X10 Community Forum
💬General Category => Mac/Linux & Open Source and the X10 Home => Raspberry Pi, Arduino & other SBC => Topic started by: petera on August 20, 2018, 12:17:06 PM
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As members on this forum may already be aware of there are a number of different platforms for X10 on the Raspberry Pi and the Raspberry Pi Zero that have now been tested and proven to work very well. Some of them will take a little more time and patience to implement than others but with help and guidance you should get there.
Once you have found the correct platform to work with, once you have the installation completed you will access your new platform through the browser on your Raspberry Pi or from any other device you have available to you.
The real strength in deploying a Raspberry for X10 is that it does not have to have a keyboard, mouse or monitor attached to it. It acts as what is termed a "server" and the device that you use to access it is known as a client. On your client you open a browser and type in the ip address of your Raspberry Pi. You will be presented with the main screen of your chosen platform and from there configure your X10 devices. You will be able to create macros, events and timers and of course if you choose add other elements of home automation never available in AHP.
All this time your Raspberry Pi can be hidden away in the corner with the only things attached being the power supply and your X10 controller. There really is no need for a GUI with this little beauty. In fact for home automation it is recommend that you leave the GUI out. All yor system configurations will be carried out on your other device, the client which can be another PC, a tablet or even a mobile phone.
I really do recommend that you take the plunge and buy a Raspberry Pi and try a platform that suits.
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A list of what you have tried, & used as well as pros/cons of each as you saw see it would be most helpful to X10 users looking to make the leap.
I realize these different platforms are mostly a users preference but knowing before hand what to expect goes a long way in helping a X10 user decide which to try first.
I've only loaded and ran one possible platform of all the options and I do like it. It doesn't matter to me if a platform is no longer being worked on as long as it handles my X10 and the CM15 if it has options to create addons and most do I can stumble through creating one if needed.
I do like to look at other possibilities before I dig in to far. >!
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A list of what you have tried, & used as well as pros/cons of each as you saw see it would be most helpful to X10 users looking to make the leap.
I realize these different platforms are mostly a users preference but knowing before hand what to expect goes a long way in helping a X10 user decide which to try first.
I've only loaded and ran one possible platform of all the options and I do like it. It doesn't matter to me if a platform is no longer being worked on as long as it handles my X10 and the CM15 if it has options to create addons and most do I can stumble through creating one if needed.
I do like to look at other possibilities before I dig in to far. >!
The majority of the ones I have road tested so far support the CM15 and the CM11 and in a few cases the CM17 (Firecracker I think. Not much use to me on this side of the planet :'( ) .
I've had a little spare time over the last couple of weeks but now it's back to the "day job". I will post on the working platforms I've encountered, 10 at the last count as soon as time allows.
It would be nice to see a few more members giving X10 a try on the Raspberry Pi if for no other reason than to demonstrate that there is life after AHP.
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Yes, we need a list of what HA software works and doesn't. Something that lists things by controller and some high level notes (script languages, forum quality, downloadable plugins, etc). If someone can come up with a template, I can try to add my attempts at different software (though it's been a long summer and things are getting fuzzy). I use HG but am planning on a new round of trials when it starts raining and the days get shorter.
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I was using HomeGenie exclusively a while back and found that it covered most of my home automation requirements but they grew and unfortunately I outgrew it. It’s still very capable I will admit but as development halted I started to look around at alternatives.
I didn’t want to reinvent the wheel so when I installed Home Assistant I found it had everything I needed and more. Very customisable too and when I started to play around with Python that sealed the deal.
The most important factor for potential users is that it is fairly easy to install, has a vibrant community and is very well documented. These factors alone make it worth trying. It also has a Raspberry Pi version but I prefer to install packages like these manually. Gives greater scope to add and remove elements you may or may not require.
I have tried a number of other alternatives purely to see if I could get X10 working on them but wasn’t too impressed with the overall look and feel.
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Life after AHP.
I have been using X10 for a long time with AHP on a dedicated PC. I recently decided it is time to move to a Raspberry Pi to reduce the power usage and hard drive wear of the PC. I tried Home Genie but found it too complicated to program the functions I wanted, mostly having it send me a text message when my garage door was closed. I looked at Home Assistant but was not impressed with it as well. Finally I settled on Domoticz which does all the functions I had with AHP, namely timers on lights, controlling my IP cameras, and macro like functions (using Blockly) to turn on lights when entering the house late at night, sending a text message to my cell when the garage door opens or closes. I have found this to be very reliable, even though we have recently had several power glitches.
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I failed to get Domoticz running correctly. The new HG didn't work well for me, so I'm currently using 526. I have some glitches periodically (mostly in winter due to weather and longer lighting needs). I plan on using my RPi3 to potentially move to HomeAssistant in the coming months.
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Life after AHP.
I have been using X10 for a long time with AHP on a dedicated PC. I recently decided it is time to move to a Raspberry Pi to reduce the power usage and hard drive wear of the PC. I tried Home Genie but found it too complicated to program the functions I wanted, mostly having it send me a text message when my garage door was closed. I looked at Home Assistant but was not impressed with it as well. Finally I settled on Domoticz which does all the functions I had with AHP, namely timers on lights, controlling my IP cameras, and macro like functions (using Blockly) to turn on lights when entering the house late at night, sending a text message to my cell when the garage door opens or closes. I have found this to be very reliable, even though we have recently had several power glitches.
Interesting. I installed Domoticz a while back. In fact I think I still have a copy on SD card which uses Heyu on the CM11 as a type of bridge to implement X10. It's a while since I used it though.
Great to see you tried a couple of different platforms until you found one that works. Let's hope others take your approach and experiment a little.
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I failed to get Domoticz running correctly. The new HG didn't work well for me, so I'm currently using 526. I have some glitches periodically (mostly in winter due to weather and longer lighting needs). I plan on using my RPi3 to potentially move to HomeAssistant in the coming months.
I think you'll be pleasantly surprised once you drill into Home Assistant. I'm not sure of your level of experience in Python but it's English language similarity struck a positive note with me. That and the overall layout of Home Assistant will definitely take up a considerable amount of the coming winter months for me.
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I have zero experience in python. Learning a programming language is what turns many wouldbe users away from a potential powerful program. :(
I'll give this ago but suspect I'll stick with HG due to its simplicity.
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I have zero experience in python. Learning a programming language is what turns many wouldbe users away from a potential powerful program. :(
I'll give this ago but suspect I'll stick with HG due to its simplicity.
It's not necessary to program in Home Assistant to configure your home automation. It's just a bonus if you can. A bit like being able to program in C# in Home Genie. I find Home Assistant quicker to configure too. Again it's just down to personal choice.
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Does HA have a wizard for creating programs (custom macros) like HG?
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Does HA have a wizard for creating programs (custom macros) like HG?
It's event based. Set up your devices and have them execute based an predefined parameters.
There's plenty of documentation that can be read up on Home Assistant. If for no other reason I suggest installing it on a spare SD card and trying it out. Nothing to loose and it's the best way to evaluate it.
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Yes, we need a list of what HA software works and doesn't. Something that lists things by controller and some high level notes (script languages, forum quality, downloadable plugins, etc). If someone can come up with a template, I can try to add my attempts at different software (though it's been a long summer and things are getting fuzzy). I use HG but am planning on a new round of trials when it starts raining and the days get shorter.
I gave up on HG on windows as way too buggy, moved back to AHP but bought a Pi zero W and tried installing HG with no success, then installed OpenHab and it runs but is too complex for my willingness to learn it enough to use it.
I like this idea bkenobi. Each of you guys have installed all those different HA programs on your SD card, but for a lot of us, the pain of loading the mem card with that foreign linux operating system and also a new HA program to try is a killer - at least it is for me. If I had more than a spare hour a day to play, it would be different.
So I like the idea above and ask you all to consider one up on it:
POST THE LIST OF POTENTIAL HA PROGRAMS AND UNDER EACH INCLUDE A LINK TO A SELF INSTALLING MEM CARD IMAGE.
Then those of us without linux experience, with day jobs, can experiment with them!
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I started this thread not knowing what, if any experience members had of Linux Raspbian. As far as I can see now that level is quite low now. I’m not sure if anyone wants to take the time or has the inclination to learn the basics of the Linux OS.
Personally speaking and having a day job too I am not in a position to write up one liner installation scripts. Maybe others here do. All I was trying to do was share my experience of X10 on the Raspberry Pi. I didn’t choose the Raspberry Pi OS. That decision was down to the manufacturer.
Maybe at some stage someone will develop a credible Windows OS to run on a Raspberry Pi. That should make life easier for those who find the one click Windows installer easier to manage.
For those who are up to the challenge and wish to have an X10 based home automation system working on a Raspberry Pi there is a wealth of very informative reading on the web to choose from. For those members good luck with your exploits. It can be achieved and a very rewarding learning experience too.
Home automation is a marathon and not a sprint. If you’re looking for a quick fix Linux/Raspbian is not for you no matter how many scripts are written for you. You are depending on the people who write those scripts to maintain them for you.
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Home automation is a marathon and not a sprint. If you’re looking for a quick fix Linux/Raspbian is not for you no matter how many scripts are written for you. You are depending on the people who write those scripts to maintain them for you.
I managed to create a few scripts mainly to help myself with installing and I posted the manual install prior for those that wish to know what to expect or if they wished to do the manual install.
With the manual install laid out for you it is very easy to fix a broken script.
Since your a cut and paste guy you should know that. Linux scripts are basically the same as a windows batch file (maybe easier to create).
I gave up on HG on windows as way too buggy, moved back to AHP but bought a Pi zero W and tried installing HG with no success,
The HG step by step walk though I posted here http://forums.x10.com/index.php?topic=30427.msg174845#msg174845 failed for you?
That install can't be made much more simpler other then an image or a Kiss script,
which by the way are very easy to write they simply include the lines posted in a manual install.
So I like the idea above and ask you all to consider one up on it:
POST THE LIST OF POTENTIAL HA PROGRAMS AND UNDER EACH INCLUDE A LINK TO A SELF INSTALLING MEM CARD IMAGE.
Then those of us without linux experience, with day jobs, can experiment with them!
The images will not work for everyone and many softwares don't produce one probably for that reason.
Scripts I posted in the Kiss Script section however should work for all PIs if the software it is installing will work on said PI.
I realize playing in Linux can get frustrating I as well have had a few frustrating moments And if it came across that I was angry with anyone this was not the case and I'm sorry if it appeared that way.
probably the most frustration comes from trying to help others and being ignored. To those that don't wish help from an individual just say so.
I've decided to make Home Genie my prime PI software. It may be lacking in features the other bigger softwares have but it works best for X10 and does things with X10 other softwares can't without users hacking together work arrounds.
All the Linux Softwares I tried have limitations when it comes to X10. And this just may mean I'll have to create my own however for now I'm happy with HG.
>!
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Great comments, thanks!
I had no intention of making NEW work for anyone! ALL the HA variations listed have how to install links. Some better than others. Even individuals like our wonderful tuicemen has written such for various HA programs. That is all I meant. List the HA, then list under it the best available install routine, be it a complete image or a step by step.
With that documented in one place, I feel it would get many others to jump on board and try them.
As for me, OpenHab is not for me, I am on to trying domotzit. Ho to install on pi zero W: https://domaciautomatizace.blogspot.com/2017/01/instalace-domoticz-na-raspberry-pi-zero.html
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Just for the record I’m not a “cut and paste guy”. I was merely pointing potential users to locations where they could read up on the software they were hoping to install. Shortcuts to success can be handy in the short term but usually come back to bite you.
I generally read up on software I intend to use and familiarise myself with its workings. Others may not share my philosophy but I don’t expect others to do the hard work for me while I enjoy the benefits.
I do understand that Linux users are not exactly flavour of the month on this forum and MS Windows is the defacto way of doing things here. What I will say is that all the life jackets and sticking plasters applied to AHP is only delaying the inevitable. Maybe someone in the Windows world will step in produce an alternative and save the day for X10. Until then I was just proposing an alternative platform that has clearly proven to work.
I think at this stage that enough Raspberry Pi platforms have been suggested to allow people decide if the Raspberry Pi is actually for them. If someone does want to start writing scripts to help people try these platforms that’s great but you really do need some knowledge of Linux. Finding your way around the file and folder structure to locate where you’ve just installed your platform can be an ordeal in itself.
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Just for the record I’m not a “cut and paste guy”. I was merely pointing potential users to locations where they could read up on the software they were hoping to install. Shortcuts to success can be handy in the short term but usually come back to bite you.
I generally read up on software I intend to use and familiarise myself with its workings. Others may not share my philosophy but I don’t expect others to do the hard work for me while I enjoy the benefits.
Sorry if the term "cut and paste guy" offended you. I merely meant you were familiar with doing that to save possible errors.
Any one that doesn't read up on a PI system prior to installing will almost always be disappointed or run into issues. Band aids or user work arounds are not the solution to any Home Automation software be it Home Assistant or Active Home Pro most are only temporary fixes.
Users need to find what works for them, If they wish to spend weeks to setup or just hours it has to work for their needs. Asking for others opinions about a software and getting a bad review of it usually doesn't stop me from at least attempting to install it. I love to read success stories over please help me ones, the forums (not just this one )are full of "it doesn't work Please help" posts.
Finding ones way around the linux file and folder structure really is that difficult using the GUI, using the terminal can be without knowing all the correct lingo.
As I said the scripts I posted here were created to help me with reinstalls which I thought others may find helpful to speed up their installs, reinstalls as well. sure I could just use a SD backup but at the moment my spares are in use testing other software.
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Just for the record I’m not a “cut and paste guy”. I was merely pointing potential users to locations where they could read up on the software they were hoping to install. Shortcuts to success can be handy in the short term but usually come back to bite you.
I generally read up on software I intend to use and familiarise myself with its workings. Others may not share my philosophy but I don’t expect others to do the hard work for me while I enjoy the benefits.
Sorry if the term "cut and paste guy" offended you. I merely meant you were familiar with doing that to save possible errors.
Any one that doesn't read up on a PI system prior to installing will almost always be disappointed or run into issues. Band aids or user work arounds are not the solution to any Home Automation software be it Home Assistant or Active Home Pro most are only temporary fixes.
Users need to find what works for them, If they wish to spend weeks to setup or just hours it has to work for their needs. Asking for others opinions about a software and getting a bad review of it usually doesn't stop me from at least attempting to install it. I love to read success stories over please help me ones, the forums (not just this one )are full of "it doesn't work Please help" posts.
Finding ones way around the linux file and folder structure really is that difficult using the GUI, using the terminal can be without knowing all the correct lingo.
As I said the scripts I posted here were created to help me with reinstalls which I thought others may find helpful to speed up their installs, reinstalls as well. sure I could just use a SD backup but at the moment my spares are in use testing other software.
One simple command applied in the right context and applied to the right area of the Linux file system will tell you so much about what is going on under the hood. By the same token used in the wrong area in the wrong context it will cause havoc. That's why the system is based on permissions and ownership.
It was never my intention to get into a debate about which OS is more capable than the other. Each has it's merits. My only intention was to point out that X10 in the Linux environment does look like it has a role to play in home automation. Yes a little effort does need to be invested to achieve this goal.
To dismiss a solution because it's not the way MS Windows does it tends to display a closed mind attitude.
For pure X10 functionality Linux has the solution for X10 which is not that difficult to implement. The difficulties arise for some when other elements of home automation are required.
Python is a very powerful English language like scripting but it needs a little time and effort invested into it to appreciate the power it can unleash. I just refer to the comments of iviper and what he has achieved in such a short space of time.
All I can say at this stage is that people who provide commentary on others endevours appreciate the time and effort that went into them rather than adopt a negative approach which at the end of the day discourages people from bringing solutions to the table in the first place.
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All I can say at this stage is that people who provide commentary on others endevours appreciate the time and effort that went into them rather than adopt a negative approach which at the end of the day discourages people from bringing solutions to the table in the first place.
I totally agree!
Brings to mind the old saying about one bad apple. ::) :'
I tried a few different Home Automation softwares and I do like what can be done with Linux on a PI.
There are some good programs out there and some poor ones just like any OS.
Users especially new to Pi and Linux need to find what works for them for their basic requirements.
Once they have that working they can expand on it in a number of different ways. Programing is just one way.
If they have issues, work with those trying to help, it benefits everyone when the issue gets resolved.
Most of the Home Automation programs for Linux have additional tools so extras can be added by anyone willing to spend time to create. If they share their creations even better.
I understand the frustration of newbies trying to setup a new program on Linux all to well and must apologize again to all who I may have taken my frustration as anger being directed at them specifically.
The typed word can be taken in several different contexts, and sadly mine is taken in the wrong way many times. :-[ :-[
I understand Mikes wishing a list of programs containing what interface works with them.
I ruled out a couple options after mistakenly reading or assuming the CM15 wasn't supported.
Many do they just list the support as being for mochad B:(
Providing a link to the softwares info page is a nice touch but really Google will provide that.
Petera, Thanks for all the help and info you have provided my in my endeavors with the PI. I haven't said that enough. >!
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Not trying to be that bad apple, but my my, rasberry pi's are EXPENSIVE! They are like fuses for me!
Had OpenHAB running on pi zero W, but wanted to try others.
