Installing the probe

The probe is the meshint-probe program. The archive in this release is for a Jetson TX1. It is copied onto the aircraft. It is not built there. The controller is installed on another computer: controller-installation.md. The probe computer, the radio, the airframe position, and the link are described in hardware.md.

Once installed, the program analyses a dwell and opens a TLS session to one controller. Tuning the receiver sits outside this program. What it does after it is installed is in probe-administration.md.

What you receive

For a release <version>:

The archive contains a single file, meshint-probe. Install it on a Jetson TX1, which already provides the libraries it uses (glibc 2.23 and OpenSSL 1.0.2). Another probe computer needs a binary built for that computer. The archive contains no certificate, scan plan, recording, radio driver, or Python environment.

Check and install

On the TX1, or on a machine you then copy the checked archive from:

sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS
tar -xzf meshint-probe-0.1.0-linux-aarch64-tx1.tar.gz

Use the version in the file name you were given. sha256sum -c reports each file in SHA256SUMS. Install only after the probe archive is reported OK.

Put meshint-probe on the aircraft where you will run it. Replacing an existing probe is the same step: stop the running program, replace the file, and start the new one. The probe's state file is kept.

A file the controller has offered as a software update is stored by the probe. It is not the program you start. Installing a release means starting the meshint-probe from this archive.

Check the program before pointing it at a controller:

./meshint-probe --self-test
./meshint-probe --help

--self-test runs the built-in checks and does not connect. --help prints the required --url and --pin and does not connect.

The pin

The probe will not connect until it has the public certificate of its controller. That file is created in the controller state directory the first time the controller starts. Its name is printed as Pin: on the controller's output. Copy that certificate to the aircraft and pass it with --pin. Copy the certificate only. The controller private key stays on the controller computer. The probe does not generate a certificate of its own, and the release archive does not contain one.

What this install does not include

• No scan-plan file. The controller sends the plan after the probe is approved.
• No radio driver and no scanner.
• No Python environment. The controller is the separate wheel in controller-installation.md.