openHABian in international airspace

The v1.2 release changes and adds a few details in openHABian for a more intuitive experience for beginners and with new hardware, including devices connected by Wifi. The most important change with this release is the addition of a Raspbian Lite based image.

Changes since v1.1

All git commits can be found here.

• A new Raspberry Pi build based on Raspbian Lite
• All needed modifications for the new Raspberry Pi Zero W
• A way to configure Wifi before first boot (Pi0W, Pi3 and Pine64)
• An improved timezone function: Autodetect timezone, Overwrite option, Interactive mode
• Menu entries for timezone, locale and hostname, resolves #59
• Clarify "setup not finished yet" for impatient users
• raspi-config removed and replaced by a hint to use openhabian-config
• Slight improvements to all build scripts
• Contains Vagrantfile for a build environment
• Fixes bug #110 / improves #100 #101

Raspberry Pi Zero W

A few days back the Raspberry Pi Zero W (Pi0W) was released. The Pi0 is a cheaper and smaller Raspberry Pi with only a few external connectors and only one 1GHz core. The latter, especially the lack of a network port, made the Pi0 uninteresting as a "hassle-free" SBC for openHABian. The Pi0W changes that because of it's integrated Wifi/Blueooth module.

openHABian v1.2 brings full support for the Pi0W in unattended/headless mode. Read about Wifi setup below.

The Raspberry Pi Zero W is powerful enough to run openHAB and to control your small and mid-sized home / home automation system. It is also a great device as a slave system, e.g. only interacting with your heating system or the garage devices. If you can live with the limited count of connectors and the main uplink via Wifi, the cheap RPi0W might be a good choice for your openHAB(ian) installation.

Raspbian Lite base

If you payed close attention, you know that openHABian for the Raspberry Pi started as a project based on raspbian-ua-netinst, a minimal unattended network installer, perfect for what openHABian was aiming for. You will however also remember, that this rather special system had some restrictions and quirks. A "hassle-free" system should be as predictable as possible, however the differences to a standard Raspbian system confused some openHABian users. Another problem was the need for the support of a Wifi connection with the Pi0W.

With openHABian v1.2 we are introducing a Raspbian Lite based image in parallel to the raspbian-ua-netinst based image. The Raspbian image will take longer to flash but will overall be quicker to configure the system and start openHAB. Additionally it allows for a setup purely via Wifi and therefore is the only option for the RPi0W. As it is based on Raspbian as we know it, I expect this system to create less problems with GPIO or other issues known from the old base. The raspbian-ua-netinst based image is still fully supported and if you were happy with it so far, don't hesitate to stick with it.

Wifi Setup

If you own a RPi3, RPi0W or a Pine A64, you can setup and use openHABian v1.2 purely via Wifi. You'll need to make your SSID and password known to the system before the first boot in just a few steps:

• Flash the system image to your micro SD card
• Access the first partition from your file explorer
• You'll find the file openhabian.conf, open it in a text editor
• Uncomment and fill in wifi_ssid= and wifi_psk=
• Save, Unmount, Insert, Boot, Enjoy.

More clarity

The openHABian setup was always quite reliable. Still there were exceptions of cause. In these cases the current state of the installation and a possible error and its solution were not always easy to identify for a new user (at least not without further knowledge of the system).
With v1.2 we've added a tiny but useful little addition. The configuration and setup process takes between 5 and 60 minutes (based on device, connection type and bandwidth). During that time you can log in via ssh and will be presented with the configuration progress log, washing away all unclarity.

Internationalization

openHABian promotes a hassle-free system you can use instantly without further modification. There were however three topics not yet covered by openHABian as good as expected by some users: Hostname, Locale and Timezone.

Version 1.2 finally brings openhabian-config menu entries to change the system's hostname, to adjust the timezone and to change the system language, if en_US.UTF-8 is not what you are satisfied with. Besides these menu entries the local time zone will now automatically be detected based on your IP, making a manual change mostly obsolete. With these additions raspi-config is now finally abandoned from the Raspberry Pi openHABian system.

Next Steps

As always: If you are on a previous openHABian release, you just have to execute sudo openhabian-config followed by the "Update" menu entry to gain access to all the latest changes. Please report all problems you encounter.

New users and Raspbian Lite image switchers:
Follow the instructions under http://docs.openhab.org/installation/openhabian.html.
Choose the right image below, use Etcher to flash the compressed image files (.img.xz)!

RPi Download Note

Because of the above mentioned reasons we recommend the "openhabianpi-raspbian" image for your "hassle-free" openHAB experience on the Raspberry Pi.

openHABian on new adventures

After making the Raspberry Pi a stable and versatile platform for openHAB, we went ahead with the aim of a hassle-free openHAB setup. openHABian v1.1 is the first release to officially support a wider range of Debian/Ubuntu based systems. With version 1.1 we now also provide a Pine A64 ready to run SD card image!

