Raspberry Pi Debian Squeeze, Gambas2, DomotiGa SD Image

*EDIT* This image has now been succeeded by a Raspbian / Wheezy based image: My raspbian SD image is now available: https://tickett.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/raspbian-wheezy-gambas2-domotiga/

After an earlier post https://tickett.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/domotiga-running-on-raspberry-pi/ I received a few requests for the sd card image. So here it is.

The following are all the login/passwords you may need:

login: pi/raspberry
msql: root/raspberry
vnc: raspberry

This is based on the official Raspberry Pi debian squeeze image, with the following additional items installed:

ssh enabled
mysql-server
tightvncserver
subversion
gambas2.24

It just fits on a 2 GB card:

pi@raspberrypi:~/domotiga$ df -H
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
tmpfs 98M 0 98M 0% /lib/init/rw
udev 11M 148k 11M 2% /dev
tmpfs 98M 0 98M 0% /dev/shm
rootfs 1.7G 1.5G 60M 97% /
/dev/mmcblk0p1 79M 29M 50M 37% /boot
pi@raspberrypi:~/domotiga$

All packages have been upgraded to their latest stable version from the squeeze repository.

If you don’t know how to get into the guy, you can either login to the console then run:

startx

Or via ssh run:

vncserver :1 –geometry 1024x728 –depth 16

Then use any vnc client to connect to the desktop. Now execute gambas2 from the run menu:

I have already opened the DomotiGa project so just click on it:

Click "Run" from the toolbar, Debug menu or press F5:

Download links:

http://tickett.net/downloads/raspi_squeeze_gambas2_domotiga.img.7z

http://tickett.net/downloads/raspi_squeeze_gambas2_domotiga.img.7z.md5sum

Mirror:

http://speedy.sh/nAMsr/raspi-squeeze-gambas2-domotiga.img.7z
http://speedy.sh/v9ETB/raspi-squeeze-gambas2-domotiga.img.7z.md5sum

Let me know how you get on!

L

Debian Wheezy X / Gnome Bug, VirtualBox Additions & Gambas3 / DomotiGa

Lots of wasted time today trying to get into X in Debian Wheezy- only to find out there’s a bug with the installer which ignores the fact that I have ticked the "desktop" option. Doh!

Adding the wheezy repository:

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian wheezy main contrib non-free

To:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Updating:

apt-get update

Then installing task-gnome-desktop:

apt-get install task-gnome-desktop

Fixes this!

As I am running in VirtualBox I then had to install virtualbox-guest-additions, but before doing so we need to know which headers to download:

uname –r

We can then install the virtualbox-guest-additions dependencies (the 3.2.0-2-amd64 is the output from the uname command above):

apt-get install make gcc linux-headers-3.2.0-2-amd64

Now you can mount the guest additions installation disk (devices, install guest additions) then:

mount –t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /media/cdrom

Now run /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run and reboot :)

Getting gambas3 installed was a piece of cake- I chose to use the synaptic package manager and didn’t need to do anything special. I checked out DomotiGa and DomitiGaServer3 compiled/executed first time:

L

Gambas 3.1.1 on Raspberry Pi (Debian Wheezy) & DomotiGa

With some difficulty I have managed to get Gambas 3.1.1 running in Debian Wheezy Arm on Raspberry Pi:

I think DomotiGa has only just started to be ported to Gambas3- but it looks good:

Let’s get coding!

L

DomotiGa running on Raspberry Pi

I’m there! After quite a few hours of pain- I’m finally there. I ended up having to compile gambas2 from source- see previous posts:

https://tickett.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/gambas2-on-raspberry-pi/

https://tickett.wordpress.com/2012/06/04/gambas2-on-raspberry-pi-part-2-were-good-to-go/

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have a few devices up and running!

L

Gambas2 on Raspberry Pi – Part 2: We’re good to go!

And as if by magic… several moments after my previous post:

I’m off out for a while but if it’s possible will share the compiled version (I’m not sure how yet… but I’m sure I will work it out!). And then to go back to trying to get DomotiGa up and running!!

L

Gambas2 on Raspberry Pi

I’m currently battling trying to get gambas2 installed on one of my raspis so I can try out DomotiGa http://www.domotiga.nl

sudo apt-get install gambas2

Looks to install AOK but when trying to run from the desktop nothing happens and when trying to run from the terminal gives:

pi@raspberrypi:~$ gambas2
Segmentation fault

Googling around suggested synaptic has better dependency checking so I tried again from scratch. This gave me 3 errors (404 page not found for openssl, libcurl3-gnutls & postgresql). I installed these 3 packages using apt-get, fired synaptic up and was able to complete the gambas2 installation without any errors/warnings.

But alas, firing up gambas2 presents the same lack of activity from the desktop and segmentation fault error from the terminal.

Another search result suggested trying the development / testing version of gambas2 from the wheezy repository. Unfortunately (unless I did something wrong) it appears the same version is in both the stable repository- doh!
*EDIT* I just found out that I could have figured this out pretty easily by browsing: http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&keywords=gambas2 which would also have pointed out the fact that there is a third repository: Unstable (sid). This doesn’t have the latest 2.24 but does have 2.23 (I may try this at some point to see if it is possible to avoid the hassle of compiling yourself)

Next to try compiling from source: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gambas/files/gambas2/ (which is nearly complete- but will inevitably cause me to pull out my hair!)

L

Raspberry Pi Home Automation Project

Now my 2nd Raspberry Pi has turned up I can (re)start work on my home automation project.

Previously I’ve setup a wireless sensor network (WSN) comprised of a number of jeenodes (http://www.jeelabs.org) using the RFM12B to connect back to central jeelink usb plugged into a repurposed orange livebox router (running http://www.homeautomationhub.com). Additionally I installed a number of CurrentCost individual appliance monitors (iams) and a EnviR energy monitor plugged into the home automation hub (hah) to monitor and log household and appliance level energy consumption. Refer to some old blog entries: https://tickett.wordpress.com/category/home-automation/. All of the data was being sent to pachube for logging.

I wasn’t too keen on the home automation hub as I didn’t really fully understand it and couldn’t push it where I wanted to go (although the community was really good and I imagine I will be seeking assistance from them in connection with the new project :)

In my new setup I intend to use a Raspberry Pi the "hub"- with a "full blown" linux distribution (debian?) I should hopefully be able to accomplish everything I am looking for. As python is the first language discussed in conjunction with the raspi I’ve started playing with that, but eventually may move to a LAMP solution (php with mysql backend for logging and apache web front end).

Here’s a high level summary of the steps I’ve covered:

• Prepare sd card with recommended debian squeeze raspi distribution
• Boot the raspi (I had concerns there might not be enough power for the jeelink but so far so good)
• Enable ssh: http://fusionstrike.com/2012/setting-ssh-ftp-raspberry-pi-debian
• Test serial communication using agett/screen: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/opensource/learn-to-use-a-serial-console-on-linux/157 (I had to apt-get install screen)
• Install pyserial: http://www.doctormonk.com/2012/04/raspberry-pi-and-arduino.html
• Test serial communication using python: http://www.doctormonk.com/2012/04/raspberry-pi-and-arduino.html

The python example from the link above didn’t produce any output for me so I modified it slightly:

import serial, sys
ser = serial.Serial('/dev/ttyUSB0', 57600)
while 1 :
sys.stdout.write(ser.readline())

That’s all I have time for now- watch this space.

L