openHABian hassle-free openHAB Setup

skatun · June 12, 2017, 11:03am

@ThomDietrich I like the new layout, especially when submenus starts to get bigger it would have been to large for only one main menu!

How is the work going on adding dmx and miflora to submenu 20?

mark_cornhill · June 12, 2017, 11:05am

Thanks for the very quick response @ThomDietrich.

Maybe changing the menu option from “Go through all openHABian setup steps manually” to read something like “OpenHAB & Supporting Tools installation” might help?

Great job on the menu, thanks for your input.

Idus · June 12, 2017, 11:11am

I often find it easier for users if it is just marked in the title.

Maybe just write.

“10 | MENU Apply Improvements…”
"20 | MENU Optional Components"
etc.

Cheers,

/Idus

ThomDietrich · June 13, 2017, 12:34am

Hey guys! I’ll make it short.

I’m looking at three successfully finished installations: RPi3, RPi0W, PineA64 The PineA64 build was broken and I had to create a pull request upstream after two hours of sorting it out. It’s late now and I’ve plans for tomorrow. Release announcement probably on Wednesday, let’s see.

@Idus I’ve updated the documentation per your suggestion.

@Idus there are two problems with your question: 1. The openHABian configurator is downloaded from the internet on first boot, that’s not possible without either WiFi or Ethernet… besides how would one even control the device without any network connection? (display+mouse are not an option for me ;))

@clearwater thanks for reporting. I’ve added a hint that (some) dongles might do the job to the documentation. I’ve also added double-quotes to both documentation and openhabian.conf.

@skatun Now that I have the submenus new optional components are not a problem any more. I’ve concentrated on under-the-hood things the last couple of days but will look into various optional components after the release! It’s a promise and you may nag me with it

@mark_cornhill @Idus the submenus should be clear now.

Idus · June 13, 2017, 8:02am

Greetings,

I´m happy to contribute! You are making a stellar job!
Thank you for clearing out the process. I understand your point of view even though I actually use display+mouse to set it up on a different network.

Keep up the good work!

/Idus

ThomDietrich · June 16, 2017, 7:41pm

openHABian v1.3 released!

Documentation: http://docs.openhab.org/installation/openhabian.html
Image Download: https://github.com/openhab/openhabian/releases

A few months have passed and it’s time for a new official version of the openHABian scripts and images.
openHABian v1.3 packs many small changes and improvements in both the base images and the openHABian configuration tool.

Changes since v1.2

All git commits can be found here.

The RPi ua-netinst image is discontinued
The openHABian configuration tool openhabian-config received a complete menu overhaul, with submenus and usage specific sections, including a menu for manual setups
Add a function to switch over to the latest openHAB 2.0 unstable snapshot
Add the openHAB Log Viewer (based on frontail), is now a default component
Add the Amanda backup system, preconfigured by @mstormi (#127)
Add optional component NodeRED by @kubawolanin (#152)
Warn about and add fix for FireMotD cron job related DDoS (#142)
Warn about ua-netinst kernel panic (#153)
Mount all relevant openHAB folders under /srv (bind mounts) for ease of use and for backups (incl. correct permissions, see README inside)
The folder /srv is accessible via Samba as “openHAB-share”
Set all relevant passwords (user, samba, openHAB console) function by @EliasGabrielsson (#141)
Serial Port function on latest jessie fixed (#155)
Add openhab(ian) users to group gpio
Add bluetooth packages (RPi3, RPi0W) (#156)
RPi: heartbeat removed (upstream error), successful build indicated by openHAB dashboard
PineA64: Save initial random mac as permanent mac (#160)
Add an empty file authorized_keys for SSH PKI users
Samba veto file directive included
The documentation is up to date and includes many hints and answers to questions asked by users in the past few months
*many more small fixes and improvements

Please check the commit history and the documentation for more details.

Attention Existing Users

In the past couple of weeks two problems arose you SHOULD be aware of.

What to do:
Please update the openHABian configuration tool (on SSH console type sudo openhabian-config, then select “Update”). Afterwards warning messages will show up automatically if you are affected by one of these issues.
Follow along the instructions give.

New setups are not affected.

As always for existing setups there is no need to install openHABian anew. To be up to date you should however update openHABian and execute the “Upgrade” option. Next you can go through the menu and execute interesting options as you wish.

New Menu, New Options

The menu of the openHABian configuration tool was growing out of its size. With it’s new submenus and sections for specific topics it’s now ready for new additions, platforms and further optional components.

openHAB Log Viewer

openHABian always claimed to make working with openHAB easier and to hide the Linux world from the end user. However looking at the log files openhab.log and events.log was something different. As important that is during items and sitemap definition and rule development, these were best viewed via SSH, e.g. via the alias command openhablog.

2ded5c56-0d0a-11e7-86fd-b5108abe564f.png1451×682

The openHAB Log Viewer is a webpage to interactively view the logs. The component is automatically installed with a new setup or can be selected from the menu for existing setups. Check it out! More details can be found in documentation.
Backups (Thanks to Amanda and @mstormi)

Often asked for openHABian now finally includes a backup option. You can learn more about this new component in its dedicated README (the file is not yet optimized for a good Markdown presentation, contributions welcome). Please test the new function and report your experience!!!

