Blog of spblinux

Using a scanner often results in large files. OS X preview program allows to export to multiple formats. Choosing filetype pdf enables the option to apply quartz filters (generic export dialog; shortcut export to pdf does not show quartz filters in OS X 10.11.6). The builtin quartz filter reduce file size does create tiny documents but text might get unreadable.

But the builtin tool ColorSync allows to modify and create quartz filters (german howto with screenshots here). If a newly created filter should show up in the export dialog of the preview program it has to be copied from
/Users/your_name/Library/Filters to /Library/PDF Services
(tested in OS X 10.11.6).

Example of settings for small but (rather) readable pdf files:

• Image: pixel per inch = 100; quality = high; all other settings empty
• Image (gray): pixel per inch = 100; quality = high; all other settings empty
• Image compression: jpeg; quality = slider one tick below medium position

To shrink multiple pdf files the custom quartz filter can be used from the command line:

• Open Tools / Automator and create a new workflow
• add action pdf / apply quartz filter
• do not add other actions
• save this workflow, e.g. as /yourpath/pdfreduce
• copy all pdf files which should be converted to a new folder
• open a terminal and cd to the folder with pdf files which should be shrinked
• to convert one file run: automator -i yourdoc.pdf /yourpath/pdfreduce.workflow
• multiple files: for f in *.pdf; do echo “$f”; automator -i “$f” pdfreduce.workflow; done

Nagios is a perfect server monitoring tool and a NAS runs 24 hours a day. ndo2db grapher displays realtime graphics.

Resources:

ndo2db grapher on exchange.nagios.org (Version 0.3.2) with a minor patch: ndographer.diff (background); installation as described on exchange.nagios.org

nagios 4.2.1 from github

nagios plugins 2.1.2 from nagios.org

ndoutils 2.1.1 from github (made by the makers of nagios): ndomod.o and ndo2db to transfer nagios data to  a mysql database.

jpgraph 3.0.7 from sourceforge

Hardware: qnap TS-119P II with Optware-IPKG app installed (gcc, automake, make, … installed); apache, php and mysql are part of qnap firmware (currently 4.2.2).

Installation notes:

Nagios:
configure options:
--prefix=/opt/nagios --enable-nanosleep --with-init-dir=/opt/etc/init.d
edit Makefile and replace

-o root -g root by -o admin -g administrators
run make all; make install; make install-init; make install-config; make install-commandmode
symlink /opt/nagios/share to /share/Web/nagios
edit /etc/config/apache/apache.conf and set Options +ExecCGI for directory /share/Web/nagios/cgi-bin
and add group nagios to qnap apache user: usermod -a -G nagios httpdusr

Nagios plugins:
configure options:
--prefix=/opt/nagios
run make all; make install (installs to /opt/nagios/sbin)
symlink /opt/nagios/sbin to /share/Web/nagios/cgi-bin

Ndoutils:
configure options:
--prefix=/opt --with-ndo2db-user=nagios --with-ndo2db-group=nagios --enable-mysql
copy ndomod-4x.o and ndo2db-4x to /opt/nagios/bin/ndomod.o and ndo2db
use phpmyadmin (installed as qnap app) to create the database and to import db/mysql.sql
(ipkg install mysql5 installs the mysql library and headers required to compile ndoutils with mysql support)
set the broker module in /opt/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg:
broker_module=/opt/nagios/bin/ndomod.o config_file=/opt/nagios/etc/ndomod.cfg
set output=/opt/var/ndo.sock in ndomod.cfg and enter database name/user/password in ndo2db.cfg
and set lock_file=/opt/var/ndo2db.pid
run /opt/nagios/bin/ndo2db -c /opt/nagios/etc/ndo2db.cfg

Ndo2db grapher and jpgraph:
copy the tar archive content to /opt/nagios/share and create directory /opt/nagios/share/ndographer/jpgraph
patch choose_nagios.php and display_nagios_info.php using the patch file
copy the folder src contained in jgraph-3.0.7 archive  to /opt/nagios/share/ndographer/jpgraph/src
edit ndographer/nagios_graph_conf.inc.php (database name, user, password and
$cache_directory = “/opt/nagios/share$cache_htdocs”;
$pre_generated_image_path = “/opt/nagios/share/nagios-cache”;
create directory /opt/nagios/share/nagios-cache/cache and set owner to httpdusr
(and symlink /opt/nagios/share/nagios-cache to /share/Web/nagios-cache)

System configuration:

Configuration of nagios:
Either set http(s) authentication (see below) or disable authentication in /opt/nagios/etc/cgi.cfg
use_authentication=0 (warning: only if access to your_ip_adress/nagios is otherwise restricted!)
Add a notes_url line to every service which should display a graph
notes_url   /nagios/ndographer/display_nagios_info.php?name1[]=$HOSTNAME$&name2[]=$SERVICEDESC$
(displays in “service status details for a host a white icon (“view extra service notes) which opens the graphic; add other variables to set options like &max_value=20; first define settings by webinterface and check which variables are used in resulting url); to submit the changes to nagios run
/opt/etc/init.d/nagios reload

Start and stop nagios automatically:
1) enable optware start/stop scripts in /opt/etc/init.d (already described here; /dev/mtdblock5 instead of /dev/mtd5 with qnap firmware 4.2.2)
– mkdir /tmp/config
– mount /dev/mtdblock5 /tmp/config
– copy K010optstartstop.sh to /tmp/config (with extension ‘.sh’, not with extension.txt; partly found here and here)
– chmod +x /tmp/config/K010optstartstop.sh
– umount /tmp/config
2) nagios make install-init has created /opt/etc/init.d/nagios (=file daemon-init in nagios source folder)
3) create script file /opt/etc/init.d/S61nagios, make it executable and edit it:
#!/bin/sh
if [ -f /opt/etc/init.d/nagios ] ; then
[ -f /opt/nagios/etc/ssmtp.conf ] && mv /opt/nagios/etc/ssmtp.conf /opt/nagios/etc/ssmtp.conf.bak
cp /etc/config/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf /opt/nagios/etc/ && rm /opt/nagios/etc/ssmtp.conf.bak
/bin/chgrp nagios /opt/nagios/etc/ssmtp.conf
/opt/nagios/bin/ndo2db -c /opt/nagios/etc/ndo2db.cfg
/opt/etc/init.d/nagios start
fi
4) create script file /opt/etc/init.d/K39nagios, make it executable and edit it:
#!/bin/sh
if [ -f /opt/etc/init.d/nagios ] ; then
/opt/etc/init.d/nagios stop
killall ndo2db
fi

