HS3 Linux Ubuntu 18.04 Server

[dbvanb]

I was following this thread to update my new SEL before I switched over from my production
Homeseer, but I have run into a problem (brickwall)

Installed:
ubuntu-18.04.1-live-server-amd64.iso

Installed mono
homeseer@homeseer-sel:/usr/local/HomeSeer$ mono -V
Mono JIT compiler version 5.14.0.177 (tarball Mon Aug 6 09:07:45 UTC 2018)
Copyright (C) 2002-2014 Novell, Inc, Xamarin Inc and Contributors. www.mono-project.com
TLS: __thread
SIGSEGV: altstack
Notifications: epoll
Architecture: amd64
Disabled: none
Misc: softdebug
Interpreter: yes
LLVM: yes(3.6.0svn-mono-/)
GC: sgen (concurrent by default)

Installed:
hs3_linux_3_0_0_435.tar.gz

ran:
/usr/local/Homeseer/go
loads Homeseer and can register my license
can change webuser login and homeseer password from the webinterface under setup and linux tools

but I only get blank webpages under:
tools/setup/network
tools/setup/email
tools/setup/voice
I can't load plugins on the manage page, so I can't go any further

in the log i get:

vbnc : Command line : error VBNC2017: The library 'System.Data.DataSetExtensions.dll' could not be found.
There were 1 errors and 0 warnings.
Compilation took 00:00:00.3901410

log:
Aug-25 5:49:41 PM Error Compiling script Startup.vb: Visual Basic.Net Compiler version 0.0.0.5943 (Mono 4.7 - tarball) Copyright (C) 2004-2010 Rolf Bjarne Kvinge. All rights reserved. vbnc : Command line : error VBNC2017: The library 'System.Data.DataSetExtensions.dll' could not be found. There were 1 errors and 0 warnings. Compilation took 00:00:00.3901410

I see the (Mono 4.7 - tarball) in the error

What have I done wrong, and how do I move forward?
Thanks for any help

Bruce

[Pete]

Did you install?

apt-get install mono-vbnc

or

apt install mono-vbnc

ICS-Pine64:~# mono -V
Mono JIT compiler version 5.14.0.177 (tarball Mon Aug 6 09:52:34 UTC 2018)

[dbvanb]

I just solved this by installing mono-devel.
For now everything seems to be working.

[simplextech]

That is in the install steps

sudo apt install mono-complete mono-vbnc

Has it changed where mono-complete does not include mono-devel anymore? I'll have to check that.

[Pete]

Interesting cuz here alway installed mono-complete and mono-vbnc and never have installed mono-devel.

Here for the update from Ubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu 18.04 mono had been already installed. I just updated the apt sources.

[simplextech]

I agree that it is odd. The install of the "mono-vbnc" used to handle the dependencies that were needed from mono-devel. I checked the mono-project install docs and they have not changed.

[dbvanb]

I figured that mono-complete should be just that: complete, but I could never get it to install with sudo apt-get. Missing dependencies that I could just not solve.
So I installed piece-meal. mono-vnbc which solved some problems, but then installed mono-devel and that took care of it. I am up and running. I have no idea why mono-complete wouldn't install for me, as I was simply following the steps outlined. Thank you for those instructions. I just wanted to post so that anyone else having problems with
mono-complete install might be able to get up and running like I did.

[Pete]

Good news dbvanb !!!

Here ran in to an issue with Ubuntu 18.04 NetPlan.

The HS3 Pro machine started as Ubuntu 14.04 then updated it to Ubuntu 16.04 and recently updated it to Ubuntu 18.04.

Originally it was configured with a static address. In Ubuntu 16.04 the ethernet hardware naming changed which was easy to fix.

With Ubuntu 18.04 NetPlan was implemented with the upgrade using the static configuration.

It was causing some issues so I removed it and made more isssues for myself.

I fixed it over the last few days removing the Ubuntu 16.04 static configurations and re implenting the new Ubuntu 18.04 Netplan configurations.

I have always recommended doing an update from scratch and here have always updated the OS in vivo.

After tinkering with said issue just want to restate that it is better to build from scratch than to update the OS in vivo.

[dbmet]

Is there any step by step to get HomeSeer to shutdown using the builtin selections in the Menu.

