TheTechMaker

Tag: Linux

  • How to Install Arch Linux From Scratch

    In this guide, I will be showing you how to install Arch Linux from scratch. You can do this on a physical machine, but I will be doing it on a virtual machine.

    What is Arch Linux?

    Arch Linux is a minimal Linux distro that is meant for power users and advanced programmers. It does not come with a built-in installer, so we will have to install it manually.

    Downloading the ISO

    First, head to the Arch Linux downloads page, scroll down until you find the download mirrors, and then choose a link to download, preferably from your country so you get the fastest download speed.

    VM Configuration

    If you are installing Arch Linux on physical hardware and you are not using a VM to install Arch, skip this section.

    If you are on VirtualBox, there should be an Arch Linux preset. If you are on VMware, select Other Linux 5.x Kernel (64-bit).

    Giving your VM 8 GB of RAM is a lot more than needed, but if you are going to be using Arch for power-intensive tasks and don’t mind the VM taking up all your host’s RAM, go for whatever fits for you as long as it meets the system requirements of 512 MB minimum, but 2 GB recommended for streamlined daily use.

    Now, give your VM any amount of storage you feel fitting, but make sure it meets the system requirements of 1 GB minimum, but 20 GB recommended.

    If you want things to go a little faster on your Arch Linux VM, giving it two processors is recommended. One processor should be enough, though.

    If you plan on installing a desktop environment, enable 3D acceleration and give a reasonable amount of VRAM to the guest OS.

    And lastly, make sure the CD drive is set to read as the ISO you just downloaded.

    Making a Bootable USB

    If you are using a VM, skip this section.

    Use a tool like Rufus to flash the Arch Linux ISO to a flash drive. Then plug it into the system you want to install Arch Linux to. This guide does not cover dual-booting and assumes you do not have an existing OS installed on your system.

    Boot Priority Configuration

    Make sure the hard disk is the first on the boot priority list. This is not required; it just makes the final step of the installation a lot quicker.

    You can do this in the VM’s settings, the UEFI firmware settings, or the BIOS interface.

    Starting the System

    If you are on a VM, start it up. If you are on hardware, plug in the thumb drive that you flashed the ISO to and start the machine.

    You should see an Arch Linux splash screen. Whichever entry comes first in the list is likely the one that boots to Arch (the name of the entry changes, but typically goes along the lines of “Boot Arch Linux (x86_64)”). Select Boot Arch Linux, or the entry that does so, and click Enter.

    After running some tests, you should be dropped into a root Linux shell. Do not remove your thumb drive or installation media, as we have not installed Arch yet and need to do so using the thumb drive.

    Accessing the Internet

    Let’s check if we have connection to the internet by running the command below (“google.com” can be replaced with a website of your choice):

    Bash
    ping google.com

    You should see packets return. If you do, this means you have online access, which is a necessity for this installation. You can hit Control + C to stop pinging the website.

    If you are on a Virtual Machine with no internet, try making sure that you have host internet access, and then try enabling the network adapter in the VMware or VirtualBox settings.

    If you are on a physical machine without internet, try using an Ethernet cable, but below you will know how to use iwctl to connect to a Wi-Fi network.

    Using iwctl to Connect to a Wi-Fi Network

    This part of the guide should only be followed if you do not have Internet access and want to use a wireless internet connection instead of a wired one.

    Run the command below to open the iNet Wireless Daemon CTL.

    Bash
    iwctl
    Expected Output
    [iwd]#

    Now, you can list the wireless adapters using the command below.

    Bash
    device list

    You should see a device called wlan0. It is best to go forward using that one, but you can select another wireless adapter if you know what you are doing. If you do not have that device, then you do not have a wireless adapter plugged into the computer, the device is connected but under a different name (which is unlikely), or the computer does not recognize it.

    Use the command below to list all the wireless networks found using that device. You can replace wlan0 with the adapter you chose earlier.

    Bash
    station wlan0 get-networks

    You should see a list of networks. Take note of the network’s SSID you want to connect to. Then, you can run the command below to connect to the wireless network, replacing “WirelessNet” with the SSID of your wireless network and wlan0 with the wireless adapter you want to connect to the network using.

