Welcome to the Cumulus Support forum.

Latest Cumulus MX V3 release 3.28.6 (build 3283) - 21 March 2024

Cumulus MX V4 beta test release 4.0.0 (build 4018) - 28 March 2024

Legacy Cumulus 1 release v1.9.4 (build 1099) - 28 November 2014 (a patch is available for 1.9.4 build 1099 that extends the date range of drop-down menus to 2030)

Download the Software (Cumulus MX / Cumulus 1 and other related items) from the Wiki

Cumulus MX base OS and set-up advice

Topics about the Beta trials up to Build 3043, the last build by Cumulus's founder Steve Loft. It was by this time way out of Beta but Steve wanted to keep it that way until he made a decision on his and Cumulus's future.

Moderator: mcrossley

Locked
SunDial
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue 03 Jan 2017 8:12 pm
Weather Station: OS WMR928N
Operating System: OPi Armbian 5.75 Ubuntu Bionic

Cumulus MX base OS and set-up advice

Post by SunDial »

Hi All,

Pardon my inexperience here but I purchased an Orange Pi Lite for the purpose of running Cumulus MX with my OS WMR928. I couldn't find system requirements for Cumulus MX on either Ubuntu, Linux or Raspberry PI but I guess it's on the Sandysoft forum somewhere. Assuming my Orange Pi Lite is compatible, could someone direct me to a link or post that suggests the best OS for my Orange Pi on which to run Cumulus MX? Additionally, I understand that I may need a data logger to be able to feed the data to Cumulus MX, unless Cumulus MX has this built in? Any advice gratefully received. :)

Tony
User avatar
steve
Cumulus Author
Posts: 26702
Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
Operating System: None
Location: Vienne, France
Contact:

Re: Cumulus MX base OS and set-up advice

Post by steve »

The system requirements are in the announcement post which contains the download file. For Linux, you need libudev0 and a suitable version of Mono. The version of Linux you use is up to you, as long as you can also install the required packages. This may not be straightforward, as libudev0 may not be available, and there are compatibility issues with later versions of Mono. The Mono issue should not affect your WMR928. There are ways around the lack of libudev0, by using libudev1 and symlinks, a search of the forum should find some useful information.

As you will have seen from my posts, I have not had a lot of time to spend on Cumulus in recent times, hence the difficulties associated with the installation. This may change in the future.

You don’t need anything else to be able to use your station with MX.
Steve
SunDial
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue 03 Jan 2017 8:12 pm
Weather Station: OS WMR928N
Operating System: OPi Armbian 5.75 Ubuntu Bionic

Re: Cumulus MX base OS and set-up advice

Post by SunDial »

Hello Steve,

Thank you very much for your advice. I wondered if there might be different hardware specs depending on the OS chosen but I will follow your advice regarding the announcement post. I was thinking I would like to install Ubunto or Raspberry Pi as I believe these are the most user-friendly OSs supported on the Orange Pi Lite. Would you know if Ubunto server or desktop or either would be compatible in this case (as Orange Pi offer both as downloads)? Is Cumulus officially supported on Raspberry Pi? I just noticed a thread that somehow I missed on the Cumulus forum (https://cumulus.hosiene.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=27&t=16931).

Thanks for your help and I hope things are settling down for you.

Tony
User avatar
steve
Cumulus Author
Posts: 26702
Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
Operating System: None
Location: Vienne, France
Contact:

Re: Cumulus MX base OS and set-up advice

Post by steve »

It shouldn’t matter what hardware you use or what version of Linux, as long as you can install the required packages, and connect your station to it.

