OK, so I have been buggering around with my Raspberry Pi over the last few weeks. I have now been able to time after time follow these here destructions and get a working JMRI out of it and control my trains on track connected to my NCE PowerCAB.
There is only one more step alluding me, and that is how to get the R-Pi to autostart JMRI and thereby allowing me to run "faceless".
But these instructions so far as I have gotten, may be of help to those out there wanting to put the latest version of JMRI 3.8 onto their Raspberry Pi. (the hardware is as per my previous post):
1. Purchase your bits and pieces. Here are the parts I purchased
to use for myself and this project:
2. Next I pulled down a small piece of software to format the SD
Card I will use with this Raspberry Pi. The software is called “SD Formatter 4.0 for SD/SDHC/SDXC” and
is available from:
So I followed the relevant instructions
as per their website and formatted my SD Card.
3. Obtain the latest Operating System for the Raspberry Pi. You
can get it from:
For my current build, the download I used
was “NOOBS version 1.3.9”. This will
get me the “Raspbian Debian Wheezy”
Operating System that was release on 20 June 2014.
4. Follow the instructions to get the NOOBS copied to your SD Card
and the to install the Operating System on your Pi:
5. Make a few minor configuration changes like:
Password
for your Pi
Locale: select “en_AU.UTF-8” and deselect the default “en_GB.UTF-8”
Timezone:
I selected “Australia”, then “Brisbane”
Keyboard
Layout
SSH
Name
you want to give your Pi
6. Reboot the Pi and login to it. The default user is “pi” with a password of “raspberry”
7. I ensured I had my Ethernet cable plugged into the Pi and
connected up to my hub/switch and router to my home internet feed. This way my
Pi got an IP address and was able to connect to the internet to get all the
software needed to continue with this build.
8. Check that the system is all up to date with its software. So
issue the following command at the prompt. The prompt is that blue coloured
dollar sign “$” on your screen. So here is the command:
sudo
apt-get update
9. Now to install the remote control software so you can get into
your Raspberry Pi from your desktop computer, because as we know that has the
most comfortable chair in the house and a nice big screen. But if you want, you
really don’t need the remote software. So if you do, here we go. We want to
install “TightVNCServer”. So type in
the following command at the prompt:
sudo apt-get install
tightvncserver
Once it has completed its install, you
can start it up (note, there is a space before the colon):
vncserver :1
You will be asked to give it a password.
Please note it only accepts a maximum of 8 characters. If asked for a read only
password say no to it.
10. Install a VNC Client on your desktop PC. There are many, but I
used the one from RealVNC at:
11. You can now connect remotely to your Raspberry Pi (let’s start
shortening the name to R-Pi shall we) and be comfortable. As an example, my
R-Pi when connected to my Ethernet at home, grabbed an IP Address of 102.18.4.14
. Hence to connect via VNC to it from my desktop PC, I just fired up the
RealVNC software and put this IP Address in for the remote connection I was
going to (ie the R-Pi) as well as adding in a colon and a one at the end ie
- 102.18.4.14:1
To find out your IP Address, at the
prompt on you R-Pi, just type in:
ifconfig
This is part of what gets spat out. The
important bits we want are the four numbers after the “inet:addr” in the
section of “eth0”:
eth0 Link
encap:Ethernet HWaddr
b8:27:eb:30:de:32
inet addr:102.18.4.14 Bcast:102.18.4.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING
MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:804 errors:0
dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:943 errors:0
dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0
txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:42747 (41.7
KiB) TX bytes:220723 (215.5 KiB)
The following 2 steps would seem out of
order, but it has a reason – it saves typing because you can do the second step
much easier this way – trust me.
12. One problem I had with the TightVNC was that copy/paste
between my Raspberry Pi and Desktop PC did not work. So I found a solution
here:
So you pull down and install “autocutsel”:
sudo apt-get install autocutsel
Then you need to open this file /home/pi/.vnc/xstartup and edit it. So
at the command prompt type this:
nano /home/pi/.vnc/xstartup
By the way, nano is a small editor that is in your Pi by default.
