HS3 Linux Ubuntu 18.04 Server

[simplextech]

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.

[Pete]

Thank you John!

Here it took me a bit to move from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 16.04 and have only tried L Ubuntu 17.04 on new desktop.

Using Oracle Virtual Box Wintel VB's on main Homeseer 3 Ubuntu server to run Homeseer Windows only plugins and Microsoft SAPI speech speaker dot exe.

For autostarting Homeseer 3 you can do a one liner in rc.local or create a start up cron job or create a service. It is very flexible.

Here moved my /HomeSeer directory over to the root versus the Homeseer default of /usr/local/HomeSeer. Many users though utilize /home or /opt as you mention above. Here also add a homeseer user and personal user and give them both rw rights to the /HomeSeer directory wherever it is and use same said users with same said passwords in the Homeseer gui. (also disable the default user in the HS gui network settings).

[simplextech]

Thank you John!

Here it took me a bit to move from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 16.04 and have only tried L Ubuntu 17.04 on new desktop.

Using Oracle Virtual Box Wintel VB's on main Homeseer 3 Ubuntu server to run Homeseer Windows only plugins and Microsoft SAPI speech speaker dot exe.

For autostarting Homeseer 3 you can do a one liner in rc.local or create a start up cron job or create a service. It is very flexible.

Here moved my /HomeSeer directory over to the root versus the Homeseer default of /usr/local/HomeSeer. Many users though utilize /home or /opt as you mention above. Here also add a homeseer user and personal user and give them both rw rights to the /HomeSeer directory wherever it is and use same said users with same said passwords in the Homeseer gui. (also disable the default user in the HS gui network settings).

Hey Pete,

For the start up I used a systemd service configuration. I went with /opt/HomeSeer just because. No particular reason. I don't like having things directly in root (/) Habit of working on larger systems with LVM2 or Veritas Volume Manager so I can add disks/expand the file system if needed with little worry about my root. However just for a HS3 box I really can't even image that happening so it doesn't matter. One thing I do want and plan to add in my next hardware refresh will be dual root drives in a mirror just for redundancy. My current HS3 server is an OLD system I scrapped parts together for. I called it "frankenstein"

There are lots of "tricks" that can be used with Linux to make an install "portable". But since HS3 is all relative path based it's very easy to just move the install around and not break anything.

[Pete]

Yeah here put Homeseer in the root because it is easier to type cd /HomeSeer when SSHing than to type cd /user/local/HomeSeer or create a symbolic link.



Last year helped a Homeseer Pro user with a configuration built on an 8 drive NAS and custom motherboard. Much multitasking going on running the box as Homeseer, NAS, Multimedia to KODI and WeeWx weather station. Also configured Oracle VB on the box for one Windows 7 instance (for his i stuff).

For work stuff much of the real work was based in Unix and even old Sun boxes which worked for many years just fine without ever touching them while the user (client) interface always changed. Tested embedded wintel / Linux appliances for a bit and Linux won. (eye candy mostly).

Homeseer is very flexible.

[concordseer]

SystemD took a bit of getting used to but now that I've familiarised myself with it rc.local looks a little dated and while Upstart is quite acceptable SystemD really is the way to go particularly for those migrating from the Windows world into the Single Board computer world.

This brief comparison really says it all. Don't want to scare off potential Windows migrators

https://askubuntu.com/questions/9227...art-vs-systemd

[mitchmitchell1616]

I had been running on 17.10 ubuntu server and the upgrade to 18.04 went off without a hiccup. I run it in /opt as well because I have a Wildfly server running from /srv.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[Guest]

Hi Pete,

Using Oracle Virtual Box Wintel VB's on main Homeseer 3 Ubuntu server to run Homeseer Windows only plugins and Microsoft SAPI speech speaker dot exe

You have mentioned this approach several times - is there a howto?

I presume the advantages are you can use all of the windows plug-ins and you can do automated failover.
The disadvantage is that it will need a proper server -fans noise power etc, rather than a humble Rpi or other fanless setup?

Thanks

A

[telewizard13]

Speaker client on Ubuntu 18.04

I'm new to Linux and struggling a bit. Are you using the HS speaker client on the server? I just did a clean install of Ubuntu Server 18.04 on a Dell desktop computer and can't get the audio to work. (The dreaded "Dummy Output" problem) Audio works on another PC running Ubuntu desktop. Trying to decide which PC to install HS3 on.

[Pete]

You have mentioned this approach several times - is there a howto?

There is no how to.

One of the features of Homeseer 3 was to be able to run plugins remotely. Thinking that was documented with the introduction of Homeseer 3.

Here switched to Linux as soon as it was available for Homeseer 3 Pro.

Then too started to test running plugins remotely from either Windows or Linux boxes and it worked, But not with all windows plugins.

I have documented under 3rd party plugins testing with the authors.

IE: for example the Kinect plugin running on Windows 10 works great on the Homeseer Pro running Ubuntu.

The Omni Plugin runs fine in Windows or Linux locally or remotely.