Http authentication:
All qnap apache helper binaries are in /usr/local/apache/bin
/usr/local/apache/bin/htpasswd -c /etc/config/apache/.htpasswd.nagios your_user_name
and add to /etc/config/apache/apache.conf:
<Directory “/share/Web/nagios”>
AuthType Basic
AuthName “password required”
AuthUserFile /etc/config/apache/.htpasswd.nagios
Require valid-user
</Directory>
and run
/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl configtest
/usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl graceful
Then add your_user_name to /opt/nagios/etc/cgi.cfg:
use_authentication=1
authorized_for_system_information=nagiosadmin,your_user_name
authorized_for_configuration_information=nagiosadmin,your_user_name
authorized_for_system_commands=nagiosadmin,your_user_name
authorized_for_all_services=nagiosadmin,your_user_name
authorized_for_all_hosts=nagiosadmin,your_user_name
authorized_for_all_service_commands=nagiosadmin,your_user_name
authorized_for_all_host_commands=nagiosadmin,your_user_name
and run
/opt/etc/init.d/nagios configtest
/opt/etc/init.d/nagios reload

Configuration of sendmail on qnap:
qnap firmware installs ssmtp with config in /etc/config/ssmtp/
(and the start script S61nagios copies ssmtp.conf to /opt/nagios/etc/ and sets group nagios)
use webinterface: control panel /system settings /notification
to define the smtp server of your mail account
Then edit /etc/config/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf:
hostname=localhost
and /etc/config/ssmtp/revaliases (use same smtp server as in ssmtp.conf):
admin:you@yourdomain.org:your_smtp_server:your_smtp_port
nagios:you@yourdomain.org:your_smtp_server:your_smtp_port
and run (logged in as admin user):
echo "first message" |sendmail your_receiver@your_mailbox.org
This sends mails from admin as mails from you@yourdomain.org; (if this command runs without errors check your inbox and your spam folder).
Repeat this test as user nagios:
cp /etc/config/ssmtp/ssmtp.conf /opt/nagios/etc/; chgrp nagios /opt/nagios/etc/ssmtp.conf;
su nagios; echo "second message" |sendmail -C/opt/nagios/etc/ssmtp.conf your_receiver@your_mailbox.org; exit
Nagios notifications use the program printf which is in /opt/bin/printf (which gets installed with ipkg install coreutils)
and edit /opt/nagios/etc/objects/commands.cfg:
/usr/bin/printf has to be replaced by /opt/bin/printf
and the subject line has to be moved from sendmail to printf:
sendmail -s "........." has to be replaced by sendmail -C/opt/nagios/etc/ssmtp.conf
and printf "%b" "****** Nagios has to be replaced with printf "%b" "Subject: .........\n\n****** Nagios
Reload nagios with /opt/etc/init.d/nagios reload and try to send a forced host (or service) notification from nagios web interface: Host (or Service) state information
(Change debug level from 0 to 164 and debug_verbosity from 1 to 2 in /opt/nagios/etc/nagios.cfg to search bugs; debug logfile: /opt/nagios/var/nagios.debug; normal logfile: nagios.log)
The comments given by the user in notifications manually sent by the user may be included into the message using variable $NOTIFICATIONCOMMENT$ (reference).

Firmware update woes:

• nagios section in /etc/config/apache/apache.config has to be reinserted
• ipkg install procps; ipkg install inetutils: ping and ps in /opt/bin are kept
• but nagios needs ping (and nagios initscript needs ps) non busysbox verion in /bin:
  • cd /bin; mv ping ping.bb; mv ps ps.bb; ln -s /opt/bin/ping ping; ln -s /opt/bin/ps ps

Bare metal recovery: Making the hard disk with image data bootable – update of this post; requires a licensed version of trueimage 2016 home (to be able to either download the acronis standalone iso from acronis or to create the iso with acronis media builder).

Step 1: Initialization of the disk using windows diskpart (compare this post); all data on this disk gets erased; tested with diskpart of windows 10:

• list disk
• select disk 1 (be careful to select the external disk which will be erased)
• clean
• convert gpt (automatically creates a 100 MB msr partition which remains unused)
• create partition efi size=512
• format fs=fat32 quick label=EFI
• create partition primary size=2048 (bootloader and acronis)
• create partition primary (use remaining space for image data)
• exit

Step 2: Continue with linux; tested with ubuntu 16.04.

