How to run C-Gate under Linux with PCI

Folks, I've written a howto detailing C-Gate under Linux with a PCI instead of CNI.

Hope someone out there finds this useful.

Any revelations, issues or comments, post to this thread.

 

linux jar file

Thanks for the info. Do you just need the .jar file from the window's download or is there a special one for Linux
Tonyo

 

Re: Linux jar file

The jar file in the Windows works just fine.

JC

 

Help with networks.txt

Hi all,


I've pretty much followed the instructions given above, but get stuck when it comes to the 'networks.txt' file.


I do not have one - at all.


I believe that without this file, my Fedora Core3 cannot figure out how to find the interface.


Any and all help will be appreciated.



(no more smiliies)

 

The current version of C-Gate doesn't need the network.txt file anymore. The best thing to do is to:

A) Edit your access.txt file to allow your Windows computer running Toolkit to access the linux machine (Running C-Gate). This is done by adding the line "interface [IP-Address] Program" (without the quotes) and [IP-Address] is the IP Address of the Windows machine e.g. 192.168.0.3

B) Run the C-gate on the Linux Machine.

C) Run C-Bus Toolkit in the Windows machine and connect to the remote Linux C-Gate machine. Do this by closing any open connections (File|Disconnect project Repository) and opening a connection ot the linux machine (File|Connect to remote repository). You can add a new site here and give it the IP address of the Linux machine (e.g. 192.168.0.1).

D) now configure a project with all the correct network connections etc... (I will assume the new project is called "PROJ" for this example.

E) Now disconnect from C-gate in C-bus Toolkit.

F) Close C-Gate on the linux machine.

G) To make the configured project automatically load and connect in C-Gate, edit the C-GateConfig.txt file. Find the following options and set them to the project you created.

project.default=PROJ
project.start=PROJ

H) Restart C-Gate, it will now automatically load the project and connect to the network(s) defined in that project.

 

Many many thanks for the guidance.

Your advice got my site working.


For those that may follow down this road, the only trick I had to work out myself was in the access.txt file, using a space seperator didn't work, but using tabs between each word - did. Go figure!!

 

C-Gate v2.3.25 with Linux

To follow on from JulianC's great work, i've run up the latest C-Gate (2.3.25) that comes with Toolkit 1.1.8 on Linux (Redhat AS4) for those who are keen... some points to note -

1. seems to require java version 1.5+ in order to operate, hence download from Sun.

root@rhel4:~ # java -version
java version "1.5.0_05"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_05-b05)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_05-b05, mixed mode, sharing)

2. in order to use JulianC's startup script, create a sym link to the java binary eg. ln -s /usr/java/jre1.5.0_05/bin/java /usr/bin/java

3. it appears to want to find cis.key hence create a key directory under
/home/cgate and place cis.ks in there eg.

root@rhel4:/home/cgate/key # ll
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6599 Oct 17 12:44 cis.ks

4. to autoload a project file, as per JulianC's instructions, however place .xml project file under a directory of tag eg.

root@rhel4:/home/cgate/tag # ll
total 196
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 168805 Oct 17 14:15 lbot.xml

5. network.txt is no longer used, hence i created a vanilla project file in Toolkit with just an interface to my CNI module... copy the .xml project file into the tag directory, and auto start by setting the default.project in the C-GateConfig.txt file. Note, place the config files under a config directory eg.

root@rhel4:/home/cgate/config # ll
total 28
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 351 Oct 17 12:22 access.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16409 Oct 17 15:46 C-GateConfig.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 272 Oct 17 12:07 C-groups.txt


--<Ramon>--

 

Redhat Chkconfig startup script...

a Redhat linux chkconfig script to start/stop/restart c-gate ...

#!/bin/bash
# Hacked by Ramon, October 2005
#
# chkconfig: 2345 26 74
# description: C-Gate is the Clipsal JAVA utility that typicall interfaces with the CNI
# C-BUS2 module. C-Gate provides a Telnet type interface (on port 20023) that
# can be used to issue C-BUS control commands to eg. on 256/56/63.
#
# To install:
# copy this file to /etc/rc.d/init.d/cgate
# shell> chkconfig --add cgate
#
# To uninstall:
# run: chkconfig --del cgate

# Author's Notes:
#
# Once installed, you can also start and stop C-Gate with "service cgate start" and "service
# cgate stop". In addition you can do "service cgate reload" and "service cgate status".
#
# Source function library.
. /etc/init.d/functions
#