[ocxoman]

Pete,
Thanks again for all your past help. I installed the pico2wav package as indicated in your PM. Audio tests on Ubuntu indicate everything is working. I have the audio connected VIA Blue Tooth to Alexa successfully. I can play MP3's. wav files etc using programs in Ubuntu . HS3 has no audio output. After seeing the results that dbvanb had do you believe it will help to install mono-devel? There are no error messages as HS3 starts. It does an auto start, so I go into HS3 and have it shut down. Then go into Ubuntu and start it from the terminal and watch for error messages but don't see any.
BTW go my new Tesla M3 last week and so have spend my time playing with my new toy instead of working on my old problems.
Jim

[Paroxysm]

Hi guys,

EXTREMELY new to Linux flavours etc but wanted to test the stability and reliability of it running HS3. Following these instructions is someone able to point out what i may need to do or have done incorrectly please. It is a fresh complete install of Ubuntu 18.04 and when i run the last line.....

sudo cp homeseer.service /etc/systemd/system

I get

cp: 'homeseer.service' and '/etc/systemd/system/homeseer.service' are the same file

I wouldnt be surprised how simple it may be to fix.

Thanks in advance

Mick

Edit: Just noticed this was Ubuntu Server. Could that be the issue?

[simplextech]

Hi guys,

EXTREMELY new to Linux flavours etc but wanted to test the stability and reliability of it running HS3. Following these instructions is someone able to point out what i may need to do or have done incorrectly please. It is a fresh complete install of Ubuntu 18.04 and when i run the last line.....

sudo cp homeseer.service /etc/systemd/system

I get

cp: 'homeseer.service' and '/etc/systemd/system/homeseer.service' are the same file

I wouldnt be surprised how simple it may be to fix.

Thanks in advance

Mick

Edit: Just noticed this was Ubuntu Server. Could that be the issue?

Look and see if you already copied the file into the systemd directory.

ls /etc/systemd/system

if you see the file there verify it is valid

cat /etc/systemd/system/homeseer.service

You should compare the contents with the original to see if they match.

The differences between Ubuntu Server and Desktop are mostly that Server does not provide a GUI by default and is streamlined to run server processes and not Desktop applications.

[Paroxysm]

Wow ok. So the problem is guys like you making this process so easy and seamless for guys like me, that i didn't even look to see what the cp command was supposed to be doing hah. Feel like a dumb *expletive* now. Thankyou for pointing that out.
I am not without new issue though....

homeseer.service - HomeSeer HS3 Home Automation Server
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/homeseer.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2018-11-07 06:11:13 AEDT; 55s ago
Process: 872 ExecStart=/usr/bin/mono /HomeSeer/HSConsole.exe --log (code=exited, status=200/CHDIR)
Main PID: 872 (code=exited, status=200/CHDIR)

Nov 07 06:11:13 Homeseer systemd[1]: homeseer.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Nov 07 06:11:13 Homeseer systemd[1]: homeseer.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Nov 07 06:11:13 Homeseer systemd[1]: Stopped HomeSeer HS3 Home Automation Server.
Nov 07 06:11:13 Homeseer systemd[1]: homeseer.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Nov 07 06:11:13 Homeseer systemd[1]: homeseer.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Nov 07 06:11:13 Homeseer systemd[1]: Failed to start HomeSeer HS3 Home Automation Server.


That is after a reboot and running..

sudo systemctl status homeseer.service

Once again.... Thnaks in advance

Mick

[chaos215bar2]

Is there any step by step to get HomeSeer to shutdown using the builtin selections in the Menu.

Yes! (Well, more or less. This isn't quite step by step.) I've been working on moving HomeSeer to a Linux VM precisely so that I could ensure HomeSeer shuts down properly in the event of a power failure. I've had way too many database corruption issues on my Zee S2, so hopefully this helps.

I'm honestly extremely surprised that HomeSeer doesn't seem to provide proper startup and shutdown scripts (instead, leaving you to figure out what to do with the "go" script, which requires a command typed manually to trigger a proper shutdown). It doesn't even seem to be possible to pipe "shutdown" to the process! (I didn't spend too much time investigating, but my guess is they're reading straight from the TTY.)

