Install GUI-less UBUNTU

Introduction

This guide is a guide to install UBUNTU on a robot almost without GUI. intended for robot operating system for SMRs

Basically it is installation of xubuntu 12.04 on a 4GB disk for SMRs, where the GUI (lightdm) is disabled (but available to start by root).

NB!

RTAI installation requires patching and recompiling the kernel. This part is postponed, to be solved by Søren Hansen

XUBUNTU installation

Installed per default, and modified as per package list and below

remining issued (todo)

todo

• Test boot without WAN access
• Get small (old CRT) console to work (in text mode) at boot time
• aukeeper do not connect to MARG
• new MARG laser client should be installed
• joystick control fails (OK in rhdtest, but no control of wheels)
• test with student login (access right to camera, sound, laser - etc)
• make script to copy image to other 4GB sticks

bad standings

• USB3 ports fail for Kinect
• reboot of a new cloned disk seems to fail at first boot, but OK at second boot.
• sometimes boot options do not timeout (like if a key is pressed)

done

• 2 kinect is OK
• ULMS server is OK
• guppi cam is OK
• MARG loads, but aukeeper do not connect
• NTP time sync is OK (to 192.38.66.1)
• switchtool work OK
• sound is OK from command-line (flite)
• MRC is running (one motor controller failed)

installed packages

Install packages like:

sudo apt-get install cmake

UBUNTU packages

Install also the following packages:

• cmake
• gcc
• g++
• make
• ncurses-dev
• libcv-dev
• libraw1394-dev (used by camera server)
• not libdc1394-dev (used by camera server)
• isOK libpng-dev (used by camera server)
• isOK libexpat-dev
• pciutils-dev
• libreadline-dev
• isOK bison (used by MRC)
• libudev-dev
• libv4l-dev (used by camera server video 4 linux 2)
• isOK pkg-config
• autofs (to mount users home-dir)
• nis (for shared files - askes for a domain while installing)
• isOK gdb (to be able to analyse e.g. core dumps)
• valgrind (to analyse for memory leaks etc.)
• apache2 (to get default web access to robot - using MARG)
• isOK lsof (to track open files - also device files)
• ssh (ssh server)
• sox (to play a waw file)
• flite (to play a text string)
• libusb-dev (mainly for kinect)
• libusb-1.0-0-dev (mainly for kinect)
• libboost-dev (for some AURS plugins)
• localepurge (maintaining only en_UK locale files)
• ntp (to time sync clock on robot)
• vim (line based editor)

removed the following packages:

• firefox
• xfburn
• games (mahjongg, mine, suduko, aislerion, gnome-games)
• gimp
• thunderbird
• xchat
• parole
• gmusicbrowser
• abiword
• calender
• aspell
• gcalc
• transmission
• pidgin
• dictionary

(saved about 210 MB)

- installed on smr10 (xubuntu-12.04) / jca

PCL

Add PCL repository to source list by adding this line to /etc/apt/sources.list

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/v-launchpad-jochen-sprickerhof-de/pcl/ubuntu maverick main

then get new package list and install PCL like:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libpcl-all

Configure for kalman log-in and disk share

Copied from bode

/etc/hosts.allow
/etc/hosts.deny
/etc/auto.master  (NB! these auto* files must NOT be executable)
/etc/auto.misc

Make links for home directories (NB! do NOT: sudo mkdir /misc)

sudo ln -s /misc/vhome /vhome
sudo ln -s /misc/shome /shome

Limit SSH login

Copied from bode

/etc/hosts.allow
/etc/hosts.deny

Edit /etc/hosts and add to the sshd line (to allow login from wired network):

,192.169.0.0/255.255.0.0

Network setup

Wired network is set up to use 192.168.2.210 and mask 255.255.255.0 in /etc/network/interfaces:

auto lo
# set wired network to manual IP
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.2.210
netmask 255.255.255.0

Environment variables

The bin path for mobotware is added to /etc/environment, so that it now reads

PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/smr/bin"

The library path can not be added to /etc/environment, but is added as /etc/ld.so.conf.d/mobotware.conf as

/usr/local/smr/lib

But this do not work, so you must still add to your .bashrc file (sorry):

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH  

If you want it to look elsewhere for applications and plugins, then redefine in your .bashrc file, e.g. if you want to add a version of mobotware in /shome/ex22/mobotware/build/bin (applications) and /shome/ex22/mobotware/build/lib (plugins), add the following lines to ./bashrc in your home directory:

# file ./bashrc
export PATH="/shome/ex22/mobotware/build/bin:$PATH"
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/shome/ex22/mobotware/build/lib"

NIS start and switch

NIS start by default, when any network is up and running, this does not work if wireless is used.