HOST="$HOSTNAME"
JAVARE="/usr/bin/java"
CGATEDIR="/home/cgate"
CGATEJAR="$CGATEDIR/cgate.jar"
CGATEPID="$CGATEDIR/cgate.pid"
LOGFILE="/var/log/messages"

#
# Check if Java binary & cgate.jar exists
if ! [ -f $CGATEJAR ]
then
echo "C-Gate JAR not found at $CGATEJAR"
exit 0
fi

if ! [ -f $JAVARE ]
then
echo "Java not found at $JAVARE"
exit 0
fi

start() {
echo "Starting C-Gate Server on $HOST"
echo ""
cd $CGATEDIR
$JAVARE -jar -noverify $CGATEJAR &
echo "C-Gate PID: " $!
echo $! > $CGATEPID

RETVAL=$?
echo

if [ $RETVAL = 0 ]; then
echo "--------------"
echo "$(date) C-Gate start successful! (RETVAL=$RETVAL)"
echo "$(date) C-Gate successful! (RETVAL=$RETVAL)" >> $LOGFILE
else
echo "--------------"
echo "$(date) C-Gate start failed. (RETVAL=$RETVAL)"
echo "$(date) C-Gate start failed. (RETVAL=$RETVAL)" >> $LOGFILE
fi

# exit $RETVAL

}

stop() {

shift
echo "$(date) C-Gate killing PID: `cat $CGATEPID`"
echo "---------------------"
kill -15 `cat $CGATEPID`
rm -f $CGATEPID

RETVAL=$?

echo

if [ $RETVAL = 0 ]; then
echo "--------------"
echo "$(date) C-Gate stop successful! (RETVAL=$RETVAL)"
echo "$(date) C-Gate stop successful! (RETVAL=$RETVAL)" >> $LOGFILE
else
echo "--------------"
echo "$(date) C-Gate stop failed. (RETVAL=$RETVAL)"
echo "$(date) C-Gate stop failed. (RETVAL=$RETVAL)" >> $LOGFILE
fi

# exit $RETVAL

}

restart() {
stop
start
RETVAL=$?
}

status() {
if ! [ -f $CGATEPID ]
then
echo "C-Gate not running."
exit 0
else
echo "C-Gate running with PID: `cat $CGATEPID`"
fi
RETVAL=$?
}

# See how we were called.
case "$1" in
start)
start
;;
stop)
stop
;;
status)
status
;;
restart|reload)
restart
;;
*)
echo "Usage: cgate {start|stop|status|restart|reload|}"
exit 1
esac

exit $RETVAL

 

Interesting

Ramon, thank you, nice work.

Credit for c-gate v2 project autoload procedures should go to Richo.

I've recently revisited c-gate (2.3.25) under linux and could not get it working at all using the rxtx bins mentioned in the doc. (FC3 kernel 2.6.12_1372)

I ended up getting it to work using Sun's commapi v3 for linux, with j2sdk-1.4.2. It needs more testing, but I'll fully document if all works OK.

I'm interested in what version of the rxtx/commapi you used to get it working under jre1.5. I'm also interested as to whether running c-gate under j2sdk-1.4.2 will give dependency problems... anyone?

Julian Conway

 

Guys, any more info to help a newbie on this. I've got C-Gate running on my Fedora Core 3 box. I can connect the toolkit. But I can't connect to the network as I don't know what to call the Serial port. I've tried ttyS0, /dev/ttyS0, COM1 all to no avail.

JulianC's original PDF suggests editing networks.txt to fix this, but it seems cgate v2 doesn't use this file any more.

edit: After some more investigation I get the following:

I'm guessing this means I have a problem with my commapi installation?

 

I know it's poor etiquette to bump threads, but I'm still at a loss on how to get C-Gate to see a serial port under my Fedora Core 3 box. I don't know if it's a naming issue (should I be connecting to ttyS0 and not /dev/ttyS0?) or if I have a problem with the JRE not being able to establish any kind off comms (JRE versions, commapi config, etc).

Does anyone have this working with a newish linux kernel who can share their config with me please?

 

Um - quick question about this as I don't think it has been answered. How do you now tell cgate which serial port to use ?

Is it now in an xml file / hard coded into the project file as its not in the networks.txt file ?

Ta

Chris

 

Answering my own question looks like its in the project .xml file under the tag directory.