I installed HomeSeer in /opt/HomeSeer and put the following scripts in /opt/HomeSeer-manager. These should allow the Shutdown and Restart commands from within HomeSeer to work, but even more importantly, should ensure that HomeSeer gets shut down properly if the system is halted by another process (like a VM manager in the event of a power failure). I tried to make these as robust as possible to any external influences (things killing HomeSeer, things killing the scripts, crashes, etc.), but they've only been tested so far, so YMMV.

install.sh:

#!/bin/bash

if [ "$(id -u)" != "0" ]; then
    exec sudo -- "$0" "$@"
fi

cd "$(dirname "$0")"


cp homeseer.service /etc/systemd/system/
systemctl daemon-reload

echo "If you haven't already, please run: sudo apt install mono-complete mono-vbnc avahi-daemon libttspico-utils alsa-utils"
echo "To start, run: sudo systemctl enable/start homeseer"

homeseer.service:

[Unit]
Description=HomeSeer service

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/opt/HomeSeer-manager
ExecStart=/opt/HomeSeer-manager/start
ExecStop=/opt/HomeSeer-manager/stop
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10
TimeoutStopSec=2m30s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

start:

#!/bin/bash

HOMESEER_DIR=/opt/HomeSeer
PID_FILE=/run/homeseer.pid
START_PID_FILE=/run/homeseer-start.pid


# Cleanup if HomeSeer appears to be running.
if [ -e "$PID_FILE" ]; then
    ./stop || exit #?
fi

echo $$ > $START_PID_FILE

echo "Starting HomeSeer in screen..."
echo > "$PID_FILE"
screen -dmS homeseer ./run

sleep 2

# Watch for dead HomeSeer launch process or screen session.
LAST_PID=
while [ -e "$PID_FILE" ]; do
    PID=`cat "$PID_FILE"`

    # Log PID. (This shouldn't change, but if it does, best to see it.)
    if [ "$PID" != "$LAST_PID" ]; then
        [ -n "$PID" ] && echo "HomeSeer running at PID $PID."
        LAST_PID="$PID"
    fi

    # If we have a PID and it's dead, exit.
    if [ -n "$PID" ] && ! kill -0 "$PID" > /dev/null 2>&1 && [ -e "$PID_FILE" ]; then
        echo "HomeSeer exited unexpectedly."
        rm -f "$START_PID_FILE"
        exit 1
    fi

    # If screen is dead, exit.
    if ! screen -ls | grep -o '[0-9]*\.homeseer' > /dev/null && [ -e "$PID_FILE" ]; then
        echo "screen exited unexpectedly."
        rm -f "$START_PID_FILE"
        exit 1
    fi

    if [ -e "$PID_FILE" ]; then
        sleep 5
    fi
done

# We should be killed by the run script before getting here.
echo "HomeSeer exited."
rm -f "$START_PID_FILE"
exit 1

run:

#!/bin/bash

HOMESEER_DIR=/opt/HomeSeer
PID_FILE=/run/homeseer.pid
START_PID_FILE=/run/homeseer-start.pid
STOP_PID_FILE=/run/homeseer-stop.pid

TIMEOUT=60


echo $$ > "$PID_FILE"
cd "$HOMESEER_DIR"
mono HSConsole.exe --log
EXIT=$?
echo "HomeSeer exited with code $EXIT."

# Homeseer forks shutdown and restart scripts. If we're not trying to stop it, give them time to run.
if [ -e "$STOP_PID_FILE" ] || [[ $EXIT -eq 0 ]]; then
    TRIES=$((TIMEOUT/5))
    while [[ $TRIES -gt 0 ]] && ! [ -e "$STOP_PID_FILE" ]; do
        echo "Waiting $((TRIES*5)) seconds for HomeSeer scripts to finish."
        sleep 5
        TRIES=$((TRIES-1))
    done
fi

# Kill the start / monitoring script here, so it always finishes before the stop script.
if ([ -e "$STOP_PID_FILE" ] || [[ $EXIT -eq 0 ]]) && [ -e "$START_PID_FILE" ]; then
    echo "Killing monitor."
    START_PID=`cat "$START_PID_FILE"`
    [ -n "$START_PID" ] && kill "$START_PID" > /dev/null 2>&1 && sleep 2
    kill -SIGKILL "$START_PID" > /dev/null 2>&1
    rm -f "$START_PID_FILE"
fi

# Done.
rm -f "$PID_FILE"
exit $EXIT

stop:

#!/bin/bash

HOMESEER_DIR=/opt/HomeSeer
PID_FILE=/run/homeseer.pid
START_PID_FILE=/run/homeseer-start.pid
STOP_PID_FILE=/run/homeseer-stop.pid

TIMEOUT=120


# Looks like stop is already running?
if [ -e "$STOP_PID_FILE" ]; then
    kill -SIGKILL `cat "$STOP_PID_FILE"` > /dev/null 2>&1
fi
echo $$ > /run/homeseer-stop.pid

echo "Stopping HomeSeer..."