A Raspberry Pi running Raspbian (Wheezy, I think) was what I used for testing MX on Linux, and for runnng my own weather station until it closed.
Steve
SunDial
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue 03 Jan 2017 8:12 pm
Weather Station: OS WMR928N
Operating System: OPi Armbian 5.75 Ubuntu Bionic

Re: Cumulus MX base OS and set-up advice

Post by SunDial »

Ah okay. Got it. Thanks Steve. :) :) :)
User avatar
philpugh
Posts: 381
Joined: Tue 24 May 2011 8:34 am
Weather Station: See Signature
Operating System: Debian 11 (RPi4)
Location: Antrobus, Cheshire, UK
Contact:

Re: Cumulus MX base OS and set-up advice

Post by philpugh »

Just be aware that Raspberry Pi 'look alikes' aren't. They have kernel's that are not kept up to date with the releases of the operating systems. I fell for that when I bought my BananaPi Pro a few years ago. Great machine - but it has reached the end of life as far as the OS (Debian) is concerned. It continues to run my Davis VantageVue very well - but running the webserver is getting problematic as it struggles to run CERTBOT for HTTPS compliance. A modern Orange/Banana ... system will be OK but don't expect great support from the makers.
Phil Pugh
GW1000 + WH65/WH57/WH31; HP2551 + WS68/WH40A; GW2001 WittBoy
cumulusutils generating website
http://goosegate.uk/
User avatar
ConligWX
Posts: 1571
Joined: Mon 19 May 2014 10:45 pm
Weather Station: Davis vPro2+ w/DFARS + AirLink
Operating System: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Location: Bangor, NI
Contact:

Re: Cumulus MX base OS and set-up advice

Post by ConligWX »

I'm running mine on an Intel NUC DN2820FYKH 8GB Ram and a 120GB SSD. It seems to work well.
Regards Simon

https://www.conligwx.org - @conligwx
Davis Vantage Pro2 Plus with Daytime FARS • WeatherLink Live • Davis AirLink • PurpleAir •

Image
SunDial
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue 03 Jan 2017 8:12 pm
Weather Station: OS WMR928N
Operating System: OPi Armbian 5.75 Ubuntu Bionic

Re: Cumulus MX base OS and set-up advice

Post by SunDial »

Hi All,

Sorry, I know it's been a while since I originally sent this post, but it makes sense to me to keep everything in one place. ;)

I finally got my OPi Lite working. Unfortunately, it turned out to be DOA and I discovered it had a short to ground. Long story short I isolated the fault to the 1.2V/2A regulator (U7) for the system power line. Fortunately the regulator (SY8089A) was available via a single China-based seller on eBay and I was able to replace it. I'm pleased to report that I am sending this very post from Chromium running on the latest Armbian image for the OPi Lite (Linux orangepilite 3.4.113). :D :D :D I op-ed for Armbian as it appears to me to be have the best support and advice for OPi Lite owners right now and was easy to install and get running.

The next step is to install Cumulus MX so I was wondering about what Steve advised about libudev0 and perhaps Mono (though Steve mentioned it shouldn't affect my WMR928N). I've Google-ed libudev0 and found it here (https://packages.debian.org/wheezy/libudev0) but I'm not certain of which ARM package to download. The OPi Lite uses a H3 ARM CPU but does this equate to the "armel" or "armhf" package?

Any advice on this please?

Adam
SunDial
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue 03 Jan 2017 8:12 pm
Weather Station: OS WMR928N
Operating System: OPi Armbian 5.75 Ubuntu Bionic

Re: Cumulus MX base OS and set-up advice

Post by SunDial »

Any thoughts on this? I'm keen to get Cumulus MX installed. :) :) :)
User avatar
steve
Cumulus Author
Posts: 26702
Joined: Mon 02 Jun 2008 6:49 pm
Weather Station: None
Operating System: None
Location: Vienne, France
Contact:

Re: Cumulus MX base OS and set-up advice

Post by steve »

For your station you shouldn't need libudev0 and the version of Mono shouldn't matter.
Steve
SunDial
Posts: 53
Joined: Tue 03 Jan 2017 8:12 pm
Weather Station: OS WMR928N
Operating System: OPi Armbian 5.75 Ubuntu Bionic

Re: Cumulus MX base OS and set-up advice

Post by SunDial »

Ah! Many thanks, Steve. I'll give the installation a go then. Thanks again.
Locked