About

This is a guide for installing the Open GPS Tracking System on Ubuntu 14.04. I used Kubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu Server 14.04 in my tests, but the installation is very likely to work fine on newer and (not too) older versions as well. Probably a few changes can make it work on Debian.

Further configuration of Apache, Tomcat and security issues are beyond the scope of this guide. My aim is to provide a functional OpenGTS system following the official manual procedures.

The text is copy-and-paste friendly. Whenever you see a VER variable, you are expected to visit the provided link and replace the current number by the most recent version of the package.

LAMP, ant and unzip

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 mysql-server libmysql-java ant unzip

sudo /etc/init.d/mysql start

Java

You may want to use the Sun's version, as the official manual recommends. As many people, I haven't had any problem using OpenJDK.

sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jdk
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64
echo "export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-7-openjdk-amd64" >> ~/.bashrc

tomcat

Check the current version at http://apache.mirror.uber.com.au/tomcat/tomcat-7/

VER=7.0.57

cd /tmp
wget -c http://apache.mirror.uber.com.au/tomcat/tomcat-7/v${VER}/bin/apache-tomcat-${VER}.zip
unzip apache-tomcat-${VER}.zip
sudo cp -a apache-tomcat-${VER} /usr/local/

export CATALINA_HOME=/usr/local/apache-tomcat-${VER}
cd /usr/local
sudo ln -s $CATALINA_HOME tomcat
cd $CATALINA_HOME/bin
chmod a+x *.sh
$CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh
echo "export CATALINA_HOME=/usr/local/apache-tomcat-${VER}" >> ~/.bashrc

Java Connector

Check the latest version at http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/j/#downloads

VER=5.1.34

cd /tmp
wget -c http://dev.mysql.com/get/Downloads/Connector-J/mysql-connector-java-${VER}.zip
unzip mysql-connector-java-${VER}.zip
cd mysql-connector-java-${VER}
sudo cp mysql-connector-java-${VER}-bin.jar $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/ext

Java mail

Check the latest version at https://maven.java.net/content/repositories/releases/com/sun/mail/javax.mail/

VER=1.5.2

cd /tmp
wget -c https://maven.java.net/content/repositories/releases/com/sun/mail/javax.mail/${VER}/javax.mail-${VER}.jar
sudo cp javax.mail-${VER}.jar $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/ext/
sudo mv $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/ext/javax.mail-${VER}.jar $JAVA_HOME/jre/lib/ext/javax.mail.jar

OpenGTS

curl can select a mirror and download OpenGTS. You can use your browser and download on SourceForge as well. Choose the appropriate user and group.

sudo apt-get install curl

cd /tmp
VER=2.5.7
curl -L http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/opengts/server-base/${VER}/OpenGTS_${VER}.zip > OpenGTS_${VER}.zip
sudo unzip /tmp/OpenGTS_${VER}.zip -d /usr/local

GROUP=users
sudo chown -R ${USER}:${GROUP} /usr/local/OpenGTS_${VER}
export GTS_HOME=/usr/local/OpenGTS_${VER}
echo "export GTS_HOME=/usr/local/OpenGTS_${VER}" >> ~/.bashrc

env variables & symlinks

echo "export ANT_HOME=/usr/share/ant" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

sudo ln -s $JAVA_HOME /usr/local/java
sudo ln -s $CATALINA_HOME /usr/local/tomcat
sudo ln -s $GTS_HOME /usr/local/gts

Basic configuration

We will uncomment the lines related to the database's user and password in config.conf.

sed -i "s/#db.sql.user=gts/db.sql.user=gts/" $GTS_HOME/config.conf
sed -i "s/#db.sql.password=opengts/db.sql.password=opengts/" $GTS_HOME/config.conf

If the following folder points to itself, unlink it. Verify whether $CATALINA_HOME has a folder apache-tomcat-${VER} that points to itself.

ls -l $CATALINA_HOME

If it the recursive link exists, unlink to avoid problems on the OpenGTS compilation.

unlink /usr/local/apache-tomcat-${VER}/apache-tomcat-${VER}

Compilation & initialisation

Finally, let's compile OpenGTS.

cd $GTS_HOME
ant all

# If your password has special characters, enclose it with quotes
bin/initdb.sh -rootUser=<rootUser> -rootPass=<rootPass>

Check whether everything's correct.

cd $GTS_HOME && bin/checkInstall.sh

Add account, install Track Java Servlet

bin/admin.sh Account -account=sysadmin -pass=password -create

cd $GTS_HOME && ant track
cp build/track.war $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/

You can now test the site on http://localhost:8080/track/Track

If it is not accessible, you may have to start (or restart) Tomcat.

# Check whether tomcat is running.
ps -ef | grep tomcat

# If it is running, execute the lines below.
$CATALINA_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh
rm -rf $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/track*
cp $GTS_HOME/build/track.war $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/
$CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh

# Else
$CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh

Install Event Java Servlet and gprmc.

cd $GTS_HOME && ant events
cp -v build/events.war $CATALINA_HOME/webapps

cd $GTS_HOME && ant gprmc
cp build/gprmc.war $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/

Verify installation again:

bin/checkInstall.sh

Client

If the installation was successful, you may want to test it quickly by monitoring an Android mobile phone.

1. Download CelltracGTS, the Android official client.
2. Make sure that the server has the gprmc module and it is working: First, check whether the installation is correct:

cd $GTS_HOME && bin/checkInstall.sh

Then, verify whether the module is working:

cd $GTS_HOME && cat logs/w-gprmc.log

The file above should exist. 3. On CelltracGTS app, go to settings and configure "Server URL" as that, making the values reflect your server configuration. http://DOMAIN:PORT/gprmc/Data? 4. In OpenGTS, go to Administration > Vehicle Admin and insert the Unique ID field as gprmc_MOBILEID where MOBILEID is the "Mobile-id" number in CelltracGTS Settings.

From the official documentation:

Once the server has been set up, you can send a test message from the phone by selecting the status code "Waymark" and clicking "Send". If everything has been properly configured, the "Event Status" section on the phone should first show "Queue: 1 Sent: 0", followed by "Queue: 0 Sent: 1" as the event is sent to the server."

You should be able to see track the phone using OpenGTS by accessing Mapping > Vehicle.

Troubleshooting

I tested these procedures on two clean Ubuntu 14.04 installations, but if you are installing OpenGTS on servers that were already in use, there might be issues such as firewall configuration and port conflicts.

To-do

• Restart tomcat automatically on boot

Credits

Most of the instructions are based on the OpenGTS official manual.

Copy and paste friendly style is inspired from opengts-server-install-step-by-step.org (for Arch Linux).

License

The content of this guide is available under the CC-BY license.