Linux PC¶

IDCP is an EPICS application that runs on an IOC <https://docs.epics-controls.org/en/latest/guides/EPICS_Intro.html?highlight=IOC#ioc-software-components>.

This document describes how to set up a PC with Linux for this IOC.

IDCP is tested on a Debian 12 (“bookworm”) Linux system.

HTTP Proxy settings¶

Hint

The following information is specific for the BESSY II site, see also Sites.

At the HZB networks, in order to be able to connect to debian repositories set the environment variables:

export http_proxy=http://proxy.blc.bessy.de:3128
export https_proxy=http://proxy.blc.bessy.de:3128

Basic setup¶

Create bootable image¶

Download a netinst ISO file here or from this link:

Debian Network Install.

Here is an example how to copy the ISO image to an USB stick:

cp debian.iso /dev/sdX

Install¶

Boot live image and click on “Install Debian” icon:

Welcome: Select “american english” Location: <YOUR LOCATION> Keyboard: <DEFAULT FOR YOUR COUNTRY> Partitions: Erase Disk (CAUTION!!! Not always the correct selection) Users: <ADD A STANDARD INSTALLATION USER> passwort: <MAKE UP A PASSWORD>

Then: start install

http proxy¶

If you have an HTTP proxy, the long in as the standard user, then:

echo "export http_proxy=<YOUR PROXY>" > $HOME/setenv-proxy.sh
echo "export https_proxy=<YOUR PROXY>" >> $HOME/setenv-proxy.sh
source $HOME/setenv-proxy.sh

ssh setup¶

Enter:

sudo apt-get install openssh-server
sudo systemctl enable ssh

apt-file setup¶

Enter:

apt-get install apt-file
apt-file update

Packages¶

Here is a set of commands to install all the required packages. Note that with this list you can not only run IDCP but also build IDCP:

sudo bash
apt-get install bind9-host
apt-get install mercurial
apt-get install darcs
apt-get install wget
apt-get install python3-pip
apt-get install w3m
apt-get install neovim
apt-get install bash-completion
apt-get install rsync
apt-get install libpopt-dev
apt-get install re2c
apt-get install python3-yaml
apt-get install ripgrep
apt-get install fd-find
apt-get install python3-venv
apt-get install libyaml-libyaml-perl
apt-get install can-utils
apt-get install git
apt-get install ntp
apt-get install ntpstat
apt-get install ntpsec-ntpdate
apt-get install chrony
apt-get install procserv
apt-get install autofs
apt-get install sshfs
apt-get install conserver-client
apt-get install conserver-server
<ctrl-d>

NTP setup¶

The PC needs a working NTP setup for correct timestamps. Here we use “chrony”.

In file /etc/chrony/chrony.conf add:

pool YOURTIMESERVER iburst

Hint

The timeserver IP address for the BESSY II site is the IP address of your IOC but with ‘18’ as the last byte. See also Sites.

You can test if chrony is working with these commands:

chronyc sources
chronyc tracking

ioc user setup¶

Hint

The user and group ID for user ‘ioc’ is specific for the BESSY II site, see also Sites.

The IOC should run as a specific user. I recomment to install a user “ioc” with these commands:

sudo groupadd -g 27000 iocs
sudo useradd ioc -g iocs -m -s /bin/bash -u 27001
sudo passwd ioc

The ioc user must have rights to start processes with real-time priorities. As root user create a file /etc/security/limits.d/security-limits-softIOC.conf with this content:

ioc - rtprio unlimited
ioc - memlock unlimited
ioc - core unlimited

The ioc user also needs some sudo rights. Create file /etc/sudoers.d/ioc with this content:

ioc ALL= NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl restart ioc@*
ioc ALL= NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl stop ioc@*
ioc ALL= NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl start ioc@*
ioc ALL= NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl status ioc@*

Hint

The following ssh setup is specific for the BESSY II site, see also Sites.

