HS3 Linux Installation Instructions

[randman]

Need clarification on what version of Mono I should use

I am looking into migrating from Windows to Ubuntu 16.0.4 LTS.
The original post of this thread, which indicates what MONO components to install, is over 4 years old. I've searched through and read many forum threads on what version of MONO to install, and I can't figure out what is the proper version and components to install. The information that I see most frequently closely matches what was posted over 4 years ago, plus some differences with what's in other threads. From what I gather, I need to install (via sudo apt-get install):

mono-runtime
mono-vbnc
libmono-system-web4.0.cil
libmono-system-design4.0.cil
libmono-system-web-extensions4.0-cil
libmono-system-runtime-caching4.0-cil 


Then, other threads also mentioned:

libmono-system-numerics4.0-cil
sudo apt
libmono-system-xml-linq4.0-cil
mono-devel

ca-certificates-mono mono-xsp4

Then, other threads also mention
mono-complete

Then, in HS3 Beta Release Notes (https://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=181241), there's
a statement under changes for 3.0.0.398 saying:
"Added SSL support to web server, configure on Labs tab in setup. For Linux, MONO 5 is probably required."


Then, other threads say to use certain version of mono when migrating from Widows to Linux due to some serializing issue that was fixed in a later version.

Sigh. This shouldn't be that complicated. What's the definitive components and version that of MONO that I should install when setting up a new Ubuntu 16.0.4.3 LTS server?

Regards.

[mloebl]

I am looking into migrating from Windows to Ubuntu 16.0.4 LTS.
The original post of this thread, which indicates what MONO components to install, is over 4 years old. I've searched through and read many forum threads on what version of MONO to install, and I can't figure out what is the proper version and components to install. The information that I see most frequently closely matches what was posted over 4 years ago, plus some differences with what's in other threads. From what I gather, I need to install (via sudo apt-get install):

mono-runtime
mono-vbnc
libmono-system-web4.0.cil
libmono-system-design4.0.cil
libmono-system-web-extensions4.0-cil
libmono-system-runtime-caching4.0-cil 


Then, other threads also mentioned:

libmono-system-numerics4.0-cil
sudo apt
libmono-system-xml-linq4.0-cil
mono-devel

ca-certificates-mono mono-xsp4

Then, other threads also mention
mono-complete

Then, in HS3 Beta Release Notes (https://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=181241), there's
a statement under changes for 3.0.0.398 saying:
"Added SSL support to web server, configure on Labs tab in setup. For Linux, MONO 5 is probably required."


Then, other threads say to use certain version of mono when migrating from Widows to Linux due to some serializing issue that was fixed in a later version.

Sigh. This shouldn't be that complicated. What's the definitive components and version that of MONO that I should install when setting up a new Ubuntu 16.0.4.3 LTS server?

Regards.

I just went thru this a couple months ago (going from Windows to Ubuntu 17.10 server), and the instructions were still pretty spot on. Really the only difference is I added the Mono repository from here to get latest:
http://www.mono-project.com/download/

And did a

apt install mono-complete

I *did* have to fix a few of my scripts as weren't 100% compatible between .NET and Mono, but after a few hours I had resolved that (worst was a JSON deserialization script, the rest were pretty seamless/worked first try.)

[Kirby]

+1
I have been using Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS for some time now but I still don't think that it is configured properly. I was using supervisor for a while before I learned that the supervisor shutdown of HomeSeer didn't clean up properly.
I have now gone back to the screen configuration but HomeSeer gives errors on boot because it comes up looking for the network before the network stuff is initialized. And then there's the MONO mess.

I totally agree with randman. There really needs to be a new thread that documents the best practices for running HomeSeer under LINUX.

[concordseer]

I am looking into migrating from Windows to Ubuntu 16.0.4 LTS.
The original post of this thread, which indicates what MONO components to install, is over 4 years old. I've searched through and read many forum threads on what version of MONO to install, and I can't figure out what is the proper version and components to install. The information that I see most frequently closely matches what was posted over 4 years ago, plus some differences with what's in other threads. From what I gather, I need to install (via sudo apt-get install):

mono-runtime
mono-vbnc
libmono-system-web4.0.cil
libmono-system-design4.0.cil
libmono-system-web-extensions4.0-cil
libmono-system-runtime-caching4.0-cil 


Then, other threads also mentioned:

libmono-system-numerics4.0-cil
sudo apt
libmono-system-xml-linq4.0-cil
mono-devel

ca-certificates-mono mono-xsp4

Then, other threads also mention
mono-complete

Then, in HS3 Beta Release Notes (https://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=181241), there's
a statement under changes for 3.0.0.398 saying:
"Added SSL support to web server, configure on Labs tab in setup. For Linux, MONO 5 is probably required."


