GettingTheGCSRunningonAGumstixBoard

Intro

Please take note that the page is in work at the moment and that we are doing our best to have it updated as soon as possible. Please feel free to contribute!

Would it not be great to have your small UAS in your backpack, throw it in the air and monitor and even adjust the flight via a small device in your pocket? If you think this would be awesome, read on, since that is what this page is all about. It is the first attempt and will not be about iPad, Android Phones, Amazon Kindles or the likes as a ground station. For this we have other wiki pages. No, we will use a thrusted solution; A Gumstix with Linux on it.

Outcome

Have the Paparazzi GCS monitoring and adjusting a UA via an small Gumstix based device.

Hardware

What do you need to get this working:

1. A gumstix board with a charger
2. 8 GB SD card
3. USB to mini-USB cable
4. UTP network cable
5. 3.5" screen (such as the LCD panel with the Chestnut) or 4.3"

Software

Needed softwares to run this application:

1. Paparazzi software
2. Ubuntu kernel on your Gumstix
3. Driver for the camera in order to be used with the Gumstix

Well, we have some tutorials on this wiki about how to install Paparazzi. Please have a look and you will definetly find all you need to know.

Before proceeding

If you encounter unexplainable error messages during installation take a look a the tips and tricks section.

Create an OS

Pre-requisites

1. 8 GB SD card or larger
2. Download the pre-built image from [vexpress-ics-gcc47-armlt-staging-alt-open.img.gz]

or maybe use this custom one if you want to have kernel driver for the video digitizer already in get this OS

Installation Steps

1. Unzip the downloaded pre-build image
2. Insert SD card and note the assigned '/dev/sdX' so on the command line type without the $ sign:

$ dmesg 

where sdX is the SD reader device found with the command above

$ SDCARD=/dev/sdX  
$ sudo dd bs=64k if=vexpress-ics-gcc47-armlt-staging-alt-open.img of=$SDCARD  

or if you have chosen the OS with included digitizer driver

$ SDCARD=/dev/sdX
$ sudo dd bs=64k if=gcsStix.img of=$SDCARD     

then patiently wait... once the OS is written on your SD card you can insert it in the SD slot of the Gumstix board and boot up your Gumstix on a carrier board.

Connecting peripherals

When you have a Linux version running on your Gumstix, you can add a LCD, or a mouse, or a keyboard.

To set up your LCD you must follow these steps:

Connect through CuteCom to the Gumstix, restart the board and hit a key within 5 seconds:

Hit any key to stop autoboot: 5

Then type the following in the CuteCom command prompt:

setenv defaultdisplay lcd43

Or, if you are using a 3.5" screen (such as the LCD panel with the Palo35):

setenv defaultdisplay lcd35

You can save this setting for future boots by saving it:

saveenv

Finally, continue with the boot process by typing in CuteCom command prompt:

boot

Connect to the Gumstix through the network

If you want to send files to the Gumstix, you can do it via a ssh connection. In order to do this, both devices, your computer and the Gumstix must be connected to the same network. Once you've done this, you can start setting up the connection. Fistly, you need to know the IP address of the Gumstix. Start by opening CuteCom and connect to the device. To do so, download CuteCom tarball and follow the instructions. In your terminal, type:

cutecom

A window will pop up and you must adjust the pull-down menu settings as follows: Device will usually be either /dev/ttyUSB0 or /dev/ttyUSB1 . You can figure this out by typing on your command prompt:

dmesg|tail

Note: apply this command after you connected your Gumstix board to USB with your USB to mini-USB cable. This command lists the last connected devices. Baud rate must be set to 115200, data bits to 8, stop bits to 1, parity to none, handshake none checked, open for both reading and writing checked, apply settings when opening checked, choose "CR,LF end line" and Char delay 1ms.

Click on Open device and your connection should start. If you encounter any problems, but you are sure you did everything right check if your Gumstix board overheated or restart it.

The first thing you need in order to get rid of the USB to mini-USB cable and its physical limitations is to create a user and set a password for it and install openssh. Please feel free to replace "sergiu" with whatever username you choose, but keep in mind that you must replace it everywhere you encounter "sergiu".

useradd -c "Sergiu S" -m -s "/bin/bash" -G sudo sergiu

Note: -G option will add the user to the specified group.

passwd sergiu

You will be asked to enter a password and confirm it. IF successful, you will get this message:

passwd: password updated successfully

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Once you have accomplished this, you must discover the Gumstix ip address, typing on CuteCom:

ifconfig -a 

Note: if you can't use this command for any reason you can get a list with all the IP addresses on the network using 'arp -a' on your machine. Among the data returned, you will see something like this:

eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:15:c9:28:c9:ff  
          inet addr:192.168.0.100  Bcast:192.168.0.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: fe80::215:c9ff:fe28:c9ff/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:3960 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:727 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:3734905 (3.7 MB)  TX bytes:63765 (63.7 KB)
          Interrupt:80 

Now you should be able to connect using:

ssh sergiu@192.168.0.100

You will be asked to type the password you previously set for the user.

