How to program ESP8266 with Arduino

Some notes, as a reminder

  • ESP8266 RX : to arduino RX
  • ESP8266 GPIO : GND while programming, to 3.3V for USAGE
  • ESP8266 GPIO2 : floating
  • ESP8266 RST: floating
  • ESP8266 CH_PD: to 3.3V
  • ESP8266 TX: to Arduino TX
  • Power and GND to 3.3V and ground…

Remember to use an Arduino UNO as board. On Arduino IDE select Generic ESP8266 as board

While programming, put also RST pin of Arduino board to GND. Check that GPIO0 is set to GND, and press Arduino RESET BUTTON BEFORE PLUG THE USB PORT.

Setup a Raspberry Pi TOR proxy

This is not a real HOW TO, it’s a two-step guide for setting up a Raspberry PI (with a wifi usb adapter) in order to create an easy-to-use TOR proxy on a WiFi Access Point.
Two simple steps:

  1. Create a Wifi Access Point on your Raspberry following this guide: https://learn.adafruit.com/setting-up-a-raspberry-pi-as-a-wifi-access-point/install-software https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/wireless/access-point.md
  2. Install and configure TOR using this git repo: https://github.com/sarbyn/tor_box/blob/master/README.md

So simple!

Install KODI on raspiNAS

My raspiNAS is based on a raspberry pi 2, with 1GB of ram and a 4core ARM processor, a more powerful board able to run a NAS and also a full HD media center. So in order to simplify my home setup and remove a raspberry I’ve decided to merge the KODI mediacenter (based on OSMC) into the raspiNAS board.

We have to create the group “input” if it doesn’t exist.

sudo addgroup --system input

Edit the file

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-input.rules

enter the following text and save it:

SUBSYSTEM==input, GROUP=input, MODE=0660
KERNEL==tty[0-9]*, GROUP=tty, MODE=0660

Create & edit the following file:

sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/10-permissions.rules

enter this text and save it:

# input
KERNEL=="mouse*|mice|event*",   MODE="0660", GROUP="input"
KERNEL=="ts[0-9]*|uinput",     MODE="0660", GROUP="input"
KERNEL==js[0-9]*,             MODE=0660, GROUP=input
# tty
KERNEL==tty[0-9]*,            MODE=0666
# vchiq
SUBSYSTEM==vchiq,  GROUP=video, MODE=0660

Run the following commands for user pi (if you haven’t changed your user name):

sudo usermod -a -G audio pi
sudo usermod -a -G video pi
sudo usermod -a -G input pi
sudo usermod -a -G dialout pi
sudo usermod -a -G plugdev pi
sudo usermod -a -G tty pi

To play full HD video in Kodi, you have to set

gpu_mem=160

in /boot/config.txt (or higher) and reboot the board.

Now install kodi with:

sudo apt-get install kodi

Edit /etc/default/kodi in order to start kodi at boot:

# Set this to 1 to enable startup
ENABLED=1

# The user to run Kodi as
USER=pi

# Adjust niceness of Kodi (decrease for higher priority)
NICE=-5

Source: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=99866

Allow SSH trafic from local net and from a specific IP

I need to connect to my raspiNAS server from the local network and from a specific IP (my office IP address) but I don’t want to let it open to the world. So the steps are:
Configure a NAT rule in order to enable TCP port fowarding
Let’s play with iptables

# iptables -A INPUT -s OFFICE_IP/32 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 22 -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT
# iptables -A INPUT -s 192.168.1.0/24 -p tcp -m tcp --dport 22 -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT
# iptables -A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 22 -m state --state NEW -j DROP

Setup iptables at boot:

sudo bash -c 'iptables-save > /etc/network/iptables'
sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

At the bottom add

pre-up iptables-restore < /etc/network/iptables

RaspiNAS – DIY nas with a Raspberry

After more than one year with my NAS build over an ALIX, I bought a Raspberry pi 2 and I want to check if the “USB POWER BUG” is resolved now.

I don’t need an high speed NAS so the speed issue with the shared PCI link between USB hub and network adapter is not so important.

