dev-setup.md

Choices...

If you want to start working on the Stratux code base, here are a few hints for a developer-friendly setup. Note that this only works as-is for the Stratux image.

You basically have two choices.

• Remotely working on a PI
• Working locally on a Linux machine

Working remotely on a pi can also be done from Windows and has the advantage of full hardware support (e.g. AHRS module, which can't be plugged into your PC). Working locally on a Linux machine is a bit harder to set up and requires some creativity, but is much faster and more comfortable when doing basic work that doesn't rely on AHRS/Baro stuff.

We recommend working remotely on the Pi, preferably a Pi4.

Remote Setup

To work remotely on the PI, first make sure your Stratux is connected to the internet.

Turn up CPU and restart

Keep in mind that the PI's CPU is clocked down by default in the Stratux image to save some power. This makes compiling stuff extremely slow. Therefore it is recommended to remove/comment the *_freq lines in /boot/config.txt (or /boot/firmware/config.txt starting with bookworm) and restarting it.

Enable Developer mode

You will also have to enable developer mode and persistent logging on the web interface to make sure that the file system of the PI is writable.

• Enable Developer mode by visiting the status page and repeatedly clicking the version number at the top of the screen.
• Navigate to Settings > Diagnostics > Persistent logging and enable it.
• Restart again and verify that persistent logging is enabled before you continue.

Set root password

Then connect to it via Putty/SSH and set a root password:

sudo -s
passwd

Set the correct date

timedatectl set-ntp on

Install build dependencies

If you run out of disk space, persistent logging is probably disabled.

apt update
apt install -y build-essential git ncurses-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev
cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/stratux/rtlsdr/releases/download/v1.0/librtlsdr0_2.0.2-2_arm64.deb
dpkg -i librtlsdr0_2.0.2-2_arm64.deb
rm librtlsdr0_2.0.2-2_arm64.deb
wget https://github.com/stratux/rtlsdr/releases/download/v1.0/librtlsdr-dev_2.0.2-2_arm64.deb
dpkg -i librtlsdr-dev_2.0.2-2_arm64.deb
rm librtlsdr-dev_2.0.2-2_arm64.deb

Install Go

The repo's go.mod sets the minimum Go version (currently go 1.20). The official build (see building.md) uses Debian Bookworm's golang-go package, so on the Pi the simplest, build-consistent option is:

apt install -y golang-go
go version   # confirm it satisfies the 'go' directive in go.mod

If your distro's golang-go is older than the version required by go.mod, install a newer Go from https://go.dev/dl/ (pick the linux-arm64 tarball) instead.

Clone the repo

Now clone the Stratux repository with submodules:

cd /root
git clone --recursive https://github.com/stratux/stratux.git

Set up VSCode

Afterwards, install Visual Studio Code on your PC, and additionally install and configure the VSCode Remote-SSH Extension: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/ssh When done, connect to the RPi as root via Visual Studio Code. Then click File->Open Folder and type in /root/stratux. You should now have the Stratux project loaded into VSCode. There are preconfigured build and debug tasks in the project which allow you to create a debuggable Stratux build and remote-debug it in VSCode. To get started, you need to install the "Go" extensions ("Install on Stratux" while connected via Remote-SSH). The extension will ask you to install several tools (including delve if you want to debug). Go ahead and do so. Before debugging, run stxstop to stop the already running stratux service.

There is also a makefile in the repository, so make && make install && stxrestart would be a simple way to build, install and start.

Save your public key to the Pi

Run this on your local machine (on Windows, use Git Bash). This stops VSCode from continually prompting for passwords:

ssh-copy-id root@stratux

Local x86 Linux Setup

This is an ADVANCED setup, which requires experience with the Linux shell, system, and common build processes. Do not open issues if you can't get it to work - you are on your own here.

First, you need to install and setup go and its dependencies. Once done, you can try to build your first X86 version of Stratux. Clone the Stratux repository and run make. To make everything work, you will also have to run sudo make install, so that Stratux can find the OGN decoder, dump1090, etc. This will also install Stratux service files and udev rules. If you don't want that, you can instead run make optinstall to only install the stuff that resides in /opt/stratux. Once everything is running, you might want to install Visual Studio Code and open the Stratux directory in there. There are preconfigured build and debug tasks for VSCode in the repository.