Should I update my OS?

FlightAware ADS-B Flight Tracking
1

Hi all.

This is my first post; apologies if I selected the wrong area.

I purchased the PiAware in 2019, and it has been running virtually uninterrupted since then. I allowed the upgrade from v5 to v6 within the web interface. With recent cyber alerts and warnings (in general, not with piAware) I started looking at my linux systems. I realized this one is running a very old OS, from 2018. I’m familiar with linux, and have SSH access to the device. But I’m wondering if it’s safe and is it recommended to update?

Also can somebody recommend a backup strategy? I’d like to perform an image backup if that’s an option.

Thank you!
-bk

2

the quickest way in your case ( since you use the sd card image) is to burn the current sd card image found here PiAware - build your own ADS-B ground station for integration with FlightAware - FlightAware to a new SD card ( keep the current one as a back-up), slip that into your Pi and then set the feeder id in the image to reflect your current feeder id that can be found on your ads-b stat page.

The new SD image is already created with Bullseye.

Steps below are copied from @abcd567 so thanks to him for the explanation for setting the feeder ID

STEP-1:
Go to My-ADSB stats page and copy the feeder-id (Unique Identifier), as shown in red rectangle in screenshot below.

image

STEP-2:
Issue following command to set your feeder-id.
(Replace xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx by Unique Identifer you have copied from My-ADSB stats page.

sudo piaware-config feeder-id xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx   

sudo systemctl restart piaware  

sudo systemctl restart dump1090-fa

Now check map again. Reload browser Ctrl+F5. Now the rings will be centered at your location :slight_smile:

After 5 minutes , check stats page My-ADSB. All 3 buttons should be green now.

1 Like
3

This is really helpful- thank you! Any tips on capacity card I should purchase? Otherwise sounds fairly straightforward.

4

Hi,

I would advise a16 GB card or higher to do this. 8 GB should be possible as well but I always oversize the needed capacity so I’m on 16 or 32 GB cards

5

I am using 64 GB Sandisk in all of my three devices, the oldest one now almost three years.

Not a single failure so far
Using tools like log2ram help reducing write attempts to the card.

Recently i replaced one of my Pi4 with a cheap external USB SSD, meanwhile a similar price compared to a SD card with same size.

Works like a charm, faster boot and reduced risk of data issues.

6

I am using 8 GB microSD cards in my 3 Pis for last several years, and there is not a single failure. The Pis are used exclusively for ADSB.

However as there is now little difference in prices of 8 GB and 16 GB csrds, it is adviseable to purchase a 16 GB card

7

With these low write attempts it’s pretty hard to really crash the card. If it fails there might be failures on it right from the beginning

8

I have upgraded my operating system, however, I didn’t know about this step.

As a result, I now have a second site in my dashboard. Can I delete the “extra one”, or should I just accept the second site and ignore the first one?

A (slightly annoying) side effect of this is that the dashboard is displaying an alert that it hasn’t heard from one of my systems for a period of time.

9

You can register the feeder-ID on the first site again following the commands.
The new site will be gone after 30 days of inactivity

10

You don’t have to, there’s probably a very slight security risk because it’s connected to the network but providing you’ve got a good first line of defence (no ports forwarded to the Pi, a strong password) then it’s probably not a worry.

I use raspibackup on all my Pis, it runs once a week and creates a compressed SD card image on my NAS. I’ve got it set to keep six weeks worth of history. I have had to use it to restore a Pi and it works well.

11

Oh, OK, thanks, I shall try to remember to check back in 30 days.

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