Optionally disable SDR. Direwolf Logs & logrotate

README.md

@@ -1,11 +1,23 @@
 # aprs-pigate
 Prebuilt Raspberry Pi image for running a HAM radio APRS Internet Gateway using [direwolf] and [rtl-sdr]
 
-## Usage
+## Getting Started
+
+### Installation
 1. Download & Flash the image to an SD card
 2. Insert SD card into a computer and load your wpa_supplicant.conf into boot if you are using wifi, and drop in a [pigate.conf](files/boot/pigate.conf) with your Callsign and password. You can use any custom direwolf config file here, enabling many different hardware configurations!
 3. Insert into a raspberry pi with RTL-SDR plugged into USB, and power up! If everything was configured correctly, in about 5 minutes you should see it pop up on [aprs.fi].
 
+Once the pi is running, it should be available on your network with hostname `aprs-pigate` and accessible via SSH `pi@aprs-pigate` using the default raspberry password. It is a good idea to change this once logged in, or disable passwords altogether and use SSH keys, which you can do by modifying the `user-data` file accessible on the boot partition after flashing.
+
+### Viewing Dire Wolf Output
+The startup script creates a `screen` and executes the startup script [`rtl-dw-start.sh`]. If at any time you want to explore the logs, you can ssh into your pigate and run the command `screen -r direwolf`. CTRL+C to leave the screen.
+
+Logs are also written to `/home/pi/aprslogs/aprs.log`. You can view these with commands like `less` or `tail`, and generally may be easier to work with than the direwolf screen.
+
+### Customizing the Start Script
+If you are setting up a digipeater, you can disable the Software Defined Radio by creating an empty file `DISABLE_SDR` and placing it into the boot folder of your SD card along with `pigate.conf`. See the [`rtl-dw-start.sh`] startup script for more details.
+
 ## Contributing & Development
 This project uses the following dependencies:
 - Docker for Mac >= 2.3.2.0 (currently in edge)
@@ -19,3 +31,4 @@ Run `make build` to start building your first image.
 [`flash`]: https://github.com/hypriot/flash
 [`packer-build-arm-image`]: https://github.com/solo-io/packer-builder-arm-image/
 [rtl-sdr]: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/
+[`rtl-dw-start.sh`]: files/home/pi/rtl-dw-start.sh

files/boot/pigate.conf

@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
-# We might not have an audio output device so set to null.
-# We will override the input half on the command line.
+# We might not have an audio output device so set second param to null.
+# null input will be overwritten on the command line if not disabling SDR
 ADEVICE null null
+ARATE 24000
 CHANNEL 0
 
-# Set your callsign here
+# Set your callsign here with its appropriate APRS SSID
 # I use SSID 10 for igate
 MYCALL XXXXXX-10
 
@@ -18,10 +19,7 @@ IGSERVER noam.aprs2.net
 
 # You also need to specify your login name and passcode.
 # http://apps.magicbug.co.uk/passcode/
-IGLOGIN XXXXXX-10 1234
+IGLOGIN XXXXXX-10 0123
 
 # Set your GPS coordinates for the igate to show up on the map
-PBEACON sendto=IG delay=0:30 every=60:00 symbol="igate" overlay=R at=42^37.14N long=071^20.83W comment="RPi SDR DireWolf I-Gate https://pigate.dev"
-
-# That's all you need for a receive only IGate which relays
-# messages from the local radio channel to the global servers.
+PBEACON sendto=IG delay=0:30 every=60:00 symbol="igate" overlay=R lat=42^37.14N long=071^20.83W comment="RaspberryPi RTL-SDR IGate https://pigate.dev"

files/boot/user-data.yaml

@@ -34,6 +34,5 @@ timezone: "America/Chicago"
 final_message: "The system is finally up, after $UPTIME seconds"
 
 runcmd:
-  # Copy over user's predefined pigate conf to autostart
-  - [ mv, "/boot/pigate.conf", "/home/pi/pigate.conf"]
-  - [ chown, "pi:pi", "/home/pi/pigate.conf"]
+  - "cp /boot/pigate.conf /home/pi/pigate.conf"
+  - "chown pi:pi /home/pi/pigate.conf"

files/etc/logrotate.d/direwolf

@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+/home/pi/aprslogs/aprs.log {
+    daily
+    dateext
+    copytruncate
+    rotate 14
+    compress
+    missingok
+}

files/home/pi/rtl-dw-start.sh

@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-rtl_fm -f 144.39M - | direwolf -c /home/pi/direwolf/sdr.conf -r 24000 -D 1 -
+if test -f "/boot/DISABLE_SDR"; then
+    direwolf -c /home/pi/pigate.conf -L /home/pi/aprslogs/aprs.log
+else
+    rtl_fm -f 144.39M | direwolf -c /home/pi/pigate.conf -L /home/pi/aprslogs/aprs.log
+fi

packer/aprs-pigate.json

@@ -13,9 +13,15 @@
         {
             "type": "shell",
             "inline": [
-                "touch /boot/ssh"
+                "touch /boot/ssh",
+                "mkdir -p /home/pi/aprslogs"
             ]
         },
+        {
+            "type": "file",
+            "source": "files/etc/logrotate.d/direwolf",
+            "destination": "/etc/logrotate.d/direwolf"
+        },
         {
             "type": "shell",
             "script": "packer/base.sh"
@@ -56,6 +62,11 @@
             "type": "file",
             "source": "files/boot/user-data.yaml",
             "destination": "/boot/user-data"
+        },
+        {
+            "type": "file",
+            "source": "files/boot/meta-data",
+            "destination": "/boot/meta-data"
         }
     ]
 }