Then, other threads say to use certain version of mono when migrating from Widows to Linux due to some serializing issue that was fixed in a later version.

Sigh. This shouldn't be that complicated. What's the definitive components and version that of MONO that I should install when setting up a new Ubuntu 16.0.4.3 LTS server?

Regards.

mono-complete will cover all your bases. Looks after security certificates too.

Ensure you install dirmngr first. This allows you to add the download security key, then go to the Mono site, choose the flavour of Linux you want to install for and follow the instructions to add the latest version of Mono to your repository.

mono-vbnc is the only other item on this list I install

[randman]

mono-complete will cover all your bases. Looks after security certificates too.

Ensure you install dirmngr first. This allows you to add the download security key, then go to the Mono site, choose the flavour of Linux you want to install for and follow the instructions to add the latest version of Mono to your repository.

mono-vbnc is the only other item on this list I install

Great. Thanks. So sounds like I should use latest stable MONO release (5.4.x) and install mono-complete and mono-vnbc?

[DocKen]

Linux Install Document

Would it be worth (or is there already one that needs to be updated) a Document that could be sticky in this or another forum for those moving over to or starting a HomeSeer Install on Linux?

I would be willing to help out. Things I can think of:

• Version of Linux recommended (or tried)
• Minimum Hardware/VM requirements
• Directory structure
• Dependencies for software (i.e. Mono)
• Notes on Optional software, or version recommendations/requirements
• Configuration (required/Optional)
• Instructions for startup on boot

These are the questions I seem to see coming up fairly frequently. Anything else?

Something that could be updated, and possibly multiple documents for Linux flavor used if the differences are too great to contain in a single document? Maybe used as a basis for other installs such as RPi installs using Linux?

Something that can be updated as needed, with version info?

I'm getting ready to do a HomeSeer Cleanup/reinstall and can use this as a way to proof install instructions

- Ken

[randman]

Would it be worth (or is there already one that needs to be updated) a Document that could be sticky in this or another forum for those moving over to or starting a HomeSeer Install on Linux?

I would be willing to help out. Things I can think of:

• Version of Linux recommended (or tried)
• Minimum Hardware/VM requirements
• Directory structure
• Dependencies for software (i.e. Mono)
• Notes on Optional software, or version recommendations/requirements
• Configuration (required/Optional)
• Instructions for startup on boot

These are the questions I seem to see coming up fairly frequently. Anything else?

Something that could be updated, and possibly multiple documents for Linux flavor used if the differences are too great to contain in a single document? Maybe used as a basis for other installs such as RPi installs using Linux?

Something that can be updated as needed, with version info?

I'm getting ready to do a HomeSeer Cleanup/reinstall and can use this as a way to proof install instructions

- Ken

Would be great. Also:

- Clean shutdown if HomeSeer when server is shutdown
- migrating from Windows to Linux, such as what to copy, what to export/import (events?)
-

[mwolter]

Recommend reading through my notes on the thread linked below. I cover the steps to install the proper version of Mono. Basically the latest version of Mono (at that time was 5.4.1.6) mostly worked, except for ASP pages. Had to revert to 5.0.1.1 for full HS compatibility.

https://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=193110


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[randman]

Recommend reading through my notes on the thread linked below. I cover the steps to install the proper version of Mono. Basically the latest version of Mono (at that time was 5.4.1.6) mostly worked, except for ASP pages. Had to revert to 5.0.1.1 for full HS compatibility.

https://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=193110


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Yes, this is very helpful. And recently written!

[DocKen]

Recommend reading through my notes on the thread linked below. I cover the steps to install the proper version of Mono. Basically the latest version of Mono (at that time was 5.4.1.6) mostly worked, except for ASP pages. Had to revert to 5.0.1.1 for full HS compatibility.

https://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=193110


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Definitely! Thank you

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk

[Pete]

Homeseer 3 Lite, Standard and Pro installs on just about any flavor of Linux, CPU-ARM,Intel or AMD and Mono.

The installation is very generic and has been documented over the years with the different flavors or updated versions of Linux.

Current releases of RPi Stretch Lite, Ubuntu 16.04/16.10 32bit and 64 bit work fine.

The default Zee2 HomeSeer 3 directory is /usr/local/HomeSeer.

Many users utilize the /opt/HomeSeer directory or the /home/user/Homeseer directory or the root directory /HomeSeer. It doesn't matter where you install it.

Personally here think that it runs faster in a 64bit OS (and 64bit Mono).

The autostart of Homeseer has been documented to work in:

1 - rc.local
2 - services start up in 14.04 and 16.04
3 - cron job

Some issues have been posted about run away plugins which do not shut down in a timely manner after shutting down the core Homeseer3 program. No harm here when that happens.