Advantages of a Raspberry pi 2 setup are:

  • Less power consumption: raspberry drain half the power of an Alix card
  • Flexibility: 4 USB ports instead of 2
  • Smaller: Raspberry Pi 2 is smaller than Alix board

So this is a copy&paste from my previous post, adapted for the new environment

Install Raspbian lite

Go to Raspbian download page and download the lite version

Install VIM
# apt-get install vim
Add new user
# useradd -m -s /bin/bash sarbyn
# passwd sarbyn
Add user to sudo
# visudo --- add user
Install NTFS-3G
# apt-get install ntfs-3g
Fstab and volumes
# mkdir /mnt/TimeMachine
# mkdir /mnt/MUSIC
# chown sarbyn:sarbyn /mnt/MUSIC
# chown sarbyn:sarbyn /mnt/TimeMachine

UUID=206606FF6606D606 /mnt/MUSIC ntfs-3g   rw,defaults     0       0
UUID=03c90579-88f0-4478-ae8d-adc64972a07d /mnt/TimeMachine ext4 defaults 0 0
Samba
# apt-get install samba samba-common-bin
# service samba stop
# mv /var/lib/samba /var/tmp/samba
# ln -s /var/tmp/samba /var/lib/samba
# smbpasswd -a sarbyn
[mnt]
path = /mnt
read only = Yes
guest only = Yes
guest ok = Yes

[mnt_RW]
path = /mnt
read only = No
valid user = sarbyn
browseable = yes
writable = yes
SSH
$ mkdir .ssh
$ chmod 0700 .ssh/
$ cd .ssh
$ ls
$ vim authorized_keys
$ chmod 600 authorized_keys

Disable root login and plaintext login in /etc/ssh/sshd_config file

Transmission
# apt-get install transmission-daemon
# service transmission-daemon start
FIX cracklib config

I don’t know if it is required with new Jessie debian version…but I’ve repeated it

# apt-get install cracklib-runtime
# create-cracklib-dict /usr/share/dict/*

Before
root@voyage:/var/cache/cracklib# ls -la
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Oct 4 13:28 cracklib_dict.hwm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16 Oct 4 13:28 cracklib_dict.pwd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16 Oct 4 13:28 cracklib_dict.pwi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 65 Oct 4 13:17 src-dicts

AFTER
root@voyage:/var/cache/cracklib# ls -la
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Oct 7 22:46 cracklib_dict.hwm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 412696 Oct 7 22:46 cracklib_dict.pwd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 22968 Oct 7 22:46 cracklib_dict.pwi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 65 Oct 4 13:17 src-dicts
# cd /usr/lib/
# root@voyage:/usr/lib# ln -s  /var/cache/cracklib/cracklib_dict.hwm
# root@voyage:/usr/lib# ln -s  /var/cache/cracklib/cracklib_dict.pwd
# root@voyage:/usr/lib# ln -s  /var/cache/cracklib/cracklib_dict.pwi
Netatalk

*DON’T USE NETATALK FROM DEBIAN REPOS*
The older version of netatalk are VERY…VERY unstable. Download the sources from Netatalk site and follow —> this tutorial <—

# apt-get install build-essential libevent-dev libssl-dev libgcrypt11-dev libkrb5-dev libpam0g-dev libwrap0-dev libdb-dev libtdb-dev libmysqlclient-dev avahi-daemon libavahi-client-dev libacl1-dev libldap2-dev libcrack2-dev systemtap-sdt-dev libdbus-1-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libglib2.0-dev tracker libtracker-sparql-1.0-dev libtracker-miner-1.0-dev 
# apt-get install avahi-daemon

# insserv avahi-daemon
# insserv netatalk
# /etc/init.d/avahi-daemon start
# /etc/init.d/netatalk start

Edit “/usr/local/etc/afp.conf”.

[Global]
; Global server settings
uam list = uams_dhx.so,uams_dhx2.so
set password = yes

[MusicAFP]
    path = /mnt/MUSIC

[TimeMachineAFP]
    path = /mnt/TimeMachine
    time machine = yes

Add user to Netatalk (using the SHORT password)

# afppasswd -an sarbyn
FIX BOOT

The NTFS volume does not mount at boot, so add some lines on /etc/rc.local

# vim /etc/rc.local

service transmission-daemon stop
mount -a
swapon /mnt/MUSIC/swapfile
service transmission-daemon start

# chmod +x /etc/rc.local
NOIP client
# wget http://www.no-ip.com/client/linux/noip-duc-linux.tar.gz
# tar xzf noip-duc-linux.tar.gz
# cd no-ip-2.1.9
# make
# make install
# sudo noip2 -U 60
Install RPI monitor

Rpi monitor is a small web application that shows usage statistics of a raspberry pi board. Install rpi monitor following this link
Configure /etc/rpimonitor/storage.conf in order to setup storage monitoring and edit the /etc/rpimonitor/data.conf in order to include the storage.conf entry.

