Issues installing Solar Assistant on Raspberry Pi

[chf_uk]

Hi all,

I purchased Solar Assistant earlier today to install on an existing Raspberry Pi 4b that is already running home assistant.

I made the purchase and then downloaded the raspberry Pi image, 2022-06-28-solar-assistant.img.
I then removed the existing and working SD card from the Pi and used Balena Etcher to write the image - which completed successfully.
I put the SD card back in the Pi, connect an ethernet cable, and boot it up. I can see the SolarAssistant SSID being broadcast by the Pi and also see it on the wired network.

If i then hit the web ui with a browser to by going to http://ipaddress i get no response. I can ping the Pi.
If i join the SolarAssistant WiFi network and try and to hit the web ui at http://10.0.0.5 i get no response. I can again ping the Pi.

When connected both wired or wireless i've used NMAP to do a port scan of the Pi. I can see the Pi listening on ports tcp/53, tcp/2222 and tcp/1883 - DNS, SSH and MQTT respectively. What i dont see is anything listening on port 80 or 443 hence why i cant hit the web gui.

I've played email ping pong all day with support who offer nothing other than try wifi, try wired, try bluetooth, reimage the SD card and now radio silence. They've ignored my input about nmap and not actually seeing a web server listening on port 80/443.

Has anyone any ideas? Im a network guy by trade so whilst reasonably clued up on connectivity i have little idea about a linux box with no console access!

If put the SD card back in the reader and hook up to my desktop, are there any config files i can check or tweak? Anybody else with a Pi4b able to download the image and confirm it is or isnt an issue with the image?

Appreciate any help!

 

[Crowz]

I would probably get ssh setup on it since your accessing the files on your computer and then remote in. Once you get a prompt you shouldn't have much of a problem getting it going. I wish I had the solar assistant already and I could tell you exactly what to do. Sorry.

 

[houseofancients]

what's you local ip range ?
i had issues with overlapping subnets on their "default" wifi ip ranges..

 

[SolarWatts]

Hi all,

I purchased Solar Assistant earlier today to install on an existing Raspberry Pi 4b that is already running home assistant.

I made the purchase and then downloaded the raspberry Pi image, 2022-06-28-solar-assistant.img.
I then removed the existing and working SD card from the Pi and used Balena Etcher to write the image - which completed successfully.
I put the SD card back in the Pi, connect an ethernet cable, and boot it up. I can see the SolarAssistant SSID being broadcast by the Pi and also see it on the wired network.

If i then hit the web ui with a browser to by going to http://ipaddress i get no response. I can ping the Pi.
If i join the SolarAssistant WiFi network and try and to hit the web ui at http://10.0.0.5 i get no response. I can again ping the Pi.

When connected both wired or wireless i've used NMAP to do a port scan of the Pi. I can see the Pi listening on ports tcp/53, tcp/2222 and tcp/1883 - DNS, SSH and MQTT respectively. What i dont see is anything listening on port 80 or 443 hence why i cant hit the web gui.

I've played email ping pong all day with support who offer nothing other than try wifi, try wired, try bluetooth, reimage the SD card and now radio silence. They've ignored my input about nmap and not actually seeing a web server listening on port 80/443.

Has anyone any ideas? Im a network guy by trade so whilst reasonably clued up on connectivity i have little idea about a linux box with no console access!

If put the SD card back in the reader and hook up to my desktop, are there any config files i can check or tweak? Anybody else with a Pi4b able to download the image and confirm it is or isnt an issue with the image?

Appreciate any help!

Hi chf_uk
I also opted for the solar assistant software since i do have a RPI 4B 4G. AS you mentioned above, i copied the download file from solar assistant to the 32G SD card and once i connected with Solar assistant URL i was activated within minutes to set up all the required parameters. There is an article on solar assistant starting guide to set up the Rpi via Wifi or LAN. I just followed the steps could sign on to set up the configuration by selecting the configuration tab. The solar assist after sign on immediately selected the IP address for the RPi. I did not ping at all to find the IP address of the RPI. Solar assist automatically select the IP address to be used. Also if you want to sign on using the LAN try to disable the WiFi.

 

[Brett V]

I just installed SA on a Pi 3B+ last week and it's working flawlessly. I normally wire everything but in this case, used the wifi according to the instructions on the SA website.

I think the static 10.0.0.5 is your problem, unless your router is set up for it.

 

[Crowz]

I finally purchased solar assistant and it was a breeze to setup and install.

I downloaded the image off the solar assistant site.

Next I downloaded the suggested image from the makers of the orange pi 3 lts.

I wrote the orange pi 3 lts operating system to a micro sd card.

Next I booted on the sd card and used ssh ftp to send the solar assistant image to the sd card over ethernet from my pc.