Step 2: Prepare and format the hard disk:

• sudo su
• gdisk -l /dev/sdb (be careful to select the external disk which has been prepared in step 1)
• use df -h to show if any partitions of /dev/sdb are mounted and unmount them
• gdisk /dev/sdb (be careful to select the external disk – replace sdb by your disk sd… in the instructions below!)
  • p
  • t
    3 <enter> (sets type of partition 3 to linux; do not set the data partition 4 to linux – else trueimage won’t allow to read/write tib files)
  • x
  • a
    3
    2 <enter> (set gpt partition flag bios bootable, used by extlinux boot loader)
  • w
• mkfs.ext2 -L BootExtHD /dev/sdb3
• mkfs.ext4 -L DataExtHD /dev/sdb4

Step 3: Install extlinux to make the hard disk bootable in bios mode:

• mount /dev/sdb3 /mnt
• mkdir /mnt/extlinux
• extlinux -i /mnt/extlinux
• touch /mnt/extlinux/extlinux.conf
• mcedit /mnt/extlinux/extlinux.conf (compare these instructions on reboot.pro)
  • DEFAULT ti2016
SAY booting TrueImage 2016 from USB disk with extlinux
LABEL ti2016
KERNEL /acronis/dat10.dat
APPEND quiet force_modules=usbhid lib80211=off
INITRD /acronis/dat11.dat,/acronis/dat12.dat
  • my machine crashes if lib80211.ko gets loaded (ti2016 build 6571)
    else parameter lib80211=off is not neccessary
• dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/gptmbr.bin of=/dev/sdb (add a syslinux/extlinux compatible mbr to the hard disk)

Step 4: Install grub to make the hard disk bootable in (u)efi secure boot mode; assumes that ubuntu 16.04 has been installed with grub efi boot loader and that loading of unsigned kernel (modules) has been enabled:
mokutil –disable-validation (has to be run as root, disables kernel validation at reboot; boot loader grub then complains insecure boot.)

• mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt2
• mkdir /mnt2/EFI
• copy /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu to /mnt2/EFI/ubuntu
• edit /mnt2/EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg
  • run: blkid /dev/sdb3
  • replace the uuid filesystem number in grub.cfg by the UUID number shown by blkid
  • remove grub hint hd0,gpt6 (in case your ubuntu (boot) partition is sda6)
  • replace set prefix=($root)’/boot/grub’
    by set prefix=($root)’/grub’
  • e.g.:
search.fs_uuid 4164bfdd-bfbe-464a-9e7f-1ec096f84c2d root
set prefix=($root)'/grub'
configfile $prefix/grub.cfg
• umount /mnt2
• mkdir /mnt/grub
• copy the contents of directory /boot/grub/ to /mnt/grub/
• delete /mnt/grub/grubenv
• edit /mnt/grub/grub.cfg
  • set default="0"
set timeout="10"
  • taken from ubuntu:
function load_video {
if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then
insmod all_video
else
insmod efi_gop
insmod efi_uga
insmod ieee1275_fb
insmod vbe
insmod vga
insmod video_bochs
insmod video_cirrus
fi
}
  • taken from ubuntu (but replace filesystem UUID number ):
font=unicode
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 4164bfdd-bfbe-464a-9e7f-1ec096f84c2d
load_video
gfxmode text
  • again using these instructions on reboot.pro:
menuentry "Acronis TruImage Home 2016 on USB disk" {
set quiet=1
set gfxpayload=1024x768x32,1024x768
set mbrcrcs=on
# bug: kernel module lib80211 crashes kernel in build 6571 (ti 64bit)
linux /acronis/dat10.dat lib80211=off quiet force_modules=usbhid
initrd /acronis/dat11.dat /acronis/dat12.dat
boot
}

Step 5: Copy acronis trueimage 2016 from iso to hard disk:

• mkdir /mnt/acronis
• loop mount the acronis iso file (e.g. mount -o loop acronis.iso /mnt2)
• copy the files dat10.dat, dat11.dat and dat12.dat to directory /mnt/acronis
• umount /mnt

Step 6: enable to boot on a mac mini

• The builtin boot selector of a mac mini expects the grub efi file inside the efi partition at it’s official place:
  EFI/boot/bootx64.efi (or EFI/boot/bootia32.efi: see step 7)
• to configure grub as official boot loader simply copy
  MokManager.efi, shimx64.efi, grubx64.efi and grub.cfg
  from EFI/ubuntu/ to EFI/boot/ and
  rename shimx64.efi to bootx64.efi
• Now the boot selector of OS X on a newer mac mini (e.g. late 2012) shows
  an USB disk with subtitle EFI Boot (keep alt/option key pressed on power on to start the boot selector)

Step 7 (optional): enable to boot on older mac minis (late 2007, 5.1)

• These systems work with 32 bit efi (grub-mkimage -O i386-efi -d /usr/lib/grub/i386-efi -o grubia32.efi ...)
• Trial & error showed that grubia32.efi created in ubuntu 16.04 (apt-get install grub-efi-ia32-bin) did load acronis true image, but keyboard and mouse remained disabled
• Multiple sources (like this blog: My Solution How To Boot A Linux Live System) describe that grubia32.efi contained inside zip archive ISO-2-USB EFI-Booter for Mac 0.01 beta works fine
• For some reason unknown to me this older version of grub does not block keyboard and mouse;
  but it’s command initrd does not load multiple files
• Copy dat11.dat and dat12.dat into one file dat1112.dat:
  cp dat11.dat dat1112.dat
cat dat12.dat >> dat1112.dat
  and in grub/grub.cfg replace
  initrd /acronis/dat11.dat /acronis/dat12.dat
  by
  initrd /acronis/dat1112.dat
• Copy the older version of grub (local copy) to EFI/boot/bootia32.efi
• Now it boots as described in step 6. But be prepared to wait 3 minutes until the efi32 bios has loaded the 85 MB initial ramdisk of acronis trueimage 2016

Step 8: Try to boot from this hard disk on efi and on bios systems.

• Without step 6 on one of my systems the builtin boot selector did not show my usb disk,
  but it did show an entry boot from efi file:
  • this allowed to navigate into /EFI/ubuntu on the usb disk
  • then shimx64.efi had to be selected

Running a dual boot system with OS X and Windows 10 an ExFAT data exchange partition is useful.

But from time to time (after some months in my case) theExFAT partition is gone:

• OS X and Windows 10 list a raw partition instead of an ExFAT partition

Repair in OS X using the terminal:

• sudo su
• diskutil list
  (this should display a “Microsoft Basic Data” partition with the size of the disappeared ExFAT partition;
  the name column is empty; the identifier like disk0s3 has to be used in the next step)
• fsck_exfat disk0s3
  (replace disk0s3 by your ExFAT partition)
• when asked by fsck_exfat to repair your “Main boot region” answer “y”
• diskutil mount disk0s3
  (replace disk0s3 by your ExFAT partition)
• now yourExFAT partition should be back in Finder
  (which can be verified on the console with: ls /Volumes)

Details taken from this discussion.