<Interface xmlns="">
<OID>cb47d6c0-8ddc-1027-9b6a-917f11dd69c2</OID>
<InterfaceType>Serial</InterfaceType>
<InterfaceAddress>COM1</InterfaceAddress>
</Interface>


Simply change it in there I imagine. You can then autoload your project as suggested previously.

Maybe the pdf can be updated to replect this ?

C

 

Finger nearly out

Hi all,

Work has dragged me away from this topic, but I'll soon be setting up a home server (mini-itx form factor), running C-Gate2, amongst other things. Of course, I'll be documenting the process, to be posted in a new thread. Gentoo will be the distribution of choice, however I'll add notes that should cover most distributions.

Julian Conway

 

Has there been any progress on this?

I am trying to get this working on Mandriva 2006.0, which makes it liable to the same sort of problems as FC3, I guess. I've tried following the original instructions verbatim, using C-Gate 1.5 and Java 1.4.2_09, and C-Gate runs fine but can't connect to the network.

I've also downloaded the latest Toolkit (C-Gate version 1.9.6.0 build 1650 according to the included Install.txt, but version 2.5 according to the Clipsal website that I downloaded it from), installed it on Windows, imported the local network, and then copied the relevant C-Gate2 files across onto linux. I've tried running that version of C-Gate with both Java 1.4.2_09 and 1.5.0_05. Again C-Gate runs OK, but in those cases, I get a fatal error when I start passing certain commands ("port list" is a good one for crashing it) at the command interface. I think generally-speaking the exceptions occurred as soon as I tried to communicate with the network.

I'm not entirely clear how many of the packages in the provided lib folder are Windows-only or cross-platform, but if they are in a lib folder below the main cgate folder it seems to call them by preference to packages installed in the java install location, so I've installed as many of the linux equivalents as I could get hold of (for things like xalan, castor, commons-logging etc), and tried moving various combinations (including all) of the provided libs out of the way. That changed where the exception occurred, but did not prevent an exception occurring as soon as I tried to do much more than load a project (which I had created in Windows).

I tried editing the project file to point to /dev/ttyS0 instead of COM1 (which is the correct serial port), but to no avail.

Incidentally, for use with Java 1.4, I got hold of the Solaris/SPARC version of CommAPI, as instructed, but this machine is an AMD64-based machine, running an i586 version of linux, so it isn't obvious that that is the right version to use. But for Java 1.5, I believe I don't need it and I didn't try to use it, so that shouldn't have been the problem with that version, unless the advice in this thread is incorrect.

I don't know if it helps, but below is the contents of exception.info, showing the various exceptions from various permutations of java 1.4 and 1.5 and with more or less of the provided libs available (i've edited out matching exceptions):

