Knowing which version of openHAB to run? Little lost

Setup, Configuration and Use Beginners
1

Hi, very new to the home automation scene.

I’ve gotten a Raspberry Pi 3 and installed Rasbian and followed the installation instructions, previous tried on Windows and installed 1.8.3. But the Linux installation instructions and apt-get only seem to have instructions for openHAB2.

Which I appear to have gotten to the working stage. Samba installed, shares accessed etc. But there seems to be quite a lot of mixed tutorials and instructions, and openHAB 2 seems to operate far differently to 1.8. Like I can’t even find the default_openhab.cfg file to rename in 2. default.sitemap doesn’t seem to be loading at all.

I got the demo site working on the windows box, and 1.8. I was trying to perform a ‘simple’ test using the Systeminfo and CPU/GPU temp tutorial, but I can’t seem to render that via those instructions.

So my questions is, is openHAB 2 currently not for me? Should I go back to 1.8? I’m quite a newbie to Linux, and haven’t messed with it for years. But I pick things up quickly.

I’m looking to automate a new home, built 12+ months from now. But wanted to learn and test out on a few things like Z-wave devices, etc. Prior to that time, and see if it’s viable for me.

2

You are right. There are mixed informations for OH1 and OH2 around. This can be confusing at times. But at docs.openhab.org you will find all the informations needed for a OH2 installation. And the documentation gets better every day.

I would suggest to use OH2. It’s stable enough and will be the future.

And as a Linux newbie, you should try openHABian (can be found here) to get your basic installation running. openhabian installs Raspbian and the latest OH2 version automatically on your Pi. Works like a charm.It also sets samba shares and all this useful stuff.

And you are right: OH2 differs from OH1 in some ways. For example there isn’t a default_openhab.cfg (or openhab.cfg) anymore… :wink:

3

Thx @jaydee73 for the reply. Yeah, a lot of mixed info, some of it found around openhab.org unfortunately. That’s new news on those files no longer present, guess why I couldn’t find them.

I followed the instructions at docs.openhab.org for Linux installation, linked from the Raspberry Pi section there. I’ll take a look at openHABian (your ‘here’ wasn’t a clickable link ;)) Yeah, I’ve got most of that setup now, but I guess I’ve not done that much to not start again with a more streamlined installation to ensure it’s all correct.

4

I know! :slight_smile:

5

Also for a clear set of differences have a look at the documentation for users migrating from 1.x to, 2 http://docs.openhab.org/tutorials/migration

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6

As I hadn’t used 1.x before, I didn’t really look at that section. It appears to be quite helpful as an introduction piece too.

7

Thanks, it is on my todo list to include some of that info to a getting started tutorial when I get time to sit down and write.

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8

Sort of related, maybe. I tried the openHABian, but it seems a little too hands off for me, so I’ve re-installed via the ‘manual’ automated method in the guides.

Looking at the Samba installation instructions here:

http://docs.openhab.org/installation/linux.html#network-sharing

We setup a share to path “path=/var/lib/openhab2” & “path=/etc/openhab2”

But the instructions for setting correct permissions reference a different path, that’s not valid
sudo chown -hR openhab:openhab /etc/openhab2 /opt/openhab2/conf

Is that correct or am I missing at step that should have created /opt/openhab2/conf and you don’t have to set permissions for the first defined Samba share?

9

It may be a bit “hands off” but I guarantee you will have fewer issues with an apt-get installation than a manual installation.

If you do a manual install your openhab home is whereever you unzipped it to. Typically that is /opt/openhab2. The conf folder should be under there.

If you installed using apt-get the conf folder is /etc/openhab2

I think that line is trying to cover both types of installs. You should only have one of those paths I think. I run in Docker so take that with a grain of salt. There might be a step that has you create a link or something I don’t know about.

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10

Yeah, I figured it’s trying to cover both install options. But wasn’t sure, not sure who can edit those instructions, but maybe an indication of intention might help :slight_smile:

Yeah, I used apt-get via the Linux installation instructions in docs.openhab documentation. Guess the nature of the beta status of HAB2 the documentation is a work in progress too.

At the moment, it’s not having the knowledge to know what I can ignore or what is important. Not knowing what I don’t know, etc.

11

You can find an issue on the openhab/openhab-docs github repo. We particularly need recommendations from new comers so we can make the docs as clear as possible.

