CISN Display

Introduction

This page will attempt to document the creation of a kiosk type display of the CISN Display. The CISN Display software displays near real-time earthquake location information available via the network. A complementary component would be a waveform viewer showing seismograms (in real time) from various locations around California (or beyond