Tweaks

1. Remove the login prompt.

You may want to set your OS to auto-login. Why? Because there may be times you don't have a keyboard for the Gumstix around. You can find a good explanation of this here . You have to write in your command prompt:

sudo locale-gen en_US.UTF-8
sudo apt-get install vim

Note: if you get an error at this step, use the --fix-missing option as recommended.

sudo vim /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

Edit the autologin-user line by replacing the username with your own

autologin-user=sergiu

and add this line:

autologin-user-timeout=0

!!!! sudo update-locale en_US.UTF-8x
sudo export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 !!!!!

or the right locale for your keyboard. If this didn't solve your problem, you may want to read here more about it.

1. Remove the Lightdm GUI for freeing memory

sudo apt-get remove lightdm

After this step you must reboot.

1. Remove processes not needed

sudo killall -9 NetworkManager  (for faster system)

Install paparazzi on the gumstix

1. Install all libraries needed

sudo apt-get install ocaml-findlib libxml-light-ocaml-dev liblablgtk2-ocaml-dev liblablgtk2-gnome-ocaml-dev \
libocamlnet-ocaml-dev libsdl-ocaml-dev libpcre-ocaml-dev gtk2-engines-pixbuf make gcc g++ libgsl0-dev gnuplot \
libgnomecanvas2-dev bzip2 git libusb-dev speech-dispatcher glade imagemagick libpcre3-dev git-core  python-usb \
python-lxml python-wxgtk2.8 speech-dispatcher m4 python-yaml subversion cvs

1. Create a folder where you will download and install all the libraries

mkdir develop
cd develop/

1. Install Ocaml 4.00.0

wget -O ocaml-4.00.0.tar.gz http://caml.inria.fr/pub/distrib/ocaml-4.00/ocaml-4.00.0.tar.gz
tar -xvzf ocaml-4.00.0.tar.gz 
cd ocaml-4.00.0
./configure
make world
make opt
umask 022
sudo make install
ocaml -version (make sure you have the right version, meaning 4.00.0)
cd ..

1. Install Opam

git clone https://github.com/OCamlPro/opam.git
sudo opam install ocamlfind xml-light
cd opam
./configure 
make (because of overheating you may get some errors, but keep doing 'make')
sudo make install
cd ..

1. Install pcre-ocaml

Note: because the version at the moment I tried to install didn't work( pcre-ocaml 7.0.2), I used 6.2.5 version.

wget https://bitbucket.org/mmottl/pcre-ocaml/downloads/pcre-ocaml-6.2.5.tar.gz
tar -xvzf pcre-ocaml-6.2.5.tar.gz 
cd pcre-ocaml-6.2.5
./configure
make
sudo make install
cd ..
sudo opam install -v lablgtk
sudo opam install  xml-light 
sudo opam install pcre-ocaml
sudo opam install -v ocamlnet

1. Get paparazzi-portability-support related files

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/paparazzi/paparazzi-portability-support.git
cd paparazzi-portability-support/linux/
sudo apt-get install libxt-dev tcl8.4-dev
sudo apt-get install tcl-dev
sudo apt-get install dpkg-dev debhelper devscripts fakeroot linda build-essential autoconf automake \ autotools-dev dh-make xutils lintian pbuilder dh-ocaml
sudo ./develenv.sh
cd ivy/ivy-c
pkbuild
cd ivy-c-3.12.1/
debuild -i -us -uc -b

1. Install ivy-ocaml

cd ~/develop/
svn co http://svn.tls.cena.fr/svn/ivy/ivy-ocaml/trunk
mv trunk ivy-ocaml
cd ivy-ocaml/
ocamlmklib -o ivy-ocaml ivy.cmo ivyLoop.cmo civy.o civyloop.o  -livy
make
sudo make install
cd ..

Note: if this didn't work for you, please replace the content of your Makefile with this file. Probably a "$ make clean " will be a good idea.

1. Install ivy-python

svn co http://svn.tls.cena.fr/svn/ivy/ivy-python/trunk
mv trunk ivy-python
cd ivy-python/
sudo python setup.py
sudo python setup.py install
cd ../..

