This procedure assumes using a Mac to set up.

1. Plug the unit into a 5V power supply.

   The chip has two USB ports. Plus a micro USB connector into the rightmost one. It supplies power to the chip and is also used to programs the Arduino side of the chip.

   The leftmost connector is a USB out connection. An OTG (on the go) USB adaptor is required to use it.

2. Wait for it to boot up

   On powering up, the chip's orange LED will blink once, then stay lit for about 30 seconds while it boots. After that it will blink on and off for a few seconds. When that stops, it's ready.

3. Check your computer wifi settings and look for an access point called "Linkit_Smart_xxxx_xxxxxx" (the x's will be hexadecimal digits).

4. Change your wifi settings to use the Linkit access point.

   When connected, the orange LED will blink three times, pause and repeat.

5. In your browser, go to http://mylinkit.local

6. You'll get a "please set a password" prompt. Set a password for the board.

7. Next you'll be asked to log in

8. Update the board's firmware (switch back to your main wifi access point as needed)

   Follow these instructions to update the board's firmware: https://labs.mediatek.com/site/global/developer_tools/mediatek_linkit_smart_7688/get_started/7688_duo/update/

   Note: after updating, you'll need to start over again at step #1

   • Firmware downloads page: https://labs.mediatek.com/site/global/developer_tools/mediatek_linkit_smart_7688/sdt_intro/index.gsp

   Note: the firmware image file ends with a .img extension that Mac OS thinks is a disk image. This is just the firmware images and the .img cannot be opened as if it is a disk image on Mac.

   In general, you will

   • switch back to the Linkit access point
   • click the "upgrade firmware" button on the Linkit webUI
   • point to the lks7688.img firmware file
   • click Upgrade & Restart
   • wait 3 minutes while the chip upgrades the firmware (showing a continuously blinking wifi LED)
   • wait 30 seconds for the OS to boot (showing a solid wifi LED for 30 seconds)

9. Set the chip to "station" mode instead of "access point" mode

   In the chip's web UI click on "Network" (the right right of "System Information". Then select Station mode, choose your main wifi access point and enter the passcode.

10. Confirm you can SSH into the device

    In terminal, ssh to [email protected] with the password you set above

    Note: if you have ssh'd into a different linkit board, you may need to delete its entry from ~/.ssh/known_hosts

11. Add a micro SD card for storage.

    _Note: the chip comes with a small amount of NAND Flash storage. But unlike a typical Flash drive, there is no usage leveling and atomic writes. Because NAND Flash storage has a limited number of erase/write cycles, it's best to use the NAND Flash drive only for critical use.

    • Power off the device
    • Insert a pre-formatted (FAT32) Micro SD card into the slot. I've had success with 1GB and 4GB cards.
    • Boot up the device
    • SSH in and confirm you can navigate to /Media/SD-P1 and see a usable drive

12. Create a dev folder

    • cd /Media/SD-P1
    • mkdir dev

13. Link to the dev folder in the root directory

    • cd ~
    • ln -s /Media/SD-P1/dev dev

    Now you can ssh in and type "cd dev" to get to that folder

14. Create an SSH key (to use services such as github.com)

    Generate your identity key

    • mkdir ~/.ssh
    • dropbearkey -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa

    Convert public key from dropbear binary to openssh text

    • dropbearkey -y -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa | head -n 2 | tail -1

    Copy the public key that's output and add it to your account at Github.com

    See: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=47551

    And: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/beagleboard/h6XiKjT9-ZI/xgA0kIGViKgJ

15. Change the git ssh command to use Dropbear

     * echo "#!/bin/sh" > ~/.gitssh.sh
     * echo "dbclient -y -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa \$\*" >> ~/.gitssh.sh
     * chmod +x ~/.gitssh.sh
     * echo "export GIT_SSH=\$HOME/.gitssh.sh" >> /etc/profile
    

    Log out and back in

     * ^D
     * ssh [email protected]
    

    NOTE: if this doesn't work, check your copying and pasting.

