Install Option 2

Let me start with a warning: this option is more complicated and more likely to result in typos that cause things to not work as intended. It is also a transcription of what I am telling software to do automatically in Option 1. I will try to keep this up to date but strongly encourage you to use the process outlined above.

This method can be broken down into the following sections:

1. log into your Pi via ssh
2. install prerequisite software via apt
3. install prerequisite software via pip3
4. install PiWeatherRock via pip3
5. create / edit configuration files needed by PiWeatherRock
6. create systemd services
7. run the configuration updating utility
8. start the webconfig service
9. add an API key
10. start the main service

First off, get connected to your Pi via ssh. The process for this will vary based on your operating system but generally equates to using Terminal or iTerm2 on macOS, PuTTY on Windows, or whatever terminal your Linux distro provides.

Next, you will need to have a look at install.pp from the Puppet module used in Option 1 and find the lists of packages entitled $_main_packages and $_piweatherrock_packages. Each item in those lists will need to be installed via sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends <name of package>. Additionally, you will want to install realvnc-vnc-server in the same way.

Next, you will need to run sudo pip3 install setuptools wheel as they are prerequisites to being able to install PiWeatherRock.

Next, have a look at the reference docs for the module on the Puppet Forge at https://forge.puppet.com/genebean/piweatherrock/reference and find the section that starts with piweatherrock_version. Make note of the value in that section next to Default value: if it’s anything other than latest as you’ll need it in the next step.

To install PiWeatherRock you will run one of the following two commands based on what you observed in the last step:

• If the value was latest then you will want to run sudo pip3 install piweatherrock
• If the value was anything else you will want to run a variation of the install command above that includes the value. For example, if the value was X.Y.Z.dev0 the install command would be sudo pip3 install piweatherrock==X.Y.Z.dev0.

Next, create /home/pi/bin and then crate a file in it named /home/pi/bin/xhost.sh with the following content and permissions of 0755:

#!/bin/bash
xhost +

Next run the following command to tell LightDM to use the file you just created:

sed -i 's|#display-setup-script=|display-setup-script=/home/pi/bin/xhost.sh|' /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

Next, create /etc/systemd/system/PiWeatherRock.service and /etc/systemd/system/PiWeatherRockConfig.service based on what is in the templates listed at https://github.com/genebean/genebean-piweatherrock/tree/master/templates. Be advised that any time you see something formatted like <%= $config_file %> that it is referencing a variable. The values that replace that can be found in the sections that start with systemd::unit_file in https://github.com/genebean/genebean-piweatherrock/blob/master/manifests/service.pp.

Next up is running the configuration utility.

export config_file='/home/pi/piweatherrock-config.json'
export sample_config_file='/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/piweatherrock/config.json-sample'
/usr/local/bin/pwr-config-upgrade -c ${config_file} -s ${sample_config_file}

Start services

Now, run sudo systemctl start PiWeatherRockConfig. You should now be able to go to port 8888 of your Pi in a web browser. From there, enter an API key and then return to your terminal and run sudo systemctl start PiWeatherRock.

If all is well you will see PiWeatherRock start running on the monitor connected to your Pi. If not, see the logs referenced at the end of Option 1 above or reach out on Gitter.

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