A couple of dump1090 questions

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
22

Please issue following command
sudo find / -name mlat-client_0.2.11_armhf.deb

If it is from RB24 (installed through apt-get), you will get following two lines in the output

find: ‘/proc/23100’: No such file or directory
/var/cache/apt/archives/mlat-client_0.2.11_armhf.deb

If you have installed it by obtaining package from my Github repository by wget command, then installed the downloaded package by command sudo dpkg -i, then the find command will show only this line:
find: ‘/proc/23100’: No such file or directory

23

This is what was returned if this makes any sense;

sudo find / -name mlat-client_0.2.11_armhf.deb
find: ‘/home/pi/thinclient_drives’: Permission denied
find: ‘/run/user/1000/gvfs’: Permission denied

:confused:

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

24

And if I check the status of mlat-client the second line from the bottom gives a warning but it looks like it runs anyway. Is that normal?

sudo systemctl status mlat-client
● mlat-client.service - LSB: Multilateration client
Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/mlat-client; generated)
Active: active (exited) since Fri 2020-12-18 00:47:35 GMT; 12h ago
Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
Process: 398 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/mlat-client start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Dec 18 00:47:34 RaspberryPi-air systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Multilateration client…
Dec 18 00:47:34 RaspberryPi-air mlat-client[398]: Not starting mlat-client daemon, disabled via /etc/default/mlat-client … (warning).
Dec 18 00:47:35 RaspberryPi-air systemd[1]: Started LSB: Multilateration client.

All seems to be working OK though…

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

25

This shows you have installed mlat-client by “dpkg -i” command using a downloaded .deb package, and not by “apt-get install” command. Also your previous post shows you have downloaded package from my github repository. In this case you should not face problem of mlat-client not starting when rbfeeder is started.

26

You’re going to have to be gentle with me as I still don’t understand what you are saying! :confused:

For me it has to be slow & simple but you should know that by now… :blush:

So although I downloaded it form your Github repository did I install something else?

And as I do have the issue of mlat-client not starting when rbfeeder is restarted what do I have to do - if anything - to resolve it please?

Appreciate your patience as always…

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

27

Your setup’s behaviour is very confusing for me too.

On my Pi I dont get mlat failure when I install mlat package from github, and get mlat failure when I install mlat from rb24 (by apt-get install command).

The output of various commands you have posted shows that you have installed the package built by me, but you also reported that mlat fails when rbfeeder is restarted, which is the behaviour of rb24 supplied mlat-client.

Please be patient. Let me perform some more tests tonight or tomorrow to find out why me and you are getting diagonally opposite results.

Meanwhile you may brows this post.

28

@GlynH

A Quick check

The presence or abscence of “mlat line” in output of command sudo systemctl status rbfeeder shows if mlat-client has started or not. The “mlat line” is the 3rd line below:

   CGroup: /system.slice/rbfeeder.service
           ├─15124 /usr/bin/rbfeeder
           └─15138 /usr/bin/python3.7 /usr/bin/mlat-client --input-type dump1090 --input-connect 127.0.0.1:32457 --server mlat1.rb24.com:40900 --lat 43.5
29

Thanks for looking into this for me abcd.

I just ran sudo systemctl status rbfeeder and get the same as you;

CGroup: /system.slice/rbfeeder.service
├─477 /usr/bin/rbfeeder
└─524 /usr/bin/python3.7 /usr/bin/mlat-client --input-type dump1090 --input-connect 127.0.0.1:32457 --server mlat1.rb24.com:40900 --lat .**** --lon -.***** --alt

So a bit of a mystery then?

I’m not too worried as I almost never run sudo systemctl restart rbfeeder so shouldn’t be impacted by this issue but if you need me to do anything else to test just let me know.

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

30

CT (Confirmatory Test)

First issue this command:

sudo systemctl restart rbfeeder

 

After few minutes, issue following command

sudo systemctl status rbfeeder

 

Do you still see following line?

└─524 /usr/bin/python3.7 /usr/bin/mlat-client --input-type dump1090 --input-connect 127.0.0.1:32457 --server [mlat1.rb24.com:40900](http://mlat1.rb24.com:40900) --lat **.** **** --lon - *.* ***** --alt

 

If you do see above line after restart command, then you have mlat-client installed by package downloaded from my Github site.

If you dont see this line after restart command, then you have rb24 supplied mlat-client which is installed by sudo apt-get install mlat-client command. In this case you will have to reboot Pi to again start mlat-client.

