Installing PiAware on Ubuntu

These steps are for installing PiAware and related software on a regular Linux installation instead of a Raspberry Pi. I used the latest version of Ubuntu Server (14.04.1 LTS currently) running in a VM on ESXi 5.5 U2. I used this receiver recommended on FlightAware: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009U7WZCA?tag=fligh01-20

For unknown reasons, the receiver would not initialize in Debian 7.6. The receiver does work fine in Ubuntu, however.

These steps were taken from the following pages:

http://landoflinux.com/linux_sdr_adsb_gqrx_radio.html
https://github.com/flightaware/piaware
https://github.com/flightaware/piaware/wiki/Building-and-installing-PiAware-from-source
https://github.com/flightaware/dump1090_mr

We are using FlightAware's version of dump1090 called dump1090_mr

Caution: Steps worked for me, but I assume no liability if it somehow breaks your computer!

First, download some packages:
$ sudo apt-get install git cmake libboost-all-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev python-scitools portaudio19-dev -y

Packages for piaware (I had to install these packages first or else dump1090_mr would not build):
$ sudo apt-get install tcl8.5-dev tclx8.4-dev itcl3-dev tcl-tls tcllib automake cmake tcl-tclreadline telnet git gcc make

Download RTL-SDR (assuming you're in ~/):
$ sudo git clone git://git.osmocom.org/rtl-sdr.git

Install RTL-SDR:
$ cd rtl-sdr/
$ sudo mkdir build
$ cd build
$ sudo cmake ../
$ sudo make
$ sudo make install
$ cd ~
$ sudo cp ~/rtl-sdr/rtl-sdr.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
$ sudo ldconfig

We need to disable the DVB driver since we're not watching TV and it interferes:
$ cd /etc/modprobe.d/
$ sudo vi ban-rtl.conf

Add this line to ban-rtl.conf (you will be creating the file):
blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu

Plug in the receiver if you haven't already and restart. When you log back in, run:
$ rtl_test -t

It should say something like:
Found 1 device(s):
  0:  Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Supported gain values (29): 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7 20.7 22.9 25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0 49.6
Sampling at 2048000 S/s.
No E4000 tuner found, aborting.

Time to install dump1090_mr. Back in ~/, run:
$ git clone https://github.com/flightaware/dump1090_mr.git
$ cd dump1090_mr/
$ make
$ sudo make -f makefaup1090 full-install

This installs dump1090_mr (and faup1090, but it doesn't seem to be needed since dump1090_mr generates the correct FlightAware messages already) and sets it to start on boot.

At this point, you should be able to run:
$ dump1090 --interactive

It should show a list of the planes detected!

Time to install PiAware. Back in ~/, run:

$ git clone https://github.com/flightaware/tcllauncher.git
$ cd tcllauncher
$ autoconf
$ ./configure --with-tcl=/usr/lib/tcl8.5
$ make
$ sudo make install

$ cd ~/

$ git clone https://github.com/flightaware/piaware.git
$ cd piaware
$ sudo make install
$ sudo update-rc.d piaware defaults
$ sudo piaware-config -user YOURFLIGHTAWAREUSERNAME -password

It should then prompt you for your FlightAware password.
These steps install PiAware and sets it to start on boot.

Restart again. When you log back in, you can run
$ sudo piaware-status
You may have to Ctrl-C to get back to the prompt, but it should say that dump1090 is running, faup1090 is not running, and it is connected to FlightAware. Now go to http://[IP of Server]:8080. It should be a web interface showing Google Maps and a list of all the planes detected.

If sudo piaware-status reports that dump1090 is connected and also connected to FlightAware, it should automatically send data to FlightAware. Everything starts up on its own at bootup. If you want to check the logs, it is /tmp/piaware.out. Check http://flightaware.com/adsb/stats/user/YOURFLIGHTAWAREUSERNAME
After 10 minutes or so, it should start displaying your data on that page, you should receive an email from FlightAware stating that your new feeder has come online, and your account should be upgraded to Enterprise!

That's it!