Optional – MiniDLNA support

If you need miniDLNA support follow this link

Final step – do a MicroSD backup

Now is all setted up but it’s better to do a MicroSD backup using dd

# dd if=DISK of=raspinas-backup.img bs=1m

Send email when webcam detects movement

In my previous post I’ve explained how to configure a DIY IP camera using motion.

Now let configure an email alert system that send email upon motion detection and the video recorded. It’s very simple.

First of all, install some software:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install sendemail libio-socket-ssl-perl libnet-ssleay-perl

If you want to use GMAIL as smtp you need to fix SSL config. Open /usr/share/perl5/IO/Socket/SSL.pm and then change

m{^(!?)(?:(SSL(?:v2|v3|v23|v2/3))|(TLSv1[12]?))$}i

to:

m{^(!?)(?:(SSL(?:v2|v3|v23|v2/3))|(TLSv1[12]?))}i

Now change motion.conf file.

# email sent when an event starts
on_event_start sendEmail -f YOURFROMEMAIL@gmail.com -t YOURTOEMAIL@gmail.com -u "[Motion] Event detected" -m "Movement has been detected on: %d %m %Y. The time of the movement was: %H:%M (Hour:Minute). Video will follow" -s smtp.gmail.com -xu YOURGMAIL@gmail.com -xp YOURGMAILPASSWORD -o tls=yes

# send video as attachment
on_movie_end sendEmail -f YOURFROMEMAIL@gmail.com -t YOURTOEMAIL@gmail.com -u "[Motion] video" -m "Video" -s smtp.gmail.com -xu YOURGMAIL@gmail.com -xp YOURGMAILPASSWORD -o tls=yes -a %f

DIY IP camera with Raspberry Pi

I found an old webcam somewhere in a drawer and I decided to plug the webcam to my Raspberry IP in order to build a video-surveillance system with auto motion detection.

The Hardware is simple:

  • Raspberry PI (with sdcard and power supply)
  • Microsoft LifeCam VX-500
Install motion

Motion is an open source software that can collect images and video from a webcam when a movement is detected. It has also an embedded web server that can share the livestream.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install motion
Setup motion

You also need to enable the motion daemon so that motion will always run:

sudo nano /etc/default/motion

and change the line to:

start_motion_daemon=yes

Set also the right image resolution (in my example, 640×480) and if you want change also these settings:

pre_capture 2
post_capture 2
ffmpeg_video_codec mpeg4
  • pre_capture: how many frames record before the movement
  • post_capture: how many frames record after movement stops
  • ffmpeg_video_codec: video codec (default flv)
Web server (optional)

If you want to share your image over the web you can also change the config for “Live Webcam Server” and “HTTP Based Control”. The live stream page is not protected by username-password, so BE CAREFUL!!!
Another thing: the live stream page does not work on Chrome. In order to see the stream you have to embed the “http://host:port/” address in an HTML page (using IMG tag)

Set target dir

Raspberry PI has a very small storage on SD card. It’s better to use a network folder as destination for images and video. Configure the mount point in /etc/fstab

//YOURSERVERNAME/YOURSHAREDFOLDERNAME /media/camshare cifs username=YOURSHAREDFOLDERUSERNAME,password=YOURSHAREDFOLDERPASSWORD,iocharset=utf8,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777 0 0

and change motion config file in order to use the new mounted network folder

target_dir /media/camshare
Schedule Webcam capture time

If you want to schedule motion start and stop, you can do it easily with crontab (as root)

crontab –e

For example, if you want to start motion at 11AM (from monday to friday) until 5PM:

00 11 * * 1-5 /usr/bin/motion
00 17 * * 1-5 killall motion

Don’t use “service motion start|stop” or “/etc/init.d/motion start|stop” as cron command because….doesn’t work. I don’t know why, maybe some weird environment variables configuration

Rsync : daily backup

This is a simple reminder.
I’m doing a lot of changes in my NAS and my “domotic” RaspBerry (One of these days I’m going to write down something about the Raspberry project) and I need a simple backup solution for a running linux machine.