 

31

OK abcd…I ran the two commands as suggested and status returned this;

sudo systemctl status rbfeeder
● rbfeeder.service - RBFeeder Service
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/rbfeeder.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Mon 2020-12-21 11:46:45 GMT; 2min 24s ago
Main PID: 22871 (rbfeeder)
Tasks: 11 (limit: 4915)
CGroup: /system.slice/rbfeeder.service
└─22871 /usr/bin/rbfeeder

Dec 21 11:47:46 RaspberryPi-air rbfeeder[22871]: [2020-12-21 11:47:46] Data sent: 31.7 KB
Dec 21 11:47:46 RaspberryPi-air rbfeeder[22871]: [2020-12-21 11:47:46] Data received: 1.0 KB
Dec 21 11:48:17 RaspberryPi-air rbfeeder[22871]: [2020-12-21 11:48:17] ******** Statistics updated every 30 seconds ********
Dec 21 11:48:17 RaspberryPi-air rbfeeder[22871]: [2020-12-21 11:48:17] Packets sent in the last 30 seconds: 964, Total packets sent since startup: 1634
Dec 21 11:48:17 RaspberryPi-air rbfeeder[22871]: [2020-12-21 11:48:17] Data sent: 76.7 KB
Dec 21 11:48:17 RaspberryPi-air rbfeeder[22871]: [2020-12-21 11:48:17] Data received: 1.0 KB
Dec 21 11:48:48 RaspberryPi-air rbfeeder[22871]: [2020-12-21 11:48:48] ******** Statistics updated every 30 seconds ********
Dec 21 11:48:48 RaspberryPi-air rbfeeder[22871]: [2020-12-21 11:48:48] Packets sent in the last 30 seconds: 965, Total packets sent since startup: 2599
Dec 21 11:48:48 RaspberryPi-air rbfeeder[22871]: [2020-12-21 11:48:48] Data sent: 120.5 KB
Dec 21 11:48:48 RaspberryPi-air rbfeeder[22871]: [2020-12-21 11:48:48] Data received: 1.1 KB

So no sign of the line we were looking for.

For a short while my RB Station continued to show MLAT on its page and on the UK rankings page. After @2mins it disappeared from the station page but stayed on the UK rankings page for a further @15mins or so before that too disappeared.

Of course rebooting the Pi reinstated MLAT on my station page as expected.

I’ve taken another look through the command history and the full history of ADSB-related installs is as follows starting with RBFeeder:

208 sudo bash -c “$(wget -O - http://apt.rb24.com/inst_rbfeeder.sh)”
209 sudo rbfeeder --set-network-mode off --no-start
210 sudo rbfeeder --showkey
211 wget https://github.com/abcd567a/mlat-client-package/releases/download/v1/mlat-client_0.2.11_BUSTER_armhf.deb
212 sudo dpkg -i mlat-client_0.2.11_BUSTER_armhf.deb
213 sudo reboot

Then some time after came FR24;

274 sudo bash -c “$(wget -O - http://repo.feed.flightradar24.com/install_fr24_rpi.sh)”
275 sudo systemctl restart fr24feed
276 fr24feed-status

And then finally dump1090-fa from the FlightAware package;

373 wget https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/files/packages/pool/piaware/p/piaware-support/piaware-repository_4.0_all.deb
374 dpkg -i piaware-repository_4.0_all.deb
375 sudo dpkg -i piaware-repository_4.0_all.deb
376 sudo apt-get update
377 sudo apt-get install dump1090-fa

Not sure if one of those later packages installed after your MLAT-client might have overwritten/impacted it and if there is a safe way to remove it and reinstall your client over the top?

Don’t worry if not as I said its not a showstopper but it would be good to see it working as it should.

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

32

Possibly some filles of mlat-client got corrupted in download by wget or during installation or subsequently.

If you like, you can delete the existing downloaded package, and purge the installed package, then again download and install it

(1) Remove existing mlat-client

sudo rm /home/pi/mlat-client_0.2.11_BUSTER_armhf.deb   

##check it has been deleted
ls -l mlat-client_0.2.11_BUSTER_armhf.deb


sudo dpkg --purge mlat-client   

sudo reboot

 

(2) Reinstall mlat-client

wget https://github.com/abcd567a/mlat-client-package/releases/download/v1/mlat-client_0.2.11_BUSTER_armhf.deb  

sudo dpkg -i mlat-client_0.2.11_BUSTER_armhf.deb  

sudo reboot

 

(3) Perform again the test as in your last post above.

