DCS Gateway and DVAP node running on Raspberry Pi..

I have been working on this miracle box to get it up and running with DVAP node and DCS Gateway software for Raspberry Pi.

Now - it's up and running and connected to a DCS-reflector.

A few tips on the way might be helpful, If you're to be making one yourself.

I started out with the Raspberry Wheezy image to make the whole config myself.
I followed the ircDDBgateway install document from Hans, DL5DI.
http://vk5rex.squarespace.com/downloads/g4klxraspberry-pi-related-documents/ircDDBGateway-DEB-instructions-ENG-20120918.pdf
This should work very well, but my installation went bad since I couldn't update needed packages from apt-repositories.
This project is put on hold for now..

I then went for the "ready-to-go" image from the pcrepeatercontroller group at yahoo.com.
I'm running the package from 12.11-2012.
This package comes with DVAP node software, Gateway, VNC and ssh enabled - so configuring it takes
about 10 minutes - and everything should work..
This is, if you would like to use ircDDBgateway software - not DCSgateway software with automatic start.

When configuring the image I started out with configuring the WLAN dongle.
Drivers/modules are configured/installed during boot.
After lxde UI is booted up - go into WiFi Config and setup the WLAN dongle.

Setting fixed IP is possible here:

root@raspberrypi:/etc/network# pwd
/etc/network


root@raspberrypi:/etc/network# cat interfaces
auto lo

iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet manual
wpa-roam /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
iface default inet dhcp                                                                                                                                          

Configuring the WLAN can be done manually here:

root@raspberrypi:/etc/wpa_supplicant# pwd
/etc/wpa_supplicant

root@raspberrypi:/etc/wpa_supplicant# ls -lrt wpa_supplicant.conf
-rw------- 1 root root 382 Dec  6 22:57 wpa_supplicant.conf

This is then a good link to configure DVAP Node software and DCS Gateway software:

http://digitography.co.uk/digitographyblog/?p=397

Last thing.. this whole setup needs to boot by itself and get up and running without keyboard, mouse and monitor.

By default ircDDBgateway and DVAP Node software boots up when the power is applied and lxde UI is running.

This needs to be changed. 

Since Application Launcher is removed from the image this cannot be done in GUI. So, I did it at platform level.

This is where:

root@raspberrypi:/home/pi/.config/autostart# pwd

/home/pi/.config/autostart

root@raspberrypi:/home/pi/.config/autostart# ls -lrt

total 12

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  86 Nov 25 12:58 start_modem.desktop

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 101 Dec  9 13:29 start_gateway.desktop.bak

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  91 Dec  9 13:32 start_gateway.desktop

I made a backup and edited the start_gateway.desktop script.

root@raspberrypi:/home/pi/.config/autostart# cat start_modem.desktop

[Desktop Entry]

Type=Application

Exec=sudo /home/pi/Hotspot/Repeater/DVAPNode/dvapnoderoot@raspberrypi:/home/pi/.config/autostart#

root@raspberrypi:/home/pi/.config/autostart# cat start_gateway.desktop

[Desktop Entry]

Type=Application

Exec=sudo /home/pi/Hotspot/Repeater/DCSGateway/dcsgateway

root@raspberrypi:/home/pi/.config/autostart# cat start_gateway.desktop.bak

[Desktop Entry]

Type=Application

Exec=sudo /home/pi/Hotspot/ircDDBGateway/ircDDBGateway/ircddbgatewayroot@raspberrypi:/home/pi/.config/autostart#

So, that's it - bring 5V with you - 1.2A should be enough - your 3G phone as a accesspoint and your DV-Radio and you are QRV on DSTAR wherever you have access to 3G.. 

Good luck.