    Bash
    station wlan0 connect WirelessNet

    After typing in the Wi-Fi password (if needed), you may now connect to the network. You can test your connection by using ping google.com and waiting for packets to return. If none return, then you might have done something incorrectly when setting up the network.

    Setting NTP Time

    Now that we have our network up and running, we can enable network time using the command below:

    Bash
    timedatectl set-ntp true

    Partitioning

    Now comes the tricky part. We have to partition our drives manually, so make sure to follow my steps carefully.

    Run the below command to get a summary of all the partitions on your drive.

    Bash
    lsblk

    Make sure you choose the right disk to partition, as choosing the wrong one will destroy all of your data. Run the below command to set up partitioning, replacing /dev/sda with the name of the disk you want to format and install Arch Linux on.

    As for the label type, it depends what your needs are. If you are installing to a new physical system with a disk size larger than 2TB, select gpt and hit Enter. If you either don’t have a physical system to install Arch to or are installing Arch to a disk smaller than 2TB, use dos. Now, at the menu with drives listed, select the free space and click New. When asked for your partition size, enter the amount needed for your bootloader. If you will be using the GRUB bootloader, enter 128M and hit Enter. If not, specify the amount needed for your bootloader.

    Now, select the newly created partition and hit B to make the selected drive bootable.

    Select the free space, and click New. The size should automatically default to the remaining storage on your drive. Make the partition fill up the rest of the drive, and click Enter to create the partition. You should not make this partition bootable.

    Many people prefer creating home and swap partitions but these are mostly considered redundant nowdays.

    Select Write and click Enter, then select Quit and click Enter.

    There is only one problem left to solve now – the drives are not in the format of ext4. To solve this, run the commands below, replacing /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 with the names your newly created boot and OS partitions.

    Bash
    mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2

    Mounting our Partitions

    Now that we are done with arguably the hardest part of Arch installation, we need to mount our drives, which is where the preparation ends and the actual installation starts.

    To begin, lets mount our root partition (the partition that is not bootable, /dev/sda2 in my case) to a mount point (this can be anything you want, but traditionally this has always been /mnt. I will be using /mnt, as I do not see any reason to stray from tradition in my case). We can do this using the command below.

    Bash
    mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

    In our mount point, let’s create a folder called boot to mount our other drive to.

    Bash
    mkdir /mnt/boot

    Now, let’s mount our boot partition (the one that we flagged bootable earlier, /dev/sda1 in my case) to the folder we just created.

    Bash
    mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

    To see if we did everything correctly, we can run the command below.

    Bash
    lsblk

    In the output, you should be able to see partitions under the drive /dev/sda and their respective mount points.

    Installing Arch Using pacstrap

    Now, we can begin installing system files to Arch.

    We can use pacstrap to install Arch Linux and some other packages we want pacstrap to bundle in with our Arch installation. Replace /mnt with the mount point you mounted your root drive to, and vim with some other text editor that you prefer and some other pre-installed packages you want on Arch.

    Bash
    pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware vim

    Below ae explanations of some of the packages:

    • Base: This package contains basic tools that you would want no matter which Linux distribution you are installing.
    • Base-Devel: This contains developer tools such as compilers, which are needed for some Linux components.
    • Linux: This is the core Linux kernel that runs everything behind the scenes.
    • Linux-Firmware: This contains firmware that makes Arch compatible with common hardware
    • Vim: This can be replaced with any text editor. There is some text editing we are going to have to do, so we need a text editor.

    Once pacstrap exits, we can generate an fstab file that lists all the drives Linux could try booting from.

    Generating our FSTab File

    This is extremely easy to do. Run the command below, replacing /mnt with the mount point you specified earlier.

    Bash
    genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

    What the command should do is write a FSTab file to the drives. The -U flag makes the file reference drives by UUID instead of drive name. This is good because drive names may change in the future, which could mess up your boot configuration if you don’t reference drives by UUID, as UUID never changes.

    Jumping to our Arch Installation

    It is finally time to change from our installation medium to our disk. Do not remove your installation medium until the end of this guide. You might need it if something breaks.

    Bash
    arch-chroot /mnt /bin/bash

    After this command, do not reboot yet. We still have to install our boot manager.

