The Raspberry Pi Terminal Interface

The finished Terminal with 3D cutted case and RFID reader

A small sample video of the UI in use

Setting up the Raspberry Pi

Physical Setup - Wiring

We have to wire up the PN532 NFC Module. Depending on the protocol used we need to wire it up for either SPI or I2C. I would always recommend to wire up for both protocols!

• Alwayse needed are the three wires for VCC, GND and IRQ (here GPIO16)
• I2C needs the SDA and the SCL wires
• SPI needs MOSI, MISO, SCLK/SCK, CEO/SS

Just connect the corresponding wires from the PN532 with the Raspberry Pi (no fancy cross wiring just SDA -> SDA, SCL -> SCL, MOSI -> MOSI, ...) according to the following picture:

• NOTE: the bottom of this picture is where the USB-Ports of the Pi are and the right side is on the edge of the Pi!

WiFi

1st Option: Corporate wifi setup for eduroam (802.1X Standard)

1. First setup the wpa_supplicant.conf which is located in /etc/wpa_supplicant (full path is /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf)
   Past the following content into the file:

   network={
       ssid="eduroam"
       password="[PLAIN-TEXT-PASSWORD-UNI-POTSDAM]"
       identity="[SHORT-VERSION-USERNAME(UNI-POTSDAM-LOGIN)]@uni-potsdam.de"
       anonymous_identity="[email protected]"
       key_mgmt=WPA-EAP
       eap=PEAP
       phase2="auth=MSCHAPV2"
   }
   

   Replace the [...] with your Username and Password!

2. Reboot the pi

2nd Option: PSK WiFi Setup (e. g. HPI Foyer Wifi)

1. You have to do this as actual root (sudo won't work here!). Become sudo by entering: sudo -i

2. Configure the wifi with: wpa_passphrase "WLAN-NAME" "WLAN-PASSWORT" >> /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

3. Exit the root user: exit

4. Reboot: sudo reboot

Troubleshooting

1. Sometimes you may also have to edit /etc/network/interfaces and add the following lines:

   allow-hotplug wlan0
   iface wlan0 inet manual
       wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
   iface wlan0 inet dhcp

2. • First kill all the wpa_supplicant services and bring down all the ethernet devices with the following commands:

     ifdown wlan0
     ifdown wlan0
     killall wpa_supplicant

   • You can now debug the newly made configuraiton with sudo wpa_supplicant -i wlan0 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf. (Optionally you can add -B for deamon mode or -d for debug infos (-dd even more debug infos))
3. Extra infos on this website

Setting up flutter-pi

Fast installation of flutter-pi

Detail instructions can be found here.

1. Navigate to the home directory with: cd

2. Just copy and past the following script which is based on the official instructions (script last updated: 03.03.2022)

   #!/bin/bash
   
   # Update the pi
   echo "Updating Pi"
   sudo apt update -y
   sudo apt upgrade -y
   sudo apt dist-upgrade -y
   
   
   # Install the engine binaries from `https://github.com/ardera/flutter-engine-binaries-for-arm`
   echo "Installing newest flutter engine binaries from 'https://github.com/ardera/flutter-engine-binaries-for-arm'"
   git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ardera/flutter-engine-binaries-for-arm.git engine-binaries
   cd engine-binaries
   sudo ./install.sh
   cd ..
   
   
   # Install flutter-pi from source from `https://github.com/ardera/flutter-pi`
   echo "Installing flutter-pi"
   sudo apt install -y git vim cmake libgl1-mesa-dev \
   libgles2-mesa-dev libegl1-mesa-dev libdrm-dev libgbm-dev \
   ttf-mscorefonts-installer fontconfig libsystemd-dev libinput-dev \
   libudev-dev libxkbcommon-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev \
   libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-dev \
   gstreamer1.0-plugins-base gstreamer1.0-plugins-good gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly \
   gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad gstreamer1.0-libav
   
   sudo fc-cache
   
   git clone https://github.com/ardera/flutter-pi
   cd flutter-pi
   
   mkdir build
   cd build
   cmake ..
   make -j`nproc`
   sudo make install
   
   cd ../..
   sudo usermod -a -G render pi
   
   
   # Some Information for the user
   echo ""
   echo ""
   echo "After script termination open 'sudo raspi-config' and set Autologin Shell, SPI enabled and GPU Memory 64"
   echo "Than you can start deploying the flutter app stated in 'https://github.com/ardera/flutter-pi'"
   echo "You have to start at 'Building the asset bundle'"