16. Clone a Github.com repository

     * cd ~/dev
     * git clone [email protected]:jhogsett/linkit.git
    

17. Install the Python Requests library for reaching the web

     * pip install requests
    

    See: http://docs.python-requests.org/en/master/

18. Run a Python program to verify things are set up

     * cd ~/dev/linkit/python
     * python circleci7.py {YOUR CIRCLECI KEY}
    

    Tail the log file to see if it's reaching CirclCI

     * tail -f ~/dev/linkit/python/circleci.log
    

19. Establish your Git identify

    Before you can commit changes, you need to let Git know who you are.

     * git config --global user.email "{YOUR EMAIL}"
     * git config --global user.name "{YOUR FULL NAME}"
    
     Tip: use git config --list to confirm the settings
    

20. Set up Git for pulling and pushing commits

    A git pull is a git fetch followed by a git merge. To do the merge, Git needs to know how. (One might think this would have been set up correctly to begin with, since Git comes pre-installed.)

     * ln -s $(which git) /usr/lib/git-core/git
    

    See: https://community.onion.io/topic/785/git-error-merge-not-found

21. Fix Git diff command

    As installed, the diff command displays differences by opening them in the default editor, including the terminal color codes. It's completely useless.

    This command will change it to show properly on the console:

     * git config --global core.pager cat
    

    see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2183900/how-do-i-prevent-git-diff-from-using-a-pager

    and: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17077973/how-to-make-git-diff-write-to-stdout

    Note: I'm not sure how to make it use less like on a Mac

22. Apply other git fixes

     * git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore
     * git config --global push.default simple
    

23. Set up global Git ignore

     * vim ~/.gitignore
     * logs/
     * *.log
    

24. Customize the 'ls' command

    Edit your profile and add an alias to customize the ls command.

     * vim /etc/profile (for all users)
    

    or

     * vim /root/.profile (for root user)
    

    Then add

     * alias ls='ls -al' (or your desired customization)
    

    Then log out and back in.

    Add any other profile scripts to either file (there is no .bashrc).

    See: http://www.cesareriva.com/openwrt-shell-alias/

25. Add your SSH key so you don't have to enter a password

    Get your SSH public key. On a Mac it should be /Users/USERNAME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

     * vim /etc/dropbear/authorized_keys
    

    Add your key and save the file. Then, log out and back in, and if it worked, you won't be asked for a password.

    See: https://wiki.openwrt.org/doc/howto/dropbear.public-key.auth

26. Add a CircleCI API token to the environment

     * Edit the all users profile as in step #22
     * add export KEY={THE KEY}
    

27. Create a service start-up script for a Python script

    To have a script automatically start up on system boot, create a script such as the following

    Tip: place your Python script in /root so it can be started up even if the SD card has not finished initializing

     * vim /etc/init.d/circleci
    

    Example script:

     #!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common
    
     SCRIPT_NAME="Build Status"
     SCRIPT_PATH="/root/circleci6.py {YOUR KEY}"
     LOG_FILE="/tmp/circleci.log"
     START=99
     STOP=10
    
     start() {       
             echo "Starting $SCRIPT_NAME"
             $SCRIPT_PATH >> $LOG_FILE 2>&1 &
     }                
    
     stop() {         
             echo "Stopping $SCRIPT_NAME"
             killall -9 `basename $SCRIPT_PATH`
     }
    

    Note: the ENV var $KEY cannot be used because it is only loaded when there's a login

     * chmod +x /etc/init.d/circleci
    

    Enable or disable the automatic start up with:

     * /etc/init.d/circleci enable
     * /etc/init.d/circleci disable
    

    When enabled, new start up and shutdown scripts can be seen in /etc/rc.d such as:

    K10circleci -> ../init.d/circleci

    S99circleci -> ../init.d/circleci

    Now you can start and stop the service by using:

     * /etc/init.d/circleci start
     * /etc/init.d/circleci stop
     * /etc/init.d/circleci restart
    

    Notes:

    • The START and STOP variables specify where in the start up and shutdown process this script is handled. The higher the number, the later in the process the script is handled.
    • I had to add -9 to the killall command to have it successfully shutdwon the running Python script

28. Set up a cron job to restart the script hourly

    First, start up the cron daemon and have it start up automatically on restart

     * /etc/init.d/cron start
     * /etc/init.d/cron enable
    

    Then edit the cron table

     * crontab -e
    

    Add

     * 0 */1 * * * /etc/init.d/circleci restart
    

    The service will be restarted hourly at the top of the hour

29. Install the Screen utility

     * opkg update
     * opkg install screen
    

    Starting a screen session:

     * screen -S {NAME}
    

    Disconnecting from a screen session you want to reconnect to later:

     * ^A^D
    

    Reconnecting to the session

     * screen -x {NAME}
    

    Disconnect and stop the screen session

     * ^D
    

    Tip: If you get the error /var/run/utmp: No such file or directory when quitting screen, do the following:

     * touch /var/run/utmp
    

30. Getting a simple CGI script running

     * vim /www/cgi-bin/test.cgi
    

    Then add:

     #!/bin/ash
     echo "Content-type: text/html"
     echo ""
     echo "<html><head><title>Bash as CGI"
     echo "</title></head><body>"
     echo "<h1>Hello world</h1>"
     echo "Today is $(date)"
     echo "</body></html>"
    

    Then do:

     * chmod +x test.cgi
    

    Then go to http://mylinkit.local/cgi-bin/test.cgi and it should say “Hello World” along the date & time

    Tip: If the name mylinkit.local cannot be resolved, do the following to restart the multicast DNS (mDNS) service:

     * /etc/init.d/avahi-daemon
    

31. Safe Shutdown

     * Openwrt doesn't have the `shutdown` command
     * Use the `sync` command to flush data to the SD card before removing power
    

    See: https://labs.mediatek.com/forums/posts/list/3605.page

    Note: The reboot command can be used to reboot the Openwrt OS

Connect to the device

* look for a Linkit... wifi hotspot after the chip finishes booting
* connect to it
* load http://mylinkit.local in the browser to confirm connectivity

Update the firmware

https://docs.labs.mediatek.com/resource/linkit-smart-7688/en/downloads

SSH into the device

ssh [email protected]

Set up dev link to SD card

cd /Media/SD-P1
mkdir dev
cd ~
ln -s /Media/SD-P1/dev dev

Create and grab an RSA public key

mkdir ~/.ssh
dropbearkey -t rsa -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa
dropbearkey -y -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa | head -n 2 | tail -1

Copy the public key that's output and add it to your account at Github.com

Add your Mac public key for no-password ssh login

vim /etc/dropbear/authorized_keys

Add your local key from ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub and save the file

Fix Git in various ways

echo "#!/bin/sh" > ~/.gitssh.sh
echo "dbclient -y -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa $*" >> ~/.gitssh.sh
chmod +x ~/.gitssh.sh
echo "export GIT_SSH=\$HOME/.gitssh.sh" >> /etc/profile

NOTE: if this doesn't work, check your copying and pasting (check that $* is $*)

git config --global user.email "{YOUR EMAIL}"
git config --global user.name "{YOUR FULL NAME}"
ln -s $(which git) /usr/lib/git-core/git
git config --global core.pager cat
git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore
git config --global push.default simple

Set up global Git ignore

vim ~/.gitignore
logs/
*.log

Set up global and user profiles

for all users:

vim /etc/profile
alias ls='ls -al'

for root user:

vim /root/.profile
export KEY={CircirCI Key}
export WX_KEY={Openweathermap.org Key}

alias cc='/root/color_command.py'
alias pm='/root/dev/linkit/python/progmac.py'
alias lt='/root/dev/linkit/python/led_specs.py'

Switch the device to station mode and connect it to your wifi network

* go to http://mylinkit.local
* log in
* choose Network
* choose Station Mode
* Select your WiFi hotspot and enter the passphrase
* restart the chip

NOTE: switch back to your main WiFi at this point

Prepare to sync files between the SD card and the root directory

opkg update
opkg install rsync

Prepare to run Python programs that call out to the Internet

pip install requests

Get the Python code to run locally

cd ~/dev
git clone https://github.com/jhogsett/linkit.git
cd linkit/python
./scripts/refresh

Add the http_command start-up

cd /etc/init.d
vim http_command

#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common

SCRIPT_NAME="LED Web UI"
SCRIPT_PGM="http_command.py"
SCRIPT_PATH="/root/http_command.py /root/http_command.html /root/dev/linkit/python/"
#LOG_FILE="/root/dev/linkit/python/http_command.log"
LOG_FILE="/dev/null"

