Correct installation instructions for Raspberry Pi3

[Timon]

I agree totally. I want HS or any other program to run at user level and never root. I don't see any ligament reason to ever allow programs to run as root. Now maybe there is some module that needs it but that's normally a rare event.

When it come to something like a Z-NET you "might" make exceptions but only if absolutely necessary only because it's not a user device.

[Pete]

You are correct Adeux.

Don't ever work on an Ubuntu desktop here and typically utilize sudo on the desktops / laptops and root via SSH to Linux servers. Just lazy here.

I will not promote the use of root access in my mentions of building the RPi / or any linux box.

[adeux]

...

and change ssh to allow root access:

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

change this line:

PermitRootLogin without-password
to
PermitRootLogin yes

save the file.

restart ssh

service ssh reload
...

Pete,

I am going to disagree with you here. Allowing root SSH access is a bad security practice and should be discouraged. Once you have set the root password, the better practice is to log in as a normal user ie: homeseer or pete in your example then use the su command to switch to root for copying.

The setting really should be:

PermitRootLogin No

Best

Adeux

[Pete]

Personally have no clue what the default password is for the default user.

I add one user initially and disable default user with no issues to the HS3 Linux box. Well one box deleted the default user. I also change the homeseer user password.

With the Linux builds here create a default sudo user and homeseer sudo user in the OS. I use the same passwords for the sudo users in the HS3 GUI and give rights to the /HomeSeer directory to both sudo users.

On both of my Linux boxes have installed /HomeSeer in the root.

Homeseer installs it on the /usr/local/HomeSeer directory

I have installed it on other users computers to /opt/HomeSeer.

[flick]

I have followed this thread, and the HS3 Linux Installation thread, https://goo.gl/5Enq8B, to install HS Pro on a RPi. For my initial install I have gone with the default hspi3_image_091218.img, then I copied the Homeseer RPi directory to a HomeseerLite directory, and copied the Homeseer directory from the hs3_linux_3_0_0_435.tar.gz to the RPi. I've got a couple of questions that I might have missed it in my readings, but...
I am looking to know what the default password is for the userID homeseer on the HS3Pi? Or better yet, can this password be safely be changed, or is this userID used for any underlying processes?

[Jfree23]

Just to wrap up this sub-thread: the autostart problem turned out to be a silly typo ("s" instead of "S") in a script I checked 10 times. So now my systemd unit file is now starting HS correctly as it was before.

I also got the Smartstick+ installed with 1 zwave switch so far. I think the problem I had with that is that my base code is HS3Pi, which expects an internal HW Z-Wave controller, and enabling Z-Wave with an added Smartstick and missing internal zwave confused things badly, and had the CPUs all running at 100%. Removing the internal controller in the GUI and rebooting seems to have cleared that up.

I also found that my nfs mount for backups was not mounting at boot time again, I thought I fixed that somehow in the past, and thought it was related to rpcbind, but could not figure out why it quit working. I added automount directive to the fstab entry and now the mount happens when the backup share is accessed, so don't have to depend on mounting at boot time.

Thanks again for your help!

[Jfree23]

I had an issue when updating from mono 5.14 to 5.16. HS3 would not start. I removed & reinstalled mono and all was well again.

These instructions for stretch on raspi.

To remove mono:

sudo apt-get -y --autoremove purge mono-runtime

Then reinstall:

sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-*
sudo apt install apt-transport-https dirmngr
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF
echo "deb https://download.mono-project.com/repo/debian stable-raspbianstretch main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-official-stable.list
sudo apt-get -q update
sudo apt-get -qy install mono-complete mono-vbnc
mono --version

YES! Thanks zwolfpack, this worked great, now HS3 starts again from ./go command. Maybe a problem with the mono update process as I think I removed and reinstalled the same mono rev. Did not have to redo the key, that was retained.

Now I have to troubleshoot why HS3 will not start automatically like it was before upgrade. I am using the homeseer.service method, and it seems like HS is trying to start many times before network target is reached, will try to figure out what is starting it, or why the systemd process is not respecting the after=network target, or find a way to add a delay time.

Then I can go back to figuring out how to install my Smartstick+ Z-wave, which started off the round of trouble....

I did not end up needing or using the BLBackup zip file and I'd still like to understand the best way to restore from that file from command line on my HS3Pi and keep the permissions.

Thanks!

[zwolfpack]

I had an issue when updating from mono 5.14 to 5.16. HS3 would not start. I removed & reinstalled mono and all was well again.

These instructions for stretch on raspi.

