Some notes on setting up opencpn [1] on a Orange Pi 5 (OrPi5).

Hardware:

• Orange Pi 5 I have chosen the original version with an NVME port so I can add an SSD disk. The wifi then needs to be connected using USB.

• A waveshare L76X Multi-GNSS hat handling the GPS, https://www.waveshare.com/l76x-gps-hat.htm. It comes with an antenna which works for indoor testing, but for my yacht I use a Garmin GPS antenna mounted on the pushpit. The card also needs a battery.

• A TP-Link Archer T3U Plus USB wifi module, https://www.amazon.se/dp/B0859M539M. Could be anything as long as its supported by the 6.1 kernel.

• 4A power USB-C Power supplys, 220V for testing, 12V for yacht connection.

• A bootstrap sd card, nothing fancy. 32GB is enough.

• An short nvme SSD, I used https://www.amazon.se/dp/B0BTDPXWPC

• 40-pin raspberry connectors for soldering, female (for OrPi5) and male (for waveshare GPS card) like https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002833659269.html

For development

• HDMI monitor
• USB keyboard + mouse
• Wired ethernet connection

Cooling and case

These are related. I'm using a rather open solution which allows for free air flow. Here my passive cooling https://www.amazon.se/dp/B0C6LRYZ73 should be enough. A more closed box probably will need a fan (don't want that).

Start with the Debian server image available at Orange website

Burn it to a sd card. Could be done on any tool, on my Linux PC:

# dd if=Orangepi5plus_1.0.6_debian_bookworm_server_linux5.10.110.7 \
      of=/dev/mmcblk0 status=progress bs=1M conv=sync

This is just a bootstrap, no point to customize at this point. Insert card in the OrPi5 and boot it up. Once booted, transfer the same image to the Rpi -- either from the burning host where it's available or from the website.

Burn image to the NVME card using something like:

# dd if=Orangepi5plus_1.0.6_debian_bookworm_server_linux5.10.110.7 \
      of=/dev/nvme0n1 status=progress bs=1M conv=sync

Remove the sd card and reboot into the nvme card server image.

Add a regular user:

# adduser foo
... answer prompts ...

Change the orangepi default password

# passwd orangepi
... answer prompts

Install the xfce4 desktop

# apt install xfce4

Set the hostname

# hostnamectl hostname "silly-name"

Enable an UART.

We need an uart to receive data from the Waveshare GPS card. Start orangepi-config, got to System | Hardware. Here, select the uart (I'm using uart1-m1), save and exit.

Reboot into desktop. When logging in, select "Gnome on X11" in gear bottom-right before entering password (Wayland logins fails).

In a terminal, set up the fixed TP connection:

# nmcli  conn modify "Wired connection 1" ipv4.addresses 192.168.2.143
# nmcli  conn modify "Wired connection 1" ipv4.gateway 192.168.2.1
# nmcli  conn modify "Wired connection 1" ipv4.dns 192.168.2.21 8.8.8.8

Set up the wlan, the OrPi5 is wlan AP:

# nmcli con add type wifi ifname wlan0 con-name Hotspot autoconnect yes ssid equipage
# nmcli con modify Hotspot 802-11-wireless.mode ap 802-11-wireless.band bg ipv4.method shared
# nmcli con modify Hotspot wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-psk
# nmcli con modify Hotspot wifi-sec.psk "veryveryhardpassword1234"
# nmcli con up Hotspot

Two problems occurs:

1. The wlan0 device does not exist. Look in dmesg for wlan0, this reveals that the kernel has renamed it to wlx98254a3b1d48 (!). The device name is also visible in /sys/class/net/. Update Hotspot accordingly: nmcli conn modify Hotspot connection.interface-name wlx98254a3b1d48

2. The interface failed to activate due to using wrong wifi channels. Look in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_WLAN_channels and update Hotspot's 802-11-wireless.channel property to a sane channel.

# apt install flatpak
# flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists \
    flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpak
$ flatpak install --user org.opencpn.OpenCPN

The tools here keeps a led port high while running (power-led) and also listens to an input and makes a clean shutdown if it goes low (power-btn).

Look in .cpp source files for actual pins used.

To work, current user must be able to run sudo without any password prompt. Left as an exercise to the reader.

Install:

$ make install

Initiate services:

$ systemctl --user enable --now power-btn.service power-led.service

Install system service initiatoing the session: We want the xrdp session to start directly on boot rather than on first login. Edit the xrdp-session.service file, it contains hardcoded user and home directory paths. Activate using:

$ sudo cp xrdp-session.service /etc/systemd/system
$ sudo systemctl enable --now xrdp-session.service

gnome-remote-desktop: used to work all of a sudden broke, unable to find a console. Eventually, I just have up on it. Sigh. Use xrdp instead.

Install packages:

# apt install xrdp xorgxrdp

Make sure /dev/tty0 is accessible. First create a new udev rule, save it as /etc/udev/rules.d/tty.rules:

SUBSYSTEM=="tty", KERNEL=="tty[0-9]*", GROUP="tty", MODE="0660"

And add the group owning the /dev/tty0 to secondary groups:

$ sudo usermod -aG tty $USER

Add an executable file ~/.xsession reading:

xfce4-session

Remove ~/.xinsitrc if it exists. Start the xrdp service and connect with remmina.

OpenCPN should be started as soon as the actual user is logged in. This is handled by make install above.

As for stopping OpenCPN, the script opencpn_stop sends a exit signal to OpenCPN and waits until it really has exited. This is important to avoid the "Your last session seems to have failed" dialog when starting OpenCPN next time. Also this should be handled by make install which installs two desktop files handling logout and shutdown.