A few years back there was a configured HS3 installation script which would auto magically install mono, download and install current release of HS3 and create a startup service.

It is outdated right now.

Relating to the Pi there is also an image / script that you can download and install on your RPi. This will write current release of the Zee2 to an SD card. For use with HS3 Standard or Pro just substitute the HomeSeer directory. It is sort of legacy today using Jessie Lite and Mono 4.x. Mono 4.x on the build cannot be updated easily.

[Jfree23]

Pete (or anyone),

Have you installed 402 or other HS3Pi beta releases on your RPi? I've been running 368 release on my Pi3, manually installed HS3Pi on Stretch Lite/mono I set up, no problem. (originally did full image install of HS3Pi, then copied/saved HomeSeer file tree, installed fresh Stretch, Mono, etc, then copied the HomeSeer tree back.)

Today tried to install 402 beta from Setup. Process seemed to go OK, but after restarting, it is still running 368. I see the 402 tar file in /usr/local/HomeSeer, do I need to untar it myself? Is that a complete HS3Pi image with OS and everything, or JUST the HS3 part? I don't want to trash my working setup and overwrite everything.

Thanks

[Pete]

Have you installed 402 or other HS3Pi beta releases on your RPi?

I have installed test version 404 on my HS3 lite and HS3 Pro build.

Zee build:
Current Date/Time: 1/27/2018 12:29:42 PM CST
HomeSeer Version: HS3 ZEE S2 Edition 3.0.0.404 (Linux)

Pro Build:
Current Date/Time: 1/27/2018 12:30:42 PM CST
HomeSeer Version: HS3 Pro Edition 3.0.0.404 (Linux)

The updating should have no issues unless maybe your MicroSD card is full.

SSH to your RPi3 and do a df -l . Utilize the Linux tools section in the HS3 GUI.

Note here I am using 30% of 30Gb (which is a 32Gb SD card - recommended here is a 16Gb card because it is easier and faster to image a 16Gb card over a 32Gb card). If your card is hitting on 99% utilization then it is full. The stock Zee2 comes with an 8Gb microsd card.

ICS-Pine64:~# df -h
Filesystem                       Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root                         30G  8.3G   20G  30% /
devtmpfs                         797M     0  797M   0% /dev
tmpfs                            995M   24K  995M   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                            995M  8.9M  986M   1% /run
tmpfs                            5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs                            995M     0  995M   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/mmcblk0p1                   100M   23M   78M  23% /boot
//192.168.244.169/ICS-Znet        15G  4.3G  9.8G  31% /HomeSeer/Data/1-wire
//192.168.244.165/ICS-Lightning  3.6G  3.0G  371M  90% /HomeSeer/Data/lightning
tmpfs                            199M     0  199M   0% /run/user/0

You do not have to untar it yourself.

You can though manually untar it and it'll update the proper files. ( do this after a back up of the directory).

wget hxxps://homeseer.com/updates3/hslinux_zees2_3_0_0_404.tar.gz where as xx=tt
tar xavf hslinux_zees2_3_0_0_404.tar.gz

Or just run the update script...

./updatehs.sh 404

Or utilize the update link in the Homeseer web GUI.

[ATTACH]66184[/ATTACH]

Recall too that Homeseer 3 runs on any Linux and Linux is Linux. Linux runs on an ARM (RPi - Wheezy, Jessie or Stretch), Intel or AMD CPU these days.

There is some picky stuff in the directory (like a couple of bash scripts) that utilize upper and lower case references. If these are missed then scripts will not run. The scripts can be adjusted if you utilize Homeseer in different directories. Most important for me is naming the directory HomeSeer and some subdirectories. That said have a look at the HomeSeer subdirectories and you will maybe see an uppercase Log directory and a lowercase log directory.

Homeseer 3 is just a directory and it just needs mono installed on Linux to run. No X Windows or desktop are required as the management of Homeseer 3 is purely a Web interface that can be run on any computer on your LAN.

[Jfree23]

Thanks Pete. I did use the Setup/Updates/Update Now to try to install 402 initially, but for some reason looks like it just downloaded the 402.tar.gz file, gave up on unzipping it, and rebooted with no indication that it didn't complete. I just stopped homeseer stuff, unzipped (tar) manually, rebooted, and now running 402 no problem.

Just the usual mysterious stumbling blocks I guess

[Pete]

Good news Jfree23!

Linux is a bit fussy with the rights of users thing, upper and lower case et al.

Newer more recent versions of Linux will write back to you when you mistype a command and tell you what it thinks you wanted to type or pretypes your command before you have finished typing.