At this point I also want to point out the other backup options you have. Under the new Samba share “openHAB-share” you’ll find all your openHAB files. You can simply create a backup from these files from another device.

openHABian v1.3 includes many more changes and improvements. Learn about them in the changes log above and the documentation article.

Feel free to update your system, Install the image or try a manual setup.

Dim · June 18, 2017, 6:40am

Excellent stuff !

I just installed it and it works fine !

…but … it’s soooo violent & mean

ThomDietrich · June 18, 2017, 10:08am

Ouch any idea how to fix that?

narf27 · June 18, 2017, 2:07pm

can’t install the logviewer:

2017-06-18_16:00:38_CEST [openHABian] Installing the openHAB Log Viewer (frontai                                                                                                                                                             l)...
$ npm install -g frontail
/usr/bin/frontail -> /usr/lib/node_modules/frontail/bin/frontail
/usr/lib
└── frontail@4.0.2


$ npm update -g frontail

$ systemctl daemon-reload
Failed to execute operation: Connection timed out

$ systemctl enable frontail.service
Failed to execute operation: Connection timed out

$ systemctl restart frontail.service
Failed to restart frontail.service: Connection timed out
FAILED (service)

still get the “openHABian Raspberry Pi ua-netinst image detected” error after upgrading?

What to do:
Please update the openHABian configuration tool (on SSH console type sudo openhabian-config, then select "Update"). Afterwards warning messages will show up automatically if you are affected by one of these issues.
Follow along the instructions give.

which instructions?!

what version should openHAB be? openHAB 2.0.0-1 (Release Build) ?

ThomDietrich · June 18, 2017, 8:29pm

The warning you are seeing should read as follows:

Please find all details regarding the issue and the resolution of it at: Boot up fails with Kernel panic after upgrade (ua-netinst) · Issue #147 · openhab/openhabian · GitHub

In short: I would recommend to backup your files and install a fresh openHABian v1.3 system.

systemctl is not able to interact with your system, that’s related to some other issue I can’t diagnose easily but it will work with the new setup.

narf27 · June 19, 2017, 6:05am

as it took me week to get my serial device running i’m not going to make a fresh install…
so i’m basically stuck with the old version and that’s it?

goebelmeier · June 19, 2017, 7:40am

Hi @ThomDietrich,

is there any known issue regarding upgrading the underlying Raspbian from Jessie (8) to Stretch (9)?

If not, i would try to upgrade my RPi next weekend.

RWest · June 19, 2017, 8:35am

have you tried to use another Java?

i think we need to make a clear doc/tutorial for this.

ThomDietrich · June 19, 2017, 2:01pm

If you put it like this… yes.
It took you weeks to get all serial devices working but shouldn’t it be easier now? You could just document/copy all relevant changes and apply them to the new system. In general I would say that the raspbian system is way better in regards to serial, gpios etc. You could try with a second sd card - if it doesn’t work after one hour you can just go back.

@RWest your instructions are specific for the Pine64 and the restriction to use the armhf packages.

@goebelmeier I did not try this yet. Looking at the changes we can possibly expect problems with apt and the serial and network specific options of the openHABian Configuration Tool. I’d be interested to hear about your findings!

narf27 · June 21, 2017, 7:59am

ok, i found a empty (= unused) sa card. so i flash the new image and copy all of my userdata and conf shares of my existing setup to the new one and everything should be working or do i have to set up bindings confs etc. again?

ThomDietrich · June 21, 2017, 10:49am

… well that depends on what you restored from the old system. If you restored the openHAB internal database your binding config will be there, if you just restored *.rules files etc., you will need to install and configure bindings anew via Paper UI. It all boils down to: Just check your system for the current state, I can’t tell you this.

FreeRangePamela · June 21, 2017, 3:29pm

Hello @ThomDietrich Thank you so much for your setup! I’m a super newbie so please excuse ignorance if this should be obvious.

Anyway, I kept getting errors when trying to start up my Raspberry Pi 2 with the Openhabian image – it just kept starting over and over.

Eventually, I looked at some manual things and finally got Openhab2 to install correctly and I’m seeing the user interface and everything on my web browser. That’s the good news.

The problem is that every time the Pi reboots, it tries to do the Openhabian set up again (and continues to fail). Is there a way to delete or de-activate the part of the Openhabian install that starts automatically on boot?

narf27 · June 21, 2017, 8:11pm

my operating sd card runs with “openHABian Configuration Tool [master]v1.2-279(e7e1cf2)”,
i can backup anything i need to as i can switch between the two setups. i’d like to take the whole conf if that’s possible.
just tell me which folders to copy/paste =)
i have the three smb shares openHAB-conf -sys and -userdata. would that be enough or is there more to it?

Zaphood1967 · June 22, 2017, 8:25am

Hi,

once again, Kudos for that excellent work ! With the latest updated and the inclusion of MQTT and Node Red this is just an outstanding project.

One thing I noticed is, that when I am swapping the SD Card from an RPI2 to an RPI3 and updating the kernel, the system no longer does any kind of reboot (neither “sudo reboot” nor “sudo shutdown -r now”). It just goes black.
Back in the RPI2 everything is fine.

Any ideas ? According to the official RPI sites, this move should work flawless…

Thanks

mayan_kannan · June 22, 2017, 4:05pm

hi , first check ur current ip address and check RPI ssh status is on of off