3. Open raspi-config:

   sudo raspi-config

4. Switch to console mode: System Options -> Boot / Auto Login and select Console.

5. Raspbian buster only, skip this if you're on bullseye (or newer - which is normally the case) - if you encoutner an [flutter-pi] Could not query DRM device list: No such file or directory error try this setting too
   Enable the V3D graphics driver:
   Advanced Options -> GL Driver -> GL (Full KMS)

6. Configure the GPU memory Performance Options -> GPU Memory and enter 64.

7. Enable SPI and I2C: Interface Options -> SPI -> Yes and Interface Options -> I2C -> Yes

8. Leave raspi-config.

9. Give the pi permission to use 3D acceleration - normally this is already done in the script but doing it again does no harm. (NOTE: potential security hazard. If you don't want to do this, launch flutter-pi using sudo instead - the flutter-pi script above usally already enabled this!)

   sudo usermod -a -G render pi

10. Finish and reboot: sudo shutdown -r now

Compiling the Flutter App for Raspberry Pi (not needed if you use the precompiled app from release_build - See info section Precompiled App)

IMPORTANT: Do all this on a Linux x86_64 machine which is not the Raspberry Pi (since the Pi is arm!)
For performance reason you could also execute every command on any development machine except for the third step in Compiling the app since the gen_snapshot_linux_x64_release executable is only compiled for x64 as the name says

Setting up the dependencies

We want create a file structure that looks like the following:

engine_binaries/
│ 
├─ arm/
│  │ 
│  ├─ gen_snapshot_linux_x64_release
│ 
├─ install.sh
│ 
flutter_terminal/
│
├─ build/
│  ├─ flutter_assets/
│  │  ├─ app.so
│ 
├─ lib/
│  ├─ main.dart
│ 
├─ README.md

1. Install flutter on the system - always make sure that the engine binaries version installed on the Raspberry Pi (when setting up flutter-pi) matches the Flutter version which is used to compile the app - (just follow the instructions here) - basically just: sudo snap install flutter --classic

2. Now clone the engine binaries: git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/ardera/flutter-engine-binaries-for-arm.git engine-binaries
   Important check that the engine binaries version equals the used flutter verion (flutter --version)

3. After that actual clone the project git clone https://gitlab.hpi.de/fachschaftsrat/wallet/flutter_terminal flutter_terminal

4. Change into the project with: cd flutter_terminal

5. Edit the env.example.yaml in a way that it works for you and copy/rename it to env.yaml for example with: mv env.example.yaml env.yaml

6. Get all the flutter packages with flutter pub get

7. Generate all the files that need code generation with: flutter pub run build_runner build

8. Build the flutter bundle with: flutter build bundle

Compiling the app

Now we should have the following setup:

1. The app dir is called flutter_terminal
2. The engine binaries are in engine-binaries
3. The name in flutter_terminal/pubspec.yaml is terminal_frontend
4. The Flutter SDK should be downloaded and reachable with flutter sdk-path (execute this or any other Flutter command at least once to trigger the SDK download)