Repair attemps on Windows could use chkdsk d: /f
(replace d: with the windows drive letter of your disappeared ExFAT partition;
use <windows key> + x to open an administrative console.)

Hardware: multiple avm fritz!box router, isdn telephones attached to these routers

• normal internet connection: router can register sip numbers
  – the router gets a public ip on the wan side
• mobile data connection: router fails to register most voip providers
  – mobile data modems/routers get a private ip (at least in my setup)
  – private ip means listening for incoming traffic is not possible
  – smartphone clients (e.g. bria) seem to be able to use push notifications to enable incoming calls (with optional codec g729 good voice quality and rather low data rates)
• openvpn connection through mobile data to a server with public ip:
  – router can register sip numbers and outgoing calls work
  (until the firewall of the mobile provider gets active if voip by mobile data is forbidden)
  – incoming calls are still a problem; maybe the vpn tunnel responds to slowly.
• reliable incoming calls by usb gsm modem with voice sim card attached to the router
  – fritzbox 7270v2 and higher of voice connections by voice capable usb gsm data sticks

Openvpn tunnel server side (official howto):

• apt-get install openvpn
• enable ipv4 forwarding
• set iptable rules (reference1, reference2)
  – nat routing from tunnel interface to wan interface
  – disable direct forwarding from wan to tunnel
  iptables -A FORWARD -s 10.8.0.0/24 -j ACCEPT
  iptables -A FORWARD -m state –state RELATED,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT
  iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10.8.0.0/24 -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE
  iptables -A FORWARD -j REJECT
• create keys following this tutorial (and it’s openvpn sample config file) using easy-rsa
  (which is part of the debian openvpn package); no passwords except for ca signing key
  – inside easy-rsa directory, edit vars file and run
  source vars; ./clean-all; ./build-ca; ./build-key-server your_server_name;
  ./build-key-pass client_name1;
  (openssl rsa -in client_name1.key -des3 -out client_name11.3des.key for mobile clients)
  ./build-dh
  openvpn –-genkey –-secret keys/ta.key

Openvpn tunnel client side:

• use freetz to modify the router firmware and add openvpn (plus dropbear server)
  (might be tricky with older routers with only 4MB flash; needs squashfs 128kb block size
  and many of the removal patches; be prepared to recover your router with rukerneltool)
• detailed howto here; (64 bit linux needs sudo apt-get -y install libc6-dev-i386 lib32ncurses5-dev gcc-multilib lib32stdc++6);
• to fetch the current stable version:
  svn co http://svn.freetz.org/branches/freetz-stable-2.0 freetz-2.0
• make menuconfig; make
• the freetz web interface allows to configure openvpn udp tunnel client
  – use certificates and tls auth (ta.key goes into “static key” field)
  – redirect client traffic
• additional note: echo “clear_id 87” > /proc/tffs allows to remove the message
  unsupported changes (reference); freetz has an option to do this from web interface.

Receiving calls with usb data modem in voice mode (e.g. with huawei e1552; at command configuration): ippf forum thread

• voice capability might have to be unlocked with dc_unlocker
  (tool shows status of usb modem (free) and is able to unlock voice (paid))
• testing voice capability with huawei mobile partner software on windows might require editing of config\PluginsConfig.xml to enable (voice) call menu entry (reference)
• huawei sticks with newer firmware (“hilink”) act as router and not as modem; this seems to block voice modem usage (reference)
• alternative: raspberry pi with asterisk (RasPBX) with chan_dongle (openvpn tunnel described here)
• to make the option gsm voice telephony appear on a fritzbox router, attach the usb data stick, open menu Internet / Mobile Connection, enter SIM PIN number (if set) and press apply; press refresh until the data stick is booked into a mobile network; then press again apply; if the data stick has (enabled) voice capability and is supported by the fritzbox router, then the menu entry gsm voice calls should appear
• fritzbox routers with vendor branded firmware might disable gsm voice (which requires installation of generic avm firmware with rukerneltool)
• if the firmware of the fritzbox router is modified by freetz the program minicom can be installed to display sms messages (reference)
  – ls -l /var/gsm/ displays which ttyUSBN (N=0,1,2…) is the data port (huawei e1552: USB0)
  – stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 displays the baudrate setting of this port (which is accessed by umtsd; in my setup baudrate 9600 is used)
  – minicom -o -b 9600 -D /dev/ttyUSB0 allows to send at-commands (ctrl+a e enables local echo)
  – at+cmgl=”all” displays all SMS stored on the SIM card
  – at+cmgr=4 displays SMS with index 4 (described in detail here)
  – the commands might fail and have to be repeated if umtsd gets active at the same time

Using firmware evb1_06x from fatcatlab.com; hardware is a beaglebone black (revision c) with evb cape.
(To access the firmware image from linux, unzip it and run fdisk -l evb1_06x.img, multiply the start position of partition 2 by 512 and run mount -o ro,offset=53477376 evb1_06x.img /your_mountpoint)

Console access: the ethernet port fetches an ip address by dhcp; telnet allows access as root without password
(Adress fetched by dhcp is also shown on serial console of beaglebone; only accessible when evb cape is removed.)

To upload files to the beaglebone black with evb cape
python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8080 (cd to directory which has content to be downloaded)
wget http://your_server_ip:8080/filename
(builtin busybox unzip does not keep symlinks and executable attributes)

Toolchain used to build evb1_06x firmware:
uname -r displays 3.12.10-ti2013.12.01 and kernel_config is available in /proc/config.gz
which is TI SDK 7.0 (forked github repository of linux kernel here). The ti download page for sdk 7.0 is somehow hidden because the current sdk version is sdk 8.0 and later; the toolkit uses 32 bit binaries and here is listed which libraries (might) have to be installed on 64 bit ubuntu 14.04.

