HS2 Pro Updater and other questions

[Dafunktyfunk]

Hi Guys,

A while back when HS3 came out, Rich posted an image for CloneZilla that would update the XPe image of our HomeTrollers to SP3 and DOTnet4. I was able to get it and make a copy of it on a disk, as well as make a bootable disk from the image.

It appears my CloneZilla disk is no good anymore since the disk is flaking - WOW. Never thought CD's had a shelf life.

I am HOPING that you guys still have a copy I can DL from you?

Thanks, in advance!

[Pete]

Good news John.

Not sure if I'm following... so that means I should enable HSProtect now that I've got things working?

No.

Personally while playing with the S2 left HSProtect disabled while I tinkered with Homeseer 3 and added or modded stuff. Never enabled it but rather sold it to another Homeseer user who just put the USB stick image build writing over the expanded original OS on the new 16Gb SSD DOM. Test it out yourself. Thinking you mentioned configuring Homeseer 2 then leaving it alone; not sure if you left it enabled or disabled though.

Yup here all of my USB to IDE / SATA cables have female IDE ports. Years ago purchased IDE do whats from Geeks dot com and mini-itx dot com when configuring my carpc stuff with the Via Epia motherboards. The IDE converters were open male IDE pins with an AUX power supply connection. No shell to enclose the open pins such that I used the end point marking which typically is just a square solder pad indicating PIN #1. I did also burn up a few 1/2 sized mini laptop IDE drives not matching up the pins. Yeah too the up or down is marked by one empty pin on the male side or a blocked socket on the female side. I also have ribbon cables that split regular IDE to big and little and vice versa. The DOM female end has that rib on it that will only fit one way on the IDE socket on the motherboard.

None the less this is from many many years ago. Relating to my play with the Hometroller Via Epia S2 here just connected a VGA monitor, keyboard and mouse to it. Booted it to a live Ubuntu ISO. Gparted copied the DOM to a USB stick. Shut down the Hometroller S2. Removed old DOM, put in new DOM and GParted copied the USB stick to the new larger SSD DOM. I mentioned the connectors stuff if you wanted to do this on another computer as you had said you didn't have a VGA monitor.

Now too that you are running you can still boot up to a live Ubuntu ISO and copy the configured new DOM partition to a USB stick in Linux, DD the partition or as you mention use Clonezilla (what you are most comfortable with using).

Here when copying the XPe touchscreens stuff use two USB to ZIF to SSD cables plugged in to one Ubuntu Desktop and just copy one 16Gb SSD to the other. To keep a copy on the NAS I just use DD with compression for the entire SSD.

[jrfuda]

Not sure if I'm following... so that means I should enable HSProtect now that I've got things working?

I think I'm going to try CloneZilla to make a bootable recovery image of where I am so far, so I can jump right back to a clean install if I mess up down the line, then maybe a second image when I get to where I'm pretty happy with the setup and maybe a few further rotating images down the line.

By the way, my "universal" USB to HDD interface was a no-go. The gender on the 44-pin connector was wrong, and even though I have a an adapter (pretty much 44 pins held together with a piece of plastic), the pin out did not look right to me as the empty/solid pin on the mobo and DOM would not match with where the empty pin is on my USB device. Fortunately, I didn't need it.

[Pete]

Good news John!!!

Embedded anything is written to minimize the RW's to the media.

HSProtect enables or disables static OS / software running on embedded OS configurations.

The use of embedded Wintel mostly for single function machines and works fine.

IE: an automotive HU, terminals running Citrix/RDP, Point of sale machines, NAS boxes, firewalls and automation machines.

My current implementation of NAS4Free boots off a 16Gb SSD and runs in memory (thinking it is 8 or 16Gb these days).

Keep playing with your updated S2 and Homeseer 3.

Back up your stuff and continue with Homeseer 3 as you cannot break it.

[jrfuda]

HS3 Up and Running on HomeTroller S2

I installed the new 16GB DOM last night and booted from the HS2 OS upgrade flash drive... Had to do it twice because I forgot to change the Administrator password in userpasswords2 before I changed the workgroup, configured a fixed IP and rebooted. Only took a few minutes.

• I used some freeware partitioning program (can't remember, already uninstalled) and changed the 4GB and 11ish GB partitions into tow 7+GB partitions
• I uninstalled HS2 and all the HS-related drivers and such I knew I would not need.
• Disabled HSProtect, removed from startup (can I even use this anymore since it installed everything on the C Drive?)
• Changed environmental variables to point various TEMP locations to a folder on the D drive
• Added D:\Program Files\ to the Program Files environmental variable (in addition to default C:\Program Files\)
• Made registry changes to make the troller log in on its own
• Tried to install HS3, but could not because it said .net 4.0 needed to be installed (thought the OS upgrade included this) and I was offline... downloaded it on another PC, installed .net 4 and went to install HS3, kept getting a disk1.cab error, installed the certificate fix and install proceeded
• Changed VNC password to something I'd remember
• Moved troller to its normal location, connected network and z-troller
• Powered on, connected via VNC and finished configuring

Everything seems to be working fine, and I don't see any performance issues - yet. I only have 1 event (email test) and have not added my zwave network. All the connectivity is good, I can connect locally and remotely both via browser and HStouch.