To remove mono:

sudo apt-get -y --autoremove purge mono-runtime

Then reinstall:

sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-*
sudo apt install apt-transport-https dirmngr
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF
echo "deb https://download.mono-project.com/repo/debian stable-raspbianstretch main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-official-stable.list
sudo apt-get -q update
sudo apt-get -qy install mono-complete mono-vbnc
mono --version

[Jfree23]

I tried to follow the thread and I got lost in it.

There are many ways to build the RPi3+ Stretch Homeseer 3 bootable computer.

No one way is correct or not correct.

Homeseer runs on any Linux installed on any CPU today with Mono installed. (IE ARM, AMD or Intel).

For this transition you cannot utilize the posted Homeseer 3 image for the currently selling Zee 2. It will not work.

You have to start from scratch and build a new RPi3 +. You cannot utilize the RPi3 image or copy the one you have to the new RPi3+

Baby steps here.

Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill. Do not get frustrated as it will slow down your baby steps approach.

I understand the Linux is different from Windows.

Think of the days in the 90's when you played with DOS or Unix.

All you need on the new RPi3+ is the Homeseer directory. Nothing else. If you want you can copy the startup script.

The only difference with the Pi3 and the Pi3 + is a faster CPU (?).

Personally I would recommend using an 8, 16 or 32 Gb microSD card only and 32 Gb is way too much anyhow for Homeseer.

If using an integrated ZWave GPIO card you have to change the way it is loading the drivers for the GPIO card as the slot is occupied by the Bluetooth.

Homeseer sees the ZWave GPIO card as before such that there is no changes specific to Homeseer for the RPi3.

You can today install the same version of Stretch (I have done this) on either the RPi3 or RPi3+. It will work the same and Stretch knows the difference between the two.

In a recap...to build new on a new RPi3+:

1 - create a new RPi3 with current version of Stretch. Update it. (apt-get install update, apt-get upgrade)
2 - if utilizing a built in ZWave GPIO card then you have to modify the boot on the RPi3 to see the GPIO card
3 - if utilizing a ZWave stick it will just come up as a serially connected USB device.
4 - copy the old /usr/local/HomeSeer directory to the new RPi3 /usr/local/HomeSeer directory
5 - long math way start Homeseer (IE: ssh to the HomeSeer directory and run ./go)
6 - test it out going to the web gui; play with it to make sure it works. You do not need to do anything else to test Homeseer running it manually.
7 - You can autostart Homeseer in a variety of ways documented here on the forum. Any one of the ways works.
8 - reboot the RPi via ssh.
9 - it should boot up running Homeseer 3.

Pete, did you leave out a step 1b ,install mono? Still recommend mono-complete and mono-vbnc?

I broke my HS3 RPi environment (built as noted in this thread 12/17) when I tried to install Z-Wave Smartstick+ and also did some updates. Now HS will not start:

:/usr/local/Homeseer $ sudo ./go
HomeSeer Linux starting...
07:46:54:207060:[Logging]->Result of the attempted creation of a new log database: Log Database Created.
07:46:54:847310:[Startup]->Loading Settings
07:46:54:-1672350:[Warning]->HomeSeer was not shut down successfully the previous time it was started.
07:46:54:-7674990:[Startup]->Settings Loaded.
07:47:55:9992100:[Startup]->
Error in startup:

And that's the end of it. I have BLBackup zip files so I first tried to restore the Homeseer directory, but made no difference. I'm thinking I may have screwed up mono or got a bad update, so was going to remove and reinstall mono next, before starting from scratch. Any suggestions of other things to try, or hints on how to restore from BLBackup zip and preserve the permissions? Not sure if that is important or not or if the permissions are even kept in the zip. I used unzip -K and everything showed as root:root, I changed whole tree to homeseer:root. Also had to enable execute on some files, that was also lost. My running environment has some files with root owner others with homeseer.

Thanks
John

[Pete]

[MattL0]

Here change the default RPi user to pete and install a default homeseer user and match those names and passwords up in the HS3 web interface.

Homeseer runs fine without doing this but I do it anyhow for my personal use and for SSHing to Homeseer and using SFTP.

While it is said not to use root here still set up a root password and allow root access via SSH.

So you would create a matt user giving matt and homeseer RW rights to the HomeSeer directory wherever it is located.

Default is /user/local/HomeSeer. Personally here use root directory IE: /HomeSeer. Other users use /opt/HomeSeer and other users use /home/username/HomeSeer.