[Pete]

Are you using the HS speaker client on the server?

Yes 4 speaker dot exe's run on an Oracle VB which is a lite version of Windows Server.

Four different voices and can do different language voice fonts with Microsoft SAPI.

Here utilize AT&T, Neospeech and Loquendo (32/64 bit) Microsoft SAPI fonts. Many voices many languages. Always worked for me.

and can't get the audio to work.

It should be plug n play if you have an audio card or audio on the Ubuntu motherboard.

Check your log files and look to see what is happening.

Note this doesn't have anything to do with Homeseer.

Google testing Ubuntu 18.04 audio via command line. Look here ==> speaker testing

Here ssh'd to HS3 box and tested speakers and heard the test via the zoned audio connection.

HS3Pro:~$ speaker-test

speaker-test 1.1.0

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 192 to 2097152
Period size range from 64 to 699051
Using max buffer size 2097152
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 524288
was set buffer_size = 2097152


Goes on and on testing all sorts of stuff that you will hear.

[larhedse]

A question in the same ballpark maybe:


During the last 24h I had two major stops in my Ubuntu 16.04LTS installation (first my host and then the guest, where the guest runs HS3). What seems to be the issue is automatic update of critical code. Fine - however it did stop my external connection, so for example my thingspeak.com integration for graphs just stopped working...


It turned out to be a waiting reboot, first the host, and then the guest that was behind all IP problems I run into...


So how are everyone else doing, enabled automatic updates - or disabled automatic updates?


I normaly like security, however if it creates this kind of problems for HS3 - well then I might have to rethink.....

[telewizard13]

No sound

I know it's not a HS problem because I haven't installed it yet. I'm brand new to Linux, so I'm in a steep learning curve! I have a base Ubuntu Server 18.04 install running on a Dell PC with Gnome installed. The sound test fails and the only output device says Dummy Output. I have to get that much working before I move forward. I have tried reinstalling Alsa and pulseaudio, but no joy yet. Once I get the base server working, I'll probably attempt to set up Oracle Virtualbox with a lite Windows client to run the HS audio client on. I still have HS3 running on a Windows 10 box, but I hate the constant updates breaking things, hence the push to move to Linux.

[ocxoman]

Pete,
Still running my HS3 on Unbuntu 16.04 using VMM on my Syno DS718+ box. Somehow I lost my sound from HS3. I have a USB sound card which is shown mounted in the Syno VMM setup and it tests perfectly using the sound check in Ubunto. However HS3 somehow does not issue a peep. It used to announce welcome to HomeSeer when I would reboot the Ubunto VM but somehow in the last reboot the sound has disappeared. Nothing shows up is HS logs. Shouldn't HS use the default sound output of Ubuntu?

Jim

[Pete]

enabled automatic updates - or disabled automatic updates?

Personal preference here is to manually update. I do get reminded via SSH or Webmin to update. Homeseer continues to run pending updates for me here. (old 16.04 and new 18.04).

Relating to audio...

So far the plug n play of hardware has not been an issue for me. I have seen weird stuff though with audio defaults changing from analog to HDMI (or displayport) or vice versa. Similiar with Windows.

Using Oracle Virtual box with one upgrade did lose my audio for a bit and that related mostly to guest host access and bugs in an update to Oracle.

Note that Homeseer Mono uses the Linux audio. If Linux audio doesn't work then Homeseer audio will not work. Speech also depends on audio working such that it will not work if audio in Homeseer is not working.

IE: if base Linux audio doesn't work then an Oracle Windows box audio will not work. When testing or checking audio on the x windows gui check the last tab in the audio configuration relating to the HD audio and analog audio and change the default then test the audio again.


Shouldn't HS use the default sound output of Ubuntu?

yes.

When checking the audio you will see utilizing HD and analog separate or together. Check the left and right speakers button once configured.

[Pete]

Here is an example of using speaker-test

1 - log in to your computer via ssh and default boot up user

pete@ICS-HS3Pro:~$ speaker-test

speaker-test 1.1.0

Playback device is default
Stream parameters are 48000Hz, S16_LE, 1 channels
Using 16 octaves of pink noise
Rate set to 48000Hz (requested 48000Hz)
Buffer size range from 192 to 2097152
Period size range from 64 to 699051
Using max buffer size 2097152
Periods = 4
was set period_size = 524288
was set buffer_size = 2097152
0 - Front Left
Time per period = 10.928793

It will test all audio channels.

You will hear white noise from left and right speakers.

2 - To get the list of available cards and devices you can run aplay -L.

pete@ICS-HS3Pro:~$ aplay -l

**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 3: HDMI 0 [HDMI 0]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 7: HDMI 1 [HDMI 1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: HDMI [HDA Intel HDMI], device 8: HDMI 2 [HDMI 2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: ALC887-VD Analog [ALC887-VD Analog]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 1: ALC887-VD Digital [ALC887-VD Digital]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0


Notice above there are HDMI and PCH. If your first test works but you do not hear anything it is because your sound is going through the HDMI port maybe.