It’s very simple, use this script and add to /etc/cron.daily

rsync -aAXv --exclude={"/dev/*","/proc/*","/sys/*","/tmp/*","/run/*","/mnt/*","/media/*","/lost+found"} --delete /* /path/to/backup/folder

DIY Home NAS: add MiniDLNA support

A little addendum about the Alix + Voyage linux guide. I forget to add a little service on my NAS, useful with my Samsung smart TV: a DLNA server.

Install MiniDLNA
# sudo apt-get install minidlna
# sudo apt-get clean
Configure MiniDLNA

Now we need to configure the MUSIC and FILM folders and let MiniDLNA scans and populates its database. Minidlna config file is /etc/minidlna.conf. Stop MiniDLNA with # service minidlna stop and edit the config file. Remember to change db_dir and log_dir options (because Voyage filesystem is in read-only mode, you need to put the MiniDLNA database on your external USB drive. For example

# Path to the directory that should hold the database and album art cache.
db_dir=/mnt/MUSIC/minidlna

# Path to the directory that should hold the log file.
log_dir=/mnt/MUSIC/minidlna/logs

You need also to define the video and audio folders, for example

media_dir=V,/mnt/MUSIC/SERIE_TV
media_dir=V,/mnt/MUSIC/FILM
media_dir=A,/mnt/MUSIC/mp3
Some others minor configurations

You can also change the friendly_name option and model_name if you want to rename your MiniDLNA server name.

Now you can remountro your filesystem and start MiniDLNA server. The server will scan all your media folder and will be ready for sharing your media files with any DLNA client.

Alix.2D + Voyage Linux = a DIY home NAS

This is my 3th attempt to build a DIY home nas.
The first attempt with a Raspberry PI was a disaster: the well-known “USB POWER BUG” makes my NAS (with 2 USB DISK) pretty unstable.
The second attempt with an ALIX board + voyage linux crashes without any reason, but I admit that the initial setup was a mess…

The goal is:

  • An home NAS with 2 external USB: a little one EXT-4 for my mac TimeMachine (using Netatalk) and a bigger one NTFS as a generic storage (using Samba)
  • TrasmissionDaemon with WEB interface, as thin torrent client

Now is up and running. But if it will die again I think that I will buy a QNAP 🙂

Install VOYAGE LINUX

Read the Voyage Linux README

Install VIM
# apt-get install vim
Fix sudo
# chown -R root:root /usr/bin/sudo
# chmod u+s /usr/bin/sudo
# chown root:root /usr/lib/sudo/sudoers.so
# chown root:root /etc/sudoers
# chown root:root /etc/sudoers.d/
# chown root:root /etc/sudoers.d/README
# chown root:root /var/lib/sudo

visudo --- add user
Add new user
# useradd -m -s /bin/bash sarbyn
# passwd sarbyn
Install NTFS-3G
# apt-get install ntfs-3g
Fstab and volumes
# mkdir /mnt/TimeMachine
# mkdir /mnt/MUSIC
# chown sarbyn:sarbyn /mnt/MUSIC
# chown sarbyn:sarbyn /mnt/TimeMachine

UUID=206606FF6606D606 /mnt/MUSIC ntfs-3g   rw,defaults     0       0
UUID=03c90579-88f0-4478-ae8d-adc64972a07d /mnt/TimeMachine ext4 defaults 0 0
Enable swap file
# mkswap /mnt/MUSIC/swapfile
# swapon /mnt/MUSIC/swapfile
Samba
# apt-get install samba samba-common-bin
# service samba stop
# mv /var/lib/samba /var/tmp/samba
# ln -s /var/tmp/samba /var/lib/samba
# smbpasswd -a sarbyn
[mnt]
path = /mnt
read only = Yes
guest only = Yes
guest ok = Yes

[mnt_RW]
path = /mnt
read only = No
valid user = sarbyn
browseable = yes
writable = yes

Next add these directories to the file etc/default/voyage-util so it now contains the line:
VOYAGE_SYNC_DIRS=”/var/cache”