# Seond "shutdown" command to HomeSeer until timeout or exit.
RUNNING=true
TRIES=$((TIMEOUT/5))
while [[ $TRIES -gt 0 ]] && $RUNNING; do
    RUNNING=false
    for SESSION in `screen -ls | grep -o '[0-9]*\.homeseer'`; do
        echo "Sending shutdown to $SESSION. ($TRIES attempts remaining.)"
        screen -p 0 -S "$SESSION" -X stuff 'shutdown^M' && RUNNING=true
    done

    if $RUNNING; then
        sleep 5
        TRIES=$((TRIES-1))
    fi
done

# Cleanup any remaining screen sessions.
for SESSION in `screen -ls | grep -o '[0-9]*\.homeseer'`; do
    echo "Sending quit command to $SESSION."
    screen -p 0 -S "$SESSION" -X quit
done

EXIT=0

# Does the start script appear to be alive?
if [ -e "$START_PID_FILE" ]; then
    START_PID=`cat "$START_PID_FILE"`
    if [ -n "$START_PID" ]; then
        echo "Killing HomeSeer.start PID $START_PID."
        kill -SIGKILL "$START_PID" > /dev/null 2>&1
        EXIT=1
    fi
fi

# Does the run script appear to be alive?
if [ -e "$PID_FILE" ]; then
    PID=`cat "$PID_FILE"`
    if [ -n "$PID" ]; then
        echo "Killing HomeSeer PID $PID."
        kill -SIGKILL "$PID" > /dev/null 2>&1
        EXIT=1
    fi
fi

# Cleanup.
rm -f "$PID_FILE"
rm -f "$START_PID_FILE"
rm -f "$STOP_PID_FILE"

echo "Done."
exit $EXIT

I'd be curious to hear if anyone finds these useful.

[pcgirl65]

I just did a test install of HS3 on Linux and it went smooth and easy. Here's the information for others. Unlike the other guides I used the latest Ubuntu 18.04 Server (not desktop)


Ubuntu 18.04 Server
http://releases.ubuntu.com/18.04/ubu...734.1526794158

After install login to the server and then update.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Mono Install
https://www.mono-project.com/downloa.../#download-lin

Actual Repo Install Steps Simplified (cut/paste)

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF
echo "deb https://download.mono-project.com/repo/ubuntu stable-bionic main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-official-stable.list
sudo apt update

After Steps that actually installs Mono:

sudo apt install mono-complete mono-vbnc

Install Avahi Daemon for Chromecast support:

sudo apt install avahi-daemon

Download HS3
https://homeseer.com/updates3/hs3_li...0_0_435.tar.gz

Options of setting up your install location. Different people have different preferences some like /opt others like /usr/local and others like a dedicated user such as homeseer and in /home. Does not matter. For this example I'm just going to do it in my home directory and I will probably move it to /opt later.

 tar zxvf <hs3-archive-file.tgz>

That will extract into a directory named "Homeseer". Change into that directory and then simply start HS3.

cd Homeseer
sudo ./go &

That will start Homeseer from the current directory. Sudo is used to execute as the root (super user) to give permissions to open port 80 for the webserver.

Some plugins are distributed as a zip file for manual install. You will need to install unzip to unzip the zip file (that's a lot of zip in one sentence)

sudo apt install unzip

Finally, here's a sample SystemD Service file. This can be used to auto start HS3.

[Unit]
Description=HomeSeer Service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/mono /opt/HomeSeer/HSConsole.exe --log
WorkingDirectory=/opt/HomeSeer
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=10

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Copy and paste that into a file named homeseer.service and then copy that file to /etc/systemd/system.

Steps:

Copy paste into homeseer.service

sudo cp homeseer.service /etc/systemd/system
sudo systemctl enable homeseer
sudo systemctl start homeseer
sudo systemctl status homeseer

I just did this install in a VM and it all worked great. I installed the plugins I use and they all ran. However this is all VERY LIMITED TESTING so far. Please don't move your primary system without doing your own testing.

I am very new to this and I followed your instructions. I can access the server via WinSCP. For the code above for starting HS automatically you say to copy the first code and name it homeseer.service and copy it to /etc/systemd/system but you also say to copy the second code to homeseer.service. Is this in the same file?

Also, and I am sure this is a dumb question but how do I access HS now. I noticed that it is saying that it is connected to MyHS service but I can't see it when I pull up myhs.homeseer.com. And if I use find.homeseer.com on my local network all that comes up is the Rpi that I have setup right now. If I try to use just the IP address it doesn't I still can't access the gui. What am I doing wrong?