The edit is to insert this line autocutsel -fork into the existing file and thereby give a
file that looks like the following:
#!/bin/sh
xrdb $HOME/.Xresources
xsetroot -solid grey
autocutsel -fork
#x-terminal-emulator -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title "$VNCDESKTOP
Desktop" &
#x-window-manager &
# Fix to make GNOME work
export XKL_XMODMAP_DISABLE=1
/etc/X11/Xsession
So save the file and with a reboot of
your Pi, the copy and paste will now work with your VNC.
13. We now need to make sure the TightVNC starts up automatically
each time the Pi starts up. I tried a number of recommended ways, but ended up
following the “Adding Tightvnc to the startup“ section of this one which worked
fine for me:
So here we go – go to the command prompt
(that little blue dollar sign) and we will make a new file to autostart the
TightVNC. So start typing:
cd /etc/init.d
sudo
nano tightvncserver
Add all these lines into this file we
have just created and opened up:
#!/bin/sh
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides:
tightvncserver
# Required-Start: $local_fs
# Required-Stop: $local_fs
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 6
# Short-Description: Start/stop tightvncserver
### END INIT INFO
# More details see:
# http://www.penguintutor.com/linux/tightvnc
### Customize this entry
# Set the USER variable to the name of the user to start tightvncserver
under
export USER='pi'
### End customization required
eval cd ~$USER
case "$1" in
start)
su $USER -c
'/usr/bin/tightvncserver :1'
echo "Starting TightVNC
server for $USER "
;;
stop)
pkill Xtightvnc
echo "Tightvncserver
stopped"
;;
*)
echo "Usage:
/etc/init.d/tightvncserver {start|stop}"
exit 1
;;
esac
exit 0
Now to set the file up to run. Type the
following at the command prompt:
sudo chown root:root
/etc/init.d/tightvncserver
sudo chmod 755 /etc/init.d/tightvncserver
sudo update-rc.d tightvncserver
defaults
Reboot the Pi and voila, the TightVNC has
now started.
14. Let us now install and configure the software to turn our Raspberry
Pi into a wireless Access Point.
Depending on the Wireless Dongle you have purchased, these steps may change.
But for the one I have used (the Nano 150 from Jaycar), the best method was to
follow one I found on the internet. This instruction set suits all dongles that
have the Realtek 8188CUS chipset in them:
So here are the key strokes to follow at
the command prompt:
wget
https://github.com/jenssegers/RTL8188-hostapd/archive/v1.1.tar.gz
tar -zxvf v1.1.tar.gz
cd RTL8188-hostapd-1.1/hostapd
sudo make
After a while, you should be given
control back to the terminal. So then do these instructions:
sudo make install
So now we have the “hostapd” program installed – this is part of our Wireless Access
Point. Now we need this program to also autostart every time we boot up the
Raspberry Pi. So type this at the command prompt:
sudo ln -s /etc/init.d/hostapd
/etc/rc2.d/S02hostapd
sudo update-rc.d hostapd
enable
This is the output that will come too your
screen – don’t worry about the two warnings:
update-rc.d: using dependency based boot sequencing
insserv: warning: current start runlevel(s) (2) of script `hostapd'
overrides LSB defaults (2 3 4 5).
insserv: warning: current stop runlevel(s) (empty) of script
`hostapd' overrides LSB defaults (0 1 6).
This should
ensure that the “hostapd” application starts after a reboot.
15. Now we will install “dnsmasq” to use as the DHCP Server:
sudo apt-get install dnsmasq
16. Now you have to configure
the “/etc/network/interfaces” file. So let’s edit:
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces
Comment out
the line “allow-hotplug wlan0” ie put a “#” in front of the line so it looks
like:
# allow-hotplug wlan0
Add the
following lines to setup the IP addressing. Now this can be all sorts of
addresses, I’ll give an example here:
#Setup the device with an static
IP
iface wlan0 inet static
# Static IP Address
address 100.0.0.1
# Network mask
netmask 255.255.255.0
Comment out
the line with “wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf”
Comment out
the “iface default inet dhcp” line
Save the file
and exit the editor.
