weather-initialization

Provision an Ubuntu-based weather station host with hotspot access, AnyDesk, Docker, ser2net, PyVantagePro, and the vantage-publisher stack.

What changed

The original repository was tightly coupled to a single machine layout. It has been updated to:

• use config.env for machine-specific values
• generate systemd and GDM config files from templates instead of copying placeholders
• stop assuming the target user is always weather
• remove the hard-coded SSH key injection
• avoid world-writable /storage
• fix the EEPROM backup path typo and make helper scripts read shared runtime settings

Prerequisites

Before running the installer on a fresh Ubuntu system:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo reboot
sudo apt install -y git openssh-server

Clone the repository:

cd "$HOME"
git clone https://github.com/CCMMMA/weather-initialization.git
cd weather-initialization

Configuration

Copy the example configuration and edit it for the target machine:

cp config.env.example config.env
vim config.env

At minimum, set:

• ANYPWD: password used for AnyDesk and the hotspot

Useful optional settings:

• WS_USER: Linux user that will own the weather station services and files
• VPN_CONNECTION_NAME: NetworkManager VPN connection to keep alive
• AUTHORIZED_KEYS_FILE: file containing public SSH keys to append to authorized_keys
• WEATHER_DEVICE_URL: device URL used by PyVantagePro, default tcp:127.0.0.1:22222
• WEATHER_SERIAL_DEVICE: serial device exported by ser2net, default /dev/ttyUSB0
• STORAGE_DIR: archive/log root, default /storage

Install

Make the installer executable and run it with sudo so it can detect the target user:

chmod +x ./initialize-weather.sh
sudo -E ./initialize-weather.sh

The script will:

• configure the hotspot
• install packages and AnyDesk
• install Docker and the Docker Compose plugin
• configure ser2net
• install the network recovery service
• install PyVantagePro
• clone and start vantage-publisher
• schedule weekly reboots and hourly EEPROM backups

At the end it prints the AnyDesk ID and offers to reboot.

Files

• initialize-weather.sh: main installer
• config.env.example: editable machine-specific configuration
• util/connection-status.service.template: templated systemd unit for connectivity checks
• util/custom.conf.template: templated GDM autologin config
• util/eeprom.sh: hourly EEPROM backup helper
• util/vpn-checker.sh: connectivity watchdog
• util/backup-eeprom.py: export archive data from PyVantagePro to CSV

Notes

• This installer expects an Ubuntu host with NetworkManager and systemd.
• Network downloads are part of the install flow because Docker, AnyDesk, PyVantagePro, and vantage-publisher are fetched during setup.
• Review config.env before each deployment rather than relying on repository defaults.