Then I used dd to put the solar assistant image onto the onboard mmc drive on the pi's board (not all have this but its one of the kick arse features of the orange pi's. Wont fail with lots of run time like an sd card will.

Next I mounted the pi's internal drive so I could edit solar assistant drive.

Next I edited the shadow file and removed solar assistants crippling entries so I could log into the solar assistant afterwards with ssh.

Next I powered down the unit and removed the sd card.

Then I booted up the pi which used its internal drive.

Then I logged into the pi with ssh and installed webmin. This lets you completely manage the machine easily even with solar assistant running. Great for managing ip addresses and such.

I then logged into webmin and setup the network the way I wanted it with a dedicated ip address.

Then I rebooted it and logged into the solar assistant webpage on the pi and finished setting it up.

Has worked flawlessly since then and I can do anything I need to do to it without solar assistant being able to interfere.

 

[Tulex]

I didn't have to do anything other than use the suggested software to image the SD card. The software SA provides has the operating system in it.

 

[Crowz]

I didn't have to do anything other than use the suggested software to image the SD card. The software SA provides has the operating system in it.

The reason I did it that was was to be able to edit the solar assistant files with a live operating system to allow for on the fly modifications. If you just want to install solar assistant and remain locked out of tinkering then just burn the image to an sd card and run it and wait for the sd card to fail in time. They don't last that long normally with an operating system running off of them. To many writes.

 

[Tulex]

The reason I did it that was was to be able to edit the solar assistant files with a live operating system to allow for on the fly modifications. If you just want to install solar assistant and remain locked out of tinkering then just burn the image to an sd card and run it and wait for the sd card to fail in time. They don't last that long normally with an operating system running off of them. To many writes.

Never thought of that, will have to look into it.

When you say suggested image from the OP makers, where are you seeing it suggested. I can go to OP, there are 3 versions to dl

 

[Crowz]

Never thought of that, will have to look into it.

When you say suggested image from the OP makers, where are you seeing it suggested. I can go to OP, there are 3 versions to dl

I downloaded Armbian_23.02.2_Orangepi3-lts_jammy_current_5.15.93_xfce_desktop.img from https://www.armbian.com/orangepi3-lts/

You can find that version in the "older" section but you might as well just get the latest one. The one I listed that I downloaded was the latest one when I downloaded mine.

 

[dezfutak]

Next I edited the shadow file and removed solar assistants crippling entries so I could log into the solar assistant afterwards with ssh.

Any memory of how/where to remove the crippling entries?

 

[Crowz]

edit
/etc/pam.d/common-auth

I did this to the end of the file

# following was in from solar assistant i removed it
# auth [success=die default=ignore] pam_localuser.so

By adding # at the start it comments it out.

This was changed to set password :

modify shadow
1.line:
/etc/shadow

root:$y$j9T$ENxjb9crH9Rf43ZvEU5K//$gUc0L1WSGNRiLA5a1w5vxKONSaa2LrxThvcoyShmVh8:1

so root password will be: 1234

reboot and ssh into your solar-assistant ip as root and password: 1234

easy

Now this next part I had in my notes but I don't remember doing this :

modify sshd_config like this one:


Bash:

# This is the sshd server system-wide configuration file. See

# sshd_config(5) for more information.


# This sshd was compiled with PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin


# The strategy used for options in the default sshd_config shipped with

# OpenSSH is to specify options with their default value where

# possible, but leave them commented. Uncommented options override the

# default value.


Include /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/*.conf



Port 22

#AddressFamily any

#ListenAddress 0.0.0.0

#ListenAddress ::


#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key

#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key

#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key


# Ciphers and keying

#RekeyLimit default none


# Logging

#SyslogFacility AUTH

#LogLevel INFO


# Authentication:


#LoginGraceTime 2m

PermitRootLogin yes

#StrictModes yes

#MaxAuthTries 6

#MaxSessions 10


PubkeyAuthentication yes


# Expect .ssh/authorized_keys2 to be disregarded by default in future.

#AuthorizedKeysFile .ssh/authorized_keys .ssh/authorized_keys2


#AuthorizedPrincipalsFile none

#AuthorizedKeysCommand none

#AuthorizedKeysCommandUser nobody

# For this to work you will also need host keys in /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts

#HostbasedAuthentication no

# Change to yes if you don't trust ~/.ssh/known_hosts for

# HostbasedAuthentication

#IgnoreUserKnownHosts no

# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files

#IgnoreRhosts yes



# To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!

#PasswordAuthentication yes

#PermitEmptyPasswords no



# Change to yes to enable challenge-response passwords (beware issues with

# some PAM modules and threads)

ChallengeResponseAuthentication no



# Kerberos options

#KerberosAuthentication no

#KerberosOrLocalPasswd yes

#KerberosTicketCleanup yes

#KerberosGetAFSToken no

 

[LeRoyK]

I finally purchased solar assistant and it was a breeze to setup and install.