I plan on using HS as a secondary zwave controller because I want all my scenes to reside in my Aspire handheld and Aspire 5-button scene controllers. I probably won't transfer them until I finish installing the hardware throughout the house, and I'm still running wire. HS may eventually become the primary, who knows. I've always been prone to using HS mostly for monitoring and hardware controllers (see my HS3 ocelot thread I started yesterday) for as much as possible.

So, back the HSProtect question. My troller running HS2Pro ran for as long as the Hometroller S2 has been released and never had an issue. I purchased my HTS2 within a few weeks of it being released.. what was that, 2008? 2009? Anyway, I assume HSProtect had something to do with it, but maybe not. So, question is, since the OS upgrade/restore flash put everything on the C drive, and HS protect restores the C drive to it's last saved condition after each reboot, can I use HSProtect anymore? I installed HS3 to the D driver, but there are several other programs still on the C drive. I think everything on the C drive is not going to change much (like my vnc password and the registry setting I changed), so I assume it should be safe to enable HSProtect, as long as I remember to "save changes" if I change anything living on the C drive. Is this correct. HS, being on the D drive, can have its way with the D drive and not be rolled back by HSProtect, right, or do I totally misunderstand how HS protect works?

[Pete]

What Greg mentions will work too.

I have never heard though of bricking a DOM when you have two of them plugged in.

That said just boot up with an Ubuntu ISO and copy the old DOM to a USB stick.

Remove the old IDE DOM and install the new SATA DOM and copy the USB image over to the SATA DOM with GParted.

You will need a monitor on the S2 or do this with another computer.

Thinking back here updating the Via Epia S2 I couldn't find a small enough DOM for the SATA port. It's a bit tight if I recall. The IDE / SSD DOM fit just right.

Look here for a motherboard manual.

I still use this program in Windows which works fine. Not sure if it works in XPe though.

Drive Snapshot

[Pete]

It is mixing old and new stuff.

Historically here have played with a variety of Via Epia motherboards that I primarily utilized for my car pcs. None of them had SATA ports and always had a laptop and regular IDE port. Get the DOM connected to a makeshift IDE to USB adapter. Be careful with the Pins on the mini IDE as they are different and carry voltage.

I was initially going to do this for the S2 upgrade then just went to using an ISO Linux CD and copying over the USB image.

Note this is all Linux only and you are copying raw partition stuff (byte copying).

There is also a USB boot configuration sold by Homeseer.

Really though if you do not have a monitor for the S2 and want to use Windows I wouldn't bother with any of this as the Via Epia single core CPU in the S2 is very slow. While Ubuntu runs on it (I tested this) it crawls. Said any OS running on the S2 will be slow. Add an application and it will be extremely slow.

[Wadenut]

There is a SATA port on the S2. I simply installed a 128Gig SSD there and put the system and HS3 on that. Don't make the mistake however of leaving a DOM installed simultaneously... you'll brick the DOM.

[jrfuda]

You can configure the DOM without the S2 if you want with various adapters.

Really? I have a USB-to-HDD adapter (think it has 40, 44 and SATA connections) that I was already planning on using to repartition the DOM after using the thumb drive I got from HS with the troller OS update image to create the image. You're saying I can use my adapter and the thumb drive on another PC and do the same? Will I have to boot from the thumb drive or is there an executable imaging program on the drive I can run from windows or the command line, or use something like win32diskimager?

[Pete]

Good news John.

Yeah here my older 4:3 LCD displays all have VGA. The newer wide screen ASUS LCDs have VGA, HDMI and DVI (well and come with these cables).

You can configure the DOM without the S2 if you want with various adapters.

Went to PFSense here a few years back. Today it is set up with 8 network interfaces for multiple WAN (load balancing / failover and multiple internal networks).

You can go Intel based mini PC new or old these days. My KODI boxes are all intel based Aopen Digital engines (core duos). I purchased these for $35 each refurbished.

I am already pushing the RPi2 running Zee-2 not doing a whole bunch with it. I am not pushing the mITX iSeries motherboard with 16Gb of memory today.

[jrfuda]

I fixed my HS Updater and Stunnel issue. Turns out the static IP settings I had on the troller still had some bad DNS servers - probably the same ones I had when I moved from Texas 5 years ago. I swapped in the Google DNS servers (only one I knew off the top of my head) and now they're both working fine.

I received my new DOM over the weekend, but have not installed it because I realized I had nothing in the house that could display a VGA signal, I've done nothing but VNC to the troller since we upgraded the last old TV a couple of years ago. I have an inexpensive VGA-to-HDMI converter on the way.

We'll see how this goes. Still may end up with a RPi2 install and use the troller for something else.

