KUKSA GPS Provider

The KUKSA GPS Provider consumes gpsd as datasource and pushes location to KUKSA Databroker or KUKSA Server.

The gpsd_feeder.ini contains configuration for connection to KUKSA and gpsd.

Before starting the KUKSA GPS Provider, you need to start the KUKSA Databroker or KUKSA Server. You have to start an instance of gpsd by running:

gpsd -S <gpsd port> -N <gps device>

If you do not have a gps device, you can use your cellphone to forward gps data to gpsd. For example gpsd-forward is an open source android app. You can start gpsd with the following command to receive data from the app:

gpsd -N udp://0.0.0.0:29998

Install dependencies and execution

usage: gpsd_feeder.py [-h] [--ip [IP]] [--port [PORT]] [--protocol [PROTOCOL]] [--insecure [INSECURE]] [--cacertificate [CACERTIFICATE]] [--tls-server-name [TLS_SERVER_NAME]] [--token [TOKEN]]
                      [--file [FILE]] [--gpsd_host [GPSD_HOST]] [--gpsd_port [GPSD_PORT]] [--interval [INTERVAL]]

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --ip [IP]             Specify the host where too look for KUKSA Databroker/Server; default: 127.0.0.1
  --port [PORT]         Specify the port where too look for KUKSA Databroker/Server; default: 8090
  --protocol [PROTOCOL]
                        If you want to connect to KUKSA Server specify ws. If you want to connect to KUKSA Databroker specify grpc; default: ws
  --insecure [INSECURE]
                        Specify if you want an insecure connection (i.e. without TLS); default: False
  --cacertificate [CACERTIFICATE]
                        Specify the path to your CA.pem; default: CA.pem. Needed when not using insecure mode
  --tls-server-name [TLS_SERVER_NAME]
                        TLS server name, may be needed if addressing a server by IP-name
  --token [TOKEN]       Specify the JWT token string or the path to your JWT token; default: authentication information not specified
  --file [FILE]         Specify the path to your config file; by default not defined
  --gpsd_host [GPSD_HOST]
                        Specify the host for gpsd to start on; default: 127.0.0.1
  --gpsd_port [GPSD_PORT]
                        Specify the port for gpsd to start on; default: 2948
  --interval [INTERVAL]
                        Specify the interval time for feeding gps data; default: 1

A template config file that can be used together with the --file option exists in config/gpsd_feeder.ini. Note that if --file is specified all other options are ignored, instead the values in the config file or default values specified by kuksa-client will be used.

pip install -r requirements.txt
python gpsd_feeder.py

Authorization

gpsd_feeder will try to authenticate itself towards the KUKSA Databroker/Server if a token is given. Note that the KUKSA Databroker by default does not require authentication.

An example for authorizing against KUKSA Databroker using an example token is shown below.

python gpsd_feeder.py --protocol grpc --port 55555 --insecure true --token /home/user/kuksa.val/jwt/provide-all.token

TLS

The KUKSA GPS Provider supports using TLS connections. A TLS connection will be used unless --insecure=True is specified. When using a TLS connection a path to the root certificate used by the Server/Databroker must be given. The client validates the name of the server against the certificate provided by the Server/Databroker. If addressing with a numeric IP-address and using grpc as protocol the "real" server name must be given using --tls-server-name. For the KUKSA example certificates the names localhostand Servercan be used.

python gpsd_feeder.py --port 55555 --protocol grpc --ip 127.0.0.1 --cacertificate ~/kuksa-common/tls/CA.pem --tls-server-name Server

Using docker

You can also use docker to execute the feeder platform independently. To build a docker image:

docker build -t gps-provider .

You can also download docker images from our container registry.

To run:

docker run -it -p 29998:29998/udp -v $PWD/config:/config gps-provider

The container contains an internal gpsd daemon and the exposed UDP port can be used to feed NMEA data e.g. with gpsd-forward from an Android phone. If you already have a configured GPSd, just modify the config file to point to it.

Keep in mind, that GPSd normally only listens on localhost/loopback interface. To connect it from another interface start gpsd with the -D option

Test with gpsfake

You can also use gpsfake to playback a gps logs in e.g. nmea format. To install gpsfake, follow the command in this link. After installation, run the following command to simulate a gps device as datasource:

gpsfake -P 2947 simplelog_example.nmea

Note: You need to use the gpsfake with the same version like the installed gpsd.

There are several tools for generating nmea log files:

• nmea-gps logger
• nmeagen

gpsfake troubleshouting

If you see a gpsfake error message similar to this one after the feeder connected:

gpsfake: log cycle of simplelog_example.nmea begins.
gpsd:ERROR: SER: device open of /dev/pts/8 failed: Permission denied - retrying read-only
gpsd:ERROR: SER: read-only device open of /dev/pts/8 failed: Permission denied
gpsd:ERROR: /dev/pts/8: device activation failed, freeing device.

This might be due to a an overly restrictive apparmor configuration. On Ubuntu edit the file /etc/apparmor.d/usr.sbin.gpsd

search for a section looking like this

  # common serial paths to GPS devices
  /dev/tty{,S,USB,AMA,ACM}[0-9]*    rw,
  /sys/dev/char     r,
  /sys/dev/char/**  r,

And add a line for pts device so that it looks like

  # common serial paths to GPS devices
  /dev/tty{,S,USB,AMA,ACM}[0-9]*    rw,
  /dev/pts/[0-9]*    rw,
  /sys/dev/char     r,
  /sys/dev/char/**  r,

Restart apparmor

sudo systemctl restart apparmor

and try again

Pre-commit set up

This repository is set up to use pre-commit hooks. Use pip install pre-commit to install pre-commit. After you clone the project, run pre-commit install to install pre-commit into your git hooks. Pre-commit will now run on every commit. Every time you clone a project using pre-commit running pre-commit install should always be the first thing you do.