PiAware Image Notes

The FlightAware PiAware system image is a copy of Raspbian with a few changes.

Here's a summary of the changes from the default version of Raspbian.

• apt-get update and apt-get upgrade and rpi-update were performed to update the operating system and installed packages to the latest versions available at the time we created the piaware image.
• The latest version of dump1090 and the RTL-SDR libraries are preinstalled.
• The latest version of the PiAware package is preinstalled.
• dump1090 and piaware are configured to start automatically whenever the Raspberry Pi boots up.
• The default hostname has been changed from raspberrypi to piaware.
• The apt tool is pointed look by default to a Raspbian mirror at FlightAware (/etc/apt/sources.list)
• The wolfram-engine package is removed, freeing more than 400 MB of storage.
• A few handy packages have been installed using apt-get such as the Tool command language (Tcl), git, automake, cmake, screen, kermit, telnet and rsync.
• The /tmp filesystem is configured to run out of RAM to reduce I/O to the SD card. (This reduces wear on the card and makes it somewhat less likely that the SD card will get corrupted in the event of a power failure.)
• The filesystem check program is configured to try to fix any problems without asking the user to confirm. (This makes your Raspberry Pi more likely to boot successfully after a power failure.)
• Higher USB current limit on Raspberry Pi Model B Plus is enabled. (This allows the Raspberry Pi to provide more power to USB devices that need it than it does by default.)
• DVI/HDMI output is configured even if no HDMI monitor is detected at boot time. (Without this if you don't have an HDMI monitor plugged in and turned on at boot time and you plug an HDMI monitor in later, it won't work without rebooting.)
• Swapping to the SD card is disabled. (This saves wear on the SD card, but if the system runs out of memory it will crash. If you aren't running programs besides the base system and piaware, the Raspberry Pi shouldn't be at any risk of running out of memory.)