargateway.d/
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~~~
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Then rund `sudo make install` within the `Data` directory again and all should be fine.
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## Installation of MMDVMHost
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Also this requires special packages, although I think those are for the new
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FM features -- that a hotspot won't use at all...
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~~~console
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$ sudo pacman -S libsamplerate
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~~~
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~~~console
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$ git clone git@github.com:g4klx/MMDVMHost.git
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$ cd MMDVMHost
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$ make -j4
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$ sudo make install-service
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~~~
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That would fail, but we can do it by hand.
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Setup the user _mmdvm_:
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~~~console
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$ sudo useradd --user-group -M --system mmdvm --shell /bin/false
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$ sudo usermod --groups uucp --append mmdvm
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~~~
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So we run the command one more time:
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~~~console
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$ sudo make install-service
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~~~
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Binaries are installed and the systemd unit files too.
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Modify the configuration file `/etc/MMDVM.ini`.
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Enable the service:
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~~~console
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$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
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$ sudo systemctl enable mmdvmhost.service
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~~~
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## Setup the UART
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We can't start MMDVMHost right away (well, we can, but it will not work yet).
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We need to disable the serial console because we need the UART at the GPIO pins
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for our modem hardware.
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Disable the service, that accesses the serial console:
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~~~console
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$ sudo systemctl disable serial-getty@ttyAMA0.service
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~~~
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Open `/boot/cmdline.txt` and remove `console=serial0,115200` from the line. Save
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and reboot.
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## Configuration
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### DStarGateway
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### MMDVMHost
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### dgwtimeserver
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## Install a dashboard
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I will install the [dashboard from John Hays (K7VE)](https://github.com/johnhays/dsgwdashboard)
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as my first look at it looked promising (using Javascript (which is executed
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on the client and not the server) may reduce the load on the webserver).
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[Past installations of dashboards]({{< ref "/posts/2022/26-raspberry-pi-4-64bit-dual-hat-hotspot-without-pi-star" >}})
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did usually include a form of request limitation because the many websocket requests
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of other dashboards put too much pressure on the small Raspberry Pies :exploding_head:
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I will not install this as per instructions, because I don't like when these kind
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of applications (simple dashboards for example) have to be run as the _root_ user.
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I will therefore create a new user called _dashboard_ as which the "webserver"
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(which is a NodeJS application) will run.
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We need a few packages for this:
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~~~console
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$ sudo pacman -S nodejs npm
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~~~
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Create and impersonate our new user:
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~~~console
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$ sudo useradd --user-group -m --system dashboard --shell /bin/bash
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$ sudo su - dashboard
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~~~
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Now we are the user _dashboard_ and we will install the dashboard:
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~~~console
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$ git@github.com:johnhays/dsgwdashboard.git
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$ cd dsgwdashboard
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$ node -v
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$ npm install -save
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~~~
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Create and install some self-signed certificates into the `dsgwdashboard`
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directory because the server needs them to start. I personally would like
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to have the possibility to only serve the pages via plain old HTTP
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(without SSL/TLS) because I run most of my pages through a reverse-proxy
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that takes care of all the certification.
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If you don't need to use HTTPS you may find this patch interesting:
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~~~patch
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diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
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index 0c71092..502933e 100644
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--- a/index.js
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+++ b/index.js
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@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
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-const https = require("https");
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+const http = require("http");
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const fs = require("fs");
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const ini = require("ini");
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const lineReader = require('line-reader');
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@@ -32,12 +32,8 @@ updatelinks();
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let serverPort = inifile.config.port;
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-const server = https
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+const server = http
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.createServer(
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- {
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- key: fs.readFileSync("key.pem"),
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- cert: fs.readFileSync("cert.pem"),
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- },
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app
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)
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.listen(serverPort, ()=>{
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~~~
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Next we will modify the `dashboard.ini` file because we will change the
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port from 443 to 8443. Why? Because[^1]!
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~~~ini
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[config]
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dgwconfig=/usr/local/etc/dstargateway.cfg
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host=hotspot.oe7drt.net
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port=8443
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~~~
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{{< alert circle-info >}}
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This might be confusing now, the host above does not listen to port 8443 because
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there is a reverse-proxy in-between (and actually a firewall/router too).
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{{< /alert >}}
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This configuration is now as slim as I could make, removing encryption on the dashboard
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made it even better in terms of performance and maintainability as we don't have to
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worry about our certificates on this host and no direct port-forwarding to this host
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has been made -- but our dashboard can still be accesses from the internet in encrypted
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form.
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The actual path of this host and how it will be routed:
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{{< mermaid >}}
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%%{init: {"flowchart": {"htmlLabels": false}} }%%
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graph LR;
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A([Internet user]):::usr -- "`**HTTPS**`" -->B["`router/firewall
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_hotspot.oe7drt.net_`"]:::fw;
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B-- "`**HTTPS**`" -->C["`reverse-proxy
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_proxy.lan_`"]:::rev;
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C-- "`**HTTP**`" -->D["`hotspot dashboard
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_hotspot.lan_`"]:::dash;
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classDef usr stroke:#faa
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classDef fw stroke:#f55
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classDef rev stroke:#9f9
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classDef dash stroke:#0f0
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{{< /mermaid >}}
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We will disable the shell for the _dashboard_ user because we normally
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won't have to login as _dashboard_ user again.
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~~~console
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$ sudo chsh -s /bin/false dashboard
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~~~
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[^1]: Ports below <kbd>1024</kbd> can only be used as the _root_ user. Those are socalled
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[privileged ports](https://www.w3.org/Daemon/User/Installation/PrivilegedPorts.html).
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To run the program as non-root user we need to set the port to something
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above <kbd>1024</kbd>.
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## DSTAR Registration
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A DSTAR registration is mandatory if you want to be transmitted on
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original ICOM repeaters. Otherwise your transmission will not be
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forwarded properly and you may look for errors for a long time...
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I registered in 2020 at <https://regist.dstargateway.org/> but there
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is one important thing to add to the webui there: do not choose long
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passwords (like those from a password manager) because it will get
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cut off somewhere and it took me quite a while to find that error.
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{{< alert skull-crossbones >}}
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**I can't believe that there are still websites in 2024 that limit
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the lenght of a password!**
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{{< /alert >}}
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I do have 12 characters now, I usually use 20 or more.
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