You have to be able to log in host ‘stretch.acc.bessy.de’ as user, ioc. Then do as user ‘ioc’:

scp -r -p ioc@stretch.acc.bessy.de:.ssh .ssh-copy
rm -rf .ssh && mv .ssh-copy .ssh
ssh nfs.blc.bessy.de

Answer ‘y’ to the question ‘add hostkey..?’.

idadm user setup¶

Hint

The user and group ID for user ‘idadm’ is specific for the BESSY II site, see also Sites.

The ‘idadm’ user is there for administration of the insertion device.

Enter:

sudo groupadd -g 44098 idadm
sudo useradd idadm -g idadm -m -s /bin/bash -u 44098
sudo passwd idadm

The idadm user also needs some sudo rights. Create file /etc/sudoers.d/idadm with this content:

ioc ALL= NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl restart ioc@*
ioc ALL= NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl stop ioc@*
ioc ALL= NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl start ioc@*
ioc ALL= NOPASSWD: /bin/systemctl status ioc@*

Set up ssh:

scp -r -p idadm@stretch.acc.bessy.de:.ssh .ssh-copy
rm -rf .ssh && mv .ssh-copy .ssh
ssh nfs.blc.bessy.de

Answer ‘y’ to the question ‘add hostkey..?’.

Access to remote file system¶

You usually want to store your files not locally on the Linux PC but on a file server.

Here I describe a method to do this with sshfs. You can, of course, also do this with NFS or Samba.

First you need a user “ioc” on your fileserver.

The user “ioc” on the Linux PC must have a private ssh key without a passphrase. This key must be added to file “$HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys” in the home of user “ioc” on the file server.

Now it should be possible to log from the PC on the fileserver with ssh, ensure that the following command works without the need to enter a password or passphrase:

ssh ioc@FILESERVER

Now you have to add the ssh key of user “ioc” also to user “root”.

Warning

The following command overwrites files that may already exist in directory “.ssh” of user root.

sudo bash
cd $HOME
mkdir -p .ssh
cd .ssh
cp -a -i -b /home/ioc/.ssh/* .
<ctrl-d>

Test if root can log on to the file server. Run as root:

ssh ioc@FILESERVER
<Ctrl-D>

Hint

The server and directory names in the following autofs configuration are specific for the BESSY II site, see also Sites.

Now configure sshfs for the automounter. In this example directory “/opt/IOC” on the file server is locally mounted on directory “/mnt/nfs-blc-IOC” on the Linux PC:

sudo bash
echo 'nfs-blc-IOC -fstype=fuse,rw,allow_other :sshfs\#ioc@nfs.blc.bessy.de\:/opt/IOC' > /etc/autofs.sshfs
echo "/mnt /etc/autofs.sshfs uid=$(id -u ioc),gid=$(id -g ioc),--timeout=60,--ghost" | sudo tee -a /etc/auto.master
sudo systemctl restart autofs
<ctrl-d>

Now test if everything works:

ls -l /mnt/nfs-blc-IOC

You should see the files from directory “/opt/IOC” on the server.

Set up console server¶

Install with:

apt-get install conserver-client conserver-server

Edit /etc/conserver/conserver.passwd, add:

idadm:sakyGDU6yNtyU
tscadm:$1$ByyW4Y4m$DbVKaeOFtsGZraV/5CjnX.
*any*:*passwd*

Edit /etc/conserver/conserver.cf, add:

console CONSOLENAME {
        master IPADDRESS;
        timestamp 1l;
        type exec;
        exec telnet localhost 12345;
}

In /etc/conserver/conserver.cf at the end of the file set up the ‘access’ section like thos:

access * {
        allowed 127.0.0.1, OWNNETWORK, OTHERMETWORK;
}

Where OWNNETWORK is the CIDR notation of the Linux PC’s own network, and the optional OWNNETWORK, there may be more than one, are other network who are allowed to access the console.

