New Image BirdNET-Pi_v14.2.img.xz

[mcguirepr89]

THIS IMAGE IS OBSOLETE. INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS ON THE MAIN REPO SHOULD BE FOLLOWED INSTEAD.

Obsolete instructions

Hello! I hope this announcement finds you all doing well.

I've put together a new BirdNET-Pi pre-installed image that is ready for testing.

The main features of the pre-installed image:

• Contains the auto-hotspot service for easy field access and initial setup
• Comes pre-installed and ready to run
• Configured to write raw data to /dev/shm (virtual memory) to minimize SD card read/writes
• dhcpcd and openresolv have been replaced with a pure NetworkManager networking environment
  • Use the command line tools nmtui and nmcli to manage the system's network connections from the "Web Terminal", SSH, or console.

Fully Headless Installation Instructions:

Step 1: Download the Image

• Download the image

Step 1.5 (Highly Recommended): Verify the sha256 checksum

04c683cbf8b06b6c54399240a5553c4f295814cc806a4018a1af2c9cf0e65368  BirdNET-Pi_v14.2.img.xz

Step 2: Flash the Image Using the Raspberry Pi Imager

• Open the Raspberry Pi Imager and locate the image downloaded in the step above using the "Choose OS" option as seen in the screenshot below:
  
  
  

• IMPORTANT!!
  Remove any and all customized Advanced Settings in Raspberry Pi Imager
  

• Choose the SD card onto which you wish to write the new BirdNET-Pi image
  

• Write the image to the SD card
  
  
  

• When you see the dialog below indicating the flashing is complete, you can close the Raspberry Pi Imager and remove the SD.
  

Step 2: Connect To the BirdNET-Pi HotSpot

• Insert the SD card into the Raspberry Pi and then power it on allowing a few moments to boot up and complete a few first-boot tasks.
• After successfully booting into the image and completing the first-boot tasks, a hotspot to which you can connect called "BirdNET-Pi" will become available. Connect a device to the hotspot to continue setup.

Step 3: Choosing the Network You Want BirdNET-Pi To Join OR Work Fully Offline

• Once you connect to the "BirdNET-Pi" hotspot, you should automatically be taken to the captive portal where you can either (a) select your WiFi network to get the BirdNET-Pi connected, or (b) configure the installation to work fully offline.
  - Note: If you are not automatically taken to the captive portal when you connect to the hotspot, you can navigate there manually by going to http://192.168.42.1.
  - Note: Some devices will recognize that the BirdNET-Pi hotspot has no internet access -- be sure your device does not automatically disconnect from the hotspot in an effort to obtain an internet connection. You may need to explicitly instruct your device to stay connected to that hotspot in spite of there being no internet connectivity. On the Apple iPhone, for instance, I must always select to use the network without internet access to stay connected to the hotspot. I only need to do this once.

  • (a) Connect BirdNET-Pi To a Nearby Network

    
    
    After you enter the WiFi credentials on the captive portal, the BirdNET-Pi will attempt to connect to the network you selected. If it is successful, the "BirdNET-Pi" hotspot will be disconnected and the BirdNET-Pi device will be reachable on your network.
    At that point, join the WiFi network to which you just connected the BirdNET-Pi using any device (laptop, smart phone, PC) and go to http://birdnetpi.local to finish configuring the system.

  • (b) Configure the Installation To Work Fully Offline

    • Click the blue "Use BirdNET-Pi Offline" link, which will take you to the offline web interface at http://birdnetpi.local:9999
      
    • Proceed to step 4 to configure settings

Step 4: Configure Settings

Note: For the steps below, if you are working offline, the URL in the web browser address bar will actually be "http://birdnetpi.local:9999", otherwise the steps are the same.

• Go to "Tools" > "Settings"
  
  By default, the username is birdnet and the password is empty.
  - Note: If you are not prompted to input the username and password after clicking the "Tools" button and are instead told you cannot edit the settings for the installation, exit the "Captive Portal" and open a regular web browser and go to http://birdnetpi.local:9999 to try again.
  
  
  
  Set your latitude and longitude to four decimal places
  
  If you are working offline, BE SURE TO SET THE SYSTEM TIME
  

Step 5: Change system password

Finally, a very important step is changing the default password for the system. To do this, go to "Tools" > "Web Terminal" or via SSH

The username is: birdie
The password is: birdnetpi

As soon as you are logged in to the shell, type passwd

You will be asked for you current password (birdnetpi) -- note that you will not see any characters typed as you change the password.
You will then be asked to enter the new password twice.

That's all!
Happy Birding!

[ehpersonal38]

Woah! Good stuff Patrick! I should be able to test this soon

[mcguirepr89]

Thanks!

[nilspupils]

Will take this with me to the outdoors next week! Thanks Patrick!

[Joopieh]

Hi Patrick,

Just did the install as you described above and got it working immediately! So it is safe to say it is monkey proof. 😂.

I installed it and hooked it up to a powerbank and ran a test with recorded birdsounds from Merlin Bird ID. A great succes!! Tried both English and Dutch and both work. See screenshots below. I hope I have time this weekend to test it in the field.

