How to install NodeLink on Debian x64

[Scottmichaelj]

I am trying to learn about these nodeservers, via NodeLink and Polyglot. Its been a deep learning curve since I don't use Linux, or am a programmer. I feel like I have a decent knowledge of things but when I see everything that is being done here it is incredible. In a couple spots I posted about how I got Polyglot working on my QNAP NAS as a Virtual Machine (VM) and my next step for me was installing NodeLink. Here is what I did.

-First, since I already had Debian installed and running I took a Snapshot of my VM to be safe if I screwed things up.

-Second I then downloaded the newest version of NodeLink and the NodeLink.exe file for the ISY off IO_Guys site - http://automationshack.com/wp/nodelink/

-Then I dug into Debian. With the terminal open, I straitened following the Raspberry Pi install instructions here - http://automationshack.com/Files/Raspbian_Setup_V5.pdf 

*Some things to know. Since I already had Debian installed as a VM I skipped down to where it starts with: "After logging back in, next step is to install the mono repository, update the system, and reboot." Also I had issues with "socket errors for NodeLink and Honeywell. After PMing with IO_Guy he stated I needed to have the newest "mono" - so I used the following commands instead of whats in the instructions.

sudo apt-get install dirmngr
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF

echo "deb http://download.mono-project.com/repo/debian stable-stretch main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-official-stable.list

sudo apt-get install mono-vbnc mono-complete
sudo reboot

-Once I was logged back in and had the terminal back up after the reboot, I went back to the directions again to the next step of Installing/Testing NodeLink which are to send the following commands:
mkdir ~/node
cd ~/node

wget http://automationshack.com/Files/NodeLink.exe

MAKE NOTE: Linux is case sensitive meaning the “F” and “S” above need to be uppercase as listed above.

Now that its downloaded it’s time to run. To start the program type:

mono ~/node/NodeLink.exe

-At this point everything started and I was able to login to the config page.

-The second phase is to install the NodeLink profile per IO_GUYs instructions here.

http://automationshack.com/Files/NodeLink_Setup.pdf

That should be all there is. Again if anyone sees any errors please let me know so I can correct them for this guide. I hope it comes in useful for someone.

[Scottmichaelj]

So the one thing I couldn't figure out how to do was get NodeLink to auto boot at startup.

The command mono ~/node/NodeLink.exe works for me so I tried adding "mono home/node/NodeLink.exe &" to the rc.local file but that didn't work. I am sure it's something super simple. Probably my directory command is wrong.

[Bumbershoot]

@ScottmichaeljI believe this will work for you:

I created a file called 'nodelink.service' and placed it in '/etc/systemd/system'.  You can navigate to this directory, start nano as root: 'sudo nano' and paste the contents of this file (provided that the file paths enumerated within are correct - you'll likely have to change the "ExecStart" values, i.e., '/home/pi/Nodelink/NodeLink.exe'  and the username, i.e., 'User=pi' to your actual file path and username) into 'nano' and save the file.

Here are the contents of the file 'nodelink.service':

[UNIT]
Description=NodeLink Server
Documentation=http://automationshack.com/nodelink.html
After=network-online.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/mono /home/pi/Nodelink/NodeLink.exe
Restart=always
User=pi

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

You have to issue the command; 'sudo systemctl enable nodelink' before the command 'systemctl' will actually start | stop | restart | etc NodeLink.

This starts NodeLink on reboot after the network services have started.

To start | stop | restart NodeLink, issue a 'systemctl' command, i.e., 'sudo systemctl restart nodelink'.

I hope this helps.  FWIW, the OS called 'stretch' on an RPi is a derivative of Debian Linux.