Just downloaded domoticz to try, so loaded up a mem card with raspbian, it loaded, installed, looked good on the mini hdmi display... but the mouse nor keyboard worked.. so I could not set up the wifi as openHab had done for me. I was powering my 5 port usb adapter from usb output of windows computer.
So decided to instead try powering my 5 port usb unit from wall wart. Plugged it in and instant smoke again from pi. (:
unplugging as fast as possible, pulled the mini hdmi plug and got a 1" long spark follow it! board real hot in that area. went back to computer for power but too late. another one bites the dust...
jeesh. These pi's are EXPENSIVE!
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Ya, the PIs can get expensive if your going though them like fuses.
Sorry to hear you went through another one.
You really should be opening the softwares web interface from your PCs browser.
There really is no need to have a mouse and keyboard connected to the Pi for any of these Home Automation projects.
My Pi Zerro is only connected to the CM15. all setups and programing are done from my PC. Either with PUTTY (SH into it) or from the Browser. Address to the software is always Pi's IP followed by the softwares Port eg:
http://192.168.0.15:8080
That being said I do use a USB mouse and keyboard on my 3B+ but it has the additional USB ports, no need to add a powered USB hub.
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Not trying to be that bad apple, but my my, rasberry pi's are EXPENSIVE! They are like fuses for me!
Had OpenHAB running on pi zero W, but wanted to try others.
Just downloaded domoticz to try, so loaded up a mem card with raspbian, it loaded, installed, looked good on the mini hdmi display... but the mouse nor keyboard worked.. so I could not set up the wifi as openHab had done for me. I was powering my 5 port usb adapter from usb output of windows computer.
So decided to instead try powering my 5 port usb unit from wall wart. Plugged it in and instant smoke again from pi. (:
unplugging as fast as possible, pulled the mini hdmi plug and got a 1" long spark follow it! board real hot in that area. went back to computer for power but too late. another one bites the dust...
jeesh. These pi's are EXPENSIVE!
I've posted on numerous occasions how to create a wifi connection on a Raspberry Pi Zero without ever having to connect a keyboard, mouse or screen or ethernet to the Pi. This procedure is carried out after you have imaged Raspbian onto your SD card and before you have removed it from the SD card reader.
Here is the contents of the file you need to create
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US
network={
ssid="Your network name/SSID"
psk="Your WPA/WPA2 security key"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
Here is the procedure you need to follow to achieve this https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=203716
The other file you need to add to the SD card is a blank text file saved as SSH. to enable SSH.
DO NOT attempt to connect an incorrectly rated powered USB hub to the Pi and ensure that the correctly rated and approved USB power supply is all that is used to power the Pi.
I still have my original Pi A model and a number of other models including the Pi Zero W and have not managed to fry any of them.
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I guess I love pain; I just bought another pi zero W from arduino for $10 plus $4.55 shipping.
I will try again. I will not EVER plug in a separately powered USB hub.
I would LOVE to get into it via wifi; only openHAB allowed that so far.
I will try your scripts and hope for the best!
Thanks.
PS: Since these seem like fuses, I tried to order 3pc with one shipping charge, but they do not allow that. $ 14.50 each total or nothing. I figure I will pop another 1 or 2 before I figure out their weak link issue that allows them to pop like fuses....
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since fuses pop easy, I bought another (#4).... crazy they cannot hook to hdmi and separately powered USB hub at same time without frying. I will try the help offered by peterea and tuicemen to NOT hook up a hub anymore... Thank you both.
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I wouldn't think the powered hub is the problem. I have a Plex server running on one of my Pi's with a powered hub to insure the external hard drive (which contains all the media files) has enough power. This has been running for months without a problem. I do however run all my PiIs (three of them) headless.
Bob
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If people are willing to spend the time researching, the money to buy, and the time to configure the hardware, I am a bit confused why spending a little time on the software is a hangup. I learned to use Linux originally when I was hacking on my TiVo's. I didn't learn enough to do more than copy other people's code and I lost interest. That was only because TiVo worked well enough as is and the few scripts I installed were basically copy/paste.
I do use Linux at work, but I don't do anything advanced in it. I have IT staff that cover any real issues, so I'm still just a novice Linux user. That said, with a little reading, a few dollars investment in a RPi, and some time tinkering I've been able to get a lot of different systems set up. I'm not saying it's as easy as Windows HA, but that's primarily because the Windows crowd seems more willing to part with the contents of their wallets than those that use Linux. There are a couple paid options on Linux (Homeseer being the main one) and they are great. If you want a more DIY approach, you have to DIY...
I wanted open source in case the project died (HG would be dead if it wasn't open source). I didn't realize how complicated HG was, so I'm not likely to code anything within the main system. However, it has various scripting languages that range from easy (Wizard scripts akin to AHP) to real programming languages (C#, Python, etc). Most of the flexibility in these systems is the fact that a REAL programming language is available. It is not a negative, it is EXACTLY why I picked HG in the first place. HASS, Domoticz, etc. also have these options, so they are on the same level.
I fully appreciate that it's intimidating to get started with Linux. Ironically, that is exactly why the RPi was developed. It was designed as a teaching tool to get students up to speed on Linux so they could have an affordable, fully capable computer that is capable of doing many things, programming included. There are easy installations available to get going if you want to learn Linux or other languages. However, if you just want a ready-to-run HA system, you will probably want to focus on one of the easier setups that either has an installation script or a RPi image. HG used to have an image. Domoticz has an installer (just flash Raspbian and run the installer). Homeseer has an image.
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If people are willing to spend the time researching, the money to buy, and the time to configure the hardware, I am a bit confused why spending a little time on the software is a hangup. I learned to use Linux originally when I was hacking on my TiVo's. I didn't learn enough to do more than copy other people's code and I lost interest. That was only because TiVo worked well enough as is and the few scripts I installed were basically copy/paste.
I do use Linux at work, but I don't do anything advanced in it. I have IT staff that cover any real issues, so I'm still just a novice Linux user. That said, with a little reading, a few dollars investment in a RPi, and some time tinkering I've been able to get a lot of different systems set up. I'm not saying it's as easy as Windows HA, but that's primarily because the Windows crowd seems more willing to part with the contents of their wallets than those that use Linux. There are a couple paid options on Linux (Homeseer being the main one) and they are great. If you want a more DIY approach, you have to DIY...
I wanted open source in case the project died (HG would be dead if it wasn't open source). I didn't realize how complicated HG was, so I'm not likely to code anything within the main system. However, it has various scripting languages that range from easy (Wizard scripts akin to AHP) to real programming languages (C#, Python, etc). Most of the flexibility in these systems is the fact that a REAL programming language is available. It is not a negative, it is EXACTLY why I picked HG in the first place. HASS, Domoticz, etc. also have these options, so they are on the same level.
I fully appreciate that it's intimidating to get started with Linux. Ironically, that is exactly why the RPi was developed. It was designed as a teaching tool to get students up to speed on Linux so they could have an affordable, fully capable computer that is capable of doing many things, programming included. There are easy installations available to get going if you want to learn Linux or other languages. However, if you just want a ready-to-run HA system, you will probably want to focus on one of the easier setups that either has an installation script or a RPi image. HG used to have an image. Domoticz has an installer (just flash Raspbian and run the installer). Homeseer has an image.
Totally agree.
If I find something that's beyond me I either read up on it or move on. What I don't do is sit there like a sniper in the bush having pot shots at it.
What I tend to do is introduce a concept to someone, point them in the right direction and if they do come unstuck point them in the right direction to get them back on track again. What I don't do is help someone who is sitting there with a blank SD card in their hands hoping for a miracle.
Linux experts don't exist. What does exist are people who have spent their time and energy researching the subject and when they do find a solution they share it with others. Give a little, get a little back philosophy. That concept has worked for the Linux community for years and still does and as a result developments like the Raspberry Pi arrived on the scene.
There is no great need to be what others have referred to as a "programmer" to develop home automation projects on the Raspberry Pi. In fact most of the programming has already been done. All that is required is the ability to gather together all these different programs under one roof, the Raspberry Pi and using some of the excellently developed frontends have them talking to each other and deliver results.
The majority of this can be achieved by way of cut and paste commands, once again not programming in any sense of the word. This modular approach allows users to slowly build on their projects while reading up and researching at the same time. No big strain on personal resources neither mental nor financial.
My suggestion to those who want a solution right now is to check the web or your local store for that one size fits all magic box that you just plug in and go. You may be lucky to find one and if you do make sure your wallet is well stuffed with dollars.
In the mean time you could spend a little time and energy very little money and, with a little patience, build your own solution with the help and guidance of others who have achieved this.
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I wouldn't think the powered hub is the problem. I have a Plex server running on one of my Pi's with a powered hub to insure the external hard drive (which contains all the media files) has enough power. This has been running for months without a problem. I do however run all my PiIs (three of them) headless.
Bob
Thanks Bob. I had a similar feeling but never pursued it - until just now...
The common denominator is HDMI AND black Wallwart. I knew from the length of the arc unplugging mini HDMI the issue was not 5vdc but 120vac... but I was lazy; just bought a new pi.
So found one of the 120v plug pins on the wallwart USB supply is 120 ohms to pin 1 of USB! HAHA! That is the +5vdc Vcc supply pin! So depending how I plugged it in (it is unpolarized), I experimented enough times to put 120vac into the 5vdc line!
Sheesh! You cannot imagine how HARD I pitched that SOB in the trash can!!
Now to see if there is a pi zero W schematic online; I might be able to revive one of these blow units...
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The pi zero w schematic is on the Raspberry Pi site.
Gee 120 Ohms from an AC pin to +5 volts out. Must have been a nasty surprise.
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The pi zero w schematic is on the Raspberry Pi site.
Gee 120 Ohms from an AC pin to +5 volts out. Must have been a nasty surprise.
Yes, sorta on their website, but just blocks of certain areas of the card; not enough to find the defective components; for instance none of the main uproc are shown and none of the hdmi interface. I could not find a complete schematic of the pi zero W on line anywhere.
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While playing with my Alex X10 Hub project I decided to load up Domoticz just to give it a test run.
@ Mike I believe you'll like it. The install is simple and works with the CM15 using Mochad. Installing X10 devices can be done several ways, the easiest is with a remote which I don't have at my off grid place. However it does see the PLC signals from my WM100 as a remote signal. :)%
I still believe HG to be more powerful but that may change as I play more.
It does see x10 security sensors and you can add them to display status if you wish you can also add the security console to show status. Pressing a arm or disarm will not work and throws an error. I've not attempted a HA-Bridge/Broadlink send as yet still need to read up if that is possible. Domoticz does have a SD image available but the downloadable installer really is simple. sudo curl -L install.domoticz.com | bash
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Thanks. I am again within days of receipt of replacement pi zero W's... I already made a mem card with raspbian which loaded up fine and showed nicely on my hdmi display (until I overcooked my pi). I was ready to figure out how to copy my copy of domoticz.com program (downloaded on my windows computer) onto the pi's mem card to do the linux load command when I was shut down. Seems once the linux system is activated on the mem card that card is no longer readable in a win computer. I am guessing I download directly to the mem card via the linux browser and do not need to go thru my win computer... Can't wait to try again!
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The pi zero w schematic is on the Raspberry Pi site.
Gee 120 Ohms from an AC pin to +5 volts out. Must have been a nasty surprise.
Yes, sorta on their website, but just blocks of certain areas of the card; not enough to find the defective components; for instance none of the main uproc are shown and none of the hdmi interface. I could not find a complete schematic of the pi zero W on line anywhere.
I may have missed an earlier post but is it worth fiddling around trying to repair a Pi W. Just purchased five units with soldered headers for the equivalent of $90 including delivery here in Europe.
There may be other purchasing issues to consider in the US but maybe a group buy between members may solve those issues.
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Thanks. I am again within days of receipt of replacement pi zero W's... I already made a mem card with raspbian which loaded up fine and showed nicely on my hdmi display (until I overcooked my pi). I was ready to figure out how to copy my copy of domoticz.com program (downloaded on my windows computer) onto the pi's mem card to do the linux load command when I was shut down. Seems once the linux system is activated on the mem card that card is no longer readable in a win computer. I am guessing I download directly to the mem card via the linux browser and do not need to go thru my win computer... Can't wait to try again!
Was there any reason why you over locked your Pi. Pushing the GPU with a full desktop install and who knows what screen res you're using is a recipe for disaster. By all means if you want to test the Pi W to breaking point that's a good way to go about it.
Believe me. The Pi in all all it's variants is a very capable unit but high end desktop video gaming is not one of it's strong points.
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Thanks. I am again within days of receipt of replacement pi zero W's... I already made a mem card with raspbian which loaded up fine and showed nicely on my hdmi display (until I overcooked my pi). I was ready to figure out how to copy my copy of domoticz.com program (downloaded on my windows computer) onto the pi's mem card to do the linux load command when I was shut down. Seems once the linux system is activated on the mem card that card is no longer readable in a win computer. I am guessing I download directly to the mem card via the linux browser and do not need to go thru my win computer... Can't wait to try again!
Just one last point. Start with a fresh install of Raspbian Pi W and then install a fresh copy of Domoticz. It will save you endlessly troubleshooting later on.
Don't forget to drop in the blank SSH text file and the wpa_supplicant.conf file with all you wifi credentials onto your SD card prior to inserting it in the Pi W and powering it up. Means youre ready to go wifi wise.
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So remade my Raspbian SD card, put on blank SSH file and wpa_supplicant.conf, which has the following inside:
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US
network={
ssid= MY SSID name without " " marks
psk= my security code without the " " marks
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
It blinked (green LED on pi zero W) away for a while like doing something then quit with green LED on solid.
No IP shown on my network for it.
I assume this means it is not wifi talking. Maybe the " " marks are needed above?
It appears my HDMI tv had its HDMI input blown along with the various pi's, so I have no way to see what the pi is doing...
I suppose my next step is to find another HDMI monitor to see what is happening?
This is totally ridiculous! I can program in machine language, I can get thru C language, I can do VB and basic, ladder logic, structured text. But this linux blind crap is just CRAZY!
Another 3 hours down the drain.
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So remade my Raspbian SD card, put on blank SSH file and wpa_supplicant.conf, which has the following inside:
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US
network={
ssid= MY SSID name without " " marks
psk= my security code without the " " marks
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
It blinked (green LED on pi zero W) away for a while like doing something then quit with green LED on solid.
No IP shown on my network for it.
I assume this means it is not wifi talking. Maybe the " " marks are needed above?
It appears my HDMI tv had its HDMI input blown along with the various pi's, so I have no way to see what the pi is doing...
I suppose my next step is to find another HDMI monitor to see what is happening?
This is totally ridiculous! I can program in machine language, I can get thru C language, I can do VB and basic, ladder logic, structured text. But this linux blind crap is just CRAZY!
Another 3 hours down the drain.
Patience required.
Yes the quotation marks are required for your SSID name and password. That's why they were included in the sample config.
Don't forget Linux was created using C.
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" That's why they were included in the sample config."
Nonsense.
When we give customers samples to type in for talking to our servo drives, we often use quotes. Same as many other folks.
Thank you for telling to try again with quotes. I truly appreciate that. But I do not appreciate the BS. I will spend another couple hours making a new boot card, but please stop with the BS extra comments like above.
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" That's why they were included in the sample config."
Nonsense.
When we give customers samples to type in for talking to our servo drives, we often use quotes. Same as many other folks.
Thank you for telling to try again with quotes. I truly appreciate that. But I do not appreciate the BS. I will spend another couple hours making a new boot card, but please stop with the BS extra comments like above.
It wasn't BS as you so fondly term it. I was purely pointing out that the quotation marks WERE part of the wifi config file as can be seen in any of the Raspberry Pi related forums. Usually < > are the ones I would use to be ignored as do many others. Different strokes for different folks
Why spend a couple of hours creating a new SD card. When you create the first card after downloading extracting/imaging it just take an image of that card and use it as a blueprint image. Only takes 20 minutes tops to reimage it if you mess it up.
The extra comments you refer to I assume related to C being responsible for Linux. Purely a throwaway remark and noting inferred. I'll keep my commentary purely on a formal basis for future reference.
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most forums have a code block so you can post code like this
"this is code all info is used 1@ # 'oo'"it is to be used so there is no confusion in what is the actual code.
Saddly verry few use this.
Ive seen posts where the code includes the $ which is also confusing for newbies.
Actually I often find my self including the $ as well when cutting and pasting things to quickly. B:(
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Trying another few hours and many images later, there seems no combination of quotes, no quotes etc that lets my pi show up on my wifi with this raspbian blind headless approach.
I stick in my openhabian and it shows right up.
So my idea now: if I knew linux enough I believe I should be able to kill the openhab program running and instead download the domoticz program and run it.
I can SSH into the openhabian raspbian running pi.
Is there a way to stop a running program (openhab)? I see sudo command examples for downloading and running the domoticz...
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So ignoring openhabian that is running on port 8080, I just installed domoticz thru the SSH putty interface... it too uses port 8080... it installed and is running. I am too afraid to reboot as I have no clue if openhab or domoticz will restart. So for now it is running and I can go into it with a browser... so now to find how to install mochad to get x10 io working...
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if you have issues finding the mochad installer you can try the mochad script I made for myself
wget -qO- http://tuicemen.com/downloads/pi/mochad/mochad-17.sh | bash
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Assuming that it's not a NOOBS version being installed here, a number of others on other forums have reported problems installing and setting up wifi using the Etcher method. It was resolved by downloading the zipped image directly, unzipping the download using 7-Zip and writing the unzipped image using Win32 Image.