    Installing Basic Components

    Now that we are in Arch, we have access to the Pacman package manager. We can use it to install basic components like a network manager for accessing the internet, and a boot manager so we can boot into the system. I will be installing GRUB as a boot manager, but you can install something else.

    Use the command below to install these components.

    Bash
    pacman -S networkmanager grub

    Configuring the Network Manager to Run on Startup

    If we want internet at boot, we are going to have to enable NetworkManager’s system service. we can do this using the command below.

    Bash
    systemctl enable NetworkManager

    Configuring the GRUB Boot Manager

    Now, we have to configure what our system boots using. When we ran the Pacman command, we downloaded GRUB, but we did not install or configure it. Let’s install GRUB using the command below, replacing /dev/sda with whatever drive you are using to install Arch. We are not going to be using /dev/sda1 or /dev/sda2 because it is critical that you install it to the drive, not the drive partition.

    Bash
    grub-install /dev/sda

    Now, we can make a GRUB configuration file using the command below.

    Bash
    grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

    Take a look at the output and make sure that it says both an initrd image and a Linux image were found. If it does not find these images, the most likely cause is incorrectly installing the Linux kernel using pacstrap.

    Setting a Password

    Now, run the command below to create a password for your root user.

    Bash
    passwd

    Configuring Locales and Timezones

    Use the command below to enter the locale configuration file, replacing vim with whatever text editor you installed earlier.

    Bash
    vim /etc/locale.gen

    Now, use the arrow keys or the scroll wheel to scroll down to the locale you want to use. I will be using United States English, so I will scroll down to en_US and uncomment (remove the # before) both the UTF and ISO formats. If you are using Vim, you might have to hit the I key on your keyboard before you can actually type anything.

    Write the file and exit your text editor. To write and exit Vim, we can hit the Escape key on our keyboard and type :wq.

    Now that we have our locales configured, we have to apply the changes by generating the locales. We can do this using the command below.

    Bash
    locale-gen

    Now, we also have to create a file called locale.conf to define our language in. Use the command below, once again replacing vim with your desired text editor.

    Bash
    vim /etc/locale.conf

    In the file, type LANG=en-US.UTF-8, once again replacing en-US with whatever locale you are using. Exit Vim.

    Now that we have the timezones prepared, we have to link them to make our system clock show the right timezone. Type ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo and click Tab. This will list all the broadest timezones. Keep making the directories more specific, hitting Tab to see the available options every time, and after you are done typing a city, hit Space and type /etc/localtime.

    Setting Our Hostname

    Now, we can set our hostname. This is the name that the Arch machine will use to communicate with other devices over your network. By default, your hostname is archiso. If you are happy with that and don’t want to change it, you can skip this section.

    Use your prefered text editor to create /etc/hostname. Do not include a file extension. Type whatever you want your system hostname to be, and exit.

    Unmounting Our Disk

    Now, we can exit our chroot jail by using the command below.

    Bash
    exit

    Now would be a good time to check and make sure your hard drive is first boot priority. Make sure that when you return, you are in your installation medium and not in the actual Arch installation.

    Unmount our Arch installation with the command below, replacing /mnt with the mount point you specified earlier.

    Bash
    umount -R /mnt

    Now, we can boot into our new installation of Arch Linux using the command below. Once you have booted in, you may remove the installation medium.

    Bash
    reboot
  • Using the Raspberry Pi to Feed to FlightRadar24, FlightAware, and ADS-B Exchange

    Using the Raspberry Pi to Feed to FlightRadar24, FlightAware, and ADS-B Exchange

    In this post, I will be showing you how to start feeding flight data to three services: Flightradar24, ADS-B Exchange, and FlightAware. This post may be helpful to some of you who want to run your own flight feeder, and can’t tell which is a better service to feed to.

    The main benefit of running your own Raspberry Pi flight tracker is that you will get paid accounts for free. For example, you will get a free FlightAware enterprise account, a subscription valued at around $89.95 a month. FlightRadar24 will also give you a free business plan, which costs $49.99 a month. If you also want to support non-proprietary websites, you can also give flight data to ADS-B Exchange.

