Aether-gate

July 3, 2026 · View on GitHub

Turn a Raspberry Pi into a flash-and-go Aether-gate box: power it on, browse to http://aethergate.local:8730, pick your radio, hit Start, and it appears in AetherSDR. This is the recommended way to run the gate unattended.

See also: deploy/install-pi.sh (the installer), deploy/systemd/README.md (running a radio as a service), ONBOARDING.md (the day-one design).

Which Pi?

	Works?	Notes
Pi 5	✅ best	Proven appliance. Best USB power/bandwidth (drove the V4 dongle + an FTDI CAT cable together, no brownout).
Pi 4 (2GB+)	✅ fine	Runs the gate comfortably. Source build is a bit slower (~15–20 min vs ~10–15). USB power is more marginal — use a powered hub if a dongle misbehaves.
Pi 3 / Zero 2	⚠️ maybe	Not tested. Icom-LAN-only (`--no-sdr`) would likely be OK; the source build will be slow.

The one thing that matters more than the model: the OS. Flash current 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS (Debian 13 / trixie, Python 3.13) — the exact stack the installer is pinned against. An older release (Bookworm/Bullseye) shifts apt names and Python paths; the installer detects this and warns, but flashing current Pi OS is the smooth path. Always 64-bit (aarch64) — a 32-bit OS fights the source builds.

Install

On a fresh Pi OS Lite (SSH enabled, on your LAN):

git clone https://github.com/nigelfenton/Aether-gate.git
cd Aether-gate
sudo ./deploy/install-pi.sh              # full appliance (with the SDR spectrum stack)

Variants:

sudo ./deploy/install-pi.sh --no-sdr     # IC-9700 / Icom-LAN only (numpy) — fast, no long build
./deploy/install-pi.sh --check           # report what's present/missing; changes nothing
sudo ./deploy/install-pi.sh --dry-run    # print every step; changes nothing

The installer is idempotent — safe to re-run (it skips builds already done).

What it installs

apt: python3-numpy, libhamlib-utils (rigctld), avahi-daemon, build tools.
Source-built into /usr/local (only with the SDR stack — the default):
- rtl-sdr-blog fork — the V4 dongle + HF direct-sampling. The apt librtlsdr (2.0.2) does not drive the RTL-SDR V4 well — that's why we build the fork.
- SoapySDR core + its Python 3 bindings.
- SoapyRTLSDR module.
- The exact upstream commits are pinned in install-pi.sh (the versions proven on the Pi5), so a rebuild is reproducible.
The aether_gate package copied to ~/gate.
systemd aether-gate-setup.service — boots straight to the Setup UI on :8730.

The dependency split (why `--no-sdr` exists)

Radio path	Needs
IC-9700 / Icom LAN	numpy only — no native libs. The easy path.
Kenwood / Yaesu (CAT)	hamlib (apt) + the SoapySDR stack (IF-tap spectrum)
RTL / Airspy / SDRplay dongle	the SoapySDR stack

If you only run an Icom-LAN rig, --no-sdr skips the ~15-minute source build entirely.

First boot

Power on. Give it a minute (first boot + any build finishing if you just installed).
Browse http://aethergate.local:8730 (or http://<pi-ip>:8730).
Pick your radio family, fill the connection fields, Start.
Save it as a profile and tick "connect on launch" so it comes up on its own next boot.

Always-on radio (recommended for a dedicated box)

The Setup UI starts the gate as a child — fine for interactive use, but a crashed launcher can't shut the gate down cleanly (for an IC-9700 that can leave a phantom session). For an unattended box, run the radio as its own systemd service so systemctl stop shuts it down gracefully:

sudo cp ~/gate/deploy/systemd/aether-gate-9700.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudoedit /etc/systemd/system/aether-gate-9700.service   # set radio IP, --pass, --ip, --ae
sudo systemctl enable --now aether-gate-9700
journalctl -u aether-gate-9700 -f

See deploy/systemd/README.md for why-a-service and the graceful-stop verification.

Capturing an image (once installed & configured)

After the appliance works the way you want:

Optionally clear machine-specific state (SSH host keys, logs, saved Wi-Fi) for a clean template.
Shut down, pull the SD card, and image it (dd, or Raspberry Pi Imager's "read" / a tool like pishrink to shrink the image before sharing).
That image is now flash-and-go for the next Pi.

⚠️ GPL note: handing that image (a built binary distribution) to anyone triggers the GPL-3.0 obligation to offer the complete corresponding source — which is fine, it's all in this repo. Just ship it with the repo URL / a copy of the source. (Same rule as showing anyone a running build.)

Status / what's proven

✅ Installer written, pinned to the Pi5's exact working versions.
✅ --check and --dry-run validated on the Pi5 (all probes green; dry-run walks every step).
⚠️ Not yet run end-to-end on a genuinely fresh flash — the Pi5 already has the SDR stack, so the installer's source-build path skips there (as designed and idempotent). The true flash-and-go test is a clean Pi OS Lite install; that's the next milestone once a spare Pi/SD card is on hand.