Again assuming the download was a good download, error free and that wifi credentials are exactly as they should be ie SSID name and password are exactly as they should be and the relevant WPA encryption being used is declared correctly.
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Thank you Petera for that info; I tried enough times to realize the raspbian image being made was the issue. My openhab was a different source and worked fine. So using it, since it talked wifi, I was able to download and install domoticz and it works. Mochad is another story. To install it is like 8 steps/commands. Having no clue about linux commands, all I could do was type in the words. Unfortunately 2 or 3 of these commands reported obvious failures. So testing with yet another linux command beginning with echo did not turn on or off a test lamp.
Thanks Tuicemen; I will try your script tomorrow for mochad!
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Not sure what method you used to install Mochad but this how to is fairly straightforward, easy to cut and paste and most importantly it works. If nothing else it's worth a read too. Works for CM15 or CM15Pro
https://www.markvriens.com/raspberry-pi-x10-with-cm15pro-controller/
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Exactly what I did. First thing that failed was the library install (I assume what that means). 2-3 failures, out of the 40 or so lines that ran, on that one. Then the long copy/paste wget failed some I think... rest seemed to not report any fails.
Also now that I have domoticz installed and some mochad, wifi connection is flaky. It stops randomly and i have to cycle power to pi to get it back after a reboot taking about 1.5 minutes...
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You've probably seen this link too but I'll include it anyway https://www.sigmdel.ca/michel/ha/domo/domo_08_en.html
If its possible at all the best solution is a fresh install of Raspbian on the Raspberry Pi Zero to rule out any problems with the board itself. I know you've tried this many times but make sure the credentials are exactly as they should be. One incorrect space or one incorrect case on the letters will stop you connecting to wifi. The "your credentials" with no space inside the quotations marks.
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Probably sounds a little basic at this stage but you're definitely dropping those two files into the /boot folder and not the /root folder.
One last thing, when you save the wpa supplicant file as wpa_supplicant.conf Windows has a habit of saving it as wpa_supplicant.conf.txt as its saving as a text file. Just make sure you edit the file name so the .txt is not present. Check the file name in properties just to make sure as Raspbian will not recognise it as a config file.
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if you have issues finding the mochad installer you can try the mochad script I made for myself wget -qO- http://tuicemen.com/downloads/pi/mochad/mochad-17.sh | bash
Access denied?
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if you have issues finding the mochad installer you can try the mochad script I made for myself wget -qO- http://tuicemen.com/downloads/pi/mochad/mochad-17.sh | bash
Access denied?
my bad; it wanted my pw again... working
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my bad; it wanted my pw again... working
Yes some OS flavors require your user password with initial terminal input.
Glad to see your back working.
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if you have issues finding the mochad installer you can try the mochad script I made for myself wget -qO- http://tuicemen.com/downloads/pi/mochad/mochad-17.sh | bash
Access denied?
my bad; it wanted my pw again... working
still gets stuck:
[10:23:39] openhabian@openHABianPi:~$ wget -qO- http://tuicemen.com/downloads/pi/mochad/mochad-17.sh | bash
looking for libusb-1.0-0-dev
[sudo] password for openhabian:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
libusb-1.0-0-dev is already the newest version (2:1.0.21-1).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 9 not upgraded.
--2018-09-03 10:24:07-- https://sourceforge.net/projects/mochad/files/mochad-0.1.17.tar.gz/download
Resolving sourceforge.net (sourceforge.net)... 216.105.38.13
Connecting to sourceforge.net (sourceforge.net)|216.105.38.13|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/mochad/mochad-0.1.17.tar.gz?r=&ts=1535984648&use_mirror=pilotfiber [following]
--2018-09-03 10:24:08-- https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/mochad/mochad-0.1.17.tar.gz?r=&ts=1535984648&use_mirror=pilotfiber
Resolving downloads.sourceforge.net (downloads.sourceforge.net)... 216.105.38.13
Connecting to downloads.sourceforge.net (downloads.sourceforge.net)|216.105.38.13|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: https://pilotfiber.dl.sourceforge.net/project/mochad/mochad-0.1.17.tar.gz [following]
--2018-09-03 10:24:09-- https://pilotfiber.dl.sourceforge.net/project/mochad/mochad-0.1.17.tar.gz
Resolving pilotfiber.dl.sourceforge.net (pilotfiber.dl.sourceforge.net)... 69.12.26.12
Connecting to pilotfiber.dl.sourceforge.net (pilotfiber.dl.sourceforge.net)|69.12.26.12|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 138416 (135K) [application/x-gzip]
Saving to: ‘mochad.tgz’
mochad.tgz 100%[===================>] 135.17K 241KB/s in 0.6s
2018-09-03 10:24:10 (241 KB/s) - ‘mochad.tgz’ saved [138416/138416]
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
/home/openhabian/mochad/mochad-0.1.17/missing: Unknown `--is-lightweight' option
Try `/home/openhabian/mochad/mochad-0.1.17/missing --help' for more information
configure: WARNING: 'missing' script is too old or missing
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking whether make supports nested variables... yes
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables...
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking whether gcc understands -c and -o together... yes
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... (cached) yes
checking for library containing libusb_init... -lusb-1.0
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking fcntl.h usability... yes
checking fcntl.h presence... yes
checking for fcntl.h... yes
checking netinet/in.h usability... yes
checking netinet/in.h presence... yes
checking for netinet/in.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... (cached) yes
checking for string.h... (cached) yes
checking sys/socket.h usability... yes
checking sys/socket.h presence... yes
checking for sys/socket.h... yes
checking syslog.h usability... yes
checking syslog.h presence... yes
checking for syslog.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking for pid_t... yes
checking for size_t... yes
checking for uint16_t... yes
checking for uint8_t...
stuck here.
I thnk I will regroup and download the other etcher program and try new.
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:o some of the software that use Mochad suggest loading it first.
This maybe what is causing your issue. I've always loaded Mochad first and not ran into an issue. However I'm due ::) :'
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Definitely calls for a fresh install of Raspbian on the SD card.
Assuming that you have now confirmed your board is working, some form of wifi is working with OpenHabian all it can be is incorrect credentials (which I doubt at this stage) or the wpa supplicant file which possibly has a .txt extension tagged on the end of it when it is created in Windows.
As I mentioned earlier, a properties check in Windows or a dir listing at the command prompt will verify this. Could you possibly attach the wpa supplicant file here minus your credentials if you can't verify it on your own system. Remember Raspbian won't see that file if it has .txt in the name so no wifi connection.
As I mentioned in a previous post scripts are useful as long as they fully execute. Trying to troubleshoot them when they go wrong is the problem. At least when the cut and paste fails you can clearly see being a novice user where they have failed.
The build/make process In Linux can be a disaster if the original author didn't include an uninstall feature. You literally have to check every folder for traces of the makefile and delete them manually.
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Petera, I do not use notepad; I use a very proficient program called TotalCommander. Have since dos days in the early 1970s. It does NOT append .txt to my files. I double checked to be sure, and sure enough, no .txt - that is NOT the issue.
I made my .config file first time I made my openhad file - and it worked fine then. I have since rebuilt it many times. The latest version is simply 3 lines, none of the other stuff and it still did not take.
Since I am building a new raspbian mem card now, I will restart with SSH file and this wpa config with all the stuff shown in some of the writeups.
Thank you Tuicemen for the comment that others have had issues installing Mochad AFTER thir webserver of choice - i certainly will do so! And since your script is same as everyone elses, I will copy/paste each line of the normal install myself so I know when/if it fails.
Doing this in between adding steps up a tree with our coon houses up 30' in it for the new babies we just raised for 4 months and released to the wild this weekend, cleaning the barn, etc. etc.
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Just to confirm that there has been no changes to the current Pi image I did an install on a Pi Zero WH today for a friend. Everything went smoothly and could SSH straight into it by dropping in the blank SSH text file and adding his credentials to the wpa_supplicant.conf file.
As you say your file naming is precise, your credentials are correctly entered so the error must be particular to your setup. Possibly trying a different formatted SD card might help but sounds like you've exhausted all avenues. Is your SSID name and password in a standard format.
I'd borrow an HDMI screen and go the local setup route at this stage. Sounds like OpenHabian is setup in a separate container like Docker or a virtual environment and a standard install of Mochad won't work on a setup like this but you're welcome to keep trying. A number of install instructions will need to be modified to reflect this setup.
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As you say, something unique to me.
It did not work. No wifi connection. I cannot check with monitor due to what happened due to my 120vac shorted USB power adapter melted my mini HDMI cable...
I suspect the 8GB TF card may not be happy: it looks fine when I look at it in windows (the \boot J drive - the K unix drive is not accessible in windows)
The linux install consumed my SSH file (it is gone) off my \boot drive so that sounds right. But now my wpa_ file also is gone... I will try copying it again to \boot and install...
if not, then I will try my 16gb card that had good openhab install...
I see why Unix never made a dent in the industrial world.
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As you say, something unique to me.
It did not work. No wifi connection. I cannot check with monitor due to what happened due to my 120vac shorted USB power adapter melted my mini HDMI cable...
I suspect the 8GB TF card may not be happy: it looks fine when I look at it in windows (the \boot J drive - the K unix drive is not accessible in windows)
The linux install consumed my SSH file (it is gone) off my \boot drive so that sounds right. But now my wpa_ file also is gone... I will try copying it again to \boot and install...
if not, then I will try my 16gb card that had good openhab install...
I see why Unix never made a dent in the industrial world.
No they are both supposed to disappear. They are directed to their relevant folders on initial power up of the Raspberry Pi just after youve imaged the SD card.
https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/68808/raspberry-pi-zero-w-keeps-deleting-wpa-supplicant-conf-and-ssh-file
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As you say, something unique to me.
It did not work. No wifi connection. I cannot check with monitor due to what happened due to my 120vac shorted USB power adapter melted my mini HDMI cable...
I suspect the 8GB TF card may not be happy: it looks fine when I look at it in windows (the \boot J drive - the K unix drive is not accessible in windows)
The linux install consumed my SSH file (it is gone) off my \boot drive so that sounds right. But now my wpa_ file also is gone... I will try copying it again to \boot and install...
if not, then I will try my 16gb card that had good openhab install...
I see why Unix never made a dent in the industrial world.
Yes your /boot folder is accessible and your /root folder is inaccessible in Windows. Not the case if you mount them in Linux.
I really do suggest you do what you can to get a fresh install of Raspbian onto an SD card and working with wifi in order to get Tuicemens install working correctly.
Just to be clear, does your card have OpenHab or OpenHabian. There is a subtle difference which will affect the way you install Mochad.
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Sounds like OpenHabian is setup in a separate container like Docker or a virtual environment and a standard install of Mochad won't work on a setup like this but you're welcome to keep trying.
I have been using plain 2018-06-27-raspbian-stretch.img all this time; nothing to do with openhab. that is the only version that DID wifi talk. rewrote the 16gb card that held the openhab now with same raspbian with added SSH and wpa file - see if it was something to do with the 8gb card I kept trying...
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nope. Still no wifi. even rewriting the openhab mem card. This is ridiculous!
Since I melted down my mini HDMI cable from the 120vac, I am flyng blind.
I just bought another cable off ebay. in a week I will try again and see where it is getting stuck.
I have begun studying lunix. I am now about 40 hours into trying to make a $ 5.00 pi work. Call me crazy and you will be spot on!
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Sounds like OpenHabian is setup in a separate container like Docker or a virtual environment and a standard install of Mochad won't work on a setup like this but you're welcome to keep trying.
I have been using plain 2018-06-27-raspbian-stretch.img all this time; nothing to do with openhab. that is the only version that DID wifi talk. rewrote the 16gb card that held the openhab now with same raspbian with added SSH and wpa file - see if it was something to do with the 8gb card I kept trying...
So you have a copy of Raspbian with OpenHab installed that you managed to configure wifi on. I assume you did the wifi configuring locally on the Raspberry Pi using either the GUI or sudo raspi-config. You could uninstall OpenHab to give you a plain vanilla version of Raspbian but hopefully you will work out a solution to downloading, installing and configuring wifi on an SD card before going that route.
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nope. Still no wifi. even rewriting the openhab mem card. This is ridiculous!
Since I melted down my mini HDMI cable from the 120vac, I am flyng blind.
I just bought another cable off ebay. in a week I will try again and see where it is getting stuck.
I have begun studying lunix. I am now about 40 hours into trying to make a $ 5.00 pi work. Call me crazy and you will be spot on!
Not really.
Rather than a generic look at Linux, maybe look at reading up on Raspbian instead. The Raspberry Pi forum is great for covering the basics and a bit more and the Raspberry Pi and other SBC's seem to be the way forward these days.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/
Once the basics are out of the way you should end up flying through the rest.
Ironically I was in a distribution hub today packed with digital satellite set top boxes each one controlled by embedded Linux. That can't be a bad thing. I just set one up today and flashed a new firmware once again all achieved with the aid of Linux.
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Well this is just amazing. I downloaded once an image of openhab, changed the config file to have my SSID/PW, and it came right up and onto my wifi network.
I then tried again, and again, and again, probably 30 times so far, with plain raspbian and NONE will talk on my network. New card, openhab talks, nothing else will.
Last night I decided to try a DIFFERENT raspbian so downloaded raspbian -lite.... another hour and NFG also.
I ordered up more mini HDMI cables and such so I can watch what is happening. Whatever it is is unique to me?
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Well this is just amazing. I downloaded once an image of openhab, changed the config file to have my SSID/PW, and it came right up and onto my wifi network.
I then tried again, and again, and again, probably 30 times so far, with plain raspbian and NONE will talk on my network. New card, openhab talks, nothing else will.
Last night I decided to try a DIFFERENT raspbian so downloaded raspbian -lite.... another hour and NFG also.
I ordered up more mini HDMI cables and such so I can watch what is happening. Whatever it is is unique to me?
It really sounds like it. Assuming the wireless chip in the Zero is not faulty, dry solder or such like, are you getting outside interference possibly. Anything else on the LAN that might be kicking you off or a problem channel between the Zero and your router.
It will certainly be interesting when you receive your HDMI cable and can configure your wireless connection manually locally.
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Well rather than wait more, I tried NOOB install; you can do this by adding the wpa file, deleting all but raspbian in OS folderr, & adding ....don't recall silent to one of the noob files.
It too did not connect. almost like my network PW is wrong...
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Well rather than wait more, I tried NOOB install; you can do this by adding the wpa file, deleting all but raspbian in OS folderr, & adding ....don't recall silent to one of the noob files.
It too did not connect. almost like my network PW is wrong...
I know it sounds annoying at this stage but is there any special characters in your SSID name or password that are not being picked up properly by the config file.
If you haven't already tried it, after you've dropped the wpa supplicant into the /boot folder, try opening it with a different text editor and making sure it is exactly as you created it. I know you say your text editor does the job but is there any chance that it is creating special characters that Linux will interpret incorrectly.
My original thoughts were incorrect credentials somehow appearing in the wpa supplicant conf file and after all your testing it really does point to it.
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I know it sounds annoying at this stage but is there any special characters in your SSID name or password that are not being picked up properly by the config file.
This reminds me of an issue I had. I thought I had set my keyboard layout to US English some how I didn't save it.
my password for some things has a special characters in it since my keyboard layout was not set correctly the correct character wasn't getting put in. It took me several weeks to figure that one out.
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Well rather than wait more, I tried NOOB install; you can do this by adding the wpa file, deleting all but raspbian in OS folderr, & adding ....don't recall silent to one of the noob files.
It too did not connect. almost like my network PW is wrong...
I know it sounds annoying at this stage but is there any special characters in your SSID name or password that are not being picked up properly by the config file.
If you haven't already tried it, after you've dropped the wpa supplicant into the /boot folder, try opening it with a different text editor and making sure it is exactly as you created it. I know you say your text editor does the job but is there any chance that it is creating special characters that Linux will interpret incorrectly.
My original thoughts were incorrect credentials somehow appearing in the wpa supplicant conf file and after all your testing it really does point to it.
all checked many times., read back from new SD cards, no changes, no special characters.
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Anyone ever look at the mem card in linux? Maybe I should? I can boot my workshop computer into linux; maybe I should read the SD card and see if this stuff is in it?
To configure WPA/WPA2, you must create the file /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf. You can find examples for /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf in /usr/share/examples/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf. The simplest case is a network, say my favourite network, with a fixed passphrase, say hunter2. For this case, fill your /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file with:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
network={
ssid="my favourite network"
psk="hunter2"
}
Then enable wpa_supplicant on your network interface device, say iwn0, by editing /etc/rc.conf to add
wpa_supplicant=YES
wpa_supplicant_flags="-i iwn0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"
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Anyone ever look at the mem card in linux? Maybe I should? I can boot my workshop computer into linux; maybe I should read the SD card and see if this stuff is in it?
To configure WPA/WPA2, you must create the file /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf. You can find examples for /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf in /usr/share/examples/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf. The simplest case is a network, say my favourite network, with a fixed passphrase, say hunter2. For this case, fill your /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf file with:
ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant
ctrl_interface_group=wheel
network={
ssid="my favourite network"
psk="hunter2"
}
Then enable wpa_supplicant on your network interface device, say iwn0, by editing /etc/rc.conf to add
wpa_supplicant=YES
wpa_supplicant_flags="-i iwn0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"
Had I known you had access to Linux I would have suggested creating those two files in Linux with your SD card file system mounted on that system. Saves creating files in Windows and trying to drop them into a Linux file system.
sudo nano in Linux is your best and safest way to create those two files.