1. Get paparazzi related files

git clone git://github.com/paparazzi/paparazzi.git
cd paparazzi
git checkout -b master_sergiu origin/master
cd ../develop/

1. Install ivy-ocaml

git clone git://github.com/flixr/ivy-ocaml.git
cd ivy-ocaml

Is this still needed???????????????????????????????????

vim /usr/local/lib/ocaml/3.12.0/ivy/META
vim /usr/local/lib/ocaml/3.12.0/glibivy/META 

????????????????????????? Note: if you have problems with Makefile from ivy-ocaml folder, replace it with this file.

make
sudo make install

Note: you may have to remove the files listed lower if you get any errors trying to install ivy-ocaml.

sudo rm /usr/local/lib/ocaml/glibIvy.cmi 
sudo rm /usr/local/lib/ocaml/glibivy-ocaml.*
ocamlfind install  glibivy META glibIvy.mli glibIvy.cmi glibIvy.cmx glibivy-ocaml.cma glibivy-ocaml.cmxa libglibivy-ocaml.a glibivy-ocaml.a dllglibivy-ocaml.so
sudo cp /usr/local/lib/ocaml/3.12.0/* /usr/local/lib/ocaml/ -r
OCAMLFIND_CONF=/etc/ocamlfind.conf ocamlfind query
export OCAMLFIND_CONF=/etc/ocamlfind.conf 

!!!!Did not find these files !!!!

cp /home/sergiu/.opam/system/lib/findlib.conf /home/sergiu/.opam/system/lib/findlib.conf.old
cp /etc/ocamlfind.conf /home/sergiu/.opam/system/lib/findlib.conf

!!!!!!!!

cd ..
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.motion-twin.com:/cvsroot co ocaml/xml-light
wget http://tech.motion-twin.com/zip/xml-light-2.2.zip
unzip xml-light-2.2.zip
cd xml-light
make
sudo make install
cd ..
wget https://forge.ocamlcore.org/frs/download.php/545/ocaml-http-0.1.5.tar.gz --no-check-certificate
tar -xzvf ocaml-http-0.1.5.tar.gz 
cd ocaml-http_0.1.5/
make
cd ..
wget "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/ocamlnet/ocamlnet/2.2.9/ocamlnet-2.2.9.tar.gz?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Focamlnet%2F&ts=1365529051&use_mirror=ignum"
mv ocamlnet-2.2.9.tar.gz\?r\=http\:%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Focamlnet%2F\&ts\=1365529051\&use_mirror\=ignum.1 ocamlnet-2.2.9.tar.gz 
tar -xzvf ocamlnet-2.2.9.tar.gz
cd ocaml/ocamlnet-2.2.9
./configure -enable-gtk2 -with-nethttpd
make all
cd ../../ocaml-4.00.0
./configure 
exit
make compilerlibs
sudo make installopt

Note: if you get errors at this step, please replace Makefile file content with this.

sudo apt-get install python-xml libxml-light-ocaml-dev libxmlm-ocaml-dev libhttp-ocaml-dev

sudo apt-get remove   libocamlnet-ocaml-bin
opam remove ocamlnet (check where it was installed)
sudo apt-get remove liblablgtk2-ocaml
sudo opam install lablgtk2 lablgtk ocamlnet topfind
cd develop/ocamlnet-2.2.9
make
cd paparazzi
make
opam init
opam install ocamlnet
cd ~sergiu/paparazzi
./paparazzi

Note: please replace the content of these files Makefile and sw/simulator/Makefile with the respective files from the archive and try running "./paparazzi" again.

opam install ocamlnet
cd /root/.opam/system/build/ocamlnet.3.6.0/src/netstring
make 
make installopt
make install
cd ../..
make
make optinstall
make install
vim Makefile
cd ../ocamlnet.3.6.0/src/netclient/
make install
vim     def build(self):
vim /root/.opam/system/lib/findlib.conf
cd /opt/
cp ~sergiu/.opam/system/
cp -r ~/.opam ~sergiu/
chown -R sergiu ~sergiu/.opam
mkdir opam_sw
opam config env --root /opt/opam_sw/
opam init --root /opt/opam_sw/
cd opam_sw/
cp -r ~/.opam/system/lib system/lib/
. /root/.opam/opam-init/init.sh > /dev/null 2> /dev/null || true
cd ~sergiu/paparazzi
opam install xml-light
make

Note: if you get any errors at this step, please check that the content of this file /root/.opam/system/lib/findlib.conf looks like this. You must be logged in as root to edit this file.

