Dump1090 fails to start

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Hello,

My PiAware setup rebooted due to a short power outage. On reboot, the Dump1090 fails to start. Here’s the output from “sudo systemctl status dump1090-fa -l”

● dump1090-fa.service - dump1090 ADS-B receiver (FlightAware customization)
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/dump1090-fa.service; enabled)
Active: activating (auto-restart) (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2018-08-31 21:16:50 EDT; 11s ago
Docs: PiAware - ADS-B and MLAT Receiver - FlightAware
Process: 878 ExecStart=/usr/bin/dump1090-fa $RECEIVER_OPTIONS $DECODER_OPTIONS $NET_OPTIONS $JSON_OPTIONS $PIAWARE_DUMP1090_LOCATION_OPTIONS --write-json /run/dump1090-fa --quiet (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)
Main PID: 878 (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)

Aug 31 21:16:50 piaware systemd[1]: Unit dump1090-fa.service entered failed state.

Running “sudo rtl_adsb -V -” displays a lot ADS-B messages:

Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2832U, SN: 00001000

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Tuner gain set to automatic.
Tuned to 1090000000 Hz.
Exact sample rate is: 2000000.052982 Hz
Sampling at 2000000 S/s.
*8d400e78d301522c490954a14a25;
DF=17 CA=5
ICAO Address=400e78
PI=0xa14a25
Type Code=26 S.Type/Ant.=3

*8da678ef58c90412fb487aecfa21;
DF=17 CA=5
ICAO Address=a678ef
PI=0xecfa21
Type Code=11 S.Type/Ant.=0

Need help determining the cause of the failure.

My setup is running 3.6.2 and is a Pi3B+

Thanks much for the help!

2

Seems some file corruption due to power surge.
As first attempt, reboot again
sudo reboot

Is it a Piaware SD card image or Raspbian image with dump1090-fa package install?

3

I’ve rebooted the setup a couple of times, but the failure is still occurring. The install was from PiAware SD card image.

4

.
The cleanest solution is to re-image.

.
However before proceeding with re-image, you may try your luck with the following fix. If it does not solve your problem, then go for re-imaging.

#Purge existing install. 
#Purging will remove all configuration files also, 
#including the corrupted ones.

sudo dpkg --purge dump1090-fa

sudo rm -rf /usr/share/dump1090-fa

#Carry out a fresh Package-install of dump1090-fa

wget http://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/files/packages/pool/piaware/p/piaware-support/piaware-repository_3.6.2_all.deb 

sudo dpkg -i piaware-repository_3.6.2_all.deb 

sudo apt-get update 

sudo apt-get install dump1090-fa
5

The install is failing over missing packages. The original install was done with 3.3.

sudo apt-get install dump1090-fa
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
dump1090-fa : Depends: libncurses5 (>= 6) but 5.9+20140913-1 is to be installed
Depends: libtinfo5 (>= 6) but 5.9+20140913-1 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

6

Forgot to mention this a remote install. It will be a week before I can reinstall the image. :frowning:

7

The output generated during attempt to install dump1090-fa 3.6.2 package shows that your image is Jessie based.

The dump-fa 3.6.2 & piaware 3.6.2 on Jessie almost always lead to the problems you are facing.

The recommended way to upgrade to 3.6.2 is re-imaging by:

  1. Piaware SD card image 3.6.2 (this image is Stretch Lite based).
    OR
  2. Raspbian Stretch lite image + package install of piaware 3.6.2 and package install of dump1090-fa 3.6.2.
8

Okay. FWIW, my setup was running 3.5.0. I was trying to pickup 3.5.3, but as the 3.6.2 was available, the upgrade picked up 3.6.2.

As there seems to be a known issue with upgrading from 3.5.0 to 3.6.x, seems like it’s best to require an reimaging of the SD.

9

If you want to be able to update in the future i would suggest using a Raspbian image and installing piaware afterwards.

The piaware sd-card images somehow don’t support dist-upgrade or even upgrade it seems sometimes.

If you run a standard raspbian you should not have those issues. (Though you might have others)

2 Likes
10

If you use the full Raspbian image you get a full VNC server license too, and this makes it very easy to remote into your RPi to do maintenance and even look at SkyView, without needing to open any ports or expose anything to the Internet. Very handy.

11

so the VNC server means no exposed ports?

12

Correct. You can choose to do it that way but you don’t need to with RealVNC and the full license. Instead RealVNC Server on your Pi makes an outbound connection from behind your NAT/firewall to your account. Your RealVNC Viewer, somewhere else, makes an outbound connection to your account and their platform hooks you up. Result is the full Raspbian desktop inside your viewer without needing to expose anything.