    What you will need (hardware)

    Below are the parts you will need:

    Raspberry Pi 3B (x1, required)

    The Raspberry Pi will be our microcontroller (This also works with other models, just not the Zero or the Pico; you can see FlightAware’s compatibility list here)

    Buy Now for $184

    ADS-B Dongle (x1, required)

    This will pick up ADS-B signals from nearby aircraft.

    Buy Now for $25

    MicroSD Card (at least 8GB, x1, required)

    The Raspberry Pi will be our microcontroller.

    Buy Now for $7

    Flashing our PiAware image

    To begin the installation, we will have to first start feeding to FlightAware. To begin, first, create an account at their website, or log in at their website.

    Now download the PiAware image (direct download for 7.2), and download Etcher. Then flash Etcher to your device using the PiAware ISO.

    Note that you must select the correct drive, as this will erase your drive.

    Configuring the ISO

    If you want to enable SSH on your PiAware, or you have a wireless network configuration that you want to set (this will be typically everyone, unless you are using an ethernet cable on your Raspberry Pi), you must follow the below steps to configure the new operating system to use your configurations. You can refer to the configurations at FlightAware’s Website, or you could not set a default configuration, and once the PiAware has booted up, configure it using Bluetooth.

    Booting it up

    Now, you can put it all together! Connect your ADS-B antenna to your Raspberry Pi via USB, and then put the SD card through the back. Then, plug in the HDMI cable (and ethernet if you are going to be using it), and power it on.

    Now, once the Raspberry Pi has booted up, you should see a screen showing the PiAware Status. If you did this correctly, it should be connected. You will also need to connect a keyboard if you do not know your PiAware’s IP address. If it asks you for credentials, the default is pi for username, and raspberry for password.

    Setting up the FlightAware feeder

    Now we get to the fun part! Now, we set up the feeders. Let’s start off with the FlightAware feeder. Since we flashed the custom ISO file, FlightAware is going to be installed, just not set linked to an account. Create a basic plan FlightAware account at their website if you don’t already have one, and claim your PiAware. Once that is set up, make sure you are connected to the same network as your PiAware. It will come in handy for later. Once you do that, make sure you are still on the status page on your PiAware, click Alt+F2 (or whatever key it says to press to open the terminal and run commands). If it asks you for credentials, the default is pi for username, and raspberry for the password (unless it is set otherwise, of course). Now run the following command:

    BASH

hostname -I

    This should return your Pi’s IP address. Now, on another device, navigate to your IP address on the SkyAware page. For example, if my Pi’s IP address is 192.168.1.1, I will navigate to the following website:

    URL

http://192.168.1.1/skyaware

    After that, you should see a map with all the aircraft you are tracking. You have successfully set up FlightAware! After some time, your basic account will be upgraded, and you can view your ADS-B statistics.

    Setting up FlightRadar24

    Now, open the terminal and run the following command:

    BASH

sudo bash -c "$(wget -O - http://repo.feed.flightradar24.com/install_fr24_rpi.sh)"

    You will then be asked some questions about antenna position, fr24 sharing key, and other things.

    Now, we need to configure FlightRadar24. To begin, sign up for an account at their official website. Note that all you need to do is sign up for a free account and do not select any paid plans. This is because your account will automatically be upgraded at the end of this tutorial.

    Run the following command to enter configuration:

    BASH

sudo fr24feed --signup

    You will be asked questions about you and the antenna that you are using. Answer the questions similar to the ones below:

    • Email Address: Enter the same email address you used to sign up for FlightRadar24. This is the same email address that your sharing key will be sent to, and the same email address that your account on will be upgraded.
    • FR24 Sharing key: If you have never set up a feeder or have never got a sharing key from FlightRadar24, leave this blank. If not, enter your FlightRadar24 sharing key.
    • Participating in MLAT Calculations: Answer yes, unless you know you don’t want it or need it.
    • Autoconfiguration for dump1090 (if asked): Yes
    • Latitude & Longitude: Use a website like latlong.net to find your latitude and longitude. It is best to be as accurate as possible. Enter this question in the form of XX.XXXX and XX.XXXX (leave out any extra numbers).
    • Altitude: This is your altitude from sea level. You can use whatismyelevation.com to find your altitude.
    • Receiver Selection: If you are using a DVB-T (the type I put in the parts list) stick then I strongly recommend option 1. If you encounter an error regarding dump1090 in this tutorial, restart the tutorial and click option 4. If you do not have a DVB-T stick, check out your other options.
    • Dump1090 Arguments (if asked): Leave this blank and hit enter.
    • Raw Data Feed: No, unless you know what you are doing.
    • Basestation Data feed: No unless you know what you are doing.
    • Logfile Mode: 48-hour, 24 rotation.
    • Logfile Path: This will be the path that the log file is saved to. If you want to use a custom path for logs, put it here. If not, stick with the default and hit enter.