• apt-get install libc6:i386 libx11-6:i386 libasound2:i386 libatk1.0-0:i386 libcairo2:i386 libcups2:i386 libdbus-glib-2.0-0:i386 libgconf-2-4:i386 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:i386 libgtk-3-0:i386 libice6:i386 libncurses5:i386 libsm6:i386 liborbit2:i386 libudev1:i386 libusb-0.1-4:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libxt6:i386 libxtst6:i386 libgnomeui-0:i386 libusb-1.0-0-dev:i386 libcanberra-gtk-module:i386 gtk2-engines-murrine:i386
• uses linaro toolchain (gcc 4.7, 2013.03): download
  (copy contents into /usr/ except /usr/share/aclocal|gdb|locale)
• create directories /opt/bbb/lib and /opt/bbb/usr/include and create symlinks
  inside /opt/bbb/lib for all files in /usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/:
  d=/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf
  cd $d; for f in *; do cd /opt/bbb/lib; echo ln -s $d/$f; cd $d; done
  and inside /opt/bbb/usr/include for all files in /usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/[libc/usr/include|]:
  d=/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc/usr/include
  cd $d; for f in *; do cd /opt/bbb/usr/include; echo ln -s $d/$f; cd $d; done
  d=/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libc/usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf
  cd $d; for f in *; do cd /opt/bbb/usr/include; ln -s $d/$f; cd $d; done
• sdk source code: download
  (copy linux-3-12-10-ti2013.12.01 to /usr/src)
• precompiled sdk binaries: download
  (contains tisdk-rootfs-image-am335x-evm.tar.gz with all binaries of the sdk root file system)
• getting started guide: pdf document
• handling PRU: overview

To test the kernel build environment, backup .config and copy kernel_config to .config, then run:
cd /usr/src/linux-3.12.10-ti2013.12.01
export ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf-
make oldconfig
And to prepare external and/or internal module compilation run
make clean
make prepare
make zImage (this is required to create that part file Module.symvers which belongs to modules built into the kernel; else modules compile but fail to load with exec error)

For access point mode with rtl8192cu chipsets like edimax ew-7811un wireless usb adapter (ap.tar.zip) the driver from realtek has to be used (module 8192cu_ko; version patched for newer kernels on github). The Makefile has to be edited:
CONFIG_PLATFORM_I386_PC = n
CONFIG_PLATFORM_ARM_BEAGLEBONE = y
… (and after ifeq ($(CONFIG_PLATFORM_I386_PC), y) … endif):
ifeq ($(CONFIG_PLATFORM_ARM_BEAGLEBONE), y)
EXTRA_CFLAGS += -DCONFIG_LITTLE_ENDIAN
KSRC := /usr/src/linux-3.12.10-ti2013.12.01
ARCH := arm
KVER:= 3.12.10
endif
Then run
make
arm-linux-gnueabihf-strip –strip-debug 8192cu.ko
Copy the module to /lib/modules/3.12.10-ti2013.12.01/extra/ and run depmod -a

UNUSED and kept for reference: The module coming with the linux kernel source does not allow access point mode (error: ioctl[SIOCSIWMODE]: Operation not supported):
make menuconfig to select the ew-7811un kernel module (micro wifi usb dongle)
Device Drivers > Network device support > Wireless LAN > Realtek rtlwifi family of devices
<M>   Realtek RTL8192CU/RTL8188CU USB Wireless Network Adapter
and run make modules (rtl8192cu_ko):
Copy modules to /lib/modules/3.12.10-ti2013.12.01/extra/ and copy rtl8192cufw.bin to /lib/firmware/rtlwifi/
modprobe rtl8192cu; ifconfig -a
should show interface wlan0

Modified hostapd binary which works as access point with ew-7811un:
Go to realtek downloads (which is referenced here), select RTL8188CUS and download the linux driver.
This archive contains wpa_supplicant_hostapd-0.8_rtw_r7475.20130812.tar.gz (in wpa_supplicant_hostapd/ directory)
export CC=arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc
export LDFLAGS=”-L/opt/bbb/lib -L/opt/bbb/usr/lib”
export CFLAGS=”-I/opt/bbb/usr/include -I/opt/bbb/usr/include/arm-linux-gnueabihf”
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/opt/bbb/usr/lib/pkgconfig
(the exported variables shown above are used for all compilations below!)
cd wpa_supplicant_hostapd-0.8_rtw_r7475.20130812/hostapd
make; make install DESTDIR=/opt/bbb

Compile dnsmasq-2.73 (dnsmasq):
export CC  as shown for hostapd and edit the Makefile to set prefix = /usr
edit src/config.h: uncomment HAVE_BROKEN_RTC and comment out HAVE_TFTP
make; make install DESTDIR=/opt/bbb

To install the access point on the beaglebone, download and extract ap.tar.zip (reference):
wget https://blog.spblinux.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/ap.tar.zip
unzip ap.tar.zip
tar -C / -xf ap.tar
and edit the wlan0 entry of /etc/network/interfaces:
iface wlan0 inet static
address 10.0.0.1
netmask 255.0.0.0
(or copy interfaces.ap to interfaces if file interfaces has not yet been edited)
Change of settings might require a reboot. The wlan driver kernel module 8192cu.ko is automatically loaded at boot time.

