I need to reimage soon and am wondering what are the pros and cons of using the PiAware image as opposed to a Raspian image, adding the PiAware repository and installing PiAware.
Initial guess is the FA image is smaller without unnecessary Linux programs installed.
Geffers
Donāt think so, i believe the FA image is based on Raspbian Lite, which avoids the graphical interface and is just a basic system.
The advantage right now of going Raspbian Lite is that youāll be on the new version.
Raspberry Pi OS ā Raspberry Pi
It depends on your level of skills
For a very basic user the FA image is ok, if you have little experience you can also select any of the Raspian images (also as minimum without GUI) and install FA manually afterwards
I started with the FA image to make sure it works in general.
If i would need to reimage now, i would select a Raspian image and the Feeder client individually.
Out of curiosity, and as a learning opportunity for me, how did you reach that decision?
Unless you plan to do more than simply āseeā planes and āfeedā them to FA, there is no cons to using the Piaware image, only pros, including re-imaging and being back in service in a couple of minutes, if it comes to that.
As a matter of fact, I donāt even bother with OS updates. If there is a serious issue, FA will release a new image, hopefully, and itāll be up and running in a couple of minutes.
If you want more control and āfreedom of movementā, then installing the packages individually is the way to go.
Actually, I now keep a spare SD already configured, so āreturning to serviceā is even faster.
I do use Lite for both my PiAware systems, the new āBusterā image, will the PiAware update ok with that I wonder? It has only just been released to coincide with the Pi4 I believe.
Geffers
I need to reimage soon
Out of curiosity, and as a learning opportunity for me, how did you reach that decision?
Quite a coincidence really, my PiAware Zero runs 24/7 but decided to install the Custom Web Interface for dump1090-fa written by weiderhopf - it worked then disappeared on reboot. Seems corrupted microSD card, not noticed as PiAware runs mainly from memory.
Geffers
which update?
The current version works fine on Buster.
(except dump978-fa)
Yes, but Linux is very useful
@send2gl
I just now wrote Raspbian Buster on microSD card, then installed piaware and dump1090-fa (both by package install) and it works fine.
The dump978-faās pre-built package available with Flightaware repository is NOT compatible with Buster. If you want dump978-fa, then you have to build the package from source code as shown in this post:
https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/piaware-sd-card-image-3-7-1-quickstart-guide/48262/345
You can install packages for piaware and dump1090-fa in any one of the following two ways:
(1) Follow instructions on this page:
https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/install
OR
(2) Copy-paste following command in PuTTY. It will run all the commands contained in above linked Flightaware page.
sudo bash -c "$(wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/abcd567a/piaware/master/piaware-on-raspbian.sh)"
The above command takes a while to complete installation. At the end it will ask you to copy-paste your feeder-id from your Flightaware stats page, press Enter Key, then Reboot, and that is all. 
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /etc/os-release | grep PRETTY
PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 4.19.57-v7+ #1244 SMP Thu Jul 4 18:45:25 BST 2019 armv7l GNU/Linux
.
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl status dump1090-fa
ā dump1090-fa.service - dump1090 ADS-B receiver (FlightAware customization)
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/dump1090-fa.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2019-08-01 19:01:45 BST; 11min ago
Docs: https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/
Main PID: 404 (dump1090-fa)
Tasks: 3 (limit: 2200)
Memory: 6.8M
CGroup: /system.slice/dump1090-fa.service
āā404 /usr/bin/dump1090-fa --device-index 0 --gain -10 --ppm 0 --net-bo-port 30005 --max-range 360 --net --net-heartbeat 60 --net-ro-size
Aug 01 19:01:45 raspberrypi systemd[1]: Started dump1090 ADS-B receiver (FlightAware customization).
Aug 01 19:01:45 raspberrypi dump1090-fa[404]: Thu Aug 1 19:01:45 2019 BST dump1090-fa 3.7.1 starting up.
Aug 01 19:01:45 raspberrypi dump1090-fa[404]: rtlsdr: using device #0: Generic RTL2832U (Realtek, RTL2832UFA, SN 00000101)
Aug 01 19:01:45 raspberrypi dump1090-fa[404]: Detached kernel driver
Aug 01 19:01:45 raspberrypi dump1090-fa[404]: Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Aug 01 19:01:46 raspberrypi dump1090-fa[404]: rtlsdr: enabling tuner AGC
Aug 01 19:01:46 raspberrypi dump1090-fa[404]: Allocating 4 zero-copy buffers
.
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl status piaware
ā piaware.service - FlightAware ADS-B uploader
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/piaware.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Thu 2019-08-01 19:01:45 BST; 12min ago
Docs: https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/
Main PID: 407 (piaware)
Tasks: 4 (limit: 2200)
Memory: 18.7M
CGroup: /system.slice/piaware.service
āā407 /usr/bin/piaware -p /run/piaware/piaware.pid -plainlog -statusfile /run/piaware/status.json
āā535 /usr/lib/piaware/helpers/faup1090 --net-bo-ipaddr localhost --net-bo-port 30005 --stdout --lat 43.xxx --lon -79.xxx
āā560 /usr/lib/piaware/helpers/fa-mlat-client --input-connect localhost:30005 --input-type dump1090 --results beast,connect,localhost:3010
Aug 01 19:03:53 raspberrypi piaware[407]: mlat-client(560): fa-mlat-client 0.2.10 starting up
Aug 01 19:03:53 raspberrypi piaware[407]: mlat-client(560): Using UDP transport to 70.42.6.197 port 8160
Aug 01 19:03:53 raspberrypi piaware[407]: mlat-client(560): Listening for Beast-format results connection on port 30105
Aug 01 19:03:53 raspberrypi piaware[407]: mlat-client(560): Listening for Extended Basestation-format results connection on port 30106
Aug 01 19:03:53 raspberrypi piaware[407]: mlat-client(560): Input connected to localhost:30005
Aug 01 19:03:53 raspberrypi piaware[407]: mlat-client(560): Input format changed to BEAST, 12MHz clock
Aug 01 19:03:53 raspberrypi piaware[407]: piaware has successfully sent several msgs to FlightAware!
Aug 01 19:03:54 raspberrypi piaware[407]: mlat-client(560): Beast-format results connection with ::1:30104: connection established
Aug 01 19:07:20 raspberrypi piaware[407]: 1201 msgs recv'd from dump1090-fa (1117 in last 5m); 751 msgs sent to FlightAware
Aug 01 19:12:20 raspberrypi piaware[407]: 2314 msgs recv'd from dump1090-fa (1113 in last 5m); 1864 msgs sent to FlightAware
Wasnāt sure about Buster.
Geoff
.
Tested, found ok