You can not select more than 25 topics
Topics must start with a letter or number, can include dashes ('-') and can be up to 35 characters long.
352 lines
9.4 KiB
352 lines
9.4 KiB
---
|
|
title: MMDVM hotspot on Archlinux
|
|
summary: I wrote down the installation of a forked DStarGateway with a slim
|
|
dashboard based on Javascript on a Raspberry Pi 2.
|
|
date: 2024-01-28T23:12:00+0100
|
|
#lastmod:
|
|
categories:
|
|
- amateur-radio
|
|
tags:
|
|
- archlinux
|
|
- dstar
|
|
- hotspot
|
|
- linux
|
|
- mmdvm
|
|
- raspberry-pi
|
|
|
|
# showBreadcrumbs: true
|
|
# showDate: false
|
|
# showReadingTime: false
|
|
# showWordCount: false
|
|
# showPagination: false
|
|
|
|
# feed_exclude: true
|
|
# site_exclude: true
|
|
|
|
# some help
|
|
#
|
|
# highlighting with highlights
|
|
#
|
|
# use table, as inline creates a padding around
|
|
# and it pushes the text more to the right side (end of screen)
|
|
#
|
|
# ~~~html {linenos=table,hl_lines="3-6"}
|
|
# ~~~html {linenos=inline,hl_lines="1,3-6"}
|
|
|
|
draft: true
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
## Installation ala wiki pages
|
|
|
|
I usually setup any Raspberry Pi without screen and keyboard but I make use of
|
|
the [serial console](https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/configuration.html#configuring-uarts).
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
### Preparations (microSD card)
|
|
|
|
Partition the microSD card.
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo fdisk /dev/sda
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
~~~
|
|
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
|
|
/dev/sda1 2048 411647 409600 200M c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
|
|
/dev/sda2 411648 15759359 15347712 7.3G 83 Linux
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
Format filesystems.
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1
|
|
$ sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
I am curerntly in `~/mnt`.
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ mkdir boot root
|
|
$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 boot
|
|
$ sudo mount /dev/sda2 root
|
|
$ wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-rpi-armv7-latest.tar.gz
|
|
$ sudo bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-rpi-armv7-latest.tar.gz -C root
|
|
$ sync
|
|
$ sudo mv root/boot/* boot/
|
|
$ sudo umount boot root
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
So, place the microSD card in the Raspberry Pi and boot it up (with the serial console connected).
|
|
|
|
### First start
|
|
|
|
There are the following two users pre-defined:
|
|
|
|
| Username | Password |
|
|
|------------| -----------|
|
|
| _root_ | _root_ |
|
|
| _alarm_ | _alarm_ |
|
|
|
|
I prefer my username as _dominic_, so I changed it:
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
# usermod -l dominic -d /home/dominic -m alarm
|
|
# groupmod -n dominic alarm
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
{{< alert circle-info >}}
|
|
The user _alarm_ may come from **A**rch**L**inux **ARM**.
|
|
{{< /alert >}}
|
|
|
|
So the first real thing is upgrading the system. We start as this:
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
# pacman-key --init
|
|
# pacman-key --populate archlinuxarm
|
|
# pacman -Syu
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
Some general system administration tasks as time setup network setup etc...
|
|
|
|
I'm using NetworkManager on the Raspi so I install it
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
# pacman -S networkmanager
|
|
# nmcli device wifi connect {network-ssid} --ask
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
Now we may login via ssh.
|
|
|
|
## Installation of DStarGateway
|
|
|
|
I prefer compiling as normal user so I login as _dominic_. We will need some packages.
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel wget boost man-db gtest
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
I hope I got all that we need, if you run into errors, just install the missing ones :wink:
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ mkdir git && cd git
|
|
$ git clone https://github.com/F4FXL/DStarGateway.git
|
|
$ cd DStarGateway
|
|
$ make
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
This ran for 38 minutes -- I will not forget to add `-j4` the next time :face_with_rolling_eyes:
|
|
|
|
You would now typically install the files but this is the part that made me stop for a while.
|
|
Whatever I was doing, it won't work automated. I'm not a developer, but to me this looks like as
|
|
if `make -C` enters the directory before it runs the top-level Makefile so the `export ...` lines
|
|
never get executed and the Makefiles in the sub-directories will never know about them. I didn't
|
|
want to dive deeper into this and decided to just install the rest by hand.
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo make install
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
It will break, but at least install the binary files into `/usr/local/bin`. Also install the
|
|
hostfiles (will need the program _wget_).
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo make newhostfiles
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
Copy the systemd unit files to the right directory per hand:
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo cp debian/* /usr/lib/systemd/system/
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
{{< alert >}}
|
|
Inspect them because you may edit some paths.
|
|
{{< /alert >}}
|
|
|
|
Also have a look at the configuration files in `/usr/local/etc/`.
|
|
|
|
Enable the services, but I don't start them yet (except for a short test) because
|
|
the hotspot will connect to the DSTAR reflector but we can't talk or hear anything.
|
|
Once they are enabled, they will autostart at the next reboot.
|
|
|
|
To enable the services:
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo systemctl enable dstargateway.service
|
|
$ sudo systemctl enable dgwtimeserver.service
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
Because the `make install` did not finish before, I have to manually install the
|
|
`Data` folder contents (AMBE files, Hostfiles). I could not get this to work the
|
|
way it was described in the repository, but I installed them this way:
|
|
|
|
Move to the `Data` directory and add the following line on top of the file:
|
|
|
|
~~~make
|
|
export DATA_DIR=/usr/local/share/dstargateway.d/
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
Then rund `sudo make install` within the `Data` directory again and all should be fine.
|
|
|
|
## Installation of MMDVMHost
|
|
|
|
Also this requires special packages, although I think those are for the new
|
|
FM features -- that a hotspot won't use at all...