It really doesn't matter. I just give the users RW access to prevent any future RW issues. I match these users up in the HS3 GUI and remove default user.

is 2777 enough for you?

Works.

My autostart (service) up though starts Homeseer 3 as root anyhow.

Both HS3 boxes here run headless. Typically remote ssh or sftp here using root instead of sudo. Easier for me.
When using Linux file manager sftp I can edit files or move them around with no issues.

Haha sorry Pete , my post was just and attemp to be funny. It is hard to do so on a forum when you try to be ironic

[Pete]

I tried to follow the thread and I got lost in it.

There are many ways to build the RPi3+ Stretch Homeseer 3 bootable computer.

No one way is correct or not correct.

Homeseer runs on any Linux installed on any CPU today with Mono installed. (IE ARM, AMD or Intel).

For this transition you cannot utilize the posted Homeseer 3 image for the currently selling Zee 2. It will not work.

You have to start from scratch and build a new RPi3 +. You cannot utilize the RPi3 image or copy the one you have to the new RPi3+

Baby steps here.

Don't make a mountain out of a mole hill. Do not get frustrated as it will slow down your baby steps approach.

I understand the Linux is different from Windows.

Think of the days in the 90's when you played with DOS or Unix.

All you need on the new RPi3+ is the Homeseer directory. Nothing else. If you want you can copy the startup script.

The only difference with the Pi3 and the Pi3 + is a faster CPU (?).

Personally I would recommend using an 8, 16 or 32 Gb microSD card only and 32 Gb is way too much anyhow for Homeseer.

If using an integrated ZWave GPIO card you have to change the way it is loading the drivers for the GPIO card as the slot is occupied by the Bluetooth.

Homeseer sees the ZWave GPIO card as before such that there is no changes specific to Homeseer for the RPi3.

You can today install the same version of Stretch (I have done this) on either the RPi3 or RPi3+. It will work the same and Stretch knows the difference between the two.

In a recap...to build new on a new RPi3+:

1 - create a new RPi3 with current version of Stretch. Update it. (apt-get install update, apt-get upgrade)
2 - if utilizing a built in ZWave GPIO card then you have to modify the boot on the RPi3 to see the GPIO card
3 - if utilizing a ZWave stick it will just come up as a serially connected USB device.
4 - copy the old /usr/local/HomeSeer directory to the new RPi3 /usr/local/HomeSeer directory
5 - long math way start Homeseer (IE: ssh to the HomeSeer directory and run ./go)
6 - test it out going to the web gui; play with it to make sure it works. You do not need to do anything else to test Homeseer running it manually.
7 - You can autostart Homeseer in a variety of ways documented here on the forum. Any one of the ways works.
8 - reboot the RPi via ssh.
9 - it should boot up running Homeseer 3.

[retiredtech]

Review my original post about moving from a Pi3 to a Pi3+ shown above. I have been unable to make this transition. I discovered there are several other files and directories needed to make it functional again, not just the HomeSeer directory. So I contacted support to see if I can download the code and reinstall it from the beginning. The answer was normally yes but the existing Zee S2 code DOES NOT yet work on the Pi3B+ board. So much for all that effort!

[Pete]

Here change the default RPi user to pete and install a default homeseer user and match those names and passwords up in the HS3 web interface.

Homeseer runs fine without doing this but I do it anyhow for my personal use and for SSHing to Homeseer and using SFTP.

While it is said not to use root here still set up a root password and allow root access via SSH.

So you would create a matt user giving matt and homeseer RW rights to the HomeSeer directory wherever it is located.

Default is /user/local/HomeSeer. Personally here use root directory IE: /HomeSeer. Other users use /opt/HomeSeer and other users use /home/username/HomeSeer.

It really doesn't matter. I just give the users RW access to prevent any future RW issues. I match these users up in the HS3 GUI and remove default user.

is 2777 enough for you?

Works.

My autostart (service) up though starts Homeseer 3 as root anyhow.

Both HS3 boxes here run headless. Typically remote ssh or sftp here using root instead of sudo. Easier for me.
When using Linux file manager sftp I can edit files or move them around with no issues.

[MattL0]

service ssh reload Also create a homeseer and pete user name and put them in sudo.

adduser homeseer
usermod -aG sudo homeseer

Give RW of the /usr/local/HomeSeer directory to the two users homeseer and pete (or your personal user).
sudo chown -R homeseer:homeseer /usr/local/HomeSeer sudo chown -R peteete /usr/local/HomeSeer

Pete, I am confuse now... Do I have to create a Pete user for Hs3 to run properly? is 2777 enough for you? thanks