SSH
$ mkdir .ssh
$ chmod 0700 .ssh/
$ cd .ssh
$ ls
$ vim authorized_keys
$ chmod 600 authorized_keys

Disable root login and plaintext login in /etc/ssh/sshd_config file

Transmission
# apt-get install transmission-daemon
# service transmission-daemon stop
# cp settings.json /etc/transmission-daemon/
# service transmission-daemon start

Next add transmission directories to the file etc/default/voyage-util so it now contains the line:
VOYAGE_SYNC_DIRS=”/var/cache /var/lib/transmission-daemon”

FIX cracklib config
# apt-get install cracklib-runtime
# create-cracklib-dict /usr/share/dict/*

Before
root@voyage:/var/cache/cracklib# ls -la
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Oct 4 13:28 cracklib_dict.hwm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16 Oct 4 13:28 cracklib_dict.pwd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16 Oct 4 13:28 cracklib_dict.pwi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 65 Oct 4 13:17 src-dicts

AFTER
root@voyage:/var/cache/cracklib# ls -la
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1024 Oct 7 22:46 cracklib_dict.hwm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 412696 Oct 7 22:46 cracklib_dict.pwd
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 22968 Oct 7 22:46 cracklib_dict.pwi
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 65 Oct 4 13:17 src-dicts
# cd /usr/lib/
# root@voyage:/usr/lib# ln -s  /var/cache/cracklib/cracklib_dict.hwm
# root@voyage:/usr/lib# ln -s  /var/cache/cracklib/cracklib_dict.pwd
# root@voyage:/usr/lib# ln -s  /var/cache/cracklib/cracklib_dict.pwi
Netatalk

*DON’T USE NETATALK FROM DEBIAN REPOS*
The older version of netatalk are VERY…VERY unstable. Download the sources from Netatalk site and follow —> this tutorial <—

# apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev libgcrypt11-dev libkrb5-dev libpam0g-dev libwrap0-dev libdb-dev libmysqlclient-dev libavahi-client-dev libacl1-dev libldap2-dev libcrack2-dev systemtap-sdt-dev libdbus-1-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libglib2.0-dev tracker libtracker-sparql-0.14-dev libtracker-miner-0.14-dev

Next add /usr/local/var/netatalk to the file etc/default/voyage-util so it now contains the line:
VOYAGE_SYNC_DIRS=”/var/cache /var/lib/transmission-daemon /usr/local/var/netatalk”

# apt-get install avahi-daemon

# insserv avahi-daemon
# insserv netatalk
# /etc/init.d/avahi-daemon start
# /etc/init.d/netatalk start

Edit “/usr/local/etc/afp.conf”.

[Global]
; Global server settings
uam list = uams_dhx.so,uams_dhx2.so
set password = yes

[MusicAFP]
    path = /mnt/MUSIC

[TimeMachineAFP]
    path = /mnt/TimeMachine
    time machine = yes

Add user to Netatalk (using the SHORT password)

# afppasswd -an sarbyn
FIX BOOT

The NTFS volume does not mount at boot, so add some lines on /etc/rc.local

# vim /etc/rc.local

service transmission-daemon stop
mount -a
swapon /mnt/MUSIC/swapfile
service transmission-daemon start

# chmod +x /etc/rc.local
Fix timezone
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Amsterdam /etc/localtime
NOIP client
# wget http://www.no-ip.com/client/linux/noip-duc-linux.tar.gz
# tar xzf noip-duc-linux.tar.gz
# cd no-ip-2.1.9
# make
# make install

Next add /usr/local/etc/ to the file etc/default/voyage-util so it now contains the line:
VOYAGE_SYNC_DIRS=”/var/cache /var/lib/transmission-daemon /usr/local/var/netatalk /usr/local/etc”

PUT APT cache on external disk
# remountrw
# cd /var/cache
# rm apt
# ln -s /mnt/MUSIC/APT_CACHE/ apt
# remountro
Clear APT cache
# apt-get clean
Final step – do a CompactFlash backup

Now is all setted up but it’s better to do a CompatFlash backup using dd

# dd if=DISK of=voyage-backup.img bs=1m
EXTRA – Mount image done with DD
# apt-get install kpartx
# kpartx -a MUSIC/backup_voyage_2014_10_09.iso
# mount /dev/mapper/loop0p1 /mnt/cf -o loop,ro