Yes I'm fairly familiar with the network setup in Linux. The whole purpose of the pre configured wpa supplicant file is that it saves the novice from having to move around the file structure to figure all that out. All the user has to worry about is getting their SSID name and user password as per their router typed in correctly.
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Back to play some more after a bit of time off. Sidetracked with getting my chest cracked open, breastbone removed, put aside, new aorta valve put in, breastbone wired back in, 1.5 weeks ago. Finally back up and can sit and play on my workbench again...
My replacement mini hdmi cables came in and still no video from the pi - I think the sparking tyook out both monitors I have with hdmi. I have a mini hdmi toSVGA cable, but my only monitor that can use it is upstairs in the office and I can't get to it yet.
Left my project trying to get a plain rasberianPi to install and show on wireless. I went another week making probably 2 dozen more TF cards with none working. So back to my one habian that does work. Redownloaded domoticz on it and it shows up in network. So will try to install mochad again - last attempts never got a complete install without some fault in the process.
I would like to try to update my software with 'apt-get upgrade' but so far too I can't get it to work - keeps saying no permission:
[15:29:06] openhabian@openHABianPi:~$ apt-get upgrade
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?
[15:29:22] openhabian@openHABianPi:~$
I recall being stuck here before my time off period the last few weeks... googled it and found sudo and it is updating...
now off to finding mochad install schemes again...
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You need to type
sudo apt-get update that gives the command root access write privileges ;)
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yes, thanks, I figured that out. found a cool site https://askubuntu.com where I can search their q&a for my questions to learn my way thru it... latest stuck is upgrade did not do one:
Updating FireMotD available updates count ... 2018-09-22 16:00:36,791: FireMotD: Error: Template folder doesn't exist. Upgrading from an older version? Please run make again or run the install function "FireMotD -I -v".
So I ignored it and went on to mochad install first step of installing the a library:
sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev
to have it install and then complain same as above about missing FiremotD. So guess I will need to figure out what it is they want me to do. Tried the 'sudo apt-get FireMotD -I -v' and that did not work...
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got it from 10 different googled sites; none of the sudo installs worked, but changing dir to /opt//FireMotD let me install it directly...
next mochad step here I come
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Glad to see your progressing! I hope your documenting what is working for you in case you need to redo things.
You may wish to give HG another run as the original developer has started working on HG again and there is now a new release available.
It really depends on what you wish to do Home Automation wise I guess as to which Software you finally decide to go with.
>!
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Back to play some more after a bit of time off. Sidetracked with getting my chest cracked open, breastbone removed, put aside, new aorta valve put in, breastbone wired back in, 1.5 weeks ago. Finally back up and can sit and play on my workbench again...
My replacement mini hdmi cables came in and still no video from the pi - I think the sparking tyook out both monitors I have with hdmi. I have a mini hdmi toSVGA cable, but my only monitor that can use it is upstairs in the office and I can't get to it yet.
Left my project trying to get a plain rasberianPi to install and show on wireless. I went another week making probably 2 dozen more TF cards with none working. So back to my one habian that does work. Redownloaded domoticz on it and it shows up in network. So will try to install mochad again - last attempts never got a complete install without some fault in the process.
I would like to try to update my software with 'apt-get upgrade' but so far too I can't get it to work - keeps saying no permission:
[15:29:06] openhabian@openHABianPi:~$ apt-get upgrade
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13: Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?
[15:29:22] openhabian@openHABianPi:~$
I recall being stuck here before my time off period the last few weeks... googled it and found sudo and it is updating...
now off to finding mochad install schemes again...
You've now downloaded Domoticz on top of OpenHabian. Is that correct. Unless you're very familiar with Linux you're heading for stormy waters.
I know you still can't get a fresh Raspbian Stretch install configured for wireless. Still puzzled why the wpa supplicant conf file doesnt work.
I'm wondering if you've fried HDMI on the Pi Zero board. Make sure your HDMI cable is plugged in on the board and the monitor before you power on the Pi Zero. Avoid pulling the HDMI cable from the Pi Zero while it's powered up. Have you seen the display on the monitor before. Has it ever worked.
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Stormy waters are here already. In trying to get that witchcraft firemotd to install properly, I tried about 10 different solutions from others - none worked for me (or them) unless the last one...
One was to run the openhabian update program. So a reboot seemed to reload a bunch more - if blinking led means that...
I am not sure which of the dozen things I did broke it, but now my openhabian is no longer talking to my wifi.
I have 4 pi zeroW boards now; 2 fried with sparks nd hot chips, 2 new that never sparked. Yes, before frying I could watch openhabian load and also rasberry pi load to point it gets stuck - probably trying to get on the internet. but with no keyboard, wifi, or mouse, I was dead in the water.
My next will be to learn how to delete a program in the pi so openhabian stops screwing with me.
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Stormy waters are here already. In trying to get that witchcraft firemotd to install properly, I tried about 10 different solutions from others - none worked for me (or them) unless the last one...
One was to run the openhabian update program. So a reboot seemed to reload a bunch more - if blinking led means that...
I am not sure which of the dozen things I did broke it, but now my openhabian is no longer talking to my wifi.
I have 4 pi zeroW boards now; 2 fried with sparks nd hot chips, 2 new that never sparked. Yes, before frying I could watch openhabian load and also rasberry pi load to point it gets stuck - probably trying to get on the internet. but with no keyboard, wifi, or mouse, I was dead in the water.
My next will be to learn how to delete a program in the pi so openhabian stops screwing with me.
You're getting into the heavy end of Linux trying to delete packages. You've also been advised to run a makefile which means its a package that needs to be compiled.
Just read this and see what packages are now broken
http://sourcedigit.com/21301-fix-broken-packages-ubuntu-terminal-list-broken-packages-ubuntu/
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thanks for the article. Of course I am now back to no communications of any kind with the pi so either need to make a new TF card or get a monitor to work. One other change; since mochad installed with no faults I plugged my cm15 into it. I recall comments that if the cm15 has program in it it can lock up mochad; my test one surely has programs in it. so maybe I will try one more reboot with the cm15 unplugged before starting over yet again.
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Also, you have an unused Pi Zero which means it has a good HDMI output. You have new good cables. All you need to do now is rule in or out your two HDMI monitors. Are you sure you have the correct resolution set on your monitors. If not the GUI won't display at all. Also make sure you have everything hooked up prior to powering up the Pi Zero. This ensures you get to see the TTY output before the Pi Zero attempts to load the GUI.
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thanks for the article. Of course I am now back to no communications of any kind with the pi so either need to make a new TF card or get a monitor to work. One other change; since mochad installed with no faults I plugged my cm15 into it. I recall comments that if the cm15 has program in it it can lock up mochad; my test one surely has programs in it. so maybe I will try one more reboot with the cm15 unplugged before starting over yet again.
Active Home Pro allows you to wipe all timers and macros so you could do this prior to firing it up on the Raspberry Pi
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both new pis show nothing.
I have an hdmi output from my workshop computer but it plugged into them do not show anything either; hence me thinking both got popped. I THINK I tried them on the computer but do not recall for sure. I cannot reach now to try again - need another week to heal enough to reach up and behind the computer to plug in the cable...
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both new pis show nothing.
I have an hdmi output from my workshop computer but it plugged into them do not show anything either; hence me thinking both got popped. I THINK I tried them on the computer but do not recall for sure. I cannot reach now to try again - need another week to heal enough to reach up and behind the computer to plug in the cable...
My advice is to rest up for the moment and try again when you feel up to it.
As I said earlier, you now have a good Pi Zero, good HDMI cables and all you need to verify is a working HDMI monitor.
Your OpenHabian/Domoticz card I imagine is now broken distribution wise. My best advice is to start with a fresh Raspbian Stretch card, get a working HDMI monitor and see if you can make a wireless connection via the GUI. It will make life a lot easier in the long run.
In the meantime you could have another go at creating the SSH and wpa_supplicant.conf text files using sudo nano in your Linux machine and try dropping them into the /boot folder of the fresh Raspbian Stretch SD card once you're up to it.
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hey does linux have the same wpa config file somewhere? My TAILS usb stick I use to boot into linux goes on my network just fine. Perhaps I can find it and copy it to the TF card...
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Have a read of this https://shapeshed.com/linux-wifi/ It will give you the low down on configuring wireless networks in Linux
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So I lugged my hdmi monitor and cable down from my office dual display computer. Plugged into my workshop computer and it came immediately to life, I could move icons to it. So unplugged from pc plugged into pi - nothing.
Tried the other 8 TF cards I have made. Nothing.
It DOES do something: it flashes ACER logo for 1 sec, then 3 sec blank then repeats... On any pi, and TF card...
I am beginning to wonder if this raspberry stretch LITE is LITE for a reason - no hdmi drivers? I may try NOOBS again to verify if this is it - these pi's may be working fine with no hdmi output?
So THIS time I put stretch-lite image on a 4gb card in Tails linux via terminal window... copied my wpa config and ssh to boot partician. of course no wifi still, altho it is happily clinking along on the pi green LED...
NOOBs here I come!
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So I lugged my hdmi monitor and cable down from my office dual display computer. Plugged into my workshop computer and it came immediately to life, I could move icons to it. So unplugged from pc plugged into pi - nothing.
Tried the other 8 TF cards I have made. Nothing.
It DOES do something: it flashes ACER logo for 1 sec, then 3 sec blank then repeats... On any pi, and TF card...
I am beginning to wonder if this raspberry stretch LITE is LITE for a reason - no hdmi drivers? I may try NOOBS again to verify if this is it - these pi's may be working fine with no hdmi output?
So THIS time I put stretch-lite image on a 4gb card in Tails linux via terminal window... copied my wpa config and ssh to boot partician. of course no wifi still, altho it is happily clinking along on the pi green LED...
NOOBs here I come!
No take things slowly. Raspbian Lite EXCLUDES the GUI Pixel. To have a GUI you must download the full version of Raspbian. Forget the NOOBS. No need for it.
Could you download the full version of Raspbian Stretch and report back if you get a GUI displaying on your monitor.
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Just for clarity
1. Download the full version of Raspbian Stretch
2. Unpack that download using 7 Zip or similar unzipping software
3. Image that unpacked zip file to your SD card using win32diskimage or similar software
3. Drop the blank SSH. and the wpa_supplicant.conf files into the /boot folder of the SD card
4. Make sure your power supply cable and your HDMI cable are attached to your Pi Zero before plugging in the power supply.
5. Allow the Pi to power up and configure first run. You should see the GUI displayed on the screen after a while
6. If wireless is not connected at this stage you can configure it from the GUI.
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What size SD cards do you have? I have a zero HG image for a 32 gig card on my site (GUI included).
I do can make smaller images but I'm not at the zero location right now.
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My TF cards are 4, 8, 16, and 32 GB. Quite The variety.
Although the light does not have a GUI I believe I do recall one time seeing one of them load on my display. It loaded One driver at a time three or four pages worth. I'm not even saying that any longer.
I downloaded noobs loaded at 8 GB card. It rattled the LED light for 40 minutes and no change on my display and of course no Wi-Fi.
I'm ready for 2 more tries before I give up on Raspberry Pi. First I will download the full raspbian although I suspect all that adds is a GUI at the end of three pages of driver loaded which I no longer see. Second I think I'll buy two more Raspberry Pi 0w cards before I throw in the towel.
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My TF cards are 4, 8, 16, and 32 GB. Quite The variety.
Although the light does not have a GUI I believe I do recall one time seeing one of them load on my display. It loaded One driver at a time three or four pages worth. I'm not even saying that any longer.
I downloaded noobs loaded at 8 GB card. It rattled the LED light for 40 minutes and no change on my display and of course no Wi-Fi.
I'm ready for 2 more tries before I give up on Raspberry Pi. First I will download the full raspbian although I suspect all that adds is a GUI at the end of three pages of driver loaded which I no longer see. Second I think I'll buy two more Raspberry Pi 0w cards before I throw in the towel.
As soon as you power up your Pi Zero what you should see is is the Linux kernel loading line by line in text format. That happens with or without a GUI. As soon as the Linux kernel had been loaded you will be presented with a login screen on the Raspbian Lite version or the X system (GUI) will start loading with the Raspbian full version.
I have to admit I've never encountered a user experiencing such difficulties like this trying to fire up a Raspberry Pi. You've got a good Pi Zero, good HDMI cables, good SD cards, good HDMI monitor yet you are seeing nothing on the screen.
One last thing that may or may not be important. You refer to your card as a TF card which is a TransFlash card. There is a little difference between a TransFlash card and a Micro Secure Digital card. Mainly down to SDIO. What brand of card are you using. . As far as I recall TF doesn't support SDIO which may be affecting wireless communication.
@Tuicemen just shrink the image you have on your site to a more manageable one, say 2gb unless you have it that size for a particular reason. Remember Mike still has to change his wireless credentials even if he downloads your image.
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What size SD cards do you have? I have a zero HG image for a 32 gig card on my site (GUI included).
I do can make smaller images but I'm not at the zero location right now.
I say TF card cuz I thought it silly to keep saying SD card; SD card is much larger - the little TF card slides into a SD card adapter 9 out of 10 times.
Tuicemen your 2nd line above did not click with me: I will download it and image a new 32gb card I have.
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@mike I'm not in the city where my Zero is located I only have access to the 3b+ and the image from it is not compatible.
@petera the image was my first attempt and I believe I zipped it. there is no particular reason why it is the size it is I actually was going to remove the images just haven't got around to it yet.
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@mike I'm not in the city where my Zerois locatedI only have access to the 3b+ and the image from it is not compatible.
@petera the image was my first attempt and I believe I zipped it. there is no particular reason why it is the size it is I actually was going to remove the images just haven't got around to it yet.
If you have a large image with a lot of unused space you can shrink it to a size that you could distribute more easily. This is something I use to achieve this in Linux
https://softwarebakery.com/shrinking-images-on-linux
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What size SD cards do you have? I have a zero HG image for a 32 gig card on my site (GUI included).
I do can make smaller images but I'm not at the zero location right now.
I say TF card cuz I thought it silly to keep saying SD card; SD card is much larger - the little TF card slides into a SD card adapter 9 out of 10 times.
Tuicemen your 2nd line above did not click with me: I will download it and image a new 32gb card I have.
Ok. I just refer to them as SD and micro SD card. Not an issue so. Curious to know what brand you're using and how old they are. Is your card reader/writer operating correctly. If possible start off with something like a brand new 8gb micro SD card and try the installation process with it to try rule out any problems at that end.
If all your hardware is testing good and your downloaded file has been imaged to micro SD card and verified it really is strange what going on.
I'd definitely target downloading and installing the full Raspbian Stretch distribution with the GUI. Once you have configured your wireless you can always disable it at a later stage. Don't forget sudo raspi-config allows you to configure wireless and many other options too.
Good luck and let us know if you make any progress.
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If you have a large image with a lot of unused space you can shrink it to a size that you could distribute more easily. This is something I use to achieve this in Linux
https://softwarebakery.com/shrinking-images-on-linux
Thanks for the link I may attempt this with the latest HG install included but I doubt I'll continue to offer an image from my server.
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Reasearching TF name vs micro Sd name, I find they are identical for pi purposes. Anyway, when I buy 32gb class 10 TF cards on ebay for $ 5 with free shipping, none have not worked in cameras and other uses. I do not buy into an idea that the cards I have written, many different sizes and brands, are my issue.
Unfortunately Arduino raised their pi zero W price to $10 now, so my 5th one just cost me $ 15.00 with USPS shipping.
Petera, since you confirmed pages of text listings of drivers loading DOES show on pi power up, and since my once working openhabian TF card loaded and worked as server and on wifi yet it ALSO did not show anything on the hdmi display on power up, the issue must be all 4 of my pi's hdmi outputs are defective.
I will blindly try one more brand new 32gb card (what a waste!) and see if raspbian works via wifi. IF not, I await my 5th pi - they are are expensive!
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mike you sure are giving a valiant effort! Not sure I would have stuck with it by now.
If yor using the same SD image each time it is possible you don't have the correct one or it is corrupt.
You need to besure it is a image for a PI not some other board as the boot sequence is different for x86 or other SBC.
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If you have a large image with a lot of unused space you can shrink it to a size that you could distribute more easily. This is something I use to achieve this in Linux
https://softwarebakery.com/shrinking-images-on-linux
Thanks for the link I may attempt this with the latest HG install included but I doubt I'll continue to offer an image from my server.
GParted is very useful in Linux. Even works for low level stubborn problems in Windows. I can't count the amount of SD cards I've revived with it. Those stubborn hard to delete partitions particularly.
If I was located near Mike I'd send him a pre installed version of Raspbian Stretch with HG installed on it but customs and other issues preclude this. it's so frustrating knowing that he has everything to "bake the cake" but it's just knowing the "right mix" to achieve it.
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GParted is very useful in Linux. Even works for low level stubborn problems in Windows. I can't count the amount of SD cards I've revived with it. Those stubborn hard to delete partitions particularly.
If I was located near Mike I'd send him a pre installed version of Raspbian Stretch with HG installed on it but customs and other issues preclude this. it's so frustrating knowing that he has everything to "bake the cake" but it's just knowing the "right mix" to achieve it.
