Piaware 10.2 Static Wired Address Issue

FlightAware General
1

I got piaware 10.2 up and running! Looks like everything is working except the setting for my “wired and static” address. My piaware-config.txt calls for the following:

“wired-network” yes

“wired-type” static

The system comes up every reboot with an address of:
192.168.1.120

This happens no matter what the address is set to in my piaware-config.txt file. I know the program is picking the configuration file based on the default of “wireless” connection of “on” is “off” at startup. Since I have wireless turned off in my version of the configuration file.

I have set the static address to the following addresses at different times with reboot each time I made a change:
192.168.1.140, 192.168.1.160, and 192.168.1.99

The program always goes to the”120” address.

I have checked everything on Flightaware website and can find no info.

Any thoughts on this issue?

I have been running this same file without issues on my previous version of piaware of 8.2 without any issues.

Below is copy of my "piaware-config.txt file minus some items for security on this forum:

#
# This file configures the Piaware sdcard image
# configuration. Whenever the system boots, this
# file is read and its contents are used to
# configure the system.
#
# Lines beginning with a '#' are comment lines
# and are ignored. Blank lines are also ignored.
# All other lines specify configuration settings.
#

# For simplicity, this file only shows the most common options.
# For a complete list of options, see
# https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/advanced_configuration

#
# NETWORK CONFIGURATION
#

# By default, PiAware will use DHCP when connecting to your network.
# For other configurations, see the Advanced Configuration page
# linked at the top of this file.

# Should piaware use the wired ethernet port
# for network access?

wired-network yes

# Should piaware use a wifi adaptor for network access?
# If you are using a Pi 3, this will use the built-in wifi.
# Otherwise, you will need to attach a supported USB wifi adaptor.

# Wired network configuration:
# Most networks will use DHCP

wired-type static

# Alternatively, a static address configuration
# can be provided; set "wired-type" to static to use this.
wired-address 192.168.1.140
wired-netmask 255.255.255.0
wired-broadcast 192.168.1.255
wired-gateway 192.168.1.1
wired-nameservers 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4


wireless-network no

# Wifi SSID and password.
# This should be changed to match your wireless
# network SSID and, for networks that require
# a passphrase, the passphrase.
#
# If your SSID or password contains characters other than
# numbers and letters, such as the # character or whitespace,
# you should enclose the value in quotation marks. For example,
# "pass word" or "pass#word".
#
# To include quotation marks (") in a quoted value, use \"
# To include a backslash (\) in a quoted value, use \\
# Wifi network configuration:
# Most networks will use DHCP

# Alternatively, a static address configuration
# can be provided; set "wireless-type" to static to use this.

wireless-ssid "XXXX XXXX"
wireless-password xxxxxxxxxx
wireless-type static
wireless-address 192.168.1.140
wireless-netmask 255.255.255.0
wireless-broadcast 192.168.1.255
wireless-gateway 192.168.1.1
wireless-nameservers 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4

#
# 1090MHZ AND 978MHZ RECEIVER CONFIGURATIONS
#
feeder-id "deleted for security issues"

# For a complete list of receiver types and their associated settings,
# see the Advanced Configuration page linked at the top of this file.

# For a receiver type of 'rtlsdr', this setting controls the dongle gain.
# Use "max" for maximum gain. Other values are interpreted as a gain in dB.

#1090 RECEIVER CONFIGURATION
#
rtlsdr-device-index 00001090
#device_string = "driver=rtlsdr,serial=00001090"
rtlsdr-gain max


# 978MHZ UAT RECEIVER CONFIGURATION
uat-receiver-type sdr
uat-sdr-device 00000978
uat-gain max

#
# OTHER CONFIGURATION
#

# Should automatic system updates (initiated by FlightAware) be allowed?
allow-auto-updates yes

# Should manual system updates (initiated by you from the website control
# panel) be allowed?
allow-manual-updates yes

# Should PiAware enable multilateration where possible?
# You may need to disable this if multilateration overloads your receiver.
allow-mlat yes

# Should PiAware enable reception of Mode A/C messages when requested?
# You may need to disable this if processing Mode A/C overloads your receiver.
allow-modeac yes


# Additional settings can be added below.
2

I don’t see this parameter in your config file above, are you sure it is set ?

