Hey everyone!
We just released PiAware 9 and as usual sharing it here first. PiAware 9 is primarily a maintenance release to provide support for newer Raspberry Pi OS versions.
What’s new?
New Prebuilt packages for Raspberry Pi OS
We now provide prebuilt packages for all current Pi-based Raspberry Pi OS releases:
- Bookworm (32-bit armhf and 64-bit arm64)
- Bullseye (32-bit armhf and 64-bit arm64)
You can now install our packages on the new Raspberry Pi 5 that was released last month.
Enhanced SDR support and bug fixes and improvements to dump1090-fa
dump1090-fa now supports additional Software-Defined Radios (SDRs) via SoapySDR. Any SDR with a SoapySDR driver that can support 1090MHz at 2.4MSPS should, in theory, work. We’ve fixed a bug for handling negative FMS altitudes in DO-260A messages that was causing implausible altitudes. We’ve updated the internal aircraft database with FlightAware’s latest aircraft registrations.
Things to Note:
- Packages for Stretch are no longer available as it is now three OS releases old and updates are no longer being distributed by the Pi Foundation or by Debian itself. Please upgrade your OS if you want to continue receiving updates.
- Currently, we are not releasing a separate PiAware SD card image for 9.0. The existing PiAware 8.2 SD card image can be upgraded to 9.0. There is additional work to be done before this is ready, e.g. supporting the changes in the network stack on Bookworm.
FAQ
What OS version do I have?
In general, this depends on which version was current when you last reimaged your SD card:
- Bookworm (release 12) was released in October 2023. No PiAware SD card images currently use Bookworm.
- Bullseye (release 11) was released in December 2021. PiAware SD cards from 7.0 to 8.2 use Bullseye.
- Buster (release 10) was released in June 2019. PiAware SD card images from 3.8.0 to 6.1 use Buster.
- Older releases are on Stretch or earlier versions. These OS versions are no longer supported.
From the command line, you can check the current OS version by running:
lsb_release -a
This will show you something like this:
pi@bookworm-arm64:~ $ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Debian
Description: Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)
Release: 12
Codename: bookworm
Look at Codename and Release to see which OS version you are using. We currently support these OS releases:
- Buster (release 10)
- Bullseye (release 11)
- Bookworm (release 12)
If you are using Stretch (release 9) or older, you will need to re-image to upgrade to a newer OS version. See below for more details.
I have an existing PiAware SD card install (Buster/Bullseye), how do I upgrade?
To upgrade an existing PiAware SD card install via the website:
- Go to https://flightaware.com and ensure you’re logged in
- Select “My ADS-B” in the top bar
- If you have more than one feeding site, select the site you want to upgrade in the orange bar dropdown
- Click on the cogweel on the right side of the orange bar
- Under “Device Commands”, select “Upgrade and restart PiAware”
- Click “Send”
To upgrade an existing PiAware SD card install from the command line:
- Connect to your Pi via ssh or log in on the console
- Run “sudo apt update”
- To upgrade PiAware components only: run “sudo apt install --only-upgrade piaware-release”
- To upgrade all parts of the system: run “sudo apt full-upgrade”
I have an existing PiAware package install (Buster/Bullseye), how do I upgrade?
If you have configured PiAware to allow remote upgrades, you can upgrade via the website:
- Go to https://flightaware.com and ensure you’re logged in
- Select “My ADS-B” in the top bar
- If you have more than one feeding site, select the site you want to upgrade
in the orange bar dropdown - Click on the cogweel on the right side of the orange bar
- Under “Device Commands”, select “Upgrade and restart PiAware” and click “Send”
- Wait for the PiAware update to complete
- If you use dump1090-fa:
- Under “Device Commands”, select “Upgrade and restart dump1090” and click “Send”
- Wait for the dump1090 update to complete
- If you use dump978-fa:
- Under “Device Commands”, select “Upgrade and restart dump978” and click “Send”
- Wait for the dump978 update to complete
To upgrade your package install from the command line:
- Connect to your Pi via ssh or log in on the console
- Run
sudo apt update - To upgrade PiAware components only: run
sudo apt install --only-upgrade piaware - To upgrade dump1090-fa only: run
sudo apt install --only-upgrade dump1090-fa - To upgrade dump978-fa only: run
sudo apt install --only-upgrade dump978-fa - To upgrade all parts of the system: run
sudo apt full-upgrade
My existing installation uses Stretch, how do I upgrade?
Unfortunately, Stretch is now three OS releases old and updates are no longer being distributed by the Pi Foundation or by Debian itself. We no longer provide PiAware packages for Stretch. To update, you will need to do a full reinstall of a newer OS version.
To reinstall with a newer OS version, there are two options:
Installing PiAware 9.0 with the PiAware SD Card image
Follow the instructions at PiAware - Upgrade PiAware to the latest version - FlightAware, which includes steps to reclaim your existing site.
Note: This will wipe all existing data on the SD card. We recommend using a new SD card, rather than overwriting your existing SD card.
After installing the SD card image, follow the “I have an existing PiAware SD card install” instructions above to upgrade to 9.0
Installing PiAware 9.0 using a Raspberry Pi OS SD Card image
Follow the instructions at Raspberry Pi OS – Raspberry Pi to write a new OS image to your SD card. This will wipe all existing data on the SD card; you may want to do this on a new SD card, rather than overwriting your existing SD card.
Any of these OS images are suitable (check that your particular Pi hardware model is listed as compatible with the image on the download page):
- Raspberry Pi OS – Bookworm
- Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) – Bookworm
- Raspberry Pi OS (Legacy) – Bullseye
- Raspberry Pi OS (Legacy, 64-bit) – Bullseye
After installing the OS and booting your Pi, follow the instructions at PiAware - dump1090 ADS-B integration with FlightAware - FlightAware to install the PiAware 9.0 package. You will also want to install one of either dump1090-fa or dump978-fa.
How do I install PiAware on a Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm install?
Packages are available for Bookworm in the same way as for earlier releases. Follow the instructions at PiAware - dump1090 ADS-B integration with FlightAware - FlightAware
There is currently no PiAware SD card image based on Bookworm; if you’d like to use Bookworm please install a Raspberry Pi OS image and install PiAware using a package install.
How can I use the new 64-bit packages?
We provide prebuilt 64-bit (arm64) packages for PiAware and related software, for Bullseye and Bookworm.
To use these packages, just follow the existing install instructions at PiAware - dump1090 ADS-B integration with FlightAware - FlightAware – there is nothing additional needed to automatically use the 64-bit packages on a 64-bit OS install.
I wrote a new image to my SD card, and now my existing ADS-B site is offline!
Writing a new image to the SD card will create a new, unclaimed, ADS-B site. You can configure piaware to send data to your existing site instead. @abcd567 has written a helpful post explaining how to do this here: For Beginners - How to Get Back Existing Station Number in A Fresh Install
I installed Raspberry Pi OS Bookworm on a Pi 4 and now I can’t receive any data!
The currently available Pi OS images for Bookworm include a kernel version that does not work well with the USB controller used on the Pi 4. This means that dump1090 cannot correctly talk to USB SDR devices, and no ADS-B data can be received.
There is an updated kernel available via apt that fixes this, but (at the time of writing) this kernel has not been included in the downloadable OS image. You must separately update the kernel after installing. From the command line, run:
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo reboot
if they do well you can do the whole lot at once 