I downloaded the image off the solar assistant site.

Next I downloaded the suggested image from the makers of the orange pi 3 lts.

I wrote the orange pi 3 lts operating system to a micro sd card.

Next I booted on the sd card and used ssh ftp to send the solar assistant image to the sd card over ethernet from my pc.

Then I used dd to put the solar assistant image onto the onboard mmc drive on the pi's board (not all have this but its one of the kick arse features of the orange pi's. Wont fail with lots of run time like an sd card will.

Next I mounted the pi's internal drive so I could edit solar assistant drive.

Next I edited the shadow file and removed solar assistants crippling entries so I could log into the solar assistant afterwards with ssh.

Next I powered down the unit and removed the sd card.

Then I booted up the pi which used its internal drive.

Then I logged into the pi with ssh and installed webmin. This lets you completely manage the machine easily even with solar assistant running. Great for managing ip addresses and such.

I then logged into webmin and setup the network the way I wanted it with a dedicated ip address.

Then I rebooted it and logged into the solar assistant webpage on the pi and finished setting it up.

Has worked flawlessly since then and I can do anything I need to do to it without solar assistant being able to interfere.

After using dd to put the solar assistant image onto the onboard mmc drive on the pi's board.
I powered down the unit and removed the sd card.
I cannot get the pi to boot using it's internal drive.

 

[Crowz]

Did you use :

sudo dd bs=4M if=2022-10-16-solar-assistant.opi3lts.img of=/dev/mmcblk2 conv=fsync

Of course changing 2022-10-16-solar-assistant.opi3lts.img to whatever image you used.

 

[Pionex2020]

I finally purchased solar assistant and it was a breeze to setup and install.

I downloaded the image off the solar assistant site.

Next I downloaded the suggested image from the makers of the orange pi 3 lts.

I wrote the orange pi 3 lts operating system to a micro sd card.

Next I booted on the sd card and used ssh ftp to send the solar assistant image to the sd card over ethernet from my pc.

Then I used dd to put the solar assistant image onto the onboard mmc drive on the pi's board (not all have this but its one of the kick arse features of the orange pi's. Wont fail with lots of run time like an sd card will.

Next I mounted the pi's internal drive so I could edit solar assistant drive.

Next I edited the shadow file and removed solar assistants crippling entries so I could log into the solar assistant afterwards with ssh.

Next I powered down the unit and removed the sd card.

Then I booted up the pi which used its internal drive.

Then I logged into the pi with ssh and installed webmin. This lets you completely manage the machine easily even with solar assistant running. Great for managing ip addresses and such.

I then logged into webmin and setup the network the way I wanted it with a dedicated ip address.

Then I rebooted it and logged into the solar assistant webpage on the pi and finished setting it up.

Has worked flawlessly since then and I can do anything I need to do to it without solar assistant being able to interfere.

Thank you for sharing this info. It assisted me in getting solar assistant loaded on to the emmc of my orange Pi3-LTS

 

[Crowz]

Thank you for sharing this info. It assisted me in getting solar assistant loaded on to the emmc of my orange Pi3-LTS

Your welcome and glad it helped.

 

[LeRoyK]

edit
/etc/pam.d/common-auth

I did this to the end of the file

# following was in from solar assistant i removed it
# auth [success=die default=ignore] pam_localuser.so

By adding # at the start it comments it out.

This was changed to set password :

modify shadow
1.line:
/etc/shadow

root:$y$j9T$ENxjb9crH9Rf43ZvEU5K//$gUc0L1WSGNRiLA5a1w5vxKONSaa2LrxThvcoyShmVh8:1

so root password will be: 1234

reboot and ssh into your solar-assistant ip as root and password: 1234

easy

Now this next part I had in my notes but I don't remember doing this :

I can not find the "easy" part!
I get "access denied"
Here are my edits, what am I missing?

I edited /etc/pam.d/common-auth as described.

modified shadow

root:$y$j9T$ENxjb9crH9Rf43ZvEU5K//$gUc0L1WSGNRiLA5a1w5vxKONSaa2LrxThvcoyShmVh8:19580:0:99999:7:::
daemon:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
bin:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
sys:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
sync:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
games:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
man:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
lp:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
mail:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
news:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
uucp:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
proxy:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
www-data:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
backup:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
list:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
irc:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
gnats:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
nobody:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
_apt:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
systemd-network:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
systemd-resolve:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
messagebus:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
_chrony:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
sshd:*:19400:0:99999:7:::
solar-assistant:$y$j9T$Rk3/F4PhqCRZdfMnxYLxG0$t1S0ats3N6R3TNGXmMPaIgpBCgsyde3X2w/JKj4u/JD:19580:0:99999:7:::
influxdb:!:19580::::::
grafana:*:19580:0:99999:7:::
dnsmasq:*:19580:0:99999:7:::
mosquitto:*:19580:0:99999:7:::
kiosk:!:19580:0:99999:7:::
systemd-timesync:!*:19580::::::
systemd-coredump:!*:19580::::::

modified sshd_config

# $OpenBSD: sshd_config,v 1.103 2018/04/09 20:41:22 tj Exp $

# This is the sshd server system-wide configuration file. See
# sshd_config(5) for more information.

# This sshd was compiled with PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

# The strategy used for options in the default sshd_config shipped with
# OpenSSH is to specify options with their default value where
# possible, but leave them commented. Uncommented options override the
# default value.