-***- C-Gate Server Exception -***-
Version: v2.5.8 (build 2108)
Time: Mon Aug 14 01:46:43 BST 2006
Thread: Thread[Thread-6,4,CGateThreadGroup]
Group: CGateThreadGroup
Exception: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/exolab/castor/xml/MarshalException
Stack Details Below:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/exolab/castor/xml/MarshalException
at bo.b(Unknown Source)
at com.clipsal.cgate.project.Project.d(Unknown Source)
at fH.b(Unknown Source)
at he.a(Unknown Source)
at u.e(Unknown Source)
at u.a(Unknown Source)
at gv.c(Unknown Source)
at df.a(Unknown Source)
at gv.c(Unknown Source)
at bt.a(Unknown Source)
at dk.a(Unknown Source)
at dk.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
-----------------------------------
-***- C-Gate Server Exception -***-
Version: v2.5.8 (build 2108)
Time: Mon Aug 14 01:49:01 BST 2006
Thread: Thread[Thread-8,4,CGateThreadGroup]
Group: CGateThreadGroup
Exception: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/comm/NoSuchPortException
Stack Details Below:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/comm/NoSuchPortException
at com.clipsal.cgate.cbus.net.CBusSerialNetwork.N(Unknown Source)
at com.clipsal.cgate.cbus.core.CBusNetwork.aD(Unknown Source)
at com.clipsal.cgate.cbus.core.CBusNetwork.J(Unknown Source)
at com.clipsal.cgate.cbus.core.CBusNetwork.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
-----------------------------------
-***- C-Gate Server Exception -***-
Version: v2.5.8 (build 2108)
Time: Mon Aug 14 02:07:40 BST 2006
Thread: Thread[Thread-8,4,CGateThreadGroup]
Group: CGateThreadGroup
Exception: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/comm/NoSuchPortException
Stack Details Below:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/comm/NoSuchPortException
at com.clipsal.cgate.cbus.net.CBusSerialNetwork.N(Unknown Source)
at com.clipsal.cgate.cbus.core.CBusNetwork.aD(Unknown Source)
at com.clipsal.cgate.cbus.core.CBusNetwork.J(Unknown Source)
at com.clipsal.cgate.cbus.core.CBusNetwork.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
-----------------------------------
-***- C-Gate Server Exception -***-
Version: v2.5.8 (build 2108)
Time: Mon Aug 14 02:07:50 BST 2006
Thread: Thread[Thread-6,4,CGateThreadGroup]
Group: CGateThreadGroup
Exception: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/comm/CommPortIdentifier
Stack Details Below:
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: javax/comm/CommPortIdentifier
at dc.a(Unknown Source)
at u.e(Unknown Source)
at u.a(Unknown Source)
at gv.c(Unknown Source)
at df.a(Unknown Source)
at gv.c(Unknown Source)
at bt.a(Unknown Source)
at dk.a(Unknown Source)
at dk.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
-----------------------------------
-***- C-Gate Server Exception -***-
Version: v2.5.8 (build 2108)
Time: Mon Aug 14 02:14:00 BST 2006
Thread: Thread[Thread-8,4,CGateThreadGroup]
Group: CGateThreadGroup
Exception: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: isSessionActive
Stack Details Below:
java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: isSessionActive
at com.sun.comm.SunrayInfo.isSessionActive(Native Method)
at com.sun.comm.Portmapping.registerCommPorts(Portmapping.java:155)
at com.sun.comm.Portmapping.refreshPortDatabase(Portmapping.java:100)
at javax.comm.CommPortIdentifier.<clinit>(CommPortIdentifier.java:138)
at com.clipsal.cgate.cbus.net.CBusSerialNetwork.N(Unknown Source)
at com.clipsal.cgate.cbus.core.CBusNetwork.aD(Unknown Source)
at com.clipsal.cgate.cbus.core.CBusNetwork.J(Unknown Source)
at com.clipsal.cgate.cbus.core.CBusNetwork.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534)
-----------------------------------
-***- C-Gate Server Exception -***-
Version: v2.5.8 (build 2108)
Time: Mon Aug 14 02:15:40 BST 2006
Thread: Thread[Thread-6,4,CGateThreadGroup]
Group: CGateThreadGroup
Exception: java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: isSessionActive
Stack Details Below:
java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: isSessionActive
at com.sun.comm.SunrayInfo.isSessionActive(Native Method)
at com.sun.comm.Portmapping.registerCommPorts(Portmapping.java:155)
at com.sun.comm.Portmapping.refreshPortDatabase(Portmapping.java:100)
at javax.comm.CommPortIdentifier.<clinit>(CommPortIdentifier.java:138)
at dc.a(Unknown Source)
at u.e(Unknown Source)
at u.a(Unknown Source)
at gv.c(Unknown Source)
at df.a(Unknown Source)
at gv.c(Unknown Source)
at bt.a(Unknown Source)
at dk.a(Unknown Source)
at dk.run(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:534)
-----------------------------------

 

Newbie question

Hi

I am in the process of learning about cbus, my parents have purchased a house which has cbus installed and running every where.

We had a minder system, but it recently blew up and we have replaced it with a CNI interface and homegate on a PC.

I have homegate running on a vmware session running on a linux box. would love to get this all working in Linux, but for simplicities sake I thought the vmware way was easier.

Is there any way to install cgate and I am presuming the toolkit into linux with out first installing it into windows.

And once I have down this can I run homegate in Linux, I am presuming not, but atleast I can put the tool kit into linux. What tool are available to me from linux to manage the cbus network and the attached units ?

 

Hi Alex,

C-Gate is a java application and people certainly have got it running under Linux, but be warned the licensing part does not work under linux so you will be limited to 2 networks.

Toolkit and Homegate are native Win32 applications, you may have some luck getting them to work using WINE. People have reported some issues with Toolkit (the search AVI is not available under WINE), but we have had some success with Homegate under WINE inhouse. However, these configurations are not supported and you will largely be going it alone to get it working.