Installing .net on RPi

[Nottub]

Nice work Trevor.

I haven't installed CMX on my RPI yet as I was waiting for the non beta to be released. So as we stand you are a little ahead of me.

As I mentioned I will be running as a service once the full release is available and, running as a service, the same as my existing installation.


Regards

Martyn

[rogerthn]

So I've got .Net 8 installed and have done a fresh install of CumulusMX. I've run the conversion utility on my data files but what command do I use to run Cumulus interactively? I didn't want to install it as a service until I was sure everything was working fine.

Regards,
Trevor

You could do what I did i.e.
Install as a service but I did not enabled it

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sudo systemctl start cumulusmx.service

To stop it

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sudo systemctl stop cumulusmx.service

Once I whas happy

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sudo systemctl enable cumulusmx.service

and

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sudo systemctl start cumulusmx.service

[flort]

Hi Roger,

Thanks for that. I edited the cumulusmx.service file as I'm still running V3 as a service. Renamed it to cumulusmx-rpi.service and changed the contents as follows -

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[Service]
User=pi
Group=pi
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/CumulusMX-RPI/CumulusMX.exe
ExecStart=/opt/dotnet/dotnet CumulusMX.dll -service -port 8999
Type=simple

There must be something wrong in there as I copied the file to /etc/systemd/system and ran 'sudo systemctl daemon-reload'. Tried to start it with 'sudo systemctl start cumulusmx-rpi.service' but nothing happens.

Any ideas?

Regards,
Trevor

[freddie]

Try this command:

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sudo systemctl status cumulumx-rpi.service

You should see the reason why it failed.

[flort]

Thanks Freddie. It says the working directory is not a directory. Also /opt/dotnet/dotnet is not a directory. Gave the following -

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Apr 01 21:07:24 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started CumulusMX service.
Apr 01 21:07:24 raspberrypi systemd[15002]: cumulusmx-rpi.service: Changing to the requested working directory failed: Not a directory
Apr 01 21:07:24 raspberrypi systemd[15002]: cumulusmx-rpi.service: Failed at step CHDIR spawning /opt/dotnet/dotnet: Not a directory
Apr 01 21:07:24 raspberrypi systemd[1]: cumulusmx-rpi.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=200/CHDIR
Apr 01 21:07:24 raspberrypi systemd[1]: cumulusmx-rpi.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

I don't understand this because my Cumulus installation is definitely located at /home/pi/CumulusMX-RPI. Any more suggestions?

EDIT - I just did a check and there is not dotnet directory under /opt. Should that have been created automatically when .Net 8 was installed?

Regards,
Trevor

[freddie]

The service section of my unit file looks like this:

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[Service]
User=root
Group=root
WorkingDirectory=/opt/CumulusMX
ExecStart="/usr/lib/dotnet/dotnet" CumulusMX.dll -service
Type=simple

So it looks like your WorkingDirectory config is wrong. Should be /home/pi/CumulusMX-RPI - you have appended the exe file to it.

If you type

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which dotnet

in your Pi terminal window, it will tell you where dotnet is located.

[mcrossley]

Thanks Freddie. It says the working directory is not a directory. Also /opt/dotnet/dotnet is not a directory. Gave the following -

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Apr 01 21:07:24 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started CumulusMX service.
Apr 01 21:07:24 raspberrypi systemd[15002]: cumulusmx-rpi.service: Changing to the requested working directory failed: Not a directory
Apr 01 21:07:24 raspberrypi systemd[15002]: cumulusmx-rpi.service: Failed at step CHDIR spawning /opt/dotnet/dotnet: Not a directory
Apr 01 21:07:24 raspberrypi systemd[1]: cumulusmx-rpi.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=200/CHDIR
Apr 01 21:07:24 raspberrypi systemd[1]: cumulusmx-rpi.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

I don't understand this because my Cumulus installation is definitely located at /home/pi/CumulusMX-RPI. Any more suggestions?

EDIT - I just did a check and there is not dotnet directory under /opt. Should that have been created automatically when .Net 8 was installed?

Regards,
Trevor

How did you create that service file?

CumulusMX v4 can generate a correctly formatted service file for you, for example...

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dotnet CumulusMX.dll -install -port 8999 -user root -group root -servicename cumulusmx-v4

It will detect the CumulusMX location to set the working directory, and also detect the dotnet location.