destdir="/root/.opam/system/lib"
path="/root/.opam/system/lib"

cp -r /opt/opam_sw/system/lib/xml-light ~/.opam/system/lib/
make
opam install glibivy
opam install glibivy2
cd /home/sergiu/develop/ivy-ocaml/ 
make install
cd ~sergiu/paparazzi
opam install lablgtk
cp  -r  /opt/opam_sw/system/lib/lablgtk* ~/.opam/system/lib/
apt-get install libgnomecanvas2-dev libgnomecanvas2-0
opam install lablgtk2.gnomeui

Note: if you get any errors at this step, please replace the content of this file sw/lib/ocaml/META.pprz with the file from here.

mktemp

Note: if you get any errors at this step, please replace the content of this file sw/supervision/Makefile with the file from here.

sudo apt-get install  liblablgtk2-ocaml
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/ocaml/stublibs/:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
apt-get install  liblablgtk2-gnome-ocaml
make
export CAML_LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/root/.opam/system/lib/lablgtk2/:/root/.opam/system/lib/:$CAML_LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/root/.opam/system/lib/lablgtk2/:/root/.opam/system/lib/:/root/.opam/system/lib/stublibs:/usr/local/lib/ocaml/stublibs

Note: please replace the content of these files Makefile and sw/ground_segment/multimon/Makefile and sw/ground_segment/cockpit/Makefile and sw/ground_segment/tmtc/Makefile with the respective file.

make pprzcenter
make supervision
cd sw/supervision/
export PPRZ_HOME=/home/sergiu/paparazzi/
export PAPARAZZI_HOME=/home/sergiu/paparazzi/
export PAPARAZZI_SRC=/home/sergiu/paparazzi/
make
make supervision
./paparazzicenter 
cd ../..
cd sw/logalizer/
make

Note: if you get any errors here, please replace the content of Makefile with the content of this file.

cd ../..

((((((((((

cd sw/ground_segment/multimon/
make clean
make
cd ../../..
make
cd sw/ground_segment/tmtc/
make clean
make
cd sw/simulator/
make clean
make
cd ../..
cd sw/../tools/

Note: please replace the content of Makefile with this.

make clean
cd ../
cd ground_segment/joystick/
make clean
make
cd ../../..
make
make ground_segment
X&
export DISPLAY=:0
xterm
git status
sw/ground_segment/cockpit/gcs  -b 192.168.209:2010
sw/ground_segment/cockpit/gcs 
sw/ground_segment/cockpit/gcs  -b 192.168.209:2010
mkdir /home/dirk
mkdir /home/dirk/nonSynced
ln -s /home/dirk/nonSynced/paparazzi /home/sergiu/paparazzi
ln -s  /home/sergiu/paparazzi /home/dirk/nonSynced/paparazzi
sw/ground_segment/cockpit/gcs  -b 192.168.209:2010

opam init
. /home/sergiu/.opam/opam-init/init.sh > /dev/null 2> /dev/null || true
eval 'opam config env'

Experimental steps

1. Remove LightDM GUI to preserve Gumstix RAM

{TODO: Describe STEPS}

{install python} {install ivy python} {install kivy}

Compile example

Source of Example

X11 server to display on LCD

Next

The next step will be to make onboard video work in the GCS.

Tips and tricks

You may get some errors during this installation. This depends on how well you are cooling down your system, how much RAM you have on your platform, the OS you are using and so on. Here are some of the errors I occured and how I solved them. You may need to worry about them or not.

If you get errors when trying install a big number of packages/libraries at once, try to divide them in smaller groups.

1. Add swap file

Due to lack of RAM memory it is possible to see errors like this:

==== ERROR [while installing ocamlfind.1.3.3] ====
Internal error:
  # opam-version    1.0.1 (1.0.0-84-g9b3ff34)
# os              linux
opam: "fork" failed: Cannot allocate memory
'opam install ocamlfind' failed.

The solution to this problem is to create a swap file. For this case I created a 512 MB swap file, but you should adapt it's size to the size of your SD card and the needed memory size. Run this commands as sudo:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile1 bs=1024 count=524288 (will create 512 MB swap file)
mkswap /swapfile1
chown root:root /swapfile1
chmod 0600 /swapfile1
swapon /swapfile1

Note: this will remove the swap file each time you shutdown. If you need the file, you have to repeat the swapon command after each boot. An alternative would be to have it mounted every time you boot the system. For more explanations you can go to this website

Because the original image was created as 4 GB big, you have to execute the fallowing set of instructions to enlarge it:

1. Add more space

mkfs.ext3 /dev/mmcblk0p3 
vol_id --uuid /dev/mmcblk0p3
blkid /dev/mmcblk0p3 
vim /etc/fstab
mv /home /oldHome
mkdir /home
mount /home
mount

Links

• OMAP
• https://www.gumstix.com/
• Dev/Caspa