I can certainly do that. I don't believe customs would be an issue.
The issue would be if mike couldn't view the GUI over a HDMI hook up as a monitor is required initially to setup the wi-fi.
I guess I could input the info prior to shipping if mike was comfortable with suppling that to me via e-mail. That way no HDMI connection would be required and you could use Putty to SSH into the PI for any additional configuration requirements.
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Reasearching TF name vs micro Sd name, I find they are identical for pi purposes. Anyway, when I buy 32gb class 10 TF cards on ebay for $ 5 with free shipping, none have not worked in cameras and other uses. I do not buy into an idea that the cards I have written, many different sizes and brands, are my issue.
Unfortunately Arduino raised their pi zero W price to $10 now, so my 5th one just cost me $ 15.00 with USPS shipping.
Petera, since you confirmed pages of text listings of drivers loading DOES show on pi power up, and since my once working openhabian TF card loaded and worked as server and on wifi yet it ALSO did not show anything on the hdmi display on power up, the issue must be all 4 of my pi's hdmi outputs are defective.
I will blindly try one more brand new 32gb card (what a waste!) and see if raspbian works via wifi. IF not, I await my 5th pi - they are are expensive!
It would be amazing if all your Pi Zeros were defective but it is possible.
At the risk of sounding desperate, you definitely have the correctly rated power supply going to the Pi Zero. If you haven't, you will still see the Pi Zero LEDs flashing with activity but what it actually is doing is pulling low power and going into a constant reboot cycle so obviously nothing will display on the screen.
As you probably know you'll get away with 1.2ah but for overhead I'd use 2.00ah. Again it's also down to build quality.
Don't throw in the towel just yet. I know you're nearly there. With a good downloaded Raspbian Stretch image and correctly working hardware you should be up and running soon.
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GParted is very useful in Linux. Even works for low level stubborn problems in Windows. I can't count the amount of SD cards I've revived with it. Those stubborn hard to delete partitions particularly.
If I was located near Mike I'd send him a pre installed version of Raspbian Stretch with HG installed on it but customs and other issues preclude this. it's so frustrating knowing that he has everything to "bake the cake" but it's just knowing the "right mix" to achieve it.
'
I can certainly do that. I don't believe customs would be an issue.
The issue would be if mike couldn't view the GUI over a HDMI hook up as a monitor is required initially to setup the wi-fi.
I guess I could input the info prior to shipping if mike was comfortable with suppling that to me via e-mail. That way no HDMI connection would be required and you could use Putty to SSH into the PI for any additional configuration requirements.
I'm outside the USA so it would be a lot easier to do that internally. Not sure what State you're based in but I'm at least 5 hours or more ahead of you guys. :'
Yes the only way you could supply a plug 'n' go solution without the need for an HDMI monitor would be to have his wireless credentials in advance. Probably a big ask but a definite solution.
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I'm not in the US but Canada. Since a SD card is under $20 there should be no issue with shipping as there is no weight to it.
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maybe my pi cards need like 3 amps? I swear the times they worked was with either power just from my pc USB output or a solid UL listed 1.0 amp wall wart...
my OH ran 100% of the time on the 1.0 wall wart until I broke it... I did make a image of it while it was working so I could put that back...
but your idea of ps issue still may have merit... my 1a wallwart makes 4.1 varying to 4.3v & 3.15v on pi gpio pins... just swapped wart with a good UL listed 2.0 amp from one of my cameras... solid but still low at 4.81 & 3.28v. hdmi display still flashing like reset every 3 seconds... will try other board and then a different power cable...
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nothin warm on that card...
next card: 4.90&3.31v... still resetting hdmi display altho no blinking of LED on pi with the 2.0a wart on either board...
different power cable, same voltages. I will stick with this pi since it regulates a bit higher.
my new 32gb full stretch is done; gotta go get lunch, when back will add ssh and wpa file and try it...
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well well... maybe i needed more power as our Canadian friend Tim Taylor says!
my old openhabian is back. just stuck it in and both OH and Domoticz servers are running and wifi...
gives me hope that afterlunch my new raspbian will work...
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well well... maybe i needed more power as our Canadian friend Tim Taylor says!
my old openhabian is back. just stuck it in and both OH and Domoticz servers are running and wifi...
gives me hope that afterlunch my new raspbian will work...
Told ya not to quit. I knew you'd get there. Now it's time for the fresh Raspbian install.
It should be plain sailing using the headless install with the blank SSH and wpa_supplicant files too now you know what the actual problem was.
Power supplies can cause so many hours of time wasting when troubleshooting unless they can be measured accurately on each leg of input and output.
Anyway, your Raspberry Pi faith has been restored that's the main thing and you can rest easier now. Let's us know how your exploits proceed from here.
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I believe the Zero W sales page states to us a 2 amp power supply.
I have read that the zerro will run on as low as 3 volts (not sure what was ment by running ::) ) but they never mentioned the equired amps.
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but without keyboard access, I cannot continue on any but my one openhabianthat DOES talk wifi...
This is the wpa file I am using:
wpa_supplicant.conf
its text is:
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US
network={
ssid="Virus"
psk="864something-something-someting2C8E"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
this and the SSH file dissapear from boot after running once so I know they are being processed...
typical hdmi is:
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I have seen a few write ups saying the newer raspbian will not accept wpa_config file if missing a certain line... it seems that may be my issue...
last boot after reputing SSH and wpa file on before booting ends in display stating SSH is enabled, so I know it is not that one. butno wifi.
it seems obvious the failures during load are not having internet access - like constant time sync failures and stuff...
I will research and see about adding more lines to wpa file....
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I believe the Zero W sales page states to us a 2 amp power supply.
I have read that the zerro will run on as low as 3 volts (not sure what was ment by running ::) ) but they never mentioned the equired amps.
I've a load of old phone chargers ranging from 0.5ah to 1.5ah lying about in the event of an emergency but 2ah is usually what is recommended.
So annoying when you think the Pi is booting with the blinking LEDs when in fact it's constantly rebooting. It's definitely a 5 volt input, no more no less.
The only other voltage mentioned is the 3.3 volt on the GPIO rail which bypasses the regulator and is not recommended for usage unless you're technically minded and know what you're doing.
I use a 2ah battery pack with a regulator on my outdoor Pis.
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so now i can see the loading, I see the wifi stuff all failing to load on my 4gb stretcher-lite card... began googling wpa_supp files again and see many without the line I had:
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
Removed it, replaced wpa and ssh in boot and rertried. Not a single fault. but no wifi...
I see 3 statements in loading of disable wifi if country no set... wondering if country needs quotes around it... more research and retry...
-
Try this wpa file
country=US
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
ssid="NETWORK-NAME"
psk="NETWORK-PASSWORD"
}
-
You're file system is locked owing to broken packages or missing dependencies. It looks like that distribution you're loading is thrashed. Best if you go the fresh install route.
-
yes, the full stretch seemed to have micro Sd card issues; I put it aside - it is too much stuff anyway. does not help me. the lite ver is a lot faster to load and when it works it will be minimal and better I think. I do not NEED local keyboard gui on it...
Attached below is the startup I get on my 4gb stretch lite run. NO FAULTS at all.
Almost as is it does not like country code US line...
I quit for today but if you see any issues below let me know!
BTW, when I ordered another pi yesterday I paid $ 2.50 more and bought a micro usb to usb adapter so I CAN plug in my keyboard. I hacked a usb ext cable so I could plut in my usb multiport but it did not work.
-
yes, the full stretch seemed to have micro Sd card issues; I put it aside - it is too much stuff anyway. does not help me. the lite ver is a lot faster to load and when it works it will be minimal and better I think. I do not NEED local keyboard gui on it...
Attached below is the startup I get on my 4gb stretch lite run. NO FAULTS at all.
Almost as is it does not like country code US line...
I quit for today but if you see any issues below let me know!
BTW, when I ordered another pi yesterday I paid $ 2.50 more and bought a micro usb to usb adapter so I CAN plug in my keyboard. I hacked a usb ext cable so I could plut in my usb multiport but it did not work.
Success at last!!!!
Did you login yet.
Login = pi
Password = raspberry
You're there at last.
Don't forget as soon as you're at the prompt type sudo raspi-config and configure everything you need. Also sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade. I'd make an image of all that hard work before you start installing anything else.
A long road travelled but a rewarding one in the end. Just think what you've learned on the way. Power supplies are not what they seem >!
-
Did you login yet.
Login = pi
Password = raspberry
Don't forget as soon as you're at the prompt type sudo raspi-config
I CAN'T. I cannot get a keyboard to talk to the pi!
-
Did you login yet.
Login = pi
Password = raspberry
Don't forget as soon as you're at the prompt type sudo raspi-config
I CAN'T. I cannot get a keyboard to talk to the pi!
Oh no!!!!!
So it's nailing the wireless wpa_supplicant route now.
-
at least until my micro usb to usb adapter comes in in a week... I ASSUME I should be able to plug a keyboard into the pi and have it work?
-
at least until my micro usb to usb adapter comes in in a week... I ASSUME I should be able to plug a keyboard into the pi and have it work?
Absolutely. And a mouse if you need one at some stage. In the meantime experiment with the wpa_supplicant.conf file.
As I mentioned in a much earlier make sure the wpa_supplicant.conf is correctly named and make sure you're credentials are exactly in the format they are required. I'm looking around at different variations of the wpa_supplicant file owing to changes in the wireless firmware between releases. Just need to find the one that works on your release.
-
Is there a way to enable SSH prior to initial boot like the wi-fi?
This would benefit users like mike in that you could access from a windows PC using Putty.
-
my understanding is the pi zero W has only wifi interface; when I plug it into pc, pc recognizes the driver but there is no communications.
I DO use putty but via the wifi connection. no wifi, no SSH as far as I know.
-
I'm finishing for the night now. Just try this version which has an extra line that will auto scan you network. Just copy and paste exactly as it is and do not leave any spaces after your quote marks when entering your wifi credentials.
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US
network={
ssid="YOURSSID"
psk="YOURPASSWORD"
scan_ssid=1
}
-
been there, done that! I have a dozen variations of wpa file; one had that. :)
-
Is there a way to enable SSH prior to initial boot like the wi-fi?
This would benefit users like mike in that you could access from a windows PC using Putty.
You can enable SSH but you've no way of establishing a connection without wireless being initialised. No Ethernet option here.
-
been there, done that! I have a dozen variations of wpa file; one had that. :)
Ok. All I can suggest is being careful with the only items that you have to manually key in and the actual name of the file itself.
Could you paste an exact copy of your wpa_supplicant.conf file substituting the actual credentials with dummy credentials but in the same format. Silly I know but if your SSID name was "bottle" your sub would be "green". I just want to see anything that might not be obvious to you but is upsetting the login.
-
my understanding is the pi zero W has only wifi interface; when I plug it into pc, pc recognizes the driver but there is no communications.
I DO use putty but via the wifi connection. no wifi, no SSH as far as I know.
you should'd be plugging the pi into your PC if I read your post correctly.
If your using putty in windows, can you connect to the PI via the IP & port of the pi?
If so you can do all installs etc from your windows machine through Putty
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my understanding is the pi zero W has only wifi interface; when I plug it into pc, pc recognizes the driver but there is no communications.
I DO use putty but via the wifi connection. no wifi, no SSH as far as I know.
you should'd be plugging the pi into your PC if I read your post correctly.
If your using putty in windows, can you connect to the PI via the IP & port of the pi?
If so you can do all installs etc from your windows machine through Putty
I understand putty works with an IP address. Plug micro usb into PC does NOT get access to the pi's IP address, so putty does not work. the larger PI's with ethernet interface hardware are required.
-
been there, done that! I have a dozen variations of wpa file; one had that. :)
Ok. All I can suggest is being careful with the only items that you have to manually key in and the actual name of the file itself.
Could you paste an exact copy of your wpa_supplicant.conf file substituting the actual credentials with dummy credentials but in the same format. Silly I know but if your SSID name was "bottle" your sub would be "green". I just want to see anything that might not be obvious to you but is upsetting the login.
I have many variations by now, but I did post the copied and pasted file name and copied and pasted content back in post #113. here is copy of that:
This is the wpa file I am using:
wpa_supplicant.conf
its text is:
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US
network={
ssid="Virus"
psk="864something-something-someting2C8E"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
YES, my SSID is Virus with capital V.
I saw a post today where person showed psk= without the quotes - I will try that tomorrow morning when I regroup.
-
my understanding is the pi zero W has only wifi interface; when I plug it into pc, pc recognizes the driver but there is no communications.
I DO use putty but via the wifi connection. no wifi, no SSH as far as I know.
you should'd be plugging the pi into your PC if I read your post correctly.
If your using putty in windows, can you connect to the PI via the IP & port of the pi?
If so you can do all installs etc from your windows machine through Putty
Bearing in mind that Mike's Zero can't wirelessly connect to his router and Ethernet is not an option what route are you proposing he goes to connect his Windows Putty session to the Pi Zero.
-
I realize mike doesn't have ethernet but I had though his latest attempt got him WI-FI B:( (my mistake)
I'm beginning to wonder if Mike you got sent a pi Zero and not the Zero W.
-
been there, done that! I have a dozen variations of wpa file; one had that. :)
Ok. All I can suggest is being careful with the only items that you have to manually key in and the actual name of the file itself.
Could you paste an exact copy of your wpa_supplicant.conf file substituting the actual credentials with dummy credentials but in the same format. Silly I know but if your SSID name was "bottle" your sub would be "green". I just want to see anything that might not be obvious to you but is upsetting the login.
I have many variations by now, but I did post the copied and pasted file name and copied and pasted content back in post #113. here is copy of that:
This is the wpa file I am using:
wpa_supplicant.conf
its text is:
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US
network={
ssid="Virus"
psk="864something-something-someting2C8E"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
YES, my SSID is Virus with capital V.
I saw a post today where person showed psk= without the quotes - I will try that tomorrow morning when I regroup.
That's exactly the format I'm using and it works. Not sure about your SSID name though. I'd change that if I was you. The only other thing I see is the use of - in the password name. The _ character is usually used in naming conventions. Best not using them at all.
The only other physical reason I can now think of for wireless not connecting now is the file naming of the wpa_supplicant.config file. Again it has to be pure text and named exactly as it should be.
-
I realize mike doesn't have ethernet but I had though his latest attempt got him WI-FI B:(my mistake)
I'm beginning to wonder if Mike you got sent a pi Zero and not the Zero W.
Strange you say that. His early orders were so cheap and his later orders were that more expensive. Might be worth establishing that before we go any further.
-
On the rear of my Pi Zero W it is stamped "Raspberry Pi Zero W 2017". Mike could you confirm if your Pi Zero W has similar markings.
-
- wondering if keyboard has to be plugged in BEFORE booting the pi? Everytime I have tried it I plug ini after it is up and running and it is never seen. ditto with the mouse. will try this today. Prob afternoon as my A-fib this morning is making me almost black out & fall over if I don't just sit here...
- will ck writing on pi's: aat least the one I am using now works wifi with habian card...
- I have no dashes in my Virus wifi pw: I just wrote that to hide my pw. I used to have key phrase but newest dsl modem would not accept it - only took the actual hex key - THAT is what I use. So maybe the wpa file is too dumb and is trying to decode my uncoded hex pw? will try a run without quotes...
- i copied and pasted my wpa file name to prevent any chance I had mispelled it... what you see below is what I use.
- arduino sold pi zero w for $5.00 - until my last order - they now have it at $10.
I cannot find any reference to first line's "GROUP=netdev" I have tried without it and no changee.
-
I don't doubt you paid for a W but I suspect you may have received the version without wi-fi only the W version has wi-fi.
there is little difference in the two boards.
As for plugging in the keyboard mouse prior to boot I always did that for the Zero W manly because it was easier, my 3b+ I can hot swap any USB device.
-
Zero:
https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/1200x900/2885-01.jpg
Zero W:
https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/1200x900/3400-01.jpg
-
As a fellow traveler who recently set up his first PiZW without issues I hope this may help. I found a simple and well written "how to" that got me up and running in very little time at:
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/getting-started-with-the-raspberry-pi-zero-wireless
I used Option 2 (scroll down) on installing the OS and installed Raspbian Stretch w/Desktop using a 16Gb card.
I followed those instructions exactly as written and everything went swimmingly.
Note: Before plugging in the power supply I plugged in the SD card, the keyboard/trackpad dongle and the HDMI cable. Once the power was plugged in I waited and watched and after several minutes the desktop was displayed in living color on my TV.
After completing the rest of the steps in the tutorial I had WiFi working and updates installed.
One note about the $5 TF cards mentioned by Mike. TF counterfeiting is a huge problem where cards are sold that don't have the memory stated or are otherwise defective. Read this and buy only known brand names from reputable retailers. I'm all for saving a buck but there's not that much difference in cards up to 64Gb.
https://kmyers.me/blog/rant/warning-amazon-has-a-massive-problem-with-fake-microsd-cards/
-
answers to my questions:
- will ck writing on pi's: at least the one I am using now works wifi with habian card...
+ all say pi zero w
- pluggin in keyboard, mouse, wireless keyboard & mouse sender before power up
+ none worked on openhab
- I have no dashes in my Virus wifi pw: I just wrote that to hide my pw. I used to have key phrase but newest dsl modem would not accept it - only took the actual hex key - THAT is what I use. So maybe the wpa file is too dumb and is trying to decode my uncoded hex pw? will try a run without quotes...
