Allstar bootstrap script

Purpose

When setting up a new repeater controller, at times it would be nice to be able to configure the new raspberry pi image without needing to boot it up and dig through menus. In particular, it's not always trivial to reconfigure the IP address "on the fly".

With this script installed in your allstar image you can drop a "bootstrap" folder on the root of the FAT partition of the raspberry pi SD card (the partition that mounts easily on Mac or Windows) with configuration files on it and it will automatically apply those the next boot.

Installation on the image

This tool was designed to be used with the 1.5rc2 RPi2-3 allstar image found at https://hamvoip.org

In order to use this you need to update your image and put the preloadBootstrap.sh file in /usr/local/sbin/ and the preloadBootstrap.service in /etc/systemd/system/. You then need to either run systemctl enable preloadBootstrap.service or manually make a symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/preloadBootstrap.service -> /etc/systemd/system/preloadBootstrap.service so that it automatically runs at boot.

Note that this runs before the network starts which is necessary so that it can change your network configuration.

You can download our version of the image here. It was built using the following method:

• Started with the 1.5rc2 hamvoip RPi 2-3 allstar image from https://hamvoip.org
• Updated all system packages on Sep 5, 2017
• Installed ser2net (we use to allow remote programming of our repeaters)
• Installed the allstar_bootstrap script
• Restored to original "first time" state so it will act like a normal image if you don't bootstrap it
• Created a 4GB image from the resulting system.

We make no promises how long we'll keep that up =] We hope eventually the hamvoip guys will incorporate this into the project, but we'll see.

Usage

Once you have an image with the preloadBootstrap script installed on it all you need to do to use it is drop a bootstrap folder in the root of the FAT partition (which mounts as /boot when the raspberry pi starts up) with appropriate configuration files in it.

For an example, see the sample_bootstrap folder in this archive.

The only file which must exist inside the bootstrap folder is bootstrap.conf

On the next boot, the bootstrap configuration will be loaded and applied and the folder will be moved to /root/BOOTSTRAP_%m_%d_%Y_%s where %m is month, %d is day, %Y is year, and %s is the unix timestamp in seconds. This is so that the config will not be reapplied on the next boot.

bootstrap.conf

The bootstrap.conf file is just a bash script which will be included by the preloadBootstrap script that needs to contain some configuration variables.

It must have in it:

# This is a key:value array we can use to indicate which files should go where
# All template source files must be under the "templates" directory
declare -A TPL

# This is a key:value array we can use to indicate files which should merely be copied to a specific destination
# All static source files must be under the "static" directory
declare -A STATIC

Even if you do not use them, these variables must be defined.

All other variables and config are optional. Variables you can define are:

• ROOTPW='somepassword' - if provided, the root password will be set to this value
• TIMEZONE='region/timezone' - if provided, the system timezone will be set to this value. Must be a valid tz string.
• CONFIGURE_ALLSTAR=true - if set, the script will regenerate the rpt.conf, extensions.conf, and iax2.conf files from the allstar templates found in /usr/local/etc/asterisk_tpl. Note that you can use Static file mappings to provide your own templates for this. See [Configuring allstar][Configuring allstar].

Configuring allstar

If CONFIGURE_ALLSTAR=true then you need to provide the following variables in your bootstrap.conf file which will be used to generate your core allstar configuration (rpt.conf, extensions.conf, and iax2.conf). This uses a script very similar to the one built into the hamvoip image, but unfortunately can't use that one as it is not callable in a non-interactive fashion. I hope when they see this repo they'll be interested in working with me (or letting me make the changes and submit a PR) to fix that =]

# Allstar Node #:
NODE1=44068
# Allstar node password
NODE1_PW=123456
# Station Call sign
STNCALL=K7UVA
# Report online status to allstar?
REPORTSTAT=y
# IAX port to bind to
BINDPORT=4569
# Password for IAXRPT connections
IAXRPT_PW=connect2me
# Set this to what you want your ID to be
IDREC="|i${STNCALL}/L"
# 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 duplex mode; see app_rpt docs for details. Normal repeater is '2', full duplex w/out
# repeating audio from main input is "3"
DUPLEX="2"

Static files

You can provide static files which you would like to have placed on the target system by adding them to the "STATIC" associative array. For example, to provide your own templates for the asterisk config you could add these lines:

STATIC["extensions.conf_tpl"]="/usr/local/etc/asterisk_tpl/extensions.conf_tpl";
STATIC["iax.conf_tpl"]="/usr/local/etc/asterisk_tpl/iax.conf_tpl";
STATIC["rpt.conf_tpl"]="/usr/local/etc/asterisk_tpl/rpt.conf_tpl";

You would then need to place those three files in the static directory as a sibling of bootstrap.conf.

Template files

You can provide template files which would be configured using variables from your bootstrap.conf file by placing them in the templates directory as a sibling of bootstrap.conf. All variables should be defined like ${VARNAME} inside the template and they will be replaced with the value when the bootstrap script is run. For example, if you want to update the allstar.env file, you could provide a file templates/allstar.env like this:

#!/bin/bash
#
# asterisk.env

# This is the allstar environment file which defines global variables used by
# allstar for the BeagleBone Black.

# defines the primary node (node1) number
export NODE1=${NODE1}

# defines the start delay prior to staring asterisk
export START_DELAY=${START_DELAY}

# defines the firewall status (enabled or disabled)
#  default="disabled"
export FIREWALL="${FIREWALL}"

# defines the virtual private network status (enabled or disabled)
# default="disabled"
export VPN_NETWORK="${VPN_NETWORK}"

# defines the watchdog timer (enabled or disabled)
# default="enabled"
export WATCHDOG="${WATCHDOG}"

# defines saying of local IP address at boot (enabled or disabled)
# default="enabled"
export SAY_IP_AT_BOOT="${SAY_IP_AT_BOOT}"

# defines hardware type, either "BBB" for beaglebone black, or "RPi2"
# for Raspberry Pi2
export HWTYPE="RPi2"

# Defines if the server is using ONLY private nodes
# IF USING PUBLIC OR MIXED PUBLIC/PRIVATE SET TO "0"
# IF USING STRICTLY PRIVATE NODES SET TO "1"
EXPORT PRIVATE_NODE=${PRIVATE_NODE}

# DEFINES THE OPTIONAL HALT SWITCH TO THE RPI2 (ENABLED OR DISABLED)
# DEFAULT="DISABLED"
EXPORT SHUTDOWN_MONITOR="DISABLED"

You would then of course have to define all of those variables in your bootstrap.conf file and add an entry in the TPL associative array like this:

TPL["allstar.env"]="/usr/local/etc/allstar.env"

Configuring network

To configure the network, simply place an appropriate eth0.network file either as a static or a template file. If a template, you can define the specifics in your bootstrap.conf file.

In the example, static.network and dhcp.network files are provided which you can easily use by uncommenting the appropriate line. One of:

TPL["static.network"]="/etc/systemd/network/eth0.network"

-or-

TPL["dhcp.network"]="/etc/systemd/network/eth0.network"

As you can see, either will replace the eth0.network file. If you use the static.network variant then you need to provide four variables as well:

IP_ADDRESS=172.19.32.243/24
IP_GW=172.19.32.1
IP_DNS1=75.75.75.75
IP_DNS2=75.75.75.75

Obviously you should adjust to match your actual network. A wireless network configuration can be provided in a similar way by overriding the wireless configuration files.