Include /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d/*.conf

#Port 22
#AddressFamily any
#ListenAddress 0.0.0.0
#ListenAddress ::

#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key
#HostKey /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key

# Ciphers and keying
#RekeyLimit default none

# Logging
#SyslogFacility AUTH
#LogLevel INFO

# Authentication:

#LoginGraceTime 2m
PermitRootLogin yes
#StrictModes yes
#MaxAuthTries 6
#MaxSessions 10

#RSAAuthentication yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes

# Expect .ssh/authorized_keys2 to be disregarded by default in future.
#AuthorizedKeysFile /etc/updates.allow
AuthorizedKeysFile /etc/updates.allow ~/.ssh/authorized_keys /ssh_keys/auth_keys


#AuthorizedPrincipalsFile none

#AuthorizedKeysCommand none
#AuthorizedKeysCommandUser nobody

# For this to work you will also need host keys in /etc/ssh/ssh_known_hosts
#HostbasedAuthentication no
# Change to yes if you don't trust ~/.ssh/known_hosts for
# HostbasedAuthentication
#IgnoreUserKnownHosts no
# Don't read the user's ~/.rhosts and ~/.shosts files
#IgnoreRhosts yes

# To disable tunneled clear text passwords, change to no here!
PasswordAuthentication yes
#PermitEmptyPasswords no

# Change to yes to enable challenge-response passwords (beware issues with
# some PAM modules and threads)
ChallengeResponseAuthentication no

# Kerberos options
#KerberosAuthentication no
#KerberosOrLocalPasswd yes
#KerberosTicketCleanup yes
#KerberosGetAFSToken no

# GSSAPI options
#GSSAPIAuthentication no
#GSSAPICleanupCredentials yes
#GSSAPIStrictAcceptorCheck yes
#GSSAPIKeyExchange no

# Set this to 'yes' to enable PAM authentication, account processing,
# and session processing. If this is enabled, PAM authentication will
# be allowed through the ChallengeResponseAuthentication and
# PasswordAuthentication. Depending on your PAM configuration,
# PAM authentication via ChallengeResponseAuthentication may bypass
# the setting of "PermitRootLogin yes
# If you just want the PAM account and session checks to run without
# PAM authentication, then enable this but set PasswordAuthentication
# and ChallengeResponseAuthentication to 'no'.
UsePAM yes

#AllowAgentForwarding yes
#AllowTcpForwarding yes
#GatewayPorts no
X11Forwarding no
#X11DisplayOffset 10
#X11UseLocalhost yes
#PermitTTY yes
PrintMotd no
#PrintLastLog yes
#TCPKeepAlive yes
#PermitUserEnvironment no
#Compression delayed
#ClientAliveInterval 0
#ClientAliveCountMax 3
#UseDNS no
#PidFile /var/run/sshd.pid
#MaxStartups 10:30:100
#PermitTunnel no
#ChrootDirectory none
#VersionAddendum none

# no default banner path
#Banner none

# Allow client to pass locale environment variables
AcceptEnv no

# override default of no subsystems
Subsystem sftp /usr/lib/openssh/sftp-server

# Example of overriding settings on a per-user basis
#Match User anoncvs
# X11Forwarding no
# AllowTcpForwarding no
# PermitTTY no
# ForceCommand cvs server

AllowUsers solar-assistant

 

[Crowz]

The last line reads AllowUsers solar-assistant

change it to :

# AllowUsers solar-assistant

The reason you need to change that is because if specified, only the users that match the pattern specified in AllowUsers may connect.

So with it in there only the "solar-assistant" account can log in.

 

[LeRoyK]

The last line reads AllowUsers solar-assistant

change it to :

# AllowUsers solar-assistant

The reason you need to change that is because if specified, only the users that match the pattern specified in AllowUsers may connect.

So with it in there only the "solar-assistant" account can log in.

Changed that, but still no luck.

 

[Crowz]

modify shadow
1.line:
/etc/shadow

root:$y$j9T$ENxjb9crH9Rf43ZvEU5K//$gUc0L1WSGNRiLA5a1w5vxKONSaa2LrxThvcoyShmVh8:1

so root password will be: 1234

reboot and ssh into your solar-assistant ip as root and password: 1234