 

33

Many thanks for that abc… I’ll give that a go later today.

Do I have to stop it or any other service before I remove it?

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

34

@GlynH
No, you dont have to stop any services to purge & reinstall mlat client. Just execute the commands given in my last post. Make sure you first delete the existing downloded package before downloading new one, else new one will be saved with extension .deb.1 instead if .deb, and command to install will again install the old existing package.

The only thing you may have to do is that at the completion of re-installation, reboot the Pi to kill any instance of old mlat-client still running, and start the newly installed mlat-client.

35

Great…thanks.

I’ll let you know how I get on.

-=Glyn=-

36

Well as expected abcd…following your instructions to the letter seemed to resolve the problem!

Thank you so much…sometimes I wish I wasn’t so fussy…it would make both our lives so much easier! :blush:

Thanks & kind regards,

-=Glyn=-

37

And it seems the more I achieve the more questions I have! Sorry…:blush:

apt list --upgradable -a
Listing… Done
dhcpcd5/unknown 1:8.1.2-1+rpt1+fa4 armhf [upgradable from: 1:8.1.2-1+rpt1]
dhcpcd5/testing,now 1:8.1.2-1+rpt1 armhf [installed,upgradable to: 1:8.1.2-1+rpt1+fa4]
dhcpcd5/stable 7.1.0-2 armhf

mlat-client/unknown 0.2.11 armhf [upgradable from: 0.2.11]
mlat-client/now 0.2.11 armhf [installed,upgradable to: 0.2.11]

python3-lxml/stable 4.3.2-1+deb10u2 armhf [upgradable from: 4.3.2-1+deb10u1]
python3-lxml/now 4.3.2-1+deb10u1 armhf [installed,upgradable to: 4.3.2-1+deb10u2]

So what would happen to the above if/when I run sudo apt update followed by sudo apt full-upgrade?

Would this mean that dhcpcd5 would be overwritten/replaced by another (possibly) buggy version?

Would my carefully installed abcd mlat-client once more be replaced by the generic version which has the restart bug? Both versions shown have the same version number so how to tell them apart?

Presumably the python3 update is just the usual update and should be harmless.

Despite my wanting to keep my system up-to-date now the system is working I’m too frightened to update anything! :blush:

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

1 Like
38 
if (it ain't broke) 
{
  don't fix it
}
39

Ha! :rofl:

But I did qualify that statement on more than one occasion by saying things like;

But I am curious so it is inevitable that I will dig in and get my hands dirty sooner rather than later based on previous form :grin:
and
But be quick as you can see from the above I am prone to change my mind at the drop of a HAT! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

But yeah…all running nicely here thanks to you and others such as wiedehopf, obj, caius etc. etc. :+1:

Just didn’t want to undo all that good work by innocently updating and overwriting something… :smirk:

Mind you I am seriously considering getting hold of an Airspy Mini before Christmas… :grin:

-=Glyn=-

1 Like
40

So one final question regarding mlat-client (and dhcpcd) is when it comes to doing the usual sudo apt update & sudo full-upgrade on this particular Pi;

What will happen to my existing installation of these two apps when I update?

The reason I ask is when I issue the following command amongst others it returns;

~ $ apt list --upgradable -a
Listing… Done
dhcpcd5/unknown 1:8.1.2-1+rpt1+fa4 armhf [upgradable from: 1:8.1.2-1+rpt1]
dhcpcd5/testing,now 1:8.1.2-1+rpt1 armhf [installed,upgradable to: 1:8.1.2-1+rpt1+fa4]
dhcpcd5/stable 7.1.0-2 armhf

mlat-client/unknown 0.2.11 armhf [upgradable from: 0.2.11]
mlat-client/now 0.2.11 armhf [installed,upgradable to: 0.2.11]

I understand that there might be a problem with dhcpcd as I read in another thread that piaware installs a bug-fixed version to resolve a possible wireless network connection problem which is not an issue with me as I use a cabled connection and I also suspect this might have been how mlat-client may have gotten overwritten before?

Thanks & kind regards,
-=Glyn=-

41

To avoid such issues I never use sudo apt-get upgrade.

I always use current latest image. If a new version of image is released, I re-image microSD card with new image. It is a little more work to Install & configure feeders, but not too much or too difficult as I have saved in Notepad on my PC, the configuration (commands to install, setting values & commands to configure if any) for piaware, fr24feed, rbfeeder, pfclient, adsbexchange, opensky-feeder, etc etc.