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12

@Rumbaar: I’m the author of both the installation article and openHABian.

Regarding the mentioning of both paths: I didn’t want to make the differentiation all the time and thought nobody would think about this one line.
Regarding openHABian: I totally get what you are trying to say by hands-off. I can however ensure you that openHABian is just an automation of the recommended steps after setting up Raspbian. After the first boot the system is under your full control and you can use and modify it however you want to. So from my point of view there is no reason to not use it as a base… :wink:

Regarding your more general questions/concerns: You are mentioning many details that were interesting with openHAB 1.x but are not with openHAB 2. That’s why I believe your actual problem was to look into old OH1 tutorials. I belive if you just follow the articles under http://docs.openhab.org you will be fine.

That said, your input on missing information in this still young documentation platform would be amazing! Tell us about them here or in the GitHub Issue tracker. It might be interesting for you to also look at the big menu rework I’m currently working on.

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13

Firstly thank you for your work!

I relatively technically minded, but quite new in the field of Linux (dabbled by never went far), so when I encounter errors it’s a concern. I was relatively sure it was a catch-all command line but had to make sure.

[quote=“ThomDietrich, post:12, topic:17892”]
Regarding openHABian: I totally get what you are trying to say by hands-off. I can however ensure you that openHABian is just an automation of the recommended steps after setting up Raspbian. After the first boot the system is under your full control and you can use and modify it however you want to.
[/quote]Yes it’s a great script, though once again watching it install you get presented with quite a few warning/errors. That you hope aren’t too much of an issue. Though it took my install around 3 hours to complete (an option for an online install version might speed that).

I had previously installed via the Raspberry/Linux installation instructions, which I’ve gone back too. So when I tried the openHABian solution, though it was good for things like disabling root, and installing various helper tools. As a newbie, the command line interface can be quite daunting. At this stage I liked the ease of the GUI interface that is default in the apt-get method. Where things like correcting the wrong keyboard layout settings, or even the raspi-config interface is easier to manage for a newbie.

I’ve now set the configurations to how I want them, memory to 16 and I can even set it to start to the command line when I’m pure headless.

[quote=“ThomDietrich, post:12, topic:17892”]
Regarding your more general questions/concerns: You are mentioning many details that were interesting with openHAB 1.x but are not with openHAB 2. That’s why I believe your actual problem was to look into old OH1 tutorials. I believe if you just follow the articles under http://docs.openhab.org you will be fine.
[/quote]Yes, the majority of the guides outside of the ‘docs.openhab’ are more in line with 1.x. Where looking for features and options that are moved or depreciated in 2.x can cause the issues. I think some of the contents of migration from 1.x should be duplicated in a ‘New to HAB 2.x’ section or something as that helped a bit. I try to only look at the HAB2 docs section for information, but some of that is a little light.

Like the sitemap section mentions it comes with a demo configuration package, but no direct way to access that from a base install. As not mentioned in that section you need to alter the addons.cfg or use Paper UI to set it to demo and, I think, either wait or restart the service to get the demo site installed/configured. Which I found out afterwards.

[quote=“ThomDietrich, post:12, topic:17892”]
That said, your input on missing information in this still young documentation platform would be amazing! Tell us about them here or in the GitHub Issue tracker. It might be interesting for you to also look at the big menu rework I’m currently working on.
[/quote]Thanks I’ll try and, as a newbie, document any issues or little knowledge gaps I’ve encountered. Than might help those also new to openHAB.

I’ll try to take a look at the big rework, I don’t envy you regarding documentation. One of my pet hates. Good luck!!

14

I’ve already had that thought myself and have been mentally composing such an article. Stay tuned. :slight_smile:

I probably won’t duplicate so much as move the contents to the getting started article and change the migration tutorial to point there. DRY.

Kai is actually working on a PR right now that will make this much easier. upon first boot you bring up the OH web page and can select among four preconfigured baselines, one of which is the demo.

Docs and usability is getting better day-by-day. But getting input from users, particularly new users that don’t have the benefit of months or years of experience, is golden. Experienced users tend to make assumptions based on experience and fail to document them. We welcome anything you can contribute.

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15

Sounds good!
Short correction: the first start package selection is already available in the newest builds! :slight_smile:

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