So edit /etc/init/ypbind.conf

change

start on (started portmap ON_BOOT=
      or (started portmap ON_BOOT=y
      and ((filesystem and static-network-up) or failsafe-boot)))

to

start on (started portmap ON_BOOT=
      or (started portmap ON_BOOT=y
      and ((filesystem and net-device-up IFACE=wlan0) or failsafe-boot)))

and change 3 lines in /etc/nsswitch, add nis as first option

...
passwd:         nis compat
group:          nis compat
shadow:         nis compat
...

Reboot when both changes are in place (if nsswitch is changed only, it is likely that login will be impossible due to long timeouts. then use failsafe boot

Failsafe boot

If system fails to boot due to bad configuration,

then use failsafe boot from GRUB and select root shell to recover.

Then remount disk in rw mode:

mount -n -o remount,rw /

and fix the problem

ROS

- ikke testet endnu

WEB server - MARG

With the apache server installed MARG can be active (java is not needed on this platform)

The apache server has its root in '/var/www', but to be compatible with other platforms, links are made from the /srv directory:

sudo ln -s /var/www /srv/httpd
sudo ln -s /var/www /srv/www

And a directory for the aukeeper is needed, like

sudo mkdir /var/log/keeper

Switchtool

Switchtool consist of /etc/rc.smr, and this directory holds 2 files rc.smr and rc.smr_shutdown.

These are copied from old installation:

/etc/rc.smr/rc.smr:

#!/bin/bash
/usr/local/smr/bin/rhd /usr/local/smr/bin/rhdconfig/rhdconfig.smrS1.xml&
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/smr/lib:/usr/local/smr/aurs/lib"
/usr/local/smr/bin/aukeeper -a -s /usr/local/smr/bin/aursconf/aukeeper.ini > /dev/null &
cp /usr/local/smr/marg/robot.xml /srv/httpd/htdocs/robot.xml
SMRHN=`hostname`
sed -i "s/smrhost/$SMRHN/g" /srv/httpd/htdocs/robot.xml
exit 0

/etc/rc.smr/rc.smr_shutdown:

#!/bin/bash
killall -q rhd
pkill keeper
pkill ulmsserver
pkill ucamserver
pkill keeper
echo "Mobotware shutdown"
exit 0

Then /etc/rc.local should be modified to load default configuration. This is also taken from old configuration (in /etc/rc.d/rc.local), add the following lines:

/etc/rc.local:

# Set standard sound level
amixer set Master 80% unmute
amixer set PCM 80% unmute 
# start default configuration
/etc/rc.smr/rc.smr
sleep 1

Then the switchtool (a bash script) is copied from old configuration to /usr/sbin/ - looks pt (June 2012) like this:

/usr/sbin/switchtool:

#!/bin/bash
dir_name="/misc/opt/smr.${1}"
if [ -z ${1} ]; then
       if [ ! -d /usr/local/smr.net/bin ]; then
               echo "Switching impossible. Kalman /opt not found."
               exit 1
       fi
elif [ "${1}" != "local" ]; then
       if [ ! -d $dir_name/bin ]; then
               echo "Switching impossible. Path: ${dir_name} not found."
               exit 2
       fi
fi
if [ ! -x /etc/rc.smr/rc.smr_shutdown ]; then
       echo "Warning: Smr startup scripts not found. Is this a robot ?"
else
       /etc/rc.smr/rc.smr_shutdown
fi
if [ -z ${1} ]; then
       echo "Switching to production mode"
       rm -f /usr/local/smr
       ln -sf /usr/local/smr.net /usr/local/smr
elif [ "${1}" == "local" ]; then
       echo "Switching to local mode"
       rm -f /usr/local/smr
       ln -sf /usr/local/smr.local /usr/local/smr
else
       echo "Switching to ${1} mode"
       rm -f /usr/local/smr
       ln -sf $dir_name /usr/local/smr
fi
if [ -x /etc/rc.smr/rc.smr ]; then
       /etc/rc.smr/rc.smr
fi
sleep 2
echo "done"
exit 0

Text console resolution

• Change the GRUB resolution in /etc/default/grub to include (ref: http://idyllictux.wordpress.com/)

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=640x480-16,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=text

• further changed /etc/initramfs-tools/modules to include uvesafb by adding the following line.

uvesafb mode_option=640-480-16 mtrr=3 scroll=ywrap

• Force the use of framebuffer:

echo FRAMEBUFFER=y | sudo tee /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/splash

• Update and we are done

sudo update-grub2
sudo update-initramfs -u