    FlightRadar24’s configuration should return that everything is correctly set up. The program should also give you a sharing key. Save this key as you may need it later in the future.

    To begin feeding ADS-B data to FlightRadar24, enter the command below. Note that MLAT or general feeding might take some time to show up. For me, it took 30 minutes before the feeder was actively sending data to FlightRadar24:

    BASH

sudo systemctl restart fr24feed

    You can go to the data page and view your feeder statistics. If you want to access the web UI for FlightRadar24, then go to your Raspberry Pi’s IP address (remember, you can access it with sudo hostname -I), and access it via a web browser on port 8754, unless set otherwise. For example, my Raspberry Pi’s IP address is 192.168.1.252, so I access it by using http://192.168.1.252:8754.

    Also, it is important to note that it may take some time for the receiver to start working and sending data. For me, it took 30 minutes before flight data was sent to the services I was feeding to.

    Setting up MLAT for FlightAware

    If you want to set up MLAT configurations on FlightAware (we highly recommend doing so, it can increase the amount of positions seen), then follow our steps.

    First, go to your FlightAware data sharing page and clcik the gear icon next to the nearest airport, labeled in orange.

    Then, enable MLAT and Mode S Alliteration. Put in the same details as you did for FlightRadar24, or new details if you have to.

    Setting up ADS-B Exchange

    First, we need to download ADS-B Exchange. You can do that with the following command:

    BASH

sudo bash -c "$(wget -nv -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adsbxchange/adsb-exchange/master/install.sh)"

    You will be asked a couple questions. For the first one, type in a random username, but note that this username will be public. Next, enter the details it asks for, and it will begin configuring. Note that this may take a while.

    Next, run the following command:

    BASH

sudo bash /usr/local/share/adsbexchange/git/install-or-update-interface.sh

    The script should output a sharing key. You can use this to view your feeder statistics at the official website of ADS-B Exchange. You should also be able to access your web interface on the adsbx page. This will be your Raspberry Pi’s IP address, with /adsbx at the end. For me, the URL was http://192.168.1.252/adsbx.

    Aftermath

    PiAware status (FlightAware)
    SkyAware Map (FlightAware)
    Data sharing Page (FlightAware)
    Flight map (tar1090) (ADS-B Exchange)
    Status Page (FlightRadar24)
    Data sharing page (FlightRadar24)

  • How to make permanent bash aliases and bash functions

    In the last post, I covered how to make bash aliases. However, creating bash aliases with the alias command only lets you create bash aliases for the current session. For example, if I were to use alias hi="echo hi" to make a bash alias that connects hi with the command echo hi, and then exited the terminal session, all the bash aliases would reset. However, there is a way to make them permanent.

    Creating Permanent Bash aliases

    To make Bash aliases permanent, you will need to add lines to the ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc file. Once you find out that file, open it with the text editor of your choice. I prefer nano.

    Make sure to run the below command after you are done modifying those files:

    BASH SHELL
source ~/.bash_profile

    The below commands are how you get into the file.

    BASH SHELL
cd ~
nano .bashrc

    Then add your aliases.

    BASH CONFIGURATION
# Aliases
# alias alias_name="command_to_run"


# If you are new to the shell, note that the Linux system ignores lines that start with '#' so this line does not mean anything to Linux

# Long format list
alias ll="ls -la"

# Print my public IP
alias myip="curl ipinfo.io/ip"

# That 'hi' example from earlier
alias hi="echo hi"

    Now when you reboot your Linux system, the Bash aliases should still work.

