Common Receiver Setup problem / old documentation

Dear admins,

it seems I have the same problem as in this post .
I checked the router, but there is no fix DNS set, so it should be working.
However: "nslookup opensky" returns "non-existent domain".

On top the documentation seems old:
On the SD card there was no folder "opensky" that should contain config.txt and according to the screenshot also an "serial.txt".

So I created the folder and the config.txt, but I am not sure what went wrong.
I can't identify the receiver, which is a pitty, as I bought it and even the mexican customs charged me a payment for the antenna (as they checked me on immigration).

I hope that someone helps me, as it would be nice to set up the first receiver in Mexico City.
Thanks a lot,
best regards,
Tobias

Since in the forum nobody replied I was in the lucky situation, that one friendly IT admin of Opensky Network answered me by email.
I will share this response here.

My E-Mail request 03.06.2020: (translated from German to English)

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There was no "opensky" directory on my SD card, so I created one and created the described config.txt.
According to the screenshot, there should also be a serial.txt whose
I don't know the content.

Nslookup opensky also displays the message in the Windows terminal
"Non-existent domain", so none of this seems to work.

What can I do?
My impression is that the documentary is no longer completely up to date.

The admins answer (also translated to english):

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which receiver do you have? I assume you have the kit. Only you also quoted something from the radarcape, so I'd better ask again before we talk past each other

my answer again:

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Thanks for your quick reply.
Yes, I have the kit, photos of the instructions attached.

Unfortunately, it does not match the file structure of the card.
Think that many would look forward to an update in the forum.

Admins response:

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I never worked with the kit myself and I didn't have my fingers in it. So apart from the fact that my software from me is on it, it doesn't have much to do with me.

So now I have to find out what's going on myself.
So next question: Windows or Linux?

If I see that correctly, there is an SD card in the kit.
Next question: you simply put it into your PC, but the boot partition does not contain the "opensky" folder, which should actually be there?
Is everything else as far as available as in the screenshots on github?

Maybe someone has put the wrong SD card with them. So if you can answer the questions above, I would look into it.

my reply:

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thanks for the questions I could have asked myself.
The system I used to edit the map files was an Android system connected via Windows.
Since it was not booted from it, it shouldn't matter.

The base directory was included as described, the number and naming of the files was correct.
Only the mentioned subdirectory "opensky", which should have a config file (and more ??), was completely missing.

Thank you for your efforts

admin:

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So I guess there is something in the delivery of the SD card
went wrong.

It's best to do the steps like here github.com/openskynetwork/receiver-kit/b...dating-your-receiver
described, and so sets up the SD again.

The image linked there definitely has an opensky folder in
the boot partition and in it also the config.txt and serial.txt, got that
I just verified again.

my response (now):

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Thank you.
Then I probably have to order a card adapter from Amazon to be able to access the file structure without an Android phone.
Because maybe it also has to do with the boot partition on the card.

Nevertheless, as a little feedback (please pass it on to others):
- Accessing an SD card is not necessarily the easiest, because very few PCs have an adapter for it.
- An adapter for the small SD cards in a large slot (which many PCs have) probably costs less than one euro.

My suggestion would be to make the kit more expensive according to this euro, but to deliver the adapter at the same time.
This saves everyone who wants to set up the research and the many steps of setting up and tedious map access, which many will realize via Android - just because there is no adapter.

-- another question:
Can't you just make a zip file with all the files available for download somewhere? We are not talking about huge amounts of data, but only a few files. You can also save yourself the whole back and forth formatting with disk image, because the images are not so easy to use for non-IT people.
Simply a ZIP with the files, gladly already prepared in the directory structure, and everyone (if he has an adapter) should get it on the card without any problems.

Or do I just imagine that?

Thank you very much for the effort,
will order an adapter and hopefully get the kit up and running next time in July ...

I had the same issue for the kit received yesterday.
the opensKy folder was missing in the SD card to I had to update the firmware to ensure everything was OK.

Maybe someone can help me. I have a radarcape and I can login to it using a browser and ssh. In the browser login I have enabled feeder to opensky-network. I have also registered the mac address of the radarcape with opensky-network. However, my unit is still showing as "offline" in MyOpenSky. I don't believe I have any outgoing ports blocked on my router. Any advice would be appreciated.
Bogman.

Here is the last response from the programmer, very useful:

about zip: you can imagine the whole thing like this:
A partition table is created on an SD card and in it a FAT partition for / boot and an EXT partition for / (the main directory for the Linux system, as well as the drive C: under Windows).
Then everything is installed and at the end an image (i.e. a file) of the card is created, which then contains exactly these 3 things (2 partitions with the corresponding table).
Since this file is then forever large (I think 2GiB), we compressed it with xz, because it achieves a very good compression rate and (at least under Linux!) Is a standard format.

Here I agree with you: xz is not so Windows-friendly, we could rather throw this image into a zip, which will not reach the size of xz, but there are more tools for it, or if I remember correctly , it is even integrated into Windows.

Otherwise you see things too simply: the "few files" you see are just this boot partition. There are some very important things to start the system and also the configuration.

However, the whole system resides on the EXT partition, which you cannot access with Windows because Windows cannot do this file system. This is exactly why Windows always asks if it should format the disk.

You can't change that to FAT either, because FAT also cannot file rights, which are very important under Linux.

In short: there is no file system that you can edit under Windows and from which you can boot under Linux. At least not without opening a barrel of other, even greater, vulnerabilities to errors.

Therefore there is the separation with the / boot as FAT: it is only there that even Windows users can do something with it. Without this restriction, we (or Raspbian, that's the basis of it) wouldn't need a separate partition for / boot.

The bottom line is that it is not enough for you to just create the directory opensky and create the files in it, since this is only configuration: If, I suspect, you somehow got the wrong card, the corresponding card will probably be Software in / file system is missing.

And therefore unfortunately you have to go the long way and download the compressed image, decompress it and write it raw on the card. Since Windows has no integration for such things, it is unfortunately quite complex, yes.

About the SD card slot: So I think that a lot of current computers have an SD card slot, just think of all the digital cameras. The problem is more the Micro-SD -> SD adapter. I have no control over what is included in the kit. The kits are all packaged at the shop, so there won't be much change.

And: the documentation itself is not outdated. If you are not getting the wrong card like you are, the card contains exactly the image that you can download from the website.

And the documentation fits this image exactly. The whole thing is already older (around 2018) and you could certainly update the image, but it works on the whole. And since we all do it voluntarily and many of us today have far less time than 2,3,4,5 years ago, you will have to be patient with "beauty OPs".

Don't get it wrong: I don't interpret your problem as a blemish. I really don't know how your card can be wrong, but I also have no insight into the deployment process. As I said: I'm just the type who wrote the software years ago

Here how to make the update: opensky-network.org/forum/receiver-setup...ent-is-outdated#1278