- i copied and pasted my wpa file name to prevent any chance I had mispelled it... what you see below is what I use.
- I cannot find any reference to first line's "GROUP=netdev" I have tried without it and no change.
+ my working openhabian has it and works so will leave it.
further, I SSHed into working openhab running via wifi:
This is its wpa_supplicant file:
# config generated by openHABian first boot setup
country=US
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
ssid="Virus"
psk="86sameoldsameoldB5EF2C8E"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
so checking the wpa file areas:
[13:24:19] openhabian@openHABianPi:/var/run$ cd wpa_supplicant
[13:24:31] openhabian@openHABianPi:/var/run/wpa_supplicant$ dir
p2p-dev-wlan0 wlan0
[13:24:33] openhabian@openHABianPi:/var/run/wpa_supplicant$
[13:24:35] openhabian@openHABianPi:/var/run/wpa_supplicant$ sudo head p2p-dev-wlan0
head: cannot open 'p2p-dev-wlan0' for reading: No such device or address
[13:25:03] openhabian@openHABianPi:/var/run/wpa_supplicant$ sudo head wlan0
head: cannot open 'wlan0' for reading: No such device or address
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another useless day. giving up for now.
tried many more variations on wpa file, nothing. tried more with usb hub, nothing.
Put question to tech support at Actiontec, maker of my GT784WN router/modem. It can do multiple SSIDs... I am thinking I can try setting up a simple 2nd SSID & simple pw and try to connect to it instead...
tried changing my SSID from Virus to VIRUS and lost 10 of my 20 connected computers. pi did not connect. had to hurry and put back so the wife didnt come out to my workshop and shoot me when her internet went down during my testing.
hmmm... idea... maybe disconnect workshop comp from dsl modem wireless and hook to a simple local wireless modem on workbench... then I could SSH in maybe...
will try this before giving up for today.
-
It looks like the wireless firmware version on your Pi Zero is not compatable with your router. You really need to run an apt update/upgrade but you can't do this for obvious reasons.
It looks like your only option is the fresh Raspbian Stretch route. When you get a working keyboard it will make things easier to debug,
-
another useless day. giving up for now.
tried many more variations on wpa file, nothing. tried more with usb hub, nothing.
Put question to tech support at Actiontec, maker of my GT784WN router/modem. It can do multiple SSIDs... I am thinking I can try setting up a simple 2nd SSID & simple pw and try to connect to it instead...
tried changing my SSID from Virus to VIRUS and lost 10 of my 20 connected computers. pi did not connect. had to hurry and put back so the wife didnt come out to my workshop and shoot me when her internet went down during my testing.
hmmm... idea... maybe disconnect workshop comp from dsl modem wireless and hook to a simple local wireless modem on workbench... then I could SSH in maybe...
will try this before giving up for today.
Are you running through some secondary VPN by any chance. Is it set for 2.4ghz and 5ghz.
-
Are you running through some secondary VPN by any chance. Is it set for 2.4ghz and 5ghz.
not really. have virus main wireless and a netgear repeater in the house 300' away; SSID's virus_2g & virus_5g... same pw...
just powered up old lynksys open wireless router on bench... set to WPA personal (and tried WPA2 personal) with simple psk="this_is-mine" and SSID="linked" same submask as my 'real' dsl modem, just different IP (0.103) and let it assign DHCP from (0.104 to 0.115) so I can see if it assigns anything... My workshop comput connects as .0.104, goes to the internet fine (I set my workshop for 0.1 router).
new wpa. no connection...
downloading from 2 different locations, 2 different names new:
raspbian 2018-06-27 stretch-lite.zip (from raspbian.org)
&
Raspbian 2018-06-27 2GB Stretch Lite (rpi3) (kernel 4.9).img.7z
will try first then second tomorrow...
-
Just to recap. This is a known working wpa_supplicant.conf file
country=US
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
ssid="Your network name/SSID"
psk="Your WPA/WPA2 security key"
key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}
******Note the change on the wpa_supplicant.conf file. Look at the first line now
This assumes that you are connecting to a standard router with no other 3rd parties in between the router and the Pi Zero and all your hardware is functioning normally.
I suggest you do the following from scratch again using a freshly formatted micro SD card that you know is in good working order.
1. Download a fresh Raspbian Stretch image (Lite or Desktop (Desktop would be preferable)
2. Unpack the download file using 7 Zip
3. Write the image to the micro SD card using Win32 Disk Image
4. While still in your Windows machine create two pure text files called SSH. and wpa_supplicant.conf amending the latter file with your own credentials.
5. Drag and drop those two files into the /boot folder of your micro SD card
6. Eject the card from the Windows machine and insert it into the Pi Zero W micro SD slot
7. Ensure that all your peripherals are attached to the Pi Zero W before you apply power
8. If everything has gone to plan you will see the TTY text on screen loading the Linux kernel
9. If you loaded Raspbian Lite you will be prompted for login. Login = pi Password = raspberry
10. If you loaded Raspbian Desktop you should eventually be presented with the Pixel GUI
As I stated above this is based on a fresh Raspbian install.
I cannot debug your OpenHabian install as I'd need to see your file and folder structures first hand.
I strongly recommend you go the above route to get up and running.
Hopefully the above will be of assistance to others trying a Raspberry Pi Zero for the first time.
-
Are you running through some secondary VPN by any chance. Is it set for 2.4ghz and 5ghz.
not really. have virus main wireless and a netgear repeater in the house 300' away; SSID's virus_2g & virus_5g... same pw...
just powered up old lynksys open wireless router on bench... set to WPA personal (and tried WPA2 personal) with simple psk="this_is-mine" and SSID="linked" same submask as my 'real' dsl modem, just different IP (0.103) and let it assign DHCP from (0.104 to 0.115) so I can see if it assigns anything... My workshop comput connects as .0.104, goes to the internet fine (I set my workshop for 0.1 router).
new wpa. no connection...
downloading from 2 different locations, 2 different names new:
raspbian 2018-06-27 stretch-lite.zip (from raspbian.org)
&
Raspbian 2018-06-27 2GB Stretch Lite (rpi3) (kernel 4.9).img.7z
will try first then second tomorrow...
Disable the 5ghz on your main router. Zero may be trying to connect to the 5ghz connection which clearly it can't as it doesn't support 5ghz rate. Make sure you have no other equipment on yiur network that depend on this connection prior to temporarily disabling it.
-
your post 148 certainly is complete with all details! thanks.
Only difference 'tween yours and how I have been making micro DC cards is I use a different unzipper. I have seen reference to the microsoft 7zip program but never felt a need to use it as I believe mine is better. But for tomowor's tests I will use 7zip.
And I know my wpa file is good - I even copied it off my openhabian a few posts back.
tnx.
-
no need to disable my 5ghz repeater sig in the house: it is not seen in the workshop building 300 feet away.
besides, my cheap lynksys router right next to the pi did not connect! and simple SSID and pw.
-
your post 148 certainly is complete with all details! thanks.
Only difference 'tween yours and how I have been making micro DC cards is I use a different unzipper. I have seen reference to the microsoft 7zip program but never felt a need to use it as I believe mine is better. But for tomowor's tests I will use 7zip.
And I know my wpa file is good - I even copied it off my openhabian a few posts back.
tnx.
While I wrote that post with you in mind it is aimed at anyone experiencing difficulties and following this post. So much has been suggested so sometimes it's hard to nail down what solution if any worked.
I did suggest putting the country=US first as a lot of examples have that line third. To be honest any solution older than Jan 2018 I'd disregard owing to Zero firmware updates.
You really need access local access and a GUI on the Pi to see what's going on. There's additional local configuration options available to you to try to resolve the wireless issue but you need a functioning keyboard and monitor to do this.
I've given you as much as I can looking at this problem from a distance but I do know the answer lies between how your router and it's SSID and password are handled by the Pi. Your Pi is not communicating properly with your router and it's possibly a protocol issue.
Fingers crossed you get the job done.
-
I too saw country as line 1; I changed to that a while back with no change.
as another SD card (OH) communicates fine, and does so with the SAME EXACT wpa_supplicant.config file, I am assuming also it must be my 4-5 copies of raspbian images. Perhaps 7zip will make difference. I have now 3 different card image writers, all recommended by different folks on the net. None seemed to do any different than the others. I have used Echer to write from zip, iso, and another format. No difference.
I am using some fancy sandisk cards, some fair sandisk less expensive models, and some cheap ones. That does not seem to be the issue either. I have now 12 cards with documentation on what thhey do and do not do in organizer.
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I too saw country as line 1; I changed to that a while back with no change.
as another SD card (OH) communicates fine, and does so with the SAME EXACT wpa_supplicant.config file, I am assuming also it must be my 4-5 copies of raspbian images. Perhaps 7zip will make difference. I have now 3 different card image writers, all recommended by different folks on the net. None seemed to do any different than the others. I have used Echer to write from zip, iso, and another format. No difference.
I am using some fancy sandisk cards, some fair sandisk less expensive models, and some cheap ones. That does not seem to be the issue either. I have now 12 cards with documentation on what thhey do and do not do in organizer.
It's definitely looking like a Pi to router issue. As I said local Pi control will give you a much better chance of resolving this.
-
Only difference 'tween yours and how I have been making micro DC cards is I use a different unzipper. I have seen reference to the microsoft 7zip program but never felt a need to use it as I believe mine is better. But for tomowor's tests I will use 7zip.
If you use Etcher to make the image you don't even need to unzip the file. Select the zip file as source and the TF card as destination and you're done.
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Only difference 'tween yours and how I have been making micro DC cards is I use a different unzipper. I have seen reference to the microsoft 7zip program but never felt a need to use it as I believe mine is better. But for tomowor's tests I will use 7zip.
If you use Etcher to make the image you don't even need to unzip the file. Select the zip file as source and the TF card as destination and you're done.
Yes you can use any image writer you choose. Etcher will indeed do a combined unpack and write in one single operation. The main thing here is the original zip download has SHA256 validation with either method. I'm not sure if Mike is checking this.
There's so many factors here that could be affecting successful booting of the Pi. That's why I suggested local access will enable Mike to view exactly what's happening at boot. He will also be able to login locally and connect manually to his router which is not possibly remotely.
-
etcher is so simple I have been using it mostly. and yes, it does write verification after writing the SD card. I have had some fail that - those SD cards went immediately into the trash can.
-
You could use an expansion board to give you full sized USB and a ethernet connection.
Or if your comfortable with your solder skills you could solder on a USB cable to the test pads.
https://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-Zero-OTG-Hack-Add-a-Fullsize-Connecto/
I plan to use those pads to hard wire the CM15 directly to it. ;)
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Sweet! I was going to add a micro USB to my already configured USB male, female, and mid size old fashion USB cable. Yes, I am good with soldering; I repair surface mount electronics when required. Tnx; I never thought to just stick my female full size usb right to the zero! Will do shortly and report back.
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Tuicemen, I have a keyboard!
my etcher made 4gb stretch-lite booted up. I was able to login.
sudo raspi-config shows my problem under network:
"could not communicate with wpa_supplicant"
Now I am digging into directories to find it - shoulod be same place as my working OP was...
-
ok, I think I found the issue...
I have my wpa_supplicant.conf file in the directory:
/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.config
I can sudo head wpa_supplicant.conf and it is the file I loaded so ok there.
What is missing is the whole folder wpa_supplicant pointed to by the conf file! I have this on my working copy:
/var/run/wpa_supplicant and in this folder on the good card are 3 files IIRC, none of which I can read with the head command, but anyway, there.
So I will boot into Tails on workshop computer, add this directory and its 3 files from the working OP card...
any other ideas?
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maybe # is not a comment code in linux? my wpa file:
# config generated by openHABian first boot setup
country=US
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
ssid="lynked"
psk="thi
I found how to reload wpa_.conf file manually ... it says "unknown global field line 1" and "invalid configurqtion line 1"
going to redo without that # 'comment' line
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slo remade wpa file in windows, it loaded into proper dir after boot, this time with the comment line gone the failure is "--c unknown global field and line 1 invalid again...
the "--c" is actually two white filled in squares then c -- this is the country=US line...
like there are 2 invisible characters at beginning of line 1 of my wpa file...
I need to learn how to edit a text file in linux - this booting back and forth is for the birds...
-
since you now have a keyboard why not load stretch full (with GUI) setup is much easier using the desktop.
you can then setup SSH and remove the desktop for the next reboot after you have your Wi-Fi working
you can edit a text file from the terminal window with sudo nano filename
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so close!
I did not download the full stretch... takes 4 hrs on our slow dsl...
so i see the problem why wpa_supplicant.conf will not load: first line of the file is couple funny characters, even tho not there when I list the file or look in windows text editor...
not sure why this is doing this to me!
-
You can't use a Windows text editor for Linux files, it always adds extra characters somewhere though in my experience is usually at the end of the file. I had assumed you were using your Linux machine to edit the file.
-
Your nano command let me see the two blocks on first line; let me edit them out. using vi command did not show them so I could not edit them out.
but I cannot make the long command to run wpa_supplicant manually to work - at least last try after your nano it did not complain - just said it could not understand a line too long or something...
still no wifi tho. just rebooted... iwconfig shows it is not connected...
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You can't use a Windows text editor for Linux files, it always adds extra characters somewhere though in my experience is usually at the end of the file. I had assumed you were using your Linux machine to edit the file.
my understanding was we made wpa_supplicant.conf file in test editor in windows and copied it to \boot directory on the Sd card along with a blank ssh file. is this wrong?
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probably best to delete the file and recreate using nano I had to do this with some scripts I created in Windows. they didn't show any extra characters but there must have been something added I couldn't see.
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just spent an hour trying to edit this stupid file into what I want. finally seems root is editing it and things I do have no effect anymore.
now it also says there is a swap file with same name in use...
I will go read up on NANO to see how to use it properly and find a command to delete a file to start over.
I did sudo nano wpa_supplicant.conf and backspaced all out for blank screen. then manually typed it all back in. then hit control O to save it? seemed to. but then using head to look at it, it writes the country=US and part of next line then overrights them with just the end of that line and no more printed.
this is killing me.
no, gui version won't help as it still will rely on this dang file that I cannot seem to get on my sd card properly.
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I never had to create that file using the GUI for my Zero W. It auto wrote it for me I assume when I configured the wi-fi.
>!
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Mike if you look back at Post 69 and 73 you will see why I mentioned both the fact that your wpa_supplicant.conf file could have special characters and by using Nano you could avoid this. I mention this for good reason as you can now see.
The supplicant should only have the text that was outlined to you, no more no less. It could have saved you a lot of time and effort here.
If you were confident enough to proceed in Terminal we could now get you connected.
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I may go back to trying NOOBS install now that I have mouse and keyboard...
I did:
cd /etc/wpa_supplicant
dir to verify the file was there
rm wpa_supplicant.conf
DIR to verify it was gone
then sudo nano wpa_supplicant.conf
manually typed it all in again...
no clue how to save it so hit ctl-O and had to type in the name again
ctl-X to quit.
try to see it with:
ls -l wpa_supplicant.conf nothing
head wpa_supplicant.conf nothing
nano wpa_supplicant.conf says "file wpa_supplicant.conf is unwritable"
hhahaha!! THIs is enough to cause one to go INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
maybe I should not be changing the file in this directory?
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I may go back to trying NOOBS install now that I have mouse and keyboard...
I did:
cd /etc/wpa_supplicant
dir to verify the file was there
rm wpa_supplicant.conf
DIR to verify it was gone
then sudo nano wpa_supplicant.conf
manually typed it all in again...
no clue how to save it so hit ctl-O and had to type in the name again
ctl-X to quit.
try to see it with:
ls -l wpa_supplicant.conf nothing
head wpa_supplicant.conf nothing
nano wpa_supplicant.conf says "file wpa_supplicant.conf is unwritable"
hhahaha!! THIs is enough to cause one to go INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
maybe I should not be changing the file in this directory?
You can't just delete the wpa_supplicant.conf and add a new one. You must reimage the SD card if it was incorrectly created and executed.
-
actually there is a wpa_supplicant command in /sbin that will rewrite it from the .conf file...
I am now trying using nano to write the file and blank SSH into /boot directory and reboot...
-
When you finally get Raspbian Lite installed, login at the terminal and type sudo raspi-config, scroll through the menu until you find the wireless setup option. You can configure your wireless from there.
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actually there is a wpa_supplicant command in /sbin that will rewrite it from the .conf file...
I am now trying using nano to write the file and blank SSH into /boot directory and reboot...
Did you see how easy it is to do without having to use the supplicant file once you are logged in. Just posted above. This technique will autoscan all available networks and allow you to see what network you want to log into. Simple.
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When you finally get Raspbian Lite installed, login at the terminal and type sudo raspi-config, scroll through the menu until you find the wireless setup option. You can configure your wireless from there.
NOPE.
I was there this morning once I got keyboard action. Does not work! THAT IS MY PROBLEM!@^%URG
Of course I can pick network then pick enter SSID and pw - it opens a window that says simply "cannot access wpa_supplicant"
THIS IS WHAT I AM TRYING TO FIX.
If you look at a working pi you will see the wpa_supplicant.conf put into /boot moves to /etc/wpa_supplicant directory. there it can be viewed.