If you want to run CumulusMX v4 interactively, it is just...

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dotnet CumulusMX.dll [-port <port_num>]

[flort]

Hi Mark,

I used the supplied service file and manually renamed and edited it. I then copied it to /etc/systemd/system and reloaded the service definitions. From your original instructions about running two services I didn't think I could create it automatically without affecting the existing service.

I've now used the automatic generation of the service file and both services are happily running side by side. I also tested running it interactively and that worked fine also. I now have V4 running on both Linux (buster) and Windows 10 without any issues.

Thanks to everyone who helped me sort this out.

Regards,
Trevor

[Nottub]

Great work trevor.....

As far as the commands I need to run (after running the V3 to V4 data conversion) are:

Note: the original RPi username is 'Pi', the new Rpi is 'Pi2' so the Pi2 in the code below would be just 'pi' for the old RPi!

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sudo dotnet CumulusMX.dll -install -user Pi2

To physically install CumulusMX V4 version, with the copied across files already in place. Presume I don't need to be in the /home/pi/CumulusMX directory to run this install?


Secondly:

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sudo systemctl enable cumulusmx

To run CMX at boot.


One question though. If the CMX is running off an SSD which I can move across to a newer RPi, I presume I need to run the install again on the second RPi to ensure the appropriate files are created on that Rpi?

Many thanks for any feedback.

Martyn

[flort]

Hi Martyn,

I think you will need to be in the /home/pi/CumulusMX directory to run the install otherwise the command won't find the CumulusMX.dll file. You will also need to use the -servicename flag so it knows what to call the service file to be created and the -group flag.

Your command to run CMX at boot is correct.

My Rpi only runs off an SD Card so I've had no experience using it with an SSD. Someone else might be able to give you some guidance as to what you need to do.

Regards,
Trevor

[Nottub]

I think you will need to be in the /home/pi/CumulusMX directory to run the install otherwise the command won't find the CumulusMX.dll file. You will also need to use the -servicename flag so it knows what to call the service file to be created and the -group flag.

Just when I thought I had gasped what I needed to do. Changing the directory is ok, I can do that.

What I don’t know is where i get/ or put the -service name flag, nor the group flag. Didn’t see any mention of that!

Oh well back to the drawing board

Been plucking up the courage to bite the bullet and thought I was mentally prepared. Have to go through the instructions again to work out what I’ve missed.

Thanks
Martyn

[freddie]

What I don’t know is where i get/ or put the -service name flag, nor the group flag. Didn’t see any mention of that!

Mark covered that last night in his reply to this topic:

CumulusMX v4 can generate a correctly formatted service file for you, for example...

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dotnet CumulusMX.dll -install -port 8999 -user root -group root -servicename cumulusmx-v4

It will detect the CumulusMX location to set the working directory, and also detect the dotnet location.

[Nottub]

The original guide from Mark to install as a service reads:

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sudo dotnet CumulusMX.dll -install -user <username> [-group <groupname>] [-port port_num] [-lang <lang-code>]

So in my simple thinking I was leaving off the group name, leaving it to default to Pi2 (the username in my case), also leaving the the port number off so it would use the default 8998, and also leaving the language code off as that too defaults.

I'm then left with:

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sudo dotnet CumulusMX.dll -install -user Pi2

Perhaps I'm over simplifying the installation and that my simple code is not complete?

And that I need to use this instead:

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dotnet CumulusMX.dll -install -port 8998 -user pi2 -group Pi2 -servicename cumulusmx-v4

Will the service code not default to cumulusmx if the service name is left blank? I presume adding it gives the CMX-service file a different name i.e. in this case 'cumulus-V4'?

Is this version for those occasions where there are V3 and V4 on the same Rpi, keeping separate CMX-services, for V3 (MONO), and V4 (dotnet).


Forgive my primitive knowledge but i'm trying to understand the mechanics behind the instructions.

Apologies for what might appear to be a stupid question.

Thanks again for your input.

Martyn

[freddie]

If you're not changing the name of the service or the port or the group then you were correct in that you can just use

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sudo dotnet CumulusMX.dll -install -user Pi2

[Nottub]

Thanks for the sanity check Freddie.