How I control X10 modules on Linux... (including Raspberry Pi)

[petera]

For the coders, geeks, nerds (whatever the preference) GUI is not necessary. For the other 95% of the population that want things easy and pretty to look at, a nice GUI is an absolute necessity. If not, we would still be using DRDOS, MSDOS, CP/M, FORTRAN... those were the days.

If I wanted something pretty to look at I'd go to an art gallery. In terms of computing there's a trade off for all this prettiness. All the eye candy gobbles up both valuable CPU and GPU processing time drawing screens instead of doing what they do best, processing data.

I'd understand if users were expected to code in Assembly or such like but most of the required work needed to be done in a terminal or SSH session is done by way of cut and pasting and you could hardly call that a hardship.

[petera]

For the coders, geeks, nerds (whatever the preference) GUI is not necessary. For the other 95% of the population that want things easy and pretty to look at, a nice GUI is an absolute necessity. If not, we would still be using DRDOS, MSDOS, CP/M, FORTRAN... those were the days.

I agree with you 100%
Thats the main reason many took so long to even try Linux.
Much still has to be done from the CLI.
Many just want point and click control and set up.
A simple typo and the whole set up can get messed up.

The beauty of Linux on a Raspberry Pi is you can take an image of your SD card (15 minutes work) and throw whatever commands or changes you desire at the OS and if it breaks the system all you need do is to restore that image you took earlier (another 15 minutes work) and you're back to a perfectly working system.

You have the added advantage of having a mini server tucked away from sight without a screen, a mouse or a keyboard hanging off it that, when required can be accessed at any time either on site or off site. And of course you have the advantage of a unit that will not draw more than 2ah of power yet can control most if not all of your home automation needs.

I think the choice of Windows over Linux goes a lot further than choices of GUI over command line usage. Commercial and economic drivers I would imagine have played a big role in OS choices over the years. This is beginning to shift dramatically and particularly over the last five years. Development in the ARM processor world has really thrown down the gauntlet to the opposition and Microsoft and Intel are no longer the giant they once were. I liken this to the battle between iOS and Android.

[dhouston]

For the other 95% of the population...

Make that 98%.
https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?options=%7B%22filter%22%3A%7B%22%24and%22%3A%5B%7B%22deviceType%22%3A%7B%22%24in%22%3A%5B%22Desktop%2Flaptop%22%5D%7D%7D%5D%7D%2C%22dateLabel%22%3A%22Trend%22%2C%22attributes%22%3A%22share%22%2C%22group%22%3A%22platform%22%2C%22sort%22%3A%7B%22share%22%3A-1%7D%2C%22id%22%3A%22platformsDesktop%22%2C%22dateInterval%22%3A%22Monthly%22%2C%22dateStart%22%3A%222017-04%22%2C%22dateEnd%22%3A%222018-03%22%2C%22segments%22%3A%22-1000%22%7D

[HA Dave]

For the other 95% of the population...

Make that 98%.............

And those stats have barely change over DECADES. Apple use has (proportionally) exploded... mostly due to the enormous success of the their iphones and ipads (even my 90+ year old Mom has an ipad).... and European use of Linux has helped in that front. Whereas I have real affection for both Apple and Raspbian/(Linux).... and a growing disgust with the "service" called Microsoft..... the facts are facts. The vast majority of "computers" have Windows OS's.

But there are more and more "things" also doing jobs formerly done by computers. 

[bkenobi]

I tried to grab the Domoticz RPi image, but it's failed several times.  I'm not sure if it's my terrible internet or the image provider.  I may try using my phone's data to grab the file.  But, last time I did that Verizon felt it necessary to claim I used several GB over my limit (not true) and tried to double my bill for the month.   

[Tuicemen]

Meanwhile... anyway I can get an image of what you've created?

I did PM you about this Dave.

With the Zero W now able to run HG I set about getting my 3B+ setup with the full Raspbian-Stretch and HG.
I installed HG exactly the way I did on the lite version using SSH and PuTTy and it works 

I'll see about possibly getting image files for both the Zero W and 3B+ placed on my server.
I suspect this may take some time.
I don't expect either to work with a different Pi board

[Tuicemen]

I tried to grab the Domoticz RPi image, but it's failed several times.  I'm not sure if it's my terrible internet or the image provider.  I may try using my phone's data to grab the file.  But, last time I did that Verizon felt it necessary to claim I used several GB over my limit (not true) and tried to double my bill for the month.   

I was able to get the image without issue but that was during a week day so the internet wasn't as congested.
Once I have everything backed up here I'll attempt to load it again on my ZeroW as I really wish to try this one.
I don't believe I used the image tool they suggested and to be honest I'm lost in the Linux CLI.

[petera]

Meanwhile... anyway I can get an image of what you've created?

I did PM you about this Dave.

