OLA Debian / Ubuntu

Packages are hosted at http://apt.openlighting.org

Edit sources.list

Add the relevant line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file

Debian

deb   http://apt.openlighting.org/debian  squeeze main

Raspbian

Only the hardware optimized platform is supported (armhf) rather than the soft-float version (armel).

deb   http://apt.openlighting.org/raspbian  wheezy main

Ubuntu Precise 12.04

deb   http://apt.openlighting.org/ubuntu  precise main

Ubuntu Natty 11.04

deb   http://apt.openlighting.org/ubuntu  natty main

Install

apt-get update
apt-get install ola
#Optional:
apt-get install ola-python ola-rdm-tests

Usage

OLA daemon

Since ola-0.8.23, you can choose to start olad at boot. The question is asked the first time you install ola. If you chose 'No', you can change it with:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure ola

Since you choose 'Yes', the init script will be active and you will get the advantages below. Take care, if you start olad manually in a terminal, you will loose these advantages.

• Control the olad process with:

sudo /etc/init.d/olad start
sudo /etc/init.d/olad stop
sudo /etc/init.d/olad restart
sudo /etc/init.d/olad status

• olad is started by the 'olad' system user (automatically created and added to groups dialout and plugdev).

So olad is ready to use USB devices (thanks to udev rules).

RDM Test Server

Since ola-0.8.25, you can choose to start rdm_test_server at boot. The question is asked the first time you install ola-rdm-tests. If you chose 'No', you can change it with:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure ola-rdm-tests

Since you choose 'Yes', the init script will be active.

• Control the rdm_test_server process with:

sudo /etc/init.d/rdm_test_server start
sudo /etc/init.d/rdm_test_server stop
sudo /etc/init.d/rdm_test_server restart
sudo /etc/init.d/rdm_test_server status

Configuration

• conf files are in /var/lib/ola/conf/ and owned by 'olad'.

To configure the plugins, you need to add yourself to the olad group. For example:

sudo adduser renzo olad

then logout and login again (you need to do it only once).

You are now able to edit the conf files, for example:

gedit /var/lib/ola/conf/ola-artnet.conf

• You can try my bash script to set the plugins easily

apt-get update
apt-get install ola-conf-plugins

Check the conf path with:

sh ola_conf_plugins.sh
---
settings path is:
/var/lib/ola/conf
---

If you want to use ftdidmx plugin (for opendmx and so), you need to do:

sh ola_conf_plugins.sh disable all
sh ola_conf_plugins.sh enable ftdi

Logs

• Read the olad logs with:

grep olad /var/log/syslog

if you want to see the 20 last lines (including system messages like usb ones):

tail -n20 /var/log/syslog

See Also

Notes on Building Debian Packages