When it works, it also makes a directory as pointed to in the conf file itself under /var/run named wpa_suppliment.
I am not getting that /var/run directory made. I can type iwconfig and see there is no network setup. It is not setting up wlan0 at all.
-
I may go back to trying NOOBS install now that I have mouse and keyboard...
I did:
cd /etc/wpa_supplicant
dir to verify the file was there
rm wpa_supplicant.conf
DIR to verify it was gone
then sudo nano wpa_supplicant.conf
manually typed it all in again...
no clue how to save it so hit ctl-O and had to type in the name again
ctl-X to quit.
try to see it with:
ls -l wpa_supplicant.conf nothing
head wpa_supplicant.conf nothing
nano wpa_supplicant.conf says "file wpa_supplicant.conf is unwritable"
hhahaha!! THIs is enough to cause one to go INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
maybe I should not be changing the file in this directory?
.
You can't just delete the wpa_supplicant.conf and add a new one. You must reimage the SD card if it was incorrectly created and executed.
Mike, you cannot edit system files using Nano. You need to sudo nano at all times. Sudo gives you the correct permissions
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it tells me if I forget to use sudo. I am well past that stuff.
I can type in a perfect wpa_supplicant.conf file to either /boot or /etc/wpa_supplicant directories, it moves them, it just does not use them to configure wlan0 so I have no wifi.
NOOBS tomorrow. this is rediculous
-
Have you tried this at the command line
sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
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it tells me if I forget to use sudo. I am well past that stuff.
I can type in a perfect wpa_supplicant.conf file to either /boot or /etc/wpa_supplicant directories, it moves them, it just does not use them to configure wlan0 so I have no wifi.
NOOBS tomorrow. this is rediculous
Ok you're well past all that.
Assuming you're using the wireless cli so I'll leave you to it with this link. https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/wireless/wireless-cli.md
Just to remind when you start ploughing through a load of commands that don't work, in many cases you are making changes to system files that will have a counter effect on the system. In many cases it is necessary to reimage the SD card before you can continue.
Good luck with the NOOBS.
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NOOBS tomorrow. this is rediculous
I don't understand how NOOBS can connect ::) the lite version has many drivers missing It may be best to do NOOBS tonight and let it run overnight to do the full.
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NOOBS tomorrow. this is rediculous
I don't understand how NOOBS can connect ::) the lite version has many drivers missing It may be best to do NOOBS tonight and let it run overnight to do the full.
I run the Lite version. The wpa_supplicant.conf I suggested to you a while back runs perfectly on the Lite version. What drivers do you reckon are missing.
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If I knew that I'd suggest installing it/them. Miles setup is definately not your typical one. I know a lot is stripped from the lite version not just the GUI.
-
NOOBS tomorrow. this is rediculous
I don't understand how NOOBS can connect ::) the lite version has many drivers missing It may be best to do NOOBS tonight and let it run overnight to do the full.
I run the Lite version. The wpa_supplicant.conf I suggested to you a while back runs perfectly on the Lite version. What drivers do you reckon are missing.
Just look at this link here https://medium.com/@danidudas/install-raspbian-jessie-lite-and-setup-wi-fi-without-access-to-command-line-or-using-the-network-97f065af722e
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If I knew that I'd suggest installing it/them. Miles setup is definately not your typical one. I know a lot is stripped from the lite version not just the GUI.
Mike is getting into some very technical stuff there. The aim was to get Raspbian Stretch Lite installed and booting to the Terminal. He seems to be going on a solo run here and changing system files. A recipe for more misery.
-
At the terminal you paste the following command
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
The following is the text of the file.
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp
allow-hotplug wlan0
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid "ssid"
wpa-psk "password"
Save the file, restart the Pi and it will autostart and login to wireless
Anyway that what I was suggesting Mike do once he got past the login screen. This is exactly what the wpa_supplicant.conf does once you drop it into your /boot folder but it does it automatically.
I also assume that Mike uses WPA and not WEP.
I'm bowing out now on this topic.
Good luck with whatever works.
-
Have you tried this at the command line
sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
OH YA. built many there. edited some there. no help.
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NOOBS tomorrow. this is rediculous
I don't understand how NOOBS can connect ::) the lite version has many drivers missing It may be best to do NOOBS tonight and let it run overnight to do the full.
I'm a glutten for punishment.... I used my NOOBS and let it run for an hour installing raspbian... Of course it could not find the wifi so failed 4 pages of updates it was trying. NOW I think I recall there is a config file in /boot in NOOBS where you have to "turn on wifi" I did not do that. and it reminds me that in openhabian I entered the SSID and pw into THEIR openhabian.conf file in /boot before starting. IIRC I also had to turn on wifi there too. Guess they knew how to use the data properly.
So I left my etcher imaging the full stretcher with gui onto an 8gb card. Will try it in the morning.
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If I knew that I'd suggest installing it/them. Miles setup is definately not your typical one. I know a lot is stripped from the lite version not just the GUI.
Mike is getting into some very technical stuff there. The aim was to get Raspbian Stretch Lite installed and booting to the Terminal. He seems to be going on a solo run here and changing system files. A recipe for more misery.
Certainly not my choice! Of course I got it booting to terminal on hdmi with keypad. Log in. Can run any terminal commands, including the infamous raspi-config. Unfortunately even THAT will not set up the wpa_upplicant.conf file to be used. THAT is what I fought all day.
-
At the terminal you paste the following command
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
The following is the text of the file.
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp
allow-hotplug wlan0
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid "ssid"
wpa-psk "password"
Save the file, restart the Pi and it will autostart and login to wireless
Anyway that what I was suggesting Mike do once he got past the login screen. This is exactly what the wpa_supplicant.conf does once you drop it into your /boot folder but it does it automatically.
I also assume that Mike uses WPA and not WEP.
I'm bowing out now on this topic.
Good luck with whatever works.
NOW YOU SEE MY PROBLEM!!! I DO NOT HAVE ANY OF THAT IN MY INTRFACES FILE THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i have ONE line that says like:
ipup8 ipdn8
I almost decided to nano type in the interface file the way you show it and I have seen it. Without defining wlan0, I WILL NEVER HAVE WIFI. It is NOT an issue typos in wpa_supplicant.conf or any other files I change. You may think I am randomly changing linux files but I am not. I can see where the issue is and it is in onlly 3-4 files. You just hit on one of them.
I should not have to type this interfaces file in! It should be correct on the SD card for me! THAT is the problem - something is not letting the wifi set up these files properly.
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NOOBS tomorrow. this is rediculous
I don't understand how NOOBS can connect ::) the lite version has many drivers missing It may be best to do NOOBS tonight and let it run overnight to do the full.
I run the Lite version. The wpa_supplicant.conf I suggested to you a while back runs perfectly on the Lite version. What drivers do you reckon are missing.
Just look at this link here https://medium.com/@danidudas/install-raspbian-jessie-lite-and-setup-wi-fi-without-access-to-command-line-or-using-the-network-97f065af722e
That link just shows the wpa_supplicant setup again. I have been to 100 sites like that.
The one that I am following now goes into much more detail - down to the interfaces file:
https://kerneldriver.wordpress.com/2012/10/21/configuring-wpa2-using-wpa_supplicant-on-the-raspberry-pi/
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Fine so. You're deep into setup so you'll eventually find a solution.
Don't forget these two commands sudo ifdown wlan0 followed by sudo ifup wlan0 when you edit the supplicant file. Also don't forget to restart the Pi to make changes take effect
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@mike I have to say I really admire your tenacity in trying to get this working. I'm sure I would have given up much earlier in the process. Now that you're in the process of preparing an SD card with Raspbian Stretch Desktop, following the link in posts #142 or #181 should get you there. I used the information from the link in #142 and was up and running in minutes. Good luck!
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@mike I have to say I really admire your tenacity in trying to get this working. I'm sure I would have given up much earlier in the process. Now that you're in the process of preparing an SD card with Raspbian Stretch Desktop, following the link in posts #142 or #181 should get you there. I used the information from the link in #142 and was up and running in minutes. Good luck!
Its the only way to get your head around Linux. Not everyone has the time to spare getting under the hood and just want a quick fix. Assuming that you're learning from the try and fail and try again process it's well worth the effort.
The difficulty here is knowing that all the hardware is in good working order. Once that's confirmed you can get stuck into the system software. Yes the GUI can put the novice user at ease and help greatly with troubleshooting but the CLI really is the strength of Linux.
The important thing to note is that you can easily break the system with a few badly chosen commands. In a case like this it is likely that you will need to reinstall the system software and start again unless you're a power user.
Understanding the file structure, the folder structure, ownership and permissions takes a lot of trial and error out of your efforts. I will say that out of all the Linux distributions out in the wild, Raspbian is designed around the novice and the learner.
It's also important to note that with ongoing development, the Raspberry Pi and Raspbian is an evolving beast. What worked last year may not work this year so be mindful of this when you are searching for solutions.
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@mike I have to say I really admire your tenacity in trying to get this working. I'm sure I would have given up much earlier in the process. Now that you're in the process of preparing an SD card with Raspbian Stretch Desktop, following the link in posts #142 or #181 should get you there. I used the information from the link in #142 and was up and running in minutes. Good luck!
Thanks for the tip! Will do!
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Well said Petera. If I had not had this open heart surgery, I probably would not have had all this free time to experiment; so I can look at that event in a more positive light. Maybe. Nah, never mind. Haha.
Luckily in my case I KNOW 100% my hardware is good since I have a SD card that DOES go to my wifi.
Being an engineer, having spent 30+ years playing detective finding software and hardware problems for my customers, being sent out as last resort by manufacturing companies to solve these issues all others tried and failed to, identifying software bugs, knowing the only way to solve these issues is TO CHANGE ONLY ONE THING AT A TIME, ya, I feel comfortable doing this. If I ever fudged up a system file I certainly would not leave it so and continue on.
I am beginning to conclude there is a very slight syntax change needed in the wpa_supplicant.conf file that has not been identified yet: remember, having to add the 'country=US' snuck in here with few clearly stating it is now a requirement.
Knowing now that interfaces is where the wifi is actually configured is an important step to learn. It may lead me to being able to ignore this wpa_supplicant.conf intermediate step. I know my openhabian did NOT require a wpa_supplicant.conf file - they handled wifi via a section in their own openhad.conf file - that is where I put my SSID/PW and THEY used it as required to turn on wifi and gain access...
-
So I made a new full stretch using etcher last night on an 8gb card.
Plugged it in @ 10:06am this morning. It:
- booted
- auto logged in with user: pi
- asked me to set location
- found all 3 of my wifi networks
- I picked my regular network, signed in and it took immediately
@ 10:12 it is complete, installed, and off downloading a zillion updates. It is now 10:28 and it is 1/3 of the way thru updates.
This just confirms to me the newest pi zero W hardware is incompatible with the syntax offered all over the net for wpa_supplicant.conf file. I am not going to look back.
Tuicemen, you once said you install full desktop version and had issues with HG; replacing it with stretch lite solved those issue IIRC... That is not an option for me as I cannot make a stretch lite work. More recently I believe you also said one can install using this desktop then tell it on reboot to erase the desktop? Ie., make itself into a lite version? Did I understand that correctly?
Or would you guys recommend staying with the desktop version? I am going to be installing Mochad and then Domoticz...
Again, big thank you to all of you who helped me thru my 500 hours of trials and tribulations to get to this point!
-
So I made a new full stretch using etcher last night on an 8gb card.
Plugged it in @ 10:06am this morning. It:
- booted
- auto logged in with user: pi
- asked me to set location
- found all 3 of my wifi networks
- I picked my regular network, signed in and it took immediately
@ 10:12 it is complete, installed, and off downloading a zillion updates. It is now 10:28 and it is 1/3 of the way thru updates.
This just confirms to me the newest pi zero W hardware is incompatible with the syntax offered all over the net for wpa_supplicant.conf file. I am not going to look back.
Tuicemen, you once said you install full desktop version and had issues with HG; replacing it with stretch lite solved those issue IIRC... That is not an option for me as I cannot make a stretch lite work. More recently I believe you also said one can install using this desktop then tell it on reboot to erase the desktop? Ie., make itself into a lite version? Did I understand that correctly?
Or would you guys recommend staying with the desktop version? I am going to be installing Mochad and then Domoticz...
Again, big thank you to all of you who helped me thru my 500 hours of trials and tribulations to get to this point!
Hallelujah. You've finally landed. It was like the Rover Mission to Mars but you got there.
Watch your health though. As you clearly know troubleshooting can be very stressful so sit back for a bit and plan your next move. Make sure you image that working version before you install anything further (you know that of course :D )
At the terminal type sudo raspi-config and select the option to disable the Desktop. It frees up valuable resources but is still available if you need it.You could of course uninstall the X System but I wouldn't mess about with that at the moment.
Great news all round now enjoy the ride that's Raspberry Pi Zero W :)%
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I actual had issues with the lite version. Installing the full desktop fixed the issues I had. As petera stated disable the desktop from the terminal raspi-config will speed things up with the Zero W. However wait till you have your X10 programs setup.it will be slower but if you run into problems it will be easier to find things.
-
So I made a new full stretch using etcher last night on an 8gb card.
Plugged it in @ 10:06am this morning. It:
- booted
- auto logged in with user: pi
- asked me to set location
- found all 3 of my wifi networks
- I picked my regular network, signed in and it took immediately
@ 10:12 it is complete, installed, and off downloading a zillion updates. It is now 10:28 and it is 1/3 of the way thru updates.
Outstanding! Sometimes the simplest solution is best!
-
Got to get some more Raspbians on board to explore the joys of X10 with the Raspberry Pi. While this was a marathon install it was not typical and with the everything in place a typical install shouldn't take more than two hours from start to finish.
-
New boards and or new OS lite versions can as we seen in this example cause unforeseen issues.
I always go with the full installs then cut back rather then a minimal then add.
Spending days or weeks to get a software platform running only to see it isn't for you is not my cup of tea.
If the software looks like it is something suitable I'll then spend time trying a lite version if I think it will help.
With a Zero or older PI board running the lite version is a benifit but you can strip out things not needed from the full GUI version.
Usually just disabling the GUI is enough but you can remove other packages as well. ;)
Mike may like Domoticz it certainly has lots of options. However since mike already had experiance with HG I would have went that route first on the PI. Running these software options on Windows verses a PI are totaly different. Many Windows issues are none existant in the linux versions. They may look the same but they don't always perform the same.
-
Tuicemen I have not installed any x10 on this yet. left it last night making a image as it is now. Some of the updates failed during its couple hours doing that. One probably was the web browser as it does not work at all.
Just for a quick thing I tried sudo raspi-config and used its update button; t ground a while then reports failure also.
So going to regroup today and see if I can update everything and have a good card to image.
THEN I will install mochad and Domoticz to try. Having a good image, I plan to make another card and try the HG since it seems there is the original guy back doing a few things.
-
You have a few SD cards now so you'll be able to experiment with different options very easily with a good image on each.
I look forward to reading which platform you find works best for your setup.
-
Tuicemen I have not installed any x10 on this yet. left it last night making a image as it is now. Some of the updates failed during its couple hours doing that. One probably was the web browser as it does not work at all.
Just for a quick thing I tried sudo raspi-config and used its update button; t ground a while then reports failure also.
So going to regroup today and see if I can update everything and have a good card to image.
THEN I will install mochad and Domoticz to try. Having a good image, I plan to make another card and try the HG since it seems there is the original guy back doing a few things.
The main thing is you have a vanilla Raspbian install imaged so you can experiment to your hearts content and always reimage.
On many occasions package repositories can be down for maintenance purposes hence the failed to update message. Regularly run the sudo apt-get update to ensure your repositories are up to date before you run the sudo apt-get upgrade.
In rare cases you may have to add a repository like Mono when the package version drops behind the project version. Again packages can be withheld for instability reasons and will also show up as failed.
Finally, from what I can gather your Internet connection is quite slow and some of these packages are quit large. If your download is labouring the server hosting the package may well disconnect you. Personally I am running off 360mb/s so it's not noticeable for me.
Just a few things to be mindful of. Most of the failed errors can be easily googled and resolved.
The Chromium web browser is usually fairly reliable. If you're having problems with it use Midori. Not as feature rich but a lot faster.
-
I have a slow connection as well at my off grid place. I usually do the big upgrades at night while sleeping rofl
-
I figured it was my slow connection (10mb/s) not untypical with this crappy oversold crowded frontier DSL.
Anyway, image completed last night so plugged card back into pi; I like the 10 lines listed - lots of PANICfailed and can't sync stuff. Obviously NFG.
Tried it 3 boots; same each time. making a copy of the image on another sd card now...
sheesh
-
I am on a Frontier DSL that was dumped {SOLD} by AT&T here in CT.
I am 3mb/s down and 0.512mb/s up.
If I didn't have a grandfathered Comcast TV only Local Basic plan and getting my HD DTA units free and giving them an excuse to start charging for the interfaces. I would be on a Comcast internet plan myself.
-
my typo Brian. Same plan here. frontier speed tests show we typically actually get 1.8mb/s & 350 up. I meant crazy slow 10kb/s
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I am on a Frontier DSL that was dumped {SOLD} by AT&T here in CT.
I am 3mb/s down and 0.512mb/s up.
