BPQ Migration

If you wish to migrate from a manual installation using binaries either self built or downloaded directly from G8BPQ, the below should offer you an insight into the best practises and things to look out for!

There are a few key differences from how the version shipped in Hibbian works from vanilla LinBPQ! This might require a slight shift in how you approach some basic commands.

1. The config file lives in /etc with other system config files
2. The working/state files live in /opt/oarc/bpq
3. It is started/stopped with systemd instead of directly running the binary
4. It runs as a dedicated user that you don't use day to day to allow for better security.

Tip

/opt/oarc/bpq is a reflection of the OARC where the project grew from and I'm too scared at this point to move files out of that folder!

Stop your existing LinBPQ

Use whatever method you normally use to stop your BPQ. It is best not to move files around while changes are happening!

Back everything up

Copy it to a different place, stick it on a USB stick or on a different machine, but make sure you have another location where everything is in its current state.

Have everything saved somewhere else so you can put it back in place and move back to your current approach if you don't like the new one!

Make note of locations of files

We're particularly interested in bpq32.cfg and the working files. This will be the directory holding chatconfig.cfg, axipcache.cfg, BPQNODES.dat, DIRMES.SYS. If you're using the plain binary of bpq I think it just puts all that stuff beside it.

Install the Hibbian Repo

Follow the instructions at repo guide to set up the repo on your computer.

Install LinBPQ

To learn more about installing applications on Linux, please see the Linux Guide.

GUI

Search linbpq in your computer's app store and install it

Terminal

Run the below in your terminal to install the latest and greatest LinBPQ on your system:

Terminal Command

sudo apt install linbpq

Once this has completed, we also need to stop linbpq so we can replace the files I put in place for a new install:

Terminal Command

sudo systemctl stop linbpq

Move your files into position

This will all need to be done as root via sudo

bpq32.cfg

Copy bpq32.cfg from wherever it is to /etc/bpq32.cfg and update the persmissions to ensure that the linbpq group can edit the config:

Terminal Commands

sudo cp bpq32.cfg /etc/bpq32.cfg
sudo chown :linbpq /etc/bpq32.cfg

Working files

Copy working files and folders from where they are to /opt/oarc/bpq/ and then update them to be owned by the linbpq user and group.

As an example, if all my files live in a bpq folder in my pi's home,

Terminal Commands

sudo cp -rf /home/pi/bpq/* /opt/oarc/bpq/
sudo chown -R linbpq:linbpq /opt/oarc/bpq/

Start the new node!

Start your new setup with the below command and see if anything explodes.

The standard way to start your node is now:

Terminal Command

sudo systemctl start linbpq

After a few seconds, I recommend checking to see if everything is running using

Terminal Command

sudo systemctl status linbpq

This is the standard command to see if the system is alive, dead and how it failed.

If everything is good, it'll say Active: active (running) with terminal output that looks like this:

hibby@gb7hib:/etc$ sudo systemctl status linbpq
● linbpq.service - Linbpq systemd service file
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/linbpq.service; enabled; preset:
enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sat 2024-11-30 20:57:01 UTC; 5s ago
   Main PID: 314200 (linbpq)
      Tasks: 7 (limit: 4395)
     Memory: 4.4M
        CPU: 160ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/linbpq.service
             └─314200 /usr/sbin/linbpq -c /etc -d /opt/oarc/bpq -l /opt/oarc/bpq

Nov 30 20:57:01 gb7hib linbpq[314200]: Config Processed
Nov 30 20:57:01 gb7hib LINBPQ[314200]: Resolving chatupdate.g8bpq.net
Nov 30 20:57:01 gb7hib LINBPQ[314200]: cant open forms dir
/opt/oarc/bpq/Standard_Templates 2 0
Nov 30 20:57:01 gb7hib LINBPQ[314200]: cant open forms dir
/opt/oarc/bpq/Standard Templates 2 0
Nov 30 20:57:01 gb7hib linbpq[314200]: Mail Started
Nov 30 20:57:01 gb7hib LINBPQ[314200]: cant open forms dir
/opt/oarc/bpq/Local_Templates 2 0
Nov 30 20:57:01 gb7hib LINBPQ[314200]: Maint Clock 1733011200 NOW 1733000221
Time to HouseKeeping 10979
Nov 30 20:57:03 gb7hib LINBPQ[314200]: Trying  APRSIS Host 56.244.0.0 (1)
aprsis1.he.fi
Nov 30 20:57:03 gb7hib LINBPQ[314200]: # aprsc 2.1.19-g730c5c0

If not all is well, look a little deeper! Scroll the console output with:

Terminal Command

sudo journalctl -xeu linbpq

Have a read and see if there's anything failing noisily.

Failing that, recheck you did the permissions step above, reach out for help or, worst case, go back to the old system you've backed up and definitely not deleted or modified!