With the Zero W now able to run HG I set about getting my 3B+ setup with the full Raspbian-Stretch and HG.
I installed HG exactly the way I did on the lite version using SSH and PuTTy and it works 

I'll see about possibly getting image files for both the Zero W and 3B+ placed on my server.
I suspect this may take some time.
I don't expect either to work with a different Pi board

Once you have a working version of HomeGenie on your SD card you can shrink it for the convenience of sharing it with others. Just by taking a win32discimage and using a link like this https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=195882 you can reduce it in size making life a lot easier for you when hosting it.

Of course if all else fails you could copy this image onto another SD cars and use snail mail. Might be easier for those who are not familiar with Linux.

[Tuicemen]

Once you have a working version of HomeGenie on your SD card you can shrink it for the convenience of sharing it with others. Just by taking a win32discimage and using a link like this https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=195882 you can reduce it in size making life a lot easier for you when hosting it.

Yep did that Sd image for the Zero W is on the server.
3B+ will be a bit longer but before days end

[bkenobi]

I think I found the issue with Domoticz.

https://www.domoticz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18932&start=40#p154552

According to that post (related to fixing the issue), Domoticz hard links to an old, obsolete, insecure library that is no longer supported under Stretch.  I think my best bet is to get that image and see if I like the HA software.  If so, I can see if there's a way to get it running securely.

Oh, and here's apparently a fix for it:

https://diyprojects.io/domoticz-installation-configuration-raspberry-pi-3-2/#.Wa7rFshJYuU

[petera]

Once you have a working version of HomeGenie on your SD card you can shrink it for the convenience of sharing it with others. Just by taking a win32discimage and using a link like this https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=195882 you can reduce it in size making life a lot easier for you when hosting it.

Yep did that Sd image for the Zero W is on the server.
3B+ will be a bit longer but before days end

Just something to be mindful of. Mono 5.10 in some cases has been reported to break
Homegenie .526. The last reported guaranteed version of Mono known to work with
Homegenie .526 is Mono 5.4.1. Homegenie 1.1.15 is a little experimental at the moment and some packages are known to be missing. If I was you I would stick with Homegenie .526 as it was the last version the original author worked on.

[Tuicemen]

Just something to be mindful of. Mono 5.10 in some cases has been reported to break
Homegenie .526. The last reported guaranteed version of Mono known to work with
Homegenie .526 is Mono 5.4.1. Homegenie 1.1.15 is a little experimental at the moment and some packages are known to be missing. If I was you I would stick with Homegenie .526 as it was the last version the original author worked on.

The images are with HG .526 and a mono version that works with it.
I had thought about upgrading to the newer version but had read there were still issues which may affect user.
If one wishes to update you simply follow the install instruction here  https://bounz.github.io/HomeGenie-BE/#/get_started installing it directly over the old version.

[Tuicemen]

I think I found the issue with Domoticz.

https://www.domoticz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=18932&start=40#p154552

According to that post (related to fixing the issue), Domoticz hard links to an old, obsolete, insecure library that is no longer supported under Stretch.  I think my best bet is to get that image and see if I like the HA software.  If so, I can see if there's a way to get it running securely.

Oh, and here's apparently a fix for it:

https://diyprojects.io/domoticz-installation-configuration-raspberry-pi-3-2/#.Wa7rFshJYuU

Thanks for that I may just stick with HG for now since the image will not work on the 3B+ if you do get it working post some screen shots. Others may find it helpful. 

[petera]

Just something to be mindful of. Mono 5.10 in some cases has been reported to break
Homegenie .526. The last reported guaranteed version of Mono known to work with
Homegenie .526 is Mono 5.4.1. Homegenie 1.1.15 is a little experimental at the moment and some packages are known to be missing. If I was you I would stick with Homegenie .526 as it was the last version the original author worked on.

The images are with HG .526 and a mono version that works with it.
I had thought about upgrading to the newer version but had read there were still issues which may affect user.
If one wishes to update you simply follow the install instruction here  https://bounz.github.io/HomeGenie-BE/#/get_started installing it directly over the old version.

Not advisable. Bounz is more focussed on the Windows version of Homegenie and I found a number of important packages that appeared to be missing were causing Mono to throw "fatal exception" errors. You don't want to have to go down the road of interpreting Mono errors. A very time consuming exercise.

People tend to forget that Homegenie is a Windows based program running in the .net framework on Linux with the aid Xamarin's Mono. If users here feel more confident in the Windows environment they can always load Homegenie on Windows to get a feel for it before they embark on the Raspberry Pi/Raspbian version. Of course nothing stopping them getting the Windows IoT version running too on the Raspberry Pi

[bkenobi]

Following the instructions I posted a link to, I now have Domoticz running.  I'm going to start playing with getting X10 loaded as currently it's just the RPi.  At least it's a start!