START=99
STOP=50

start() {
        echo "Starting $SCRIPT_NAME"
        $SCRIPT_PATH >> $LOG_FILE 2>&1 &
}

stop() {
        echo "Stopping $SCRIPT_NAME"
        killall -9 `basename $SCRIPT_PGM`
}

chmod +x http_command
./http_command enable
./http_command start

Add the udp_command start-up

cd /etc/init.d
vim udp_command

#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common

SCRIPT_NAME="LED Multicast Receiver"
SCRIPT_PGM="udp_command.py"
SCRIPT_PATH="/root/udp_command.py"
#LOG_FILE="/root/dev/linkit/python/udp_command.log"
LOG_FILE="/dev/null"

START=98
STOP=50

start() {
        echo "Starting $SCRIPT_NAME"
        $SCRIPT_PATH >> $LOG_FILE 2>&1 &
}

stop() {
        echo "Stopping $SCRIPT_NAME"
        killall -9 `basename $SCRIPT_PGM`
}

chmod +x udp_command
./udp_command enable
./udp_command start

Add the weather start-up

cd /etc/init.d
vim weather

#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common

SCRIPT_NAME="LED Weather Forecaster"
SCRIPT_PGM="weather.py"
SCRIPT_PATH="/root/weather.py -k d59a165785d20ad2a84f6a4a85f9a4a2 -z 94565 -f 12 -s"
#LOG_FILE="/root/dev/linkit/python/weather.log"
LOG_FILE="/dev/null"

START=98
STOP=50

start() {
        echo "Starting $SCRIPT_NAME"
        $SCRIPT_PATH >> $LOG_FILE 2>&1 &
}

stop() {
        echo "Stopping $SCRIPT_NAME"
        killall -9 `basename $SCRIPT_PGM`
}

chmod +x weather
./weather enable
./weather start

Add the sunrise start-up

cd /etc/init.d
vim sunrise

#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common

SCRIPT_NAME="LED Sunrise Handler"
SCRIPT_PGM="sunrise.py"
SCRIPT_PATH="/root/sunrise.py -k d59a165785d20ad2a84f6a4a85f9a4a2 -z 94565 -f 60 -t 8 -o -15 /root/dev/linkit/python/awakening.py -b"
LOG_FILE="/root/dev/linkit/python/logs/sunrise.log"
#LOG_FILE="/dev/null"

START=98
STOP=50

start() {
        echo "Starting $SCRIPT_NAME"
        $SCRIPT_PATH >> $LOG_FILE 2>&1 &
}

stop() {
        echo "Stopping $SCRIPT_NAME"
        killall -9 `basename $SCRIPT_PGM`
}

chmod +x sunrise
./sunrise enable
./sunrise start

Add the sunset start-up

cd /etc/init.d
vim sunset

#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common

SCRIPT_NAME="LED Sunset Handler"
SCRIPT_PGM="sunrise.py"
SCRIPT_PATH="/root/sunrise.py -e sunset -k d59a165785d20ad2a84f6a4a85f9a4a2 -z 94565 -f 60 -t 8 -o -20 /root/dev/linkit/python/udp_send.py 10:run"
LOG_FILE="/root/dev/linkit/python/logs/sunrise.log"
#LOG_FILE="/dev/null"

START=98
STOP=50

start() {
        echo "Starting $SCRIPT_NAME"
        $SCRIPT_PATH >> $LOG_FILE 2>&1 &
}

stop() {
        echo "Stopping $SCRIPT_NAME"
        killall -9 `basename $SCRIPT_PGM`
}

chmod +x sunset
./sunset enable
./sunset start

Install the Screen utility

opkg update
opkg install screen

1. Formatting the SD card for Linux FS

2. Extending the root file system onto the SD card

3. Installing Ruby

• MediaTek Starter Guide:

https://labs.mediatek.com/fileMedia/download/4ef033b8-80ca-4cdb-9ad6-1c23836c63de

• MediaTek Software and Tools

https://labs.mediatek.com/site/global/developer_tools/mediatek_linkit_smart_7688/sdt_intro/index.gsp

opkg update && opkg install e2fsprogs

add export GIT_MERGE_AUTOEDIT=no to ~/.profile to prevent vim opening when pulling changed files