1. If you aren't already in the flutter project directory change into it with: cd flutter_terminal

2. Execute the following to build the kernel snapshot:

   $(flutter sdk-path)/bin/cache/dart-sdk/bin/dart \
   $(flutter sdk-path)/bin/cache/dart-sdk/bin/snapshots/frontend_server.dart.snapshot \
   --sdk-root $(flutter sdk-path)/bin/cache/artifacts/engine/common/flutter_patched_sdk_product \
   --target=flutter \
   --aot \
   --tfa \
   -Ddart.vm.product=true \
   --packages .packages \
   --output-dill build/kernel_snapshot.dill \
   --verbose \
   --depfile build/kernel_snapshot.d \
   package:terminal_frontend/main.dart

3. Build the app.so with the gen_snapshot_linux_x64_release from the engine binaries repo (When building for arm64 add the --sim-use-hardfp flag)

   ../engine-binaries/arm/gen_snapshot_linux_x64_release \
   --deterministic \
   --snapshot_kind=app-aot-elf \
   --elf=build/flutter_assets/app.so \
   --strip \
   build/kernel_snapshot.dill

   (Be aware that for this step the engine binaries must be located inside the parent directory as shown in the folder structure at the top)

Copy the flutter_assets (with app.so snapshot in it) to the Raspberry Pi

• Copying everything into ~/FsrTerminal on the Pi by executing rsync -a ./build/flutter_assets/ [email protected]:~/FsrTerminal/

Using the precompiled app

1. Copy the precompiled app from this repo to the Pi or clone it on the Pi and copy the release_build/FsrTerminal directory to /home/pi. Now the following path should exist: /home/pi/FsrTerminal!

2. Inside the FsrTerminal rename the assets/env.example.yaml to env.yaml by executing: mv assets/env.example.yaml assets/env.yaml

3. Edit the assets/env.yaml file according to your setup!

Enabling app start after boot up

Creating the systemd entry

1. Create a new file in /etc/systemd/system called fsr-terminal.service with sudo touch /etc/systemd/system/fsr-terminal.service

2. Past in the following content (with sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/fsr-terminal.service):

   [Unit]
   Description=The service starting and controlling the FSR Terminal Flutter App
   After=multi-user.target
   
   # Getting a little fancy with the restart options here
   # The next 3 options are tightly connected to each other
   # Give up restarting and exec StartLimitAction - if it fails 15 times (=StartLimitBurst) within 300 (=StartLimitIntervalSec) seconds
   StartLimitBurst=15 
   StartLimitIntervalSec=300
   StartLimitAction=reboot-force
   
   [Service]
   User=pi
   # Sometimes the flutter-pi path must be given in absolute form
   ExecStart=/home/pi/FsrTerminal/assets/StartScript.sh
   ExecStop=/usr/bin/killall flutter-pi
   
   # Always try to restart
   Restart=always
   # Retry restart after 10s
   RestartSec=10 
   
   # Useful during debugging; remove it once the service is working
   #StandardOutput=console
   
   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target

3. Reload the service-files though the new service will be found sudo systemctl daemon-reload

4. Enable the service by executing sudo systemctl enable fsr-terminal

5. Make the StartScript.sh executable with: sudo chmod 755 ~/FsrTerminal/assets/StartScript.sh

6. When starting the service with sudo systemctl start fsr-terminal the app should start as normal otherwise see the Troubleshooting section below

7. After a restart the system should automatically open the FSR Terminal

Troubleshooting

• Check the output of systemctl status fsr-terminal

• Check the outputs of journalctl -u fsr-terminal

• Check what happens when you execute the command executed by the start up service - look in /etc/systemd/system/fsr-terminal.service for ExecStart=...

• Make sure the ~/FsrTerminal got the 755 permission with sudo chmod 755 ~/FsrTerminal

• Sometimes you also have to change the ExecStart of the fsr-terminal.service file directive so that you use an absolute path for flutter-pi

• Debug the serive by uncommenting the last line of the [Service] section in the /etc/systemd/system/fsr-terminal.service file and start the service with systemctl start fsr-terminal (if it's somehow already/still running kill it with systemctl stop fsr-terminal)

• Verifying the corectness of the config file with sudo systemd-analyze verify /etc/systemd/system/fsr-terminal.service