All you need to know about openHABian in general can now be found in the official documentation article, updated regularly: http://docs.openhab.org/installation/openhabian.html

Changes since v1.0

A list of all git commits can be found here. Here's the heavy stuff:

• Includes all previously announced changes for the openHAB 2.0 final release
• The build tool chain for the RPi image was removed as a fixed part and will be temporarily created
• A build process for the Pine A64 platform was added next to the RPi build. This brought A LOT of small changes and improvements to both images as well as to the general setup process, which I can not simply list 😅
• All openhabian-config menu options are now considering certain platform restrictions and additionally needed installation steps. Menu entried, which are hardware specific, are no accessible on other platforms
• A configuration file for openHABian was added under /etc/openhabian.conf
• The end users linux username is not hardcoded as before but can now differ between systems and will be stored in the config file. For the RPi and Pine64 images this will be done automatically, a manually installed system will prompt for a username on first execution of openhabian-config
• The default username and password combination has changed to openhabian:openhabian
• The way timezone and locale are set should now comply with the normal way of changing these. An option to change them inside the openHABian configuration tool will come soon, check the docs article till then
• Oracle Java was replaced by the Zulu Embedded Java runtime (which is in general the better choice for openHAB and by the way made the openHABian installation on the RPi a whole lot easier and also a bit faster)
• The Zulu installation includes the Charts widget bug fix
• The login screen FireMotD received a few tweaks to support the Pine A64
• Many small improvements and fixes

Updating

If you are already running openHABian on your system, just select the "Update" menu entry behind sudo openhabian-config, then execute "Upgrade System" and "Basic Setup" - That should be all.

You do not need to switch over to Zulu, if you are currently using Oracle Java. If you want to switch, please remove Oracle Java before doing so. You will have to do so manually:

sudo apt purge oracle-java8-installer oracle-java8-jdk
sudo apt-get autoremove
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/webupd8team-java.list

Fresh Setup

Setting up your openHABian system should be as hassle-free as always. Please visit the documentation to find all you need to know:
http://docs.openhab.org/installation/openhabian.html

Enjoy and Happy Hacking!!

openHABian got official

openHABian has finally reached v1.0! 🎉 🎆 🎉

Quite a lot has changed since the last version (v0.9). Check the list of updates or the commit history to get an idea. The release of version 1.0 is less related to new breaking changes and more related to two developments:

• We finally transferred openHABian to the official openHAB GitHub organization, ensuring combined further developement: https://github.com/openhab/openhabian
• With the big overhaul of the official documentation page openHABian now got it's very own docs.openHAB.org article. Have a look: http://docs.openhab.org/installation/openhabian.html - For sure you can expect all the details about openHABian on this page in the next couple of weeks. If you want to contribute, let me know!

What now?

You already have openHABian installed on your system? You should be okay. ;) However you could just as well update, bringing you many small customizations and improvements. Do the following:

1. Execute sudo openhabian-config
2. Select "Update" and watch while openHABian fetches all latest commits. Reenter openhabian-config and you might see a few more options to choose from.
3. Select "Basic Setup" to apply a few improvements like vim customizations, user permissions or a nicer MotD.
4. Explore the menu... :)

Pay attention to the fact, that there is now a new image file available, in case you want to reinstall openHABian.

New to openHABian?

Soon you will find detailed instructions at docs.openhab.org. Till then, just follow the instructions here and be sure to check the update postings.

Changelog

Since the last update there have been a few improvements, the most important one:

Serial Port Extensions for Razberry, Enocean and others: After long discussions and with the help of a few, the "Serial Port" option in the openhabian-config menu is now way more powerful. Add-on board for the RPi (incl. RPi3) should now be no problem anymore.

Many bugfixes: Please check the commit list for details. Dozens of details have been improves.

openHABian last iteration

openHABian has reached version v0.9 and it's at my personal "Definition of Done". Sure, a few optional components will still be added and some small bugs might be found, but the core system and the openhabian-config menu are at a state of conceptional completeness.
I am welcoming everyone to use openHABian and actively take part in improving it by proposing new ideas or finding bugs.

New in this version:

• Fix: the bash shell prompt wrap was broken by custom PS1
• Fix: the provided bashrc was messing with SFTP
• Fix: A major bug with the locale settings has been patched (waiting on Issue response)
• rpi-config is now preinstalled as well, you should use it once
• The early menu version was overhault and now includes a lot more options
• Execute the menu in the console with sudo openhabian-config (similar to sudo raspi-config)
• Now included:
  • Java 8 by WebUpd8Team
  • Homegear
  • Mosquitto
  • Bind Karaf Console to all interfaces
• The menu can now update itself! 😎
• Many small fixes

openHABian forth release with menu prototype

A menu (based on whiptail, just as raspi-config) has been added, which you can access by directly calling the setup script yourself from the ssh-console. This menu allows to (again) setup your system, openHAB2 and Samba. These options were important for me as they allow for an openHABian update over time!
Additionally there are now a few optional components ready to be installed through the menu. This includes owserver and knxd for now but more will follow very soon.

• all steps are now separated into bash functions
• a new whiptail based menu in interactive mode
• optional component knxd (thanks to @staehler67)
• optional component owserver (thanks to @staehler67)
• menu option to open up the karaf console interfaces so it can be accessed from everywhere (your local subnet)
• improved vimrc, Improved bashrc (global and user-specific - root now has his own color red 😊 )
• many many internal technical details...

The script is now also in a state, where it should be usable on most debian/ubuntu systems besides the unintended installation on a RaspberryPi. Being applicable on other systems besides the initially promoted integration in the unintended raspbian net installation was one of the goals of this project. I am looking for somebody with Linux background willing to give this a test run on his system or in a virtual machine. Please contact me for more details.

openHABian second beta for usage

After further testing, this seems to be quite stable. 🎉
More features are still to come but this release can already be your starting point. New in this release:

• raspi-config included (set your timezone!)
• etckeeper included and set up
• GPU memory split at 16MB by default
• FireMotD with some info on ssh login
• minor fixes and tunings

openHABian first beta for testing

Installs without problems at first sight. Further setup steps, configuration and tweaking are probably needed. Bugs can be expected 😃

Issue reports and PRs are welcome!