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo pacman -S libsamplerate
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ git clone git@github.com:g4klx/MMDVMHost.git
|
|
$ cd MMDVMHost
|
|
$ make -j4
|
|
$ sudo make install-service
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
That would fail, but we can do it by hand.
|
|
|
|
Setup the user _mmdvm_:
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo useradd --user-group -M --system mmdvm --shell /bin/false
|
|
$ sudo usermod --groups uucp --append mmdvm
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
So we run the command one more time:
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo make install-service
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
Binaries are installed and the systemd unit files too.
|
|
|
|
Modify the configuration file `/etc/MMDVM.ini`.
|
|
|
|
Enable the service:
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
|
|
$ sudo systemctl enable mmdvmhost.service
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
## Setup the UART
|
|
|
|
We can't start MMDVMHost right away (well, we can, but it will not work yet).
|
|
|
|
We need to disable the serial console because we need the UART at the GPIO pins
|
|
for our modem hardware.
|
|
|
|
Disable the service, that accesses the serial console:
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo systemctl disable serial-getty@ttyAMA0.service
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
Open `/boot/cmdline.txt` and remove `console=serial0,115200` from the line. Save
|
|
and reboot.
|
|
|
|
## Configuration
|
|
|
|
### DStarGateway
|
|
|
|
### MMDVMHost
|
|
|
|
### dgwtimeserver
|
|
|
|
## Install a dashboard
|
|
|
|
I will install the [dashboard from John Hays (K7VE)](https://github.com/johnhays/dsgwdashboard)
|
|
as my first look at it looked promising (using Javascript (which is executed
|
|
on the client and not the server) may reduce the load on the webserver).
|
|
[Past installations of dashboards]({{< ref "/posts/2022/26-raspberry-pi-4-64bit-dual-hat-hotspot-without-pi-star" >}})
|
|
did usually include a form of request limitation because the many websocket requests
|
|
of other dashboards put too much pressure on the small Raspberry Pies :exploding_head:
|
|
|
|
I will not install this as per instructions, because I don't like when these kind
|
|
of applications (simple dashboards for example) have to be run as the _root_ user.
|
|
I will therefore create a new user called _dashboard_ as which the "webserver"
|
|
(which is a NodeJS application) will run.
|
|
|
|
We need a few packages for this:
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo pacman -S nodejs npm
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
Create and impersonate our new user:
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo useradd --user-group -m --system dashboard --shell /bin/bash
|
|
$ sudo su - dashboard
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
Now we are the user _dashboard_ and we will install the dashboard:
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ git@github.com:johnhays/dsgwdashboard.git
|
|
$ cd dsgwdashboard
|
|
$ node -v
|
|
$ npm install -save
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
Create and install some self-signed certificates into the `dsgwdashboard`
|
|
directory because the server needs them to start. I personally would like
|
|
to have the possibility to only serve the pages via plain old HTTP
|
|
(without SSL/TLS) because I run most of my pages through a reverse-proxy
|
|
that takes care of all the certification.
|
|
|
|
Next we will modify the `dashboard.ini` file because we will change the
|
|
port from 443 to 8443. Why? Because[^1]!
|
|
|
|
~~~ini
|
|
[config]
|
|
dgwconfig=/usr/local/etc/dstargateway.cfg
|
|
host=hotspot.oe7drt.net
|
|
port=8443
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
{{< alert circle-info >}}
|
|
This might be confusing now, the host above does not listen to port 8443 because
|
|
there is a reverse-proxy in-between (and actually a firewall/router too).
|
|
{{< /alert >}}
|
|
|
|
The actual path of this host and how it will be routed:
|
|
|
|
~~~plain
|
|
User (internet) ⇒ router:443 (hotspot.oe7drt.net) ⇒ reverse-proxy:443 (internal-server.lan) ⇒ hotspot:8443 (internal-raspi.lan)
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
We will disable the shell for the _dashboard_ user because we normally
|
|
won't have to login as _dashboard_ user again.
|
|
|
|
~~~console
|
|
$ sudo chsh -s /bin/false dashboard
|
|
~~~
|
|
|
|
[^1]: Ports below <kbd>1024</kbd> can only be used as the _root_ user. Those are socalled
|
|
[privileged ports](https://www.w3.org/Daemon/User/Installation/PrivilegedPorts.html).
|
|
To run the program as non-root user we need to set the port to something
|
|
above <kbd>1024</kbd>.
|
|
|
|
## DSTAR Registration
|
|
|
|
A DSTAR registration is mandatory if you want to be transmitted on
|
|
original ICOM repeaters. Otherwise your transmission will not be
|
|
forwarded properly and you may look for errors for a long time...
|
|
|
|
I registered in 2020 at <https://regist.dstargateway.org/> but there
|
|
is one important thing to add to the webui there: do not choose long
|
|
passwords (like those from a password manager) because it will get
|
|
cut off somewhere and it took me quite a while to find that error.
|
|
|
|
{{< alert skull-crossbones >}}
|
|
**I can't believe that there are still websites in 2024 that limit
|
|
the lenght of a password!**
|
|
{{< /alert >}}
|
|
|
|
I do have 12 characters now, I usually use 20 or more.
|
|
|