Editor nano (nano.tar.zip):
First compile libncurses-5.9 with
./configure –host=arm-linux-gnueabihf –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc –with-shared –enable-widec –enable-pc-files –with-ticlib
make; make install DESTDIR=/opt/bbb
./configure –host=arm-linux-gnueabihf –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc –with-shared –disable-widec –enable-pc-files –with-ticlib
make; make installDESTDIR=/opt/bbb
Then compile nano-2.4.2 with
./configure –host=arm-linux-gnueabihf –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc –enable-utf8
make; make install DESTDIR=/opt/bbb
Install on beaglebone by:
wget https://blog.spblinux.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/nano.tar.zip
unzip nano.tar.zip
tar -C / -xf nano.tar

Compile midnight commander (mc.tar.zip) approximately following this reference
(use mc -a in case of missing line drawing characters; might disappear by switching from telnet login to ssh login)
libz (zlib-1.2.8)
CHOST=arm-linux-gnueabihf ./configure –prefix=/usr
make; make install DESTDIR=/opt/bbb
libiconv (libiconv-1.14)
./configure –host=arm-linux-gnueabihf –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc
make; make install DESTDIR=/opt/bbb
libgettext (gettext-0.19.4)
#bug: make fails if libiconv.la and libiconv.so* from /opt/bbb/usr/lib
# are not symlinked to /usr/lib (at least on a system without installed libiconv)
OLDPWD=$PWD
cd /usr/lib
ln -s /opt/bbb/usr/lib/libiconv.la
ln -s /opt/bbb/usr/lib/libiconv.so
cd $OLDPWD
./configure –host=arm-linux-gnueabihf –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc –enable-shared –disable-csharp –disable-java –disable-openmp –disable-c++ –disable-native-java –with-libiconv-prefix=/opt/
make; make install DESTDIR=/opt/bbb
[ -L /usr/lib/libiconv.la ] && rm /usr/lib/libiconv.la
[ -L /usr/lib/libiconv.so ] && rm /usr/lib/libiconv.so
libffi (libffi-3.2)
./configure –host=arm-linux-gnueabihf –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc
make; make install DESTDIR=/opt/bbb
glib (glib-2.45.3)
echo “glib_cv_stack_grows=no” >config.cache
echo “glib_cv_uscore=no” >>config.cache
echo “ac_cv_func_posix_getpwuid_r=yes” >>config.cache
echo “ac_cv_func_posix_getgrgid_r=yes” >>config.cache
LIBFFI_CFLAGS=”-I/opt/bbb/usr/lib/libffi-3.2.1/include” LIBFFI_LIBS=”-L/opt/bbb/usr/lib -lffi” ./configure –host=arm-linux-gnueabihf –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc -C –with-libiconv=gnu
make; make install DESTDIR=/opt/bbb
slang (slang-2.1.4)
./configure –host=arm-linux-gnueabihf –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc
make: make install DESTDIR=/opt/bbb
midnight commander (mc-4.8.14)
GLIB_CFLAGS=”-I/opt/bbb/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include -I/opt/bbb/usr/include/glib-2.0″ GLIB_LIBS=”-L/opt/bbb/usr/lib -lglib-2.0″  ./configure –host=arm-linux-gnueabihf –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc  –with-slang-includes=/opt/bbb/usr/include –with-slang-libs=/opt/bbb/usr/lib –with-libiconv-prefix=/opt/bbb/usr –with-libintl-prefix=/opt/bbb/usr
make; make install DESTDIR=/opt/bbb
[ -L /usr/lib/libiconv.la ] && rm /usr/lib/libiconv.la
[ -L /usr/lib/libiconv.so ] && rm /usr/lib/libiconv.so
On the beaglebon fetch mc.tar.zip with wget and extract it:
wget https://blog.spblinux.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/mc.tar.zip
unzip mc.tar.zip
tar -C / -xf mc.tar

ssh server dropbear (dropbear-2015.67)
./configure –host=arm-linux-gnueabihf –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc –with-zlib=/opt/bbb/usr/lib
make; make install DESTDIR=/opt/bbb
make scp; cp scp /opt/bbb/usr/bin
On the beaglebone (dropbear.tar.zip), first set a password for root user,
then fetch dropbear.tar.zip with wget and extract it:
passwd
wget https://blog.spblinux.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/dropbear.tar.zip
unzip dropbear.tar.zip
tar -C / -xf dropbear.tar
reboot
Now scp can be used to transfer files.
(The first login by ssh will take about a minute because dropbear creates a key in /etc/dropbear)

Hardware settings (pinmux), defined by device tree file am335x-boneblack.dtb in folder /boot:
Use dtc in /usr/src/linux-3.12.10-ti2013.12.01/scripts/dtc to convert the binary dtc file to am335x-boneblack.dts
dtc -I dtb -O dts am335x-boneblack.dtb  -o am335x-boneblack.dts
Here is an online Device-Tree Overlay Generator which helps to understand pinmux settings.
(The beaglebone black reference manual documents the expansion header pin names:
Expansion Header P8 Pinout, Expansion Header P9 Pinout, tables 12, 13 on pages 84, 86)

The current pinmux setting can be fetched from debugfs with
cat /sys/kernel/debug/pinctrl/44e10800.pinmux/pins |sed “s,(44e108, ,” |sed “s,(44e109,1,” |sed “s,.0) 000000,: ,”
Firmware evb1_06x runs with these settings: pins.txt (more info; compact list of bbb expansion header pinout)
(The sed commands replace the memory offset 44e10pqr by relative offset used by dts file entries
pinctrl-single,pins = <0xpqr 0x10>;)

• motors A, B, C, D use ehrpwm2B, ehrpwm2A, ehrpwm1B, ehrpwm1A
• sensors A, B, C, D use uart4, uart2, uart1, uart5
• lcd uses spi1

Receive your own ads-b signals and display them on a map like flightradar24.com does.

Required hardware: tv-usb-receiver with rtl2832u chipset (like this offer with rafael r820t2 tuner); router tplink tl-mr3020; small portable charging device. – In this blog entry you find a photography of a similar setup.

Software: openwrt (14.07 barrier braker)  with libsdr and dump1090 (both available as openwrt packages).

