[SOLVED] Openhabian-config on existing installation

  • Platform information:
    • Hardware: Raspberry Pi 3 B+, 120gb mSATA SSD in a USB enclosure
    • OS: Raspbian Stretch
    • Java Runtime Environment: 1.8.0_212
    • openHAB version: 2.4.0 release build. Jython 2.7.0. ZWave 2.5.0 snapshot.

When I first set up openHAB, I tried using the openhabian image, and it repeatedly fail with an error during setup. I can’t remember what it was at this point – but I gave that up and went with raspbian, and then installed and got openhab working through apt-get, following these instructions.

Now, it has come to my attention that there are things missing, such as “frontail” which I will need in order to use logging through the dashboard.

It has also come to my attention that I could have used openhabian-config on top on raspbian to start with.

I am now 2 weeks into my openHAB setup. I have pages and pages of ZWave devices set up, and things are working. Starting over from scratch is not an option at this point.

So, here’s the question. Can I still use openhabian-config on top of my existing installation to install frontail and other things? Or is that just going to kill my setup?

Yes, but it depends on what options you select inside openhabian-config. It has menu options to separately activate each of the components.
And of course noone can guarantee this does not hurt your config (of course there ARE options that will do that) so you should play it safe (i.e. make backups of the disk and the OH config before proceeding).

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Thanks, Markus. I made a clonezilla backup a few hours ago, but I will back up the OH config as well.
At least with your answer, it’s worth trying.

My god, it seems to have just worked!

2019-06-18_21:13:49_+07 [openHABian] openHABian configuration tool version: [master]v1.4.1-468(1afc578)
2019-06-18_21:13:49_+07 [openHABian] Checking for changes in origin... OK
2019-06-18_21:14:10_+07 [openHABian] Updating myself... OK - No remote changes detected. You are up to date!
2019-06-18_21:19:44_+07 [openHABian] Installing Node.js for arm (prerequisite for other packages)...
$ wget -O /tmp/nodejs-arm.tar.gz https://nodejs.org/download/release/latest-dubnium/node-v10.16.0-linux-armv7l.tar.gz
--2019-06-18 21:19:44--  https://nodejs.org/download/release/latest-dubnium/node-v10.16.0-linux-armv7l.tar.gz
Resolving nodejs.org (nodejs.org)... 104.20.23.46, 104.20.22.46, 2606:4700:10::6814:172e, ...
Connecting to nodejs.org (nodejs.org)|104.20.23.46|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 18890540 (18M) [application/gzip]
Saving to: ‘/tmp/nodejs-arm.tar.gz’

/tmp/nodejs-arm.tar.gz                           100%[=======================================================================================================>]  18.01M  5.86MB/s    in 3.4s

2019-06-18 21:19:48 (5.38 MB/s) - ‘/tmp/nodejs-arm.tar.gz’ saved [18890540/18890540]


$ tar -zxf /tmp/nodejs-arm.tar.gz --strip-components=1 -C /usr

$ rm /tmp/nodejs-arm.tar.gz
OK
2019-06-18_21:19:50_+07 [openHABian] Installing the openHAB Log Viewer (frontail)...
$ npm install -g frontail
/usr/bin/frontail -> /usr/lib/node_modules/frontail/bin/frontail
+ frontail@4.5.4
added 146 packages from 117 contributors in 20.861s

$ npm update -g frontail

$ systemctl daemon-reload

$ systemctl enable frontail.service
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/frontail.service → /etc/systemd/system/frontail.service.

$ systemctl restart frontail.service
OK
2019-06-18_21:20:26_+07 [openHABian] Adding an openHAB dashboard tile for 'frontail'... OK
2019-06-18_21:20:47_+07 [openHABian] Checking for default openHABian username:password combination... OK
2019-06-18_21:20:47_+07 [openHABian] We hope you got what you came for! See you again soon ;)

When does THAT ever happen? :slight_smile:
Let’s see if openhab still works and/or if it actually does something. :slight_smile:

Murphy’s law
When u backup first it works, the one time you skip a backup is the time it fails.

Clonezilla looks good but does not restore to smaller drives. Suggest you check out this software.

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@matt1, I needed to transfer to a smaller SSD today to set up a second openHAB system so I decided to try to follow your instructions. It didn’t go so well – I don’t think the Paragon Hard Disk Manager is available anymore. I’ll write a more detailed post in the thread.

Now that you’ve installed openHABian, you can selectively install Amanda from openhabian-config and use it to backup (and restore, e.g. to have a duplicate) whatever you want on file level as well as on device level. Add the director(ies) and raw devices to /etc/amanda/openhab-dir/disklist to do so.

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I’m going to try Amanda today after backing up with clonezilla one last time, and after that I will try to upgrade to openHAB 2.5 M1. Wish me luck :).

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