17. Now to edit the /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf file:
sudo nano /etc/hostapd/hostapd.conf
Edit it
replace it with the following lines. You just need to pick your own passphrase
and ssid:
# Basic configuration
interface=wlan0
ssid=MyWFiName
channel=1
#bridge=br0
# WPA and WPA2 configuration
macaddr_acl=0
auth_algs=1
ignore_broadcast_ssid=0
wpa=2
# passphrase has to be 8-63
characters in length
wpa_passphrase=MYSPECIALPASSWORD
wpa_key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
wpa_pairwise=CCMP
rsn_pairwise=CCMP
# Hardware configuration
driver=rtl871xdrv
ieee80211n=1
hw_mode=g
device_name=RTL8192CU
manufacturer=Realtek
18. Next we edit the file to
configure the DNS mask. So edit:
sudo nano /etc/dnsmasq.conf
Now add the
following two lines to the very bottom of the file:
interface=wlan0
dhcp-range=100.0.0.2,100.0.0.5,255.255.255.0,12h
18. So now that the Raspberry
Pi is acting as a proper Access Point for us, it is time to turn our thoughts
to installing the JMRI. So let’s
start typing on the little blue dollar sign of our Pi.
First let’s
check that the Pi is up to date:
sudo apt-get update
Download JMRI 3.8, which is the most current
at the time of writing this article:
sudo tar -zxvf JMRI.3.8-r26527.tgz
19. Now to start JMRI and
configure it. Now
connect your DCC system interface (in my case an NCE USB adapter and my
PowerCAB) to the USB Hub before starting up JMRI. Fire up a desktop
environment:
cd /home/pi
startx
Open File
Manager and go to the directory /home/pi/JMRI
Start JMRI
by clicking on the DecoderPro (not
DecoderPro3) start up file. This will take a while for the first time it
starts.
When asked, use
“Execute” and don’t use “Execute in a Terminal”.
Once the
JMRI has started, change some preferences. These are found under Edit then Preferences in the menu bar of JMRI.
Once this Preferences
window is displayed, enter the Connection information of your DCC system you
wish JMRI to connect to, making sure you have connected your DCC system’s USB
interface first to the USB hub. So I selected NCE PowerCAB.
Next select /dev/ttyUSB0 in the Serial port
dropdown menu.
Save your
settings and restart JMRI when asked to.
20. Once JMRI appears to be
responding, activate the JMRI ‘WiThrottle’ (wifi) server. Do this by going to
the menu bar and selecting Tools, then Throttle, then Start WiThrottle Server.
If this worked it should advise the
static IP Address of the Pi (e.g. 100.0.0.1) with a random port number (e.g.
49876) in a new window. Eg 100.0.0.1:49876
21. To test connectivity, grab your smartphone or tablet and
connect to the WiFi that your Raspberry Pi has been set to advertise. In this
document we used MyWFiName and we
used a password of MYSPECIALPASSWORD.
Let’s assume you have already gone and
installed the Engine Driver app on
your Android or WiThrottle app on
your iPhone. If JMRI is working correctly, you should see the IP address and
port of the JMRI ‘WiThrottle’ server on your app. So connect to it.
If this
worked, the JMRI ‘WiThrottle ’server’ window on the Raspberry Pi should list
the relevant smartphone / tablet device name (configured in the app) connecting
to JMRI.
If connected
to a layout, try acquiring a train and running the engine remotely.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the way - I see there is a new Raspberry Pi available. It is called a Model B+. Same processor and memory, but a smaller form factor and a few other changes like now it uses a MicroSD card and has 4 USB ports and more GPIO pins.
But the best way so far we have found (Peter A in the club, pat yourself on the back) is to use an app called “SSH Button” for Android devices. 