3

additionally, the OS used is Raspberry Bookworm
To set a static ip in Bookworm you will need to use the network manager
sudo nmtui
This will bring up the graphical user interface for the network manager

Steps:

afbeelding
afbeelding626×384 3.87 KB

Select OK
afbeelding
afbeelding633×381 3.33 KB

Select Edit to edit the wired connection
afbeelding
afbeelding634×379 7.79 KB

Edit the IPv4 parameter to the desired IP adress, Netmask (the /24 behind the IP address), Gateway and DNS server.
When done scroll to the bottom and select OK
afbeelding
afbeelding631×374 3.25 KB

Select Quit and hit enter

Sudo reboot to let the new settings take effect.

4

I figured it out about 20 minutes after submitting. Also, a friend the knows Linux very well stopped over and he helped me with the Book Worm Network Manager setup. Everything working for now.

My and his nagging question is: Should I leave the piaware-config.txt alone or if there are suggests that I could use to slim it down, could I remove things such as the wired and wireless sections in the configuration?

5

I’d leave it in, the network manager has higher priority when booting so it will pick up the config from that first.
Maybe FA staff will figure out what goes wrong with their own config and it might be fixed in the future and then you already have it in there.

2 Likes
6

The best way to assign static IP is in router settings using mac addresses of Pi. The Pi has two mac addresses, one for wifi module, other for ethernet module. I set each mac address with a different IP, for example 192.168.12.21 for wlan0 (wifi) and 192.168.12.31 for eth0 (wired). This arrangement has the beauty that once done, even after re-imaging microSD card, the Pi gets the same static addresses set in router and there is no need to configure static IP every time a re-imaging is done.

Some ISPs provided routers may not allow setting up Static IP. In this case Network-Manager proves a very handy and sure tool to set Static IP in Pi itself. However, upon re-imaging, this process has to be repeated.

7

I tend to agree with you on that but it’s totally dependant on the local situation.
My ISP has equipment that allows a maximum of 10 reservations in their router.
Secondly you can only put in only a class C network in the router that limits you to a maximum of 254 adresses.

My network has around 100 devices connected.
I use the reservations in the ISP router for the roaming equipment like phones,iPads and the devices that don’t allow setting an fixed ip address.

That means that I have to resort to fixed ip adresses on the host level for all others equipment like the 20 FA feeders.
And yes you do need to repeat the steps when you reimage the system but that’s a small step in the total proces.
Due to the number of devices I only use the fixed connection eth0, if all devices would be connected via wlan as well my network would be running out of ip’s.:sweat_smile:

We are transitioning towards FttH (Fiber to the Home) in the neighbourhood, as soon as that is completed I can deploy a router to my own liking and that will be capable of setting unlimited reservations.
Then you only need to maintain the table and addresses only at one place in the network.

1 Like
8

I already have FTTB (Fiber To The Building), and a TP-Link EX511 router :smiling_face:

https://discussions.flightaware.com/t/multilateration-data-no-longer-required-disabling-mlat-client/97890/21

 

Screenshot_20250411_220255_Samsung Internet
Screenshot_20250411_220255_Samsung Internet302×176 8.73 KB

 

9

@ipilot11 Hi There!

So the broadcast-address setting is deprecated.
If that option is set, we will error out.

And uat-gain should be uat-sdr-gain.

I took your config, added these changes, and my wired-static address was set properly.

If you run into any issues, you can also run journalctl -u generate-network-config.service -n 30.
This will print out the last 30 lines of the service log and you can see any errors there.

2 Likes
10

Also, ideally the script will see these deprecated/invalid options → spit out a warning → then continue processing.

So we’ll probably look at changing this behavior some time in the future.

11

Indeed so. As you say though, if the Pi is re-imaged, it will get two (one for wired, one for wireless) new MAC addresses, so the ones saved on the router would need to be replaced with the two new ones.

12

@TonyLeverett
I think you misunderstood me.
The two mac addresses (wired & wifi) depend on RPi’s hardware, and remain same after re-imaging. As a result once you configure Static IP in router, you will NOT need to reconfigure router settings when you re-image.

13

Indeed, I did. If the Pi config is left as DHCP and not static, the router should always assign the interfaces the same IP addresses; are they not? If this is the case, you may have a rogue DHCP server on your network.
Would be worth checking that the IP address of the DHCP server issuing the Pi’s address is your router, in this case.