Hint

CONSOLENAME and IPADDRESS depend on the installation size. At BESSY II CONSOLENAME is something like ‘eis13g’, IPADDRESS is always the IP address of the Linux PC. See also Sites.

Edit /etc/conserver/console.cf to have this content:

# default config for console
config * {
        master  localhost;
        port    782;
}

Edit file /etc/conserver/server.local to have this content:

OPTS='-p 782 '

In file /usr/lib/systemd/system/conserver-server.service out-comment the line:

#User=conservr

Note

The Logfile CONSOLENAME.log is at /var/log/conserver.

Now enable and start the service like this:

systemctl enable conserver-server
systemctl start conserver-server

Hint

The following extra step is used at the BESSY II site to attach the console to our main console server configuration there. See also Sites.

In the HZB conserver project in file ‘conserver.cf’ at the end add these lines:

console CONSOLENAME {
        master IPADDRESS;
        timestamp 1l;
        type exec;
        exec telnet localhost 12345;
}

Install EPICS Base¶

This is done here in order to have the utilities:

caget
caput
camonitor
caRepeater

Prepare a directory:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/EPICS
sudo chown ioc:ioc /opt/EPICS
mkdir -p /opt/EPICS/3.15.9
cd /opt/EPICS/3.15.9

Download and build base:

wget https://epics.anl.gov/download/base/base-3.15.9.tar.gz
tar -xzf base-3.15.9.tar.gz
rm *.tar.gz
mv base-3.15.9 base
make -C base -sj install

Make base utilities available:

echo 'PATH=/opt/EPICS/3.15.9/base/bin/linux-x86_64:$PATH' >> $HOME/.bashrc

Set up caRepeater service¶

Then enter:

sudo cp /opt/EPICS/3.15.9/base/bin/linux-x86_64/caRepeater.service /etc/systemd/system
sudo chmod 664 /etc/systemd/system/caRepeater.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable caRepeater
sudo systemctl start caRepeater

Set up idcp script directory¶

Enter:

sudo mkdir /opt/idcp-scripts
sudo chown ioc:ioc /opt/idcp-scripts

Now provided the idcp source code is at directory IDCP-DIR, copy the CAN Bus initialization script like this:

cp -a IDCP-DIR/scripts/idcp-init-pcan-builtin.sh /opt/idcp-scripts

Copy the IOC start script with this command:

cp -a IDCP-DIR/scripts/start-ioc.sh /opt/idcp-scripts

Note that this script expects the idcp application at directory /opt/IOC/idcp/links/$1 where $1 is the idcp key, for example idcp12.

Set up CAN bus initialization service¶

Copy the CAN Bus service file like this:

sudo cp -a IDCP-DIR/scripts/service/idcp-init-pcan-builtin.service /etc/systemd/system
sudo chmod 664 /etc/systemd/system/idcp-init-pcan-builtin.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable idcp-init-pcan-builtin
sudo systemctl start idcp-init-pcan-builtin

Set up idcp IOC as a service¶

Copy the IOC service file like this:

sudo cp -a IDCP-DIR/scripts/service/ioc@.service /etc/systemd/system
sudo chmod 664 /etc/systemd/system/ioc@.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

To enable the ioc you must know the idcp key. Here is an example for the UE48 undulator, which is “idcp12”:

sudo systemctl enable ioc@idcp12
sudo systemctl start ioc@idcp12

Console access¶

For now, you can access the IOC console with this command:

telnet localhost 12345

In order to leave the telnet session enter:

<ctrl-]>
q

Linux PC¶

HTTP Proxy settings¶

Basic setup¶

Create bootable image¶

Install¶

http proxy¶

ssh setup¶

apt-file setup¶

Packages¶

NTP setup¶

ioc user setup¶

idadm user setup¶

Access to remote file system¶

Set up console server¶

Install EPICS Base¶

Set up caRepeater service¶

Set up idcp script directory¶

Set up CAN bus initialization service¶

Set up idcp IOC as a service¶

Console access¶

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