If I didn't have a grandfathered Comcast TV only Local Basic plan and getting my HD DTA units free and giving them an excuse to start charging for the interfaces. I would be on a Comcast internet plan myself.
I must be travelling at light speed so. I'm experimenting with a 1gb/s connection using the Raspberry Pi 3+ gigabit connection. Impressive results.
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Here I go again! since some stuff did not work on the full install, and since this morning it booted into 10 lines of failed and crap, I just flashed another new card and am going thru the whole install again. gosh what a waste of time!
now it wont connect to my network again (:
I am beginning to think I should just sell my Pi zero W cards on ebay and get the heck out of them.
ok, since I not using my passphrase but my actual 26bit security hex code, it did not like non caps for the letters... it is downloading again. Hope this time it will complete without all the failures...
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Here I go again! since some stuff did not work on the full install, and since this morning it booted into 10 lines of failed and crap, I just flashed another new card and am going thru the whole install again. gosh what a waste of time!
now it wont connect to my network again (:
I am beginning to think I should just sell my Pi zero W cards on ebay and get the heck out of them.
ok, since I not using my passphrase but my actual 26bit security hex code, it did not like non caps for the letters... it is downloading again. Hope this time it will complete without all the failures...
I thought you had taken an image of the working Raspbian install that actually worked with wireless. Surely a reimage would have resolved this.
Could you paste a copy of what you refer to as failed crap. I mentioned earlier a number of reasons why this may be happening.
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i did make an image. I did write it to another sd card. it too came up with the 10 lines of failure crap. So gave up and wrote another fresh image of stretcher with Gui. It started fine, connected to network fine, went to update and said nope can't do - told me to write down a command line, which I did, and try running that at a later date... I will try it tomorrow.
So decided to make sure chromium browser worked, and went to a couple sites, so it does work. So quit for the day.
guess I need to do this update pksomething -a command tomorrow and see if it goes. if it does, and updates stuff, then I need to reboot once to verify it is good before making an image...
-
i did make an image. I did write it to another sd card. it too came up with the 10 lines of failure crap. So gave up and wrote another fresh image of stretcher with Gui. It started fine, connected to network fine, went to update and said nope can't do - told me to write down a command line, which I did, and try running that at a later date... I will try it tomorrow.
So decided to make sure chromium browser worked, and went to a couple sites, so it does work. So quit for the day.
guess I need to do this update pksomething -a command tomorrow and see if it goes. if it does, and updates stuff, then I need to reboot once to verify it is good before making an image...
Just so I'm clear you have achieved the following
1. Downloaded and imaged a copy of Raspbian Stretch Desktop GUI
2. Powered up the Pi Zero successfully and it's booting to the Pixel GUI
3. Connected successfully to your wireless router
Assuming you have managed the above I strongly suggest you do your first major update via a high speed broadband connection. A lot of large packages will need to be updated on first run. In some cases up to 400mb.
When doing your first run update use the following commands
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
This will ensure you have the latest version of every package and the corresponding repositories plus the latest firmware version for the Pi Zero.
If the update process struggles in some cases some packages may be held back for update and may lead to dependencies issues.
If you have broken packages or unmet dependencies run this command from Terminal
sudo apt-get -f install
This should resolve any broken packages or unmet dependencies
NB Could you report back on each stage of the process and as soon as you encounter any errors at any stage could you paste the errors before proceeding to the next step.
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Petera, you got it right.
Thanks for offer; I will stop on errror and report in here before proceeding.
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interesting... left it on overnight with chromium browser open. Came in just now and decided to make sure it would restart since that was failure mode last times... clicked reboot on menu and it began, raspberry in top left of screen, then 3 dots in center, went thru each dot over 10 seconds ... then blank screen for 5 seconds... then... raspberry in top left again and repeated this sequence over and over until I pulled 5v. reboot after power removed worked... wonder if the reboot not working is typical of pi?
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the command it had left me to run later for updating was
dpkg --configure -a
needed sudo in front; it is running... lots of 'processing triggers for...' stuff, some 'already exists' stuff...
going to leave it to itself for a while, looks like it will be a while.
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"When doing your first run update use the following commands
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade"
So did get update; completed said done no faults
did get upgrade, took so long I left for a couple hours. Came back to dead pi. cycled power and it is back on - no clue if it upgraded stuff but at least it boot back up!
next typed sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
PROBLEM: came right back with "E: dpkg was interupted, you must manually run 'sudo dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem.
Since it at least boots I will await your suggestion what to do next. Meanwhile I will at least make an image of this as it appears to be working.
thought I would try SSH into it: connection refused. It does show up on my network but no SSH again. I think I saw that can turn on off in raspi-config so will look for it there... while typing this in to terminal it took to rebooting itself... have rasberry stuck in top left corner now, flashing "-" under it... after 2 minutes of this it started to load stuff - first line RED FAULT: something about file system... then it rebooted again... now it is stuck rebooting over and over again... I did nothing! black screen to rasberry to 3 dots, wh30 sec after 3rd dot lites it reboots and repeats. I did nothing~!
so 10 constant reboots like this over 30 minutes and the GUI comes up!
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so since it booted I thought I would type in terminal
sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev
and install mochad... well it won't take - says problems, have to run
sudo dpkg --config -a
to continue... so I did... I was going to copy and paste results here of all the ERROR reports on each package it checked... but cannot as it rebooted instead. 4 reboots by itself... then GUI came up again...
I think that command
sudo apt-get upgrade
breaks me every time I run it?
I think I will skip it and try to get the
sudo dpkg --config -a to run successfully. If so then I think I should NOT type the upgrade one?
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I see... this dpkg --configure -a finally ran thru without a reboot:
sheet! I was about to copy all the dependency faults and it reboot again. dam. I am thinking this is a interative process... each time dpkg --configure -a is run it fiex or blocks off some pkg and so next time thru it does not fault on that pkg again but just makes that pkg not work since this time the command ended without a reboot. the reboot happened 30 seconds later... it is in the midst of the dozen reboots now; I am hoping it will finally reboot into GUI again like in past after enough reboots... probably 1 reboot per broken pkg?
It is indeed that dam apt-get upgrade that broke my system - the failures listed are all about versions required vs what is on the system not matching...
How do I recover from this last BS?
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so went and blew leaves and used my walnut picker upper football roller to pick up a few hundred black walnuts out of the drive and came back... I was able to copy and past the upgrade crap into a file I named 'upgrade faults' and place it in a folder called public... but I cannot get to that directory from SSH on my windows computer to post it here... I know it is under home/pi/public but I cannot figure how to use CD to open that folder yet...
ahhhh... public is Public - caps is important in linux...
So here is the file and where I stand now. What would you recommend next?
PS: It actually rebooted! should I make my image now or wait for fixing more of the mismatch stuff?
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You have it now.
Your Raspberry Pi boot loader was corrupted so "magically" the update managed to remove the corrupted files and overlaid a good version of the boot loader.
You should now be able to reboot your Raspberry Pi Zero straight to the Pixel GUI. Once you've confirmed this write an image of that card to one of your hardisks so you have a working vanilla version of Raspbian Stretch Desktop and you can experiment away with your Raspberry Pi knowing that should you mess up you can just reimage the card unattended while you're blowing more leaves :)%
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@mike this is purely for reference to give you an idea what was happening to you http://stevenhickson.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-to-fix-raspberry-pi-boot-problems.html?m=1
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SWEET! Yes, it reboots now. I will image it to backup file tomorrow.
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SWEET! Yes, it reboots now. I will image it to backup file tomorrow.
Do NOT attempt to play with it until you have imaged it first or I'll book a flight over to you and take it off you rofl
You've finally arrived in the world of Raspberry Pi >!
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Not sure what app you use to image your SD card. Win32diskimage works very well and it does a good read/write every time. Whatever you use make sure you test your image integrity possibly writing it to a different SD card and try to boot it in your Zero.
Don't forget to report back on your adventures in a new post.
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petera, no flight needed. my newly made image created another SD card that I am now using. Installed Mochad so far but not tested it yet. After I can turn a lite on/off with it I will go on to installing domoticz again. Thanks again for your help.
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You're welcome >!
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Never mind all this; found write ups showing how to get around certificate issues... installing now... sheesh... server is running and shows up on network. Now to figure how to USE it! haha!
So I followed detailed lines with copy/paste to install mochad; it seems to work as it finds my cm15 plugged in... I cleared cm15 memory. I can turn A1 appliance module on/off via actie home I installed on this workshop windows computer to verify the install...
mochad instructions are confusing as they do not tell how to 'end' a mochad command... I can ask it to check status and it says found cm15a but does not give me back my prompt for next command; I must hit ctrl-Z to get prompt back. ditto with their test lines of echo a1 on etc... no end and no turning on module. I assume it probably works and I just don't understand how to send a terminal command to it. OK. so on to installing dfomoticz.
sheesh, before it installed instantly; now it wont install - says certificate errors. tried to copy fault to file to post here but it just reboots the pi...
various roundabout copy pastes between SSH and GUI got the fault:
pi@raspberrypi:~/Public $ head domoticz.txt
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ curl -L install.domoticz.com | sudo bash
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 194 100 194 0 0 231 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 231
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:01 --:--:-- 0
curl: (77) error setting certificate verify locations:
CAfile: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
CApath: /etc/ssl/certs
pi@raspberrypi:~ $
Any ideas how to solve this?
On my wifes Apple I found over the years I could sometimes install new programs by downloading them then clicking on them; is that possible here? I downloaded the latest beta of domoticz.tgz into my pi Downloads directory , I unzipped it into directory there labeled domoticz. there is what looks like a program file named domoticz in there - can I just double click it to install?
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So I followed detailed lines with copy/paste to install mochad; it seems to work as it finds my cm15 plugged in... I cleared cm15 memory. I can turn A1 appliance module on/off via actie home I installed on this workshop windows computer to verify the install...
mochad instructions are confusing as they do not tell how to 'end' a mochad command... I can ask it to check status and it says found cm15a but does not give me back my prompt for next command; I must hit ctrl-Z to get prompt back. ditto with their test lines of echo a1 on etc... no end and no turning on module. I assume it probably works and I just don't understand how to send a terminal command to it. OK. so on to installing dfomoticz.
sheesh, before it installed instantly; now it wont install - says certificate errors. tried to copy fault to file to post here but it just reboots the pi...
various roundabout copy pastes between SSH and GUI got the fault:
pi@raspberrypi:~/Public $ head domoticz.txt
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ curl -L install.domoticz.com | sudo bash
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 194 100 194 0 0 231 0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 231
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --:--:-- 0:00:01 --:--:-- 0
curl: (77) error setting certificate verify locations:
CAfile: /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
CApath: /etc/ssl/certs
pi@raspberrypi:~ $
Any ideas how to solve this?
On my wifes Apple I found over the years I could sometimes install new programs by downloading them then clicking on them; is that possible here? I downloaded the latest beta of domoticz.tgz into my pi Downloads directory , I unzipped it into directory there labeled domoticz. there is what looks like a program file named domoticz in there - can I just double click it to install?
This is what a lot of people use to install Mochad on the Raspberry Pi https://www.markvriens.com/raspberry-pi-x10-with-cm15pro-controller/
Just follow the instructions exactly as they are listed. It also explains what to expect when you start the server and exactly the format to type them in.
You need to create a service to launch Mochad on boot.
As you are installing Mochad from a makefile you need to remove the makefile before trying to reinstall it (not easy). Again once you hit problems on install just reinstall Raspbian. It will save you hours of messing about trying to repair it.
Here's the routine for installing Mochad for Domoticz https://www.sigmdel.ca/michel/ha/x10/domoticz_install_01_en.html
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tnx. I have a few others (maybe these too) open to help. Sure need them! thanks.
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tnx. I have a few others (maybe these too) open to help. Sure need them! thanks.
Unless an author of a program creates an uninstall of a makefile it's very difficult to remove it.
Mochad is not in the apt package repositories so you can't use the usual sudo apt to install it. You need to compile it first as you are doing from the links I posted
The markvriens install instructions are very straightforward and work every time for a first time install on a vanilla version of Raspbian.
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When you finally get Mochad up and running and find for any reason that it's locking up on you compile and install either SensorFlare's version https://github.com/SensorFlare/mochad or bjonica's version 0.1.17 https://github.com/bjonica/mochad
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I believe it is working... quite a few apparent random pi reboots - probably stuff I am doing, but I CAN turn on off a lite in the house with echo "rf a2 on" | nc localhost 1099! I cannot add switches to domoticz yet since my cm15a is a test unit on my workbench, behind 2 X10 line filters so it cannot see my pushing a button...
I am not ready to clear memory in my daily use cm15a so hope it will work uncleared! I will move my pi to 2nd floor of my office where my cm15a is with its external antenna and give it a go tomorrow!
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I believe it is working... quite a few apparent random pi reboots - probably stuff I am doing, but I CAN turn on off a lite in the house with echo "rf a2 on" | nc localhost 1099! I cannot add switches to domoticz yet since my cm15a is a test unit on my workbench, behind 2 X10 line filters so it cannot see my pushing a button...
I am not ready to clear memory in my daily use cm15a so hope it will work uncleared! I will move my pi to 2nd floor of my office where my cm15a is with its external antenna and give it a go tomorrow!
If you don't clear the memory you'll get some really weird behaviour. As they are no longer on sale you may pick up a used one on eBay that you could clear.
At least you now have Mochad working and have learnt a little more about into the bargain.
Good luck with the adventure. I've got to get back to troubleshooting a Ubuntu Raid 10 server. Been putting it off for a while but needs must.
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question: I have a fully functioning and programmed AHP & cm15a running on my main windows 10 64bit machine. It turns on and off my x10 security system each evening and morning respectively.
I am beginning to think I can leave that alone and yet ADD this domoticz and its own clearted memory cm15a ALSO to do things.
Until I can find a way to transmit security codes with domoticz (I am working on this) I cannot replace my standalone programmed cm15.
I am also working on figuring how to be able type some my domoticz server address into a web browser along with a specific X10 lites on or off command so I can give my wife a simple one click icon on her apple computer to reset our awful DSL modem 2-3 times a day as required...
True? Anyone see any issues with running two separate cm15's doing separate stuff?
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There are issues with running 2 CM15. It is posible using AHP as you need to tell one not to trancieve other wise both will re send signal on plc. I belive that was the only real issue with running two though you may wish to Pm knightrider as I know he ran more then one maybe more then 2. >!
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There are issues with running 2 CM15. It is posible using AHP as you need to tell one not to trancieve other wise both will re send signal on plc. I belive that was the only real issue with running two though you may wish to Pm knightrider as I know he ran more then one maybe more then 2. >!
I've two running here no problem.
Been a while since I ran Domoticz but it appears now that it has native support for Mochad so no need to install Mochad separately https://www.domoticz.com/wiki/X10_devices,_CM15_Pro
Just look at the web Api calls on your devices in Domoticz and you can type them in the browser address bar. Should work ok.
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Actualy the wiki says to install Mochad and gives you the link to download it. If it was included you shouldnt have to do a separate download.
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Actualy the wiki says to install Mochad and gives you the link to download it. If it was included you shouldnt have to do a separate download.
Oops.....no scripts required so. Yes I can vaguely remember messing about with scripts alright. Glad to see they've included what they term native support now.
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question: I have a fully functioning and programmed AHP & cm15a running on my main windows 10 64bit machine. It turns on and off my x10 security system each evening and morning respectively.
I am beginning to think I can leave that alone and yet ADD this domoticz and its own clearted memory cm15a ALSO to do things.
Until I can find a way to transmit security codes with domoticz (I am working on this) I cannot replace my standalone programmed cm15.
I am also working on figuring how to be able type some my domoticz server address into a web browser along with a specific X10 lites on or off command so I can give my wife a simple one click icon on her apple computer to reset our awful DSL modem 2-3 times a day as required...
True? Anyone see any issues with running two separate cm15's doing separate stuff?
I don't think you'll get the x10 security codes working in Domoticz. You may have to add a 3rd party solution into the mix. I think others have tried and failed.
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@mike I believe to do security code sends with Domoticz you'll need to setup HA-Bridge and do a simular workaround you did with HG and the Broadlink RM
Mochad can see the Security codes but can't send them from what I've read.
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I have run 2 CM15A + RPi w/ HG in the past without issue. I used one as the unit actually doing the work and the second to simply record transmitted commands so as to track what the main unit was seeing and doing. I also did the same thing with AHP + CM15A as the monitor prior to switching to HG. As has been mentioned, the key is to make sure you don't have both performing competing actions and ideally turning off transcoding on one CM15A.
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@mike I believe to do security code sends with Domoticz you'll need to setup HA-Bridge and do a simular workaround you did with HG and the Broadlink RM
Mochad can see the Security codes but can't send them from what I've read.
I figured I would end up there too.
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"
Just look at the web Api calls on your devices in Domoticz and you can type them in the browser address bar. Should work ok."
Ya, bit so far I have clue where to look for these... maybe a log somewhere...
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Mike I don't use Domoticz but here's a typical example of operating a device using a URL directly from the browser address bar. You should be able to figure the exact syntax yourself.
Try starting a new post as my original post is gone out of shape now.
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Mike I don't use Domoticz but here's a typical example of operating a device using a URL directly from the browser address bar. You should be able to figure the exact syntax yourself.
Try starting a new post as my original post is gone out of shape now.
I will start a new post, but please give me your example (did not come thru). tnx