Cumulus Wiki

Raspberry Pi Image

Revision as of 20:40, 18 October 2020 by Mcrossley (talk | contribs)

Using the pre-built Raspberry Pi Image

We have created an customised version of the Raspberry Pi Lite image with Cumulus MX pre-installed and ready to go.

This is designed to be what is called a "headless" installation, that is you can run it on a Raspberry Pi without a monitor or keyboard attached to it. As such the image does not contain a GUI, it is a command line only installation.

Pre-Installation Steps

You are going to need:

  • A suitable SD card for your Raspberry Pi
A minimum size of 16GB is recommended. Be sure to buy a good quality card.
  • An image installer to copy the image file to the SD card
The Raspberry Pi site has a list of suitable software for your operating system. Scroll down to "Writing the image".
This guide with use Win32DiskImager
  • The image file to install
Download the latest image file [from here].
  • An SSH terminal program to configure your Raspberry Pi
For Windows we recommend using PuTTY
  • A file transfer program - though you will not need this right away, you will need it at some point. The main uses will be...
  • Copying Cumulus MX updates to your Raspberry Pi
  • Extracting the diagnostic files from Cumulus MX if this go wrong
  • Setting up a web site
A popular program for Windows is WinSCP


Installing the Image

This installation was performed on a Windows computer using the Raspberry Pi Imager v1.4 software

 
  • Insert your blank SD card into your computer - if not blank whatever is on the card will be erased.
  • Start Raspberry Pi Imager
  • Click the CHOOSE OS button, and navigate to the folder where you extracted the Pi image
     
  • Select the SD card from the Device dropdown - check you have the correct drive selected!
     
  • Click the Write button. Writing the image will take a few minutes
  • Once the image has finished been written, you can close Win32DiskImager

  • OPTIONAL - If you wish to connect your Pi to the network using WiFi from the first boot, then you will need to follow these additional steps.
    Note. If you connect via an cabled network, you can always configure the WiFi later using the command line
  • Locate the SD drive in File Explorer.
  • On the SD drive edit a file called wpa_supplicant.conf.txt with a text editor and add..
  • Change the country code to match your location - eg. US, GB, FR etc
  • Set the ssid to match your WiFi id
  • Set the psk to your WiFi password
  • Save the file, and then rename it to wpa_supplicant.conf - ie remove the .txt file extension

  • Eject the SD card from your computer and insert it into your Raspberry Pi


First Boot

  • Connect the Pi to your wired network if you did not configure the WiFi as per the steps above.
  • Power on the Pi.
  • Now wait 5 minutes. The first boot will be resizing your disk and optionally configuring your WiFi
  • Start your browser and see if you can connect to this URL: http://cumulusmx:8998
  • If you can great - you should now see the Cumulus MX console
  • If not, then you will have to find out the Raspberry Pi's IP address from your router. Then try connecting to this URL: http://<ip_address>:8998


Verify your SSH Connection

  • Fire up your SSH Client - we use PuTTY here
  • Enter the hostname as "cumulusmx", and check the protocol is set to SSH. Then open the connection.
(You can use the IP address instead of the hostname if that does not work)
  • You will have the accept the SSH key the first time you connect
  • Enter the username "pi" and password "raspberry" - these are the default Raspberry Pi username credentials
  • When you login it will display a warning about you using the default password and ask you to change it
  • Use the passwd command to do this now...
pi@cumulusmx:~ $ passwd
Changing password for pi.
Current password: 
New password: 
Retype new password: 
passwd: password updated successfully
  • Check the status of the Cumulus MX service with the command sudo systemctl status cumulusmx
You will get some information back, the important bit to note is the line starting Active:, it should say active (running)
  • You can leave the SSH session open, you will need it again soon...


Configure Cumulus MX

Now it is time to configure Cumulus MX for your station.

  • Start your browser and connect to the same URL as before - http://cumulusmx:8998
  • From the menu select Settings | Station Settings, then follow the guide on [this page?] for configuring your station
  • Once your have completed all the settings for for station, and successfully saved them, Cumulus MX will need to be restarted.
  • Back in your SSH session, send the command sudo systemctl stop cumulusmx, this stops the Cumulus MX service.
  • Wait a few seconds, then enter the command sudo systemctl start cumulusmx, this starts the Cumulus MX service again.
  • Back to your browser and check that URL - http://cumulusmx:8998 - again. If all is well, the default dashboard page should start showing the data from your weather station.
  • If it does, congratulations, you have successfully started recording your weather data
  • If it doesn't, then check back over this process carefully for any mistakes or omissions you may have made.
  • If you cannot resolve the problem, then ask for help on the forum


Additional Steps

  • Configuring WiFi from SSH
  • Stopping Cumulus MX starting up when the Pi boots
  • Give your Pi a fixed IP address
  • Add a DHCP reservation
  • Assign a static IP address


Information

  • Install location
  • systemctl commands
  • Starting Cumulus MX from the command line
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