Installation:

• Install openwrt on tl-mr3020 as decribed by openwrt wiki here.
• Connect with telnet to 192.168.1.1 and set a root password with passwd.
• Change network settings to enable (preferably wired) internet access; (login as root with ssh and/or use the web interface); you might want to disable the dhcp server on interface “LAN”. – Configuration files are in /etc/config/.
  (In case you get locked out: power off; power on again; while led blinks quickly move the switch on the router; blinking gets faster and you are in safe mode with telnet login and default ip 192.168.1.1; run mount_root and repair settings with command uci)
• Install packages (as described here and here): opkg update; opkg install librtlsdr; opkg install dump1090
  The router has only 4MB onboard flash storage; 640k is configured as writable overlay; librtlsdr (+dependencies) and dump1090 increased used overlay space from 216k to 364k.
• run dump1090 without arguments to check if the tv-stick gets recognized

Configuration as wireless access point serving data only from 10.0.0.1 (no internet access using this accesspoint):

• Enable wifi in web interface (open accesspoint without password in my case)
• define a new “interface “WIFI” inside the web interface. Use the physical settings tab of interface “WIFI” and of interface “LAN” to ensure that only eth0 is bound to “LAN” and only wireless is bound to “WIFI”
• use setting network / firewall, create a new zone wifi with input: accept, output: accept, forward; reject (no masquerading, no clamping); add interface “WIFI” to this zone; do not allow interzone forwarding:
  Clients of the access point are not allowed to get  internet access and they cannot access the lan zone.
• Enable the dhcp server on interface “WIFI”, use advanced dhcp server settings to send empty dhcp options 3 and 6 by writing 3 instead of 3,1.2.3.4 into the first dhcp-options field and 6 into the second option-field. This tells the client that this access point does not offer a default gateway or a dns server: that is, no internet access through this access point (reference).
• Connect your mobile phone to the access point using dhcp and enable internet access by mobile data.
  The mobile browser should have access to 10.0.0.1 (openwrt config page) and to any internet page.

Display ads-b messages of airplanes in reach of your antenna:

• simple terminal view: connect by ssh to the router and run
  dump1090 –interactive
• browser view:
  first connect with ssh and run
  dump1090 –net –quiet &
  then open http://10.0.0.1:8080 with your browser
  and use ssh to stop dump1090 with command killall dump1090
• the cpu load on the router seen by command top is about 60%. So cpu power seems to be sufficient.

Refinement: move openwrt web interface to port 8088 and run dump1090 on port 80:

• ssh into the router and run
  sed “s,:80′,:8088′,g” /etc/config/uhttpd
  if the output is correct run sed with option -i (=edit in place)
  sed -i “s,:80′,:8088′,g” /etc/config/uhttpd
• to create a shell script called dump which starts dump1090 with options run (inside /root directory)
  echo “#!/bin/sh” >dump
  echo “#” >dump
  echo “dump1090 –net –quiet –net-http-port 80 &” >dump
  chmod +x dump
• now dump1090 can be started after ssh login as root by running
  ./dump
  and the webpage produced by tcpdump1090 is available at http://10.0.0.1

Some screenshots of output of dump1090 can be found on this page (written in german).

Using the buttons of the router:

The current states of all buttons can be shown with
cat /sys/kernel/debug/gpio
3 way switch positions:

• cat /sys/kernel/debug/gpio |grep gpio-18 |sed ‘s,^.*in *,,’
  lo = middle, hi = left or right
• cat /sys/kernel/debug/gpio |grep gpio-20 |sed ‘s,^.*in *,,’
  lo = left, hi = right or middle

and to monitor the button change events the directory /etc/hotplug.d/button has to be created. Then any script inside this directory gets sourced by the script /sbin/hotplug-call. The environment variables $BUTTON, $ACTION and $SEEN are set

• $ACTION: pressed, released
• $BUTTON:
  wps: push button with led,
  BTN_0: switch: released = middle position, pressed = left or right
  BTN_1: switch: released =left, pushed = middle or right
  fast switching from left to right: no event for BTN_0 (remains pressed)
• $SLEEP: seconds since last action for this button

Example script to monitor button events:

• mkdir /etc/hotplug.d/button
• echo ‘echo button $BUTTON with action $ACTION and seen $SEEN>>/tmp/buttons.log’ >buttonlog.sh
• tail -f /tmp/buttons.log

Scripts to toggle wifi with wps button and to start and stop programs (reference)

• /etc/hotplug.d/button/00-button.sh
• /usr/sbin/BTN_0_pressed and /usr/sbin/BTN_1_pressed
• /usr/sbin/handler_wifi_toggle.sh
• /usr/sbin/handler_dump1090.sh
• /usr/sbin/handler_rtl_tcp.sh
• /usr/sbin/handler_stop.sh
• all scripts have to be made executable with chmod +x
  and the suffix .txt should be removed
• to attach the handler scripts to hardware buttons wps/left/middle/right
  (left: triggered by quickly moving the mode switch from right to left
  right: triggered by quickly moving the mode switch from left to right
  middle: triggered by moving the mode switch to the middle)
  uci add system button
  uci set system.@button[-1].button=wps
  uci set system.@button[-1].action=released
  uci set system.@button[-1].handler=handler_wifi_toggle.sh
  uci set system.@button[-1].min=1
  uci set system.@button[-1].max=3
  uci commit system

Additions:

• Install rtl-sdr package from this source: download to your computer, then copy it per scp to the router. Install it with opkg install rtl-……_ar71xx.ipk
  • look at the bottom of this page to stream the signal of the tv-receiver with rtl_tcp
  • rtl_tcp -a 192.168.4.1 -n 8 -b 8
• as receiver osmocom fft analyzer can be used (osx install requires macports: port install gr-osmosdr +full; port install gr-fosphor; port install Gqrx)
  osmocom_fft -W -s 2000000 -f 144000000 -a ‘rtl_tcp=192.168.4.1:1234’
  optionally with -W or -S or -F
  (sample rate 2 MHz gives 30% cpu load on the router)
  Tested with wired connection.
• fm radio receiver gqrx runs with
  Device settings:
  device: rtl_sdr spectrum server
  device string (as displayed by rtl_test): rtl_tcp=192.168.4.1:1234
  sample rate: 1500000 (automatically set by gqrc)
  bandwidth: 0 MHz
  LNB LO: 0 MHz
  (Reboot router if transmission does not work properly)
  Receiver options: WFM (stereo)
  Input controls LNA gain: sensitivity of tuner
  Audio: Gain 0 dB
  Wired connection
• fm radio receiver sdr# on windows 8.1:
  wireless connection
  sample rate 1.024 MSPS
  start rtl_tcp to listen on wireless interface
  rtl_tcp -a 10.0.0.1 -n 8 -b 8

Features of Mediawiki extended with free version of BlueSpice:

• open uploaded documents with one click
• possibility to switch between wikitext and visual editor (based on tinymce)
• search includes contents of uploaded pdf files (with tomcat and apache solr/lucene)
• upload files by drag and drop (with msupload 10.0 extension msupload-bluespice.patch)
• user login using existing http digest auth login (with extension auth_remoteuser)

code sourcery is now part of of mentor.com:

– command line binary arm toolchain is somehow hidden in favour of the (non free) codebench product of mentor.com

. os x binary toolchain based on code sourcery sources offered by http://www.carlson-minot.com/

– on their download page they offer a build script which reference the code sourcery source archives
arm-2014.05-28-arm-none-eabi.src.tar.bz2
arm-2014.05-28-arm-none-eabi-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.bz2

– using google reveals download links for these source archives at http://sourcery.mentor.com/public/gnu_toolchain/
http://sourcery.mentor.com/public/gnu_toolchain/arm-none-linux-gnueabi/
http://sourcery.mentor.com/public/gnu_toolchain/arm-none-eabi/

Rooting: there are some fine guides like this. The first step, unlock bootloader, resets the phone to factory: backup data first. (To see developer options on the phone: settings / about / tap 7 times on the last line / build number). In developer options: activate oem-unlock to unlock the boot loader and later usb debug mode to allow adb shell access.

• fastboot and adb shell (reference): windows installer (=minimal fastboot and adb; tested: flashing with fastboot needs cmd window with admin rights); linux: apt-get install fastboot; osx: google mfastboot-v2 download.
• twrp for moto e 2nd 4g: reference; download (version 2015-03-08)
• supersu 2.46 (2015-03-29) from chainfire.eu: download
• search for moto e 2nd logo.bin to hide the unlocked bootloader warning (fastboot flash logo logo.bin)

USB OTG: moto e 2nd 4G (xt1524) does support usb on the go (check settings / storage with attached usb storage device)

Tools (from google playstore):

• Android Terminal Emulator (even tapping works with mc, if enabled in settings, using terminal type xterm). On first start run
  su -c ” supolicy –live ‘allow untrusted_app untrusted_app_devpts chr_file setattr’ “
• sshelper ssh daemon (comes with busybox)
• Midnight Commander Installer (installation requires busybox in /system/xbin/)
  Use terminal emulator to copy busybox to system app directory /system/xbin/:
  su; mount -o remount,rw /system
  cd /data/data/com.arachnoid.sshelper/bin; cp -a * /system/xbin/
  Then edit shell script /system/xbin/mc (e.g. with mc editor)
  export TERM=xterm
  /system/xbin/mc.real $@
• juicessh ssh client
  currently needs a policy modification
  su -c ” supolicy –live ‘allow untrusted_app untrusted_app_devpts chr_file setattr’ ”
  (or permissive selinux mode) to access /dev/pts. Run in terminal emulator:
  su; setenforce 0 (and reenable with setenforce 1; getenforce shows status)
  or  with ssh:
  su -c sh -i; setenforce 1
  then logout and login again
• Root Explorer: file manager

Screencast:

• YouMap: duplicates screen to rplay software on raspberry pi
• with raspberry pi configured as wlan access point and connected to the internet by ethernet both screencast and internet access use the same wlan connection
• transmission is very stable and efficient in terms of battery life. But the first connection might have to be tried multiple times: turn on server, connect to rplay device (stop server, disconnect device, repeat from beginning). – Much better than google chromecast app and stick (phone not in list of supported devices, 2015-03).

Compiler

• C4droid with gcc and sdl plugin
• recommended to use bluetooth keyboard
• working directory is:
  /data/data/com.n0n3m4.droidc/files/
  and uses temp.c and temp as compiled binary
• storage directory is
  /storage/emulated/legacy/
• in depth tutorial for qt app
• selinux support:
  copy libselinux.so from /system/lib/ to
  /data/data/com.n0n3m4.droidc/files/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/lib/
• download selinux header files from android.googlesource.com: platform/external/libselinux: include (e.g. android-5.1.0_r3)
• create directory selinux inside
  /data/data/com.n0n3m4.droidc/files/gcc/arm-linux-androideabi/include
• copy the header files into this directory
• In C4droid settings / G++ arguments add after -lz: -lselinux; stored in
  /data/data/com.n0n3m4.droidc/shared_prefs/com.n0n3m4.droidc_preferences.xml
• test selinux with (idea from serverfault.com)
  #include <stdio.h>
  #include <stdlib.h>
  #include <selinux/selinux.h>
  int main() {
  security_context_t con;
  if (getcon(&con) < 0) {
  perror(“Cannot getcon”);
  return 1;
  }
  printf(“%s\n”, con);
  freecon(con);
  return 0;
  }
• this program should compile and run with output:
  u:r:untrusted_app:s0
• if and only if enforcing mode of selinux is active
  su -cn u:r:system_app:s0 test
  allows to run the program test in a different security context (su is part of supersu)

Android build environment:

• tutorial on xda-developers
• personal technical notes about android by David Madore