Thanks for making this project accessible for people without much knowledge about programming.

Keep up the good work!

[DD4WH]

Patrick, thats really awesome! Installed it without any problems.

• I chose the offline version and everything worked perfectly
• then I changed to the WiFi version by going to http://192.168.42.1/ again and put in my WiFi password
• everything now works in my local WiFi
• and if I want to go offline again, I just switch off my WiFi-Router (the BirdNET-Pi then automatically switches on its hotspot) and can access the BirdNET-Pi again by going to http://192.168.42.1/ and switch to offline

Perfect! Thanks a lot for this fantastic functionality !

[DD4WH]

it seems, in the Settings, if I click retrieve time automatically, the system takes a different time zone, it is 6 hours behind
#354 (comment)

[DD4WH]

Installed the image to a fresh SD card today.
Did an update.
Did the setting of time zone and the other stuff.

Works perfectly! All the fixes seem to be working well now 💪
Thanks a lot, Ethan & Patrick !!!

[DCS17]

Just wanted to say thank you @mcguirepr89 for your work. I've just installed this test version without a hitch. Sounded like a better idea to minimise SD card read/writes!
Working very well on Pi4B 8GB.
What a fascinating new world you have introduced me to!
Unfortunately I'm on 4G in the UK with CGNAT, so I can't publish my page.
Thanks

[DCS17]

Hi,
Just done an update as it was highlighted in red on the main screen tools I think it said 53 or 58 - cant remember and it's obviously gone now post update.
Now can't access Tools/Settings with the follwoing error
Fatal error: Uncaught Exception: Unable to open database: unable to open database file in /home/birdie/BirdNET-Pi/scripts/config.php:5 Stack trace: #0 /home/birdie/BirdNET-Pi/scripts/config.php(5): SQLite3->__construct() #1 /home/birdie/BirdNET-Pi/homepage/views.php(134): include('/home/birdie/Bi...') #2 {main} thrown in /home/birdie/BirdNET-Pi/scripts/config.php on line 5

Thanks

[DCS17]

[ehpersonal38]

Okay I think I've diagnosed the bug. Go ahead and update and let me know if it's working again.

If you can't get to Tools then do a bash $HOME/scripts/update_birdnet.sh

[DCS17]

Wow! That was quick. Working perfectly again.
Thank you!

[mcguirepr89]

@ehpersonal38 is a badass developer

[ehpersonal38]

Hahaha, I'd be the shittiest super hero - saving the day by fixing problems I created in the first place

[DCS17]

[DCS17]

[DCS17]

Wondering about using rclone to backup birds.db and BirdSongs directory to my GoogleDrive using cronjob.
If I install rclone am I going to break something?
I'm a complete novice but do have rclone working well on a PiZeroW used for ADSB monitoring.
Thanks

[mcguirepr89]

I was able to set it up also ~~ super handy!!!

How to automate the OAuth Google Client stuff 🤔

[ehpersonal38]

Yeah I have 162k detections at 0.4 min confidence, over only a few months. I think it's getting a little out of hand!

@mcguirepr89 With some cursory searching I found this:
https://rclone.org/commands/rclone_config_create/

The flag --non-interactive is for use by applications that wish to configure rclone themeselves, rather than using rclone's text based configuration questions. If this flag is set, and rclone needs to ask the user a question, a JSON blob will be returned with the question in it.

So I guess you could rebuild the interactive rclone config flow in HTML and PHP, if you really wanted.

I'm thinking another way would be just create the config in a single command, and then you can retroactively add the Google drive oauth token to a config file somewhere. (I think this link is relevant)

[mcguirepr89]

That is helpful -- I was thinking more about this part, since I suspect BirdNET-Pi users would max out the rclone API limits

Did you set one of those up? That's what I'd like to automate, but it seems tricky to do that. I used a reverse_proxy in my Caddyfile to redirect the localhost stuff during authorization -- it wasn't super straight forward.

[ehpersonal38]

Oh yeah I doubt there's a way to automate that, Google locks all that stuff down to prevent automation. I don't know for sure though.

I ran into the same issue you had during setup. All I had to do to mitigate the localhost stuff was type "n" on this part:

Use auto config?
 * Say Y if not sure
 * Say N if you are working on a remote or headless machine
y) Yes (default)
n) No
y/n> n
Please go to the following link: https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?access_type=offline&client_id=XXXXXXXXXXXXX...

[mcguirepr89]

I'm among the unlucky few for whom answering "n" leads me to an error from Google -- I looked into it and it seems like it happens to some people and not others

[dfoster81]

Bit of an old discussion here, but this image is amazing. I use it on my mobile rig. Installed over Christmas, plugged in to update, and it's just bullet proof in the field.

Only caveat is you need to set the time every time you start it up. Not sure if this is just a quirk of a non-internet connected raspberry pi, or my particular pi.

I was wondering why there were no detection events for the first part of my walk this morning, only to realize I'd missed the '-' sign in my latitude. Just a constant gotcha in the southern hemisphere :)