OS Obligations

From Meteohub Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

Meteohub on x86 Platforms

A so called Meteohub system consists of a piece of hardware, a linux operating system, and the Meteohub application. Although you need all three parts to have a running system these parts are completely separate pieces of work that stand alone and are not derived from each other.

These three separate parts come along with different terms of licenses.

Hardware

The hardware is licensed under the sole control of the manufacturer. The author of the Meteohub application does not have any relation to this. If you decide to modify the hardware, this is always done under your personal responsibility. That is especially true if you flash any firmware images to the hardware or do other modifications that might be useful for use with the Meteohub application. All modifications you do with your hardware are at your responsibility and at your own risk.

Operating System

The Meteohub system makes use of Debian etch-and-a-half linux operating system that is available under various open source licenses. This is a original Debian distribution without any modifications. You get it from the usual sources from the Internet.

Details how to download, build an usb stick and how to make settings suitable for Meteohub during Debian installation are described here. Necessary file archive "setup.tgz" can be downloaded here.

Additional Packages

After having done install of Debian base system, you have to copy an archive with additional scripts and the Meteohub application to /root. The document linked to in the previous chapter also explains how to start these scripts, that download additional Debian packages and installs these.

Meteohub Application

At the last phase of the installation process, Meteohub application files will be installed and the Meteohub system should be read to go after reboot. As there is a big variance of x86 systems, some of the drivers that are specific for your hardware might not be installed. Please do that yourself. The Meteohub installation scripts are tested on officially supported hardware (ebox 2300, ebox 4300, fit-PC Slim, ALIX.1D, ALIX.3D2). With a little Linux knowledge it should also be adaptable to most x86 platform, as long as these support 486 code.

During time the installation script might run into errors, not being able to download packages from the Internet when file locations or Internet addresses change. Please inform "info(at)meteohub.de" to get the scripts corrected in that case.


Meteohub on NSLU2

A so called Meteohub system consists of a piece of hardware, a linux operating system, and the Meteohub application. Although you need all three parts to have a running system these parts are completely separate pieces of work that stand alone and are not derived from each other.

These three separate parts come along with different terms of licenses.

Hardware

The hardware is licensed under the sole control of the manufacturer. The author of the Meteohub application does not have any relation to this. If you decide to modify the hardware, this is always done under your personal responsibility. That is especially true if you flash any firmware images to the hardware or do other modifications that might be useful for use with the Meteohub application. All modifications you do with your hardware are at your responsibility and at your own risk.

Operating System

The Meteohub system makes use of SlugOS/BE 4.8 beta linux operating system that is available under various open source licenses. This operating system can be downloaded as binary image for flashing the NSLU2 firmware (download) and as source (download). The SlugOS operating system is used in two kinds by Meteohub. First, a only marginally modified SlugOS is used to patch the Firmware of the NSLU2. This is discussed in detail in chapter 2.1. As Meteohub needs much more resources than the flash storage inside the NSLU2 can provide, the SlugOS is cloned to an USB stick. Based on this initial SlugOS Image, more SlugOS packages are loaded to the USB stick to build a more capable operating system, that allows the Meteohub application to operate as designed. Building a Meteohub USB stick image is explained in the following chapters. This explanation covers all open source components installed on the USB stick. To make development of new components on a Meteohub USB stick image easy, a complete tool chain for native compiling is included.

SlugOS/BE is widely known and used in various projects. You will find a lot of information about developing your own project based on SlugOS/Be. Start reading about SlugOS here.

Please don't forget to donate to the community that has built such a great support for the NSLU2 platform here when using SlugOS for your development.

FIRMWARE IMAGE

To make it more convenient for the user to set up a Meteohub system, you will find a SlugOS/BE firmware image in the download section of www.meteohub.de that is a 1:1 copy of the SlugOS/BE firmware plus some settings that will continue boot from a connected USB stick and a program that allows for taking the contents of one USB stick and installing this on a second USB stick. You will find a step by step instruction how to build a Meteohub firmware image and pointers to all the building blocks needed here and the referenced additional files here.

USB-Stick Image

As the Meteohub application and all the operating system parts needed for a running Meteohub system do not fit into firmware, a Meteohub system makes use of an USB stick. After having booted the operating system located in the firmware control is given to an USB stick, if connected. This hand-over makes it necessary to also put a another copy of the SlugOS operating system onto the USB-stick. The SlugOS/BE operating system on the USB stick has been created by using the "turnup" command included in the SlugOS/BE operating system prior installed as the firmware of the NSLU2. This document explains in detail how to build a Meteohub USB stick image.

The open design of the USB stick that also includes a native compile environment allows any user to inspect the contents (including config files and settings) of any given USB stick and allows to include additional packages (or remove existing ones) very easily. Replacing, installing and changing packages can as easily being done as on every other linux operating system. You are welcome to customize this linux system to your needs. While USB stick images give you the opportunity to use it as a turn-key solution without setting up the linux environment from scratch yourself you can also dig into details and adapt this to your personal needs.

Meteohub Application

The Meteohub application consists of the following programs:

  • loggerd, wmr928eval, hid, meteohub.cgi, meteograph.cgi, meteonet, meteohtml, meteolog.cgi, stamp, goto, ser, wdcut, wswincut, wswinimport, readip, meteocam, day, alarm

These programs are not derived work, nor do these include any GPL code/programs and are in the sole copyright of the author of Meteohub. When talking about a "Meteohub license" only these software components are meant. The Meteohub application is distributed as an initial install being part of an USB stick image that can be downloaded from www.meteohub.de or as an update file, which is a simple tar file to be installed under control of the Meteohub application.

Meteohub on SheevaPlug

A so called Meteohub system consists of a piece of hardware, a linux operating system, and the Meteohub application. Although you need all three parts to have a running system these parts are completely separate pieces of work that stand alone and are not derived from each other.

These three separate parts come along with different terms of licenses.

Hardware

The hardware is licensed under the sole control of the manufacturer. The author of the Meteohub application does not have any relation to this. If you decide to modify the hardware, this is always done under your personal responsibility. That is especially true if you flash any firmware images to the hardware or do other modifications that might be useful for use with the Meteohub application. All modifications you do with your hardware are at your responsibility and at your own risk.

Operating System

The Meteohub system makes use of Debian lenny (for Kirkwood) linux operating system that is available under various open source licenses. This is a original Debian distribution without any modifications. You get it from the usual sources from the Internet.

Details how to download and to bring this to a SheevaPlug and to make the SheevaPlug booting from SD is described here.

Additional Packages

After having done install of Debian base system, you have to copy and extract this archive with additional scripts and the Meteohub application to /root. Start the included "all" script and watch the necessary steps done automatically.

Meteohub Application

At the last phase of the installation process, Meteohub application files will be installed and the Meteohub system should be ready to go after reboot. As the script of the previous chapter already does this there is nothing separate to do. During time the installation script might run into errors, not being able to download packages from the Internet when file locations or Internet addresses change. Please inform "info(at)meteohub.de" to get the scripts corrected in that case.


Final Words

The author of Meteohub fully respects Open Source licenses and did a lot of effort to comply to all corresponding obligations and to make a Meteohub system as transparent as possible and thereby to support others to use this as a base for further development by other communities. If you feel that there might be a potential Open Source license violation overlooked by the author, please contact info(at)meteohub.de to help clarifying and fixing this.