    Bash aliases with command arguments (Bash functions)

    Sometimes you may need to create a Bash alias that will change depending on certain values or will accept arguments. The syntax for Bash functions is relatively easy. They can be declared in two separate formats. It is preferred to declare functions using the ~/.bashrc file.

    TIP: If you want your .bashrc file to be more modular, you can store your aliases in a separate folder. Some distributions of Linux like Ubuntu or Debian include a separate .bash_aliases file.

    The syntax is below. Way 1 is the preferred way and the most used one.

    Way 1 (Multi-Line):

    BASH CONFIGURATION
function_name () {
  commandsToRun
}

    Way 1 (Single-Line):

    BASH CONFIGURATION
function_name () { commandsToRun; }

    Way 2 uses the keyword of function, and then the function name, and after that the commands to run. The code below demonstrates way 2 (multi-line):

    BASH CONFIGURATION
function function_name {
  commandsToRun
}

    Way 2 (Single-Line):

    BASH CONFIGURATION
function function_name { commandsToRun; }

    A few things that are nice to know:

    • The commands that the function will run are between the curly braces ({}). This is called the body of the function. The curly braces must be separated from the body by newlines or spaces. In this case, function A {commandsToRun;} or A () {commandsToRun;} will not work, but something like function A { commandsToRun; } or A () { commandsToRun; } which has spaces separating the body of the function from the function data will.
    • Simply defining a function will not execute it. If you want to invoke or execute a bash function simply use the name of the function. The body of the function is executed when you invoke it in the shell script.
    • You must define the function before calling or executing it.

    You can pass any number of arguments in a function. If you want to call a Bash function right after the function’s name, separated by a space. The passed parameters can be referenced with $1, $2, $3, $4, etc., corresponding to the position of the argument after the name of the function when it is executed. Below is a simple bash function that will create a directory and then navigate into it:

    BASH/SH
mkcd () {
  mkdir -p -- "$1" && cd -p -- "$1"
}

    Same as aliases, make sure to add the Bash functions in the ~/.bashrc file and run source ~/.bash_profile to make the changes take effect.

    Now instead of having to make a directory using mkdir and then move into that directory using cd, you can simply use our mkcd function:

    BASH SHELL
mkcd testDirectory

    A few things that you need to know:

    • The -- makes sure that Linux does not get confused and parse the folder name as an argument. If you have a folder that starts with -, Linux might parse it as an argument.
    • The && ensures that the second command runs only if the first one is successful.

    Final Note

    By now you should have a good understanding of how Bash aliases and functions work. This should help you be more productive on the command line.

    If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment on this post.

  • How to Create Bash Aliases in Linux, and How They Work

    If you are like me, you will often find yourself typing long, bulky, and hard-to-remember commands in the Linux terminal, and if not, I will almost always find myself searching the bash history for a long command I typed earlier. If you are also like me, this is where bash aliases come in handy. Bash aliases are like shortcuts, short, quick replacements for long, bulky commands. For example, you can use rmopwrt instead of opkg remove --force-remove --force-removal-of-dependent-packages ppp ppp-mod-pppoe odhcpd-ipv6only dnsmasq hostapd-common luci luci-ssl-openssl luci-base lua luci-app-firewall luci-lib-ip luci-lib-jsonc luci-lib-nixio luci-proto-ipv6 luci-proto-ppp luci-theme-bootstrap uhttpd uhttpd-mod-ubus. In this post, I will show you how to create bash aliases in Linux, so you can save time on the command line, and be more productive.

    Creating Bash Aliases

    Creating bash aliases is very easy and straightforward. The basic command is as follows:

    BASH SHELL

alias whatever_you_want_your_alias_to_be_called="command_to_run"

    However, like always, make sure not to use spaces in the name, else Linux will think it is a command argument, and the alias command does not take any. When you create an alias, you type “alias”, followed by your alias name, an equal sign without spaces, and then, without spaces, in quotes, what command the alias should run. In the case above, running whatever_you_want_your_alias_to_be_called will do the same thing as running command_to_run.

    Let us try another example.

    BASH SHELL

alias myip="hostname -I"

    When you run myip, you will get the same output as running hostname -I.

    Done!