[lug] Debian 8.0 Jessie and gpsd

[Gary Hodges - NOAA Affiliate]

On 06/15/2015 08:54 AM, Steve Litt wrote:
> On Fri, 05 Jun 2015 14:09:08 -0600
> Gary Hodges - NOAA Affiliate <gary.hodges at noaa.gov> wrote:
>
>> Configuring gpsd with Deb Wheezy and a few past versions of Ubuntu
>> has been a breeze.  Just run
>>
>>    sudo dpkg-reconfigure gpsd
>>
>> answer a few questions and it worked like a charm.  With Debian
>> Jessie I get the following:
>>
>> tsi at sxf-tsi:~$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure gpsd
>> Warning: Stopping gpsd.service, but it can still be activated by:
>>     gpsd.socket
>> Creating/updating gpsd user account...
>> tsi at sxf-tsi:~$
>>
>> Anyone know how to bring up the configuration dialog with Deb Jessie?
>> Should I just edit /etc/default/gpsd directly?
>>
>> Gary
>
> Hi Gary,
>
> I can't give you an answer, but I can tell you a process.
>
> The first thing to do is to get gpsd running, by hand, in debug mode
> (-N) on a GUI terminal. Don't worry about how it does or does not
> auto-start until you can get it functional at all. If you want a clue
> as to the command, grab the command out of the systemd unit file for
> gpsd.
>
> Once you have gpsd doing the right thing when run manually in the
> foreground, you can make sure the gpsd systemd unit file has the same
> command (probably without the -N you added), and see if it comes up on
> boot.
>
> If not, you can become a systemctl guru, or you can do what I do. I run
> daemontools-encore, and all those services that are problematic with
> the native init, I disable them on the native init, and run them from
> daemontools-encore. Yeah, it's a lot of learning at first, but you
> don't have to relearn it every year when the paid open source
> developers decide it might be fun to completely revamp configurations.
> And if I decide to change init systems (easier than you think), my
> daemontools-encore remains the same and functional.
>
> By the way, daemontools-encore requires that its services be run in the
> foreground, so you'll need the -N on your command line in your run
> script.
>
> If you decide to do this, I can give you help with daemontools-encore.
> It's available at http://untroubled.org/daemontools-encore/

Hi Steve.  Thank for the reply.  This morning I also posted the question 
to the gpsd mailing list.  Here is the response I just received:

-----------
 From the debian changelog (installed at /usr/share/doc/gpsd/changelog.gz
on your system):

gpsd (3.10-1) experimental; urgency=low

   ...
   * [d26d1c6f] Get rid of debconf questions.
     Also provide a sane /etc/default/gpsd and move
     from using /var/run to /run.
   ...

  -- Bernd Zeimetz <bzed at debian.org>  Sat, 23 Nov 2013 14:33:46 +0100

So, it would appear that, from version 3.10-1 onwards, the preferred way
to reconfigure gpsd is to edit /etc/default/gpsd, and restart the
daemon.
-----------

I found the above in the changelog.Debian file.  I'm glad for the 
response as I don't think I would have come the stated solution had I 
known of that file.

Gary