Plumbery : syslog-ng

One of the good thing to interact with a Linux distribution is that a lot of mechanism are familiar. Especially restarting syslog-ng :

[root@kindle root]# /etc/init.d/syslog-ng restart
system: I syslog-ng:def:stopping syslog-ng
system: I syslog-ng:def:waiting for syslog-ng to die off
system: I syslog-ng:def:waited 1 second
system: I syslog-ng:def:waited 1 second
system: I syslog-ng:def:waited 1 second
system: I syslog-ng:def:starting syslog-ng

Home automation emulator

The python script you started on point 7 displays on the screen this kind of logs :

Docs $ python2 http_relay.py 
Server Starts - mbp:8080
192.168.1.110 - - [11/Aug/2015 21:36:36] "GET /?toggle=switch HTTP/1.0" 200 -
192.168.1.110 - - [11/Aug/2015 21:36:36] "GET /?toggle=the HTTP/1.0" 200 -
192.168.1.110 - - [11/Aug/2015 21:36:36] "GET /?toggle=CUISINE HTTP/1.0" 200 -
192.168.1.110 - - [11/Aug/2015 21:36:36] "GET /?toggle=BUREAU HTTP/1.0" 200 -

All following lines are for :

IP - - [DATE HOUR] "GET url_requested" 200.

You can repeat the commands on step 7 and see all new requests appear on the screen. You can also repeat commands on step 9 for the almost same result.

There is only one difference, the ip (first data of the line) of your computer and ip of your kindle (mine is 192.168.1.110).

Crafted ebook

Move the ebook from /tmp/ to /mnt/base-us :

[root@kindle root]# cp /tmp/domotique.pdf /mnt/base-us/documents/ 

Refresh kindle internal list of ebooks:

[root@kindle root]# dbus-send --system /default com.lab126.powerd.resuming int32:1

And now from the kindle open the ebook named "Domotique - PoC", and move cursor to words CUISINE or BUREAU and see logs in python script outputs.

Cleaning the kindle

At this time of the demo, one command is MANDATORY to your kindle : reverting to old syslog-ng.conf !

[root@kindle root]# mntroot rw
system: I mntroot:def:Making root filesystem writeable
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on / type ext3 (rw,noatime,nodiratime)
[root@kindle root]# cd /etc/syslog-ng/
[root@kindle root]# cp syslog-ng.conf.ok syslog-ng.conf

This line MUST be commented with a # !

#log { source(src); filter(f_cvm); destination(cvm); };

(optional : the msp430 leds)

This is probably the less interesting part of the project BUT this it take most of the attention. I choose msp430 because it's :

• affordable
• has two leds
• easy to configure
• easy to program with energia.

So you have to

1. Open the sketch provided in Docs
2. Uploading it to the msp430

My msp430 is available to /dev/msp430. To manually set on/off leds I use echo.

Docs $ echo "1" > /dev/msp430   #toggle led1 -> on
Docs $ echo "1" > /dev/msp430   #toggle led1 -> off
Docs $ echo "0" > /dev/msp430   #toggle led0 -> on
Docs $ echo "0" > /dev/msp430   #toggle led0 -> off

(optional : survive at reboot)

It's a caveat you MUST be aware : if syslog-ng can't find the program it will try to relaunch it over and over. It will drain your battery in less than a day.

There is a better place to store read_fifo. The better candidate is /opt/, maybe you prefer /usr/bin but consider /opt/.

1. remount root filesystem read-write
2. stop syslog-ng
3. move read_fifo to /opt/ (even better /opt/homeautomation/)
4. change destination cvm program path of /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf to the appropriate path
5. remount root filesystem read-only
6. start syslog-ng

(optional : more events)

With this demo I only documented (for now) only one event : SupplementarInfoBox.

I tend to write my code as generic as possible and you can easily extend the actual code to other events even whose are not related to cvm.

Have a look in Docs/kindle.log to see what is generally available from power, to screensaver, to network related stuff, amazon stats …

Don't hesitate to ping me for help :-)

May the tinkering be with you.

Cheers !