[Pete]

You can with your update licensing to HS3 try Homeseer on either the RPi2 or Hometroller S2. It will run faster on the new RPi2 than the Hometroller S2.

Homeseer 3 is very portable.

IE: it is just a directory in Linux and Windows that you can copy from one device to another.

Your Z-Troller will work fine with the RPi2 (Linux) or the Hometroller S2.

[jrfuda]

Pete, thanks for all the info - will come in handy for other Pi endeavors, even if I don't put HS on one.

The add-on boards sure do increase the cost, but It's still one of the lowest prices around, especially since I'd need a zwave controller anyway.

[Pete]

What OS are you using on the Pi2?

Same as you on two of them. One is running HS3 lite and the other CumulusMX / Davis weather station.

I am trying to melt one and have mounted it in the attic via a POE cable.

I put PiFace RTC shim clocks and a Z-Wave + GPIO card in the HS3 lite box. (you can also do Z-Net or purchase a USB Z-Wave Plus stick). You will like Z-Wave plus more than your current Z-Troller.

Questions is, do you have a startup script that launches HS when the Pi boots?

Yes. Here do it two ways. One via an Upstart script and one via a Cron job. I manage the two RPi2's via Webmin; easy to edit and add stuff with Webmin. (also utilize SSH / WinSCP).

You can run HS3 Pro on it. I have tested it to run fine except if you want to do a lot on it.

so I always have to manually launch the minecraft server in a screen via SSH.

1 - Install Webmin

A - wget hxxp://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/webadmin/webmin_1.760_all.deb
B - sudo apt-get install perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl apt-show-versions python
C - dpkg --install webmin_1.760_all.deb

2 - Configure your Cron job to start with RPi2. (upstart script is a bit more stuff).

I've attached a webmin picture. The cron job is a one liner starting a bash script.

Here is the Homeseer 3 RPi2 Upstart script.

#!/bin/bash
NAME='HomeSeer'            # Server handle for the screen session
DIR='/HomeSeer'
USER='root'                # Start HomeSeer as root. You may use a non privileged user
                           # Note: if homeseer is running as non-root user
                           # remove 'sudo' command in file 'go' in HomeSeer folder
                           # and change setting gWebSvrPort to value > 1024 in settings.ini
PWD=`pwd`
RETVAL=0 

service_start() {
    if [ -f /var/run/$NAME.pid ]; then
        if [ "$(ps -p `cat /var/run/$NAME.pid` | wc -l)" -gt 1 ]; then
            echo -e "$NAME is already running (pidfile exists)."
            return 1
        else
            rm -f /var/run/$NAME.pid
        fi
    fi
    [ -f $DIR/go ] && cd $DIR && su -c "/usr/bin/screen -S $NAME -d -m ./go" $USER
    cd $PWD
    sleep 5
    ps -ef | egrep "[S]CREEN.+${NAME}" | awk '{ print $2 }' > /var/run/$NAME.pid
    [ -s /var/run/$NAME.pid ] && echo "$NAME started."
}

service_stop() {
    if [ -f /var/run/$NAME.pid ]; then
        if [ $(ps -ef | egrep -c "[S]CREEN.+$NAME") -ge 1 ]; then
            #invoke shutdown command to homeseer...
            for char in $(printf "\\r s h u t d o w n \\r") ; do 
                su -c "/usr/bin/screen -p 0 -S $NAME -X stuff $char" $USER
                sleep 0.1
            done
            sleep 15
        fi
        if [ "$(ps -p `cat /var/run/$NAME.pid` | wc -l)" -gt 1 ]; then
            echo -e "$NAME did not stop gacefully. Killing it"
            [ -s /var/run/$NAME.pid ] && kill `cat /var/run/$NAME.pid`
        fi
        rm -f /var/run/$NAME.pid
    else
        echo -e "$NAME is not running."
    fi
}

case "$1" in
'start')
    service_start
;;
'stop')
    service_stop
;;
'restart')
    service_stop
    sleep 5
    service_start
;;
*)
    echo "Usage $0 start|stop|restart"
esac
# --------------------------------------------------------

[jrfuda]

Current RPi2 is using a 16Gb microSD and current iSeries is using one of those tiny .M2 SATA 128Gb drives. The .M2 SATA card is as big as my fingernail.

What OS are you using on the Pi2? I have a Pi B+ and a Pi2, both running Raspbian and used solely as Minecraft servers for the kids (OK, I play too). They're sharing a UPS made for low draw, which will keep them powered for about 8 hours during a power failure - bottom line, is they never restart unless I make them restart... I think I'm around 8 months uptime on the B+ right now.

Questions is, do you have a startup script that launches HS when the Pi boots? I've never been able to figure out how to get anything to startup on boot of my pis, so I always have to manually launch the minecraft server in a screen via SSH.

My only other issue is it looks like the Pi2 runs regular HS3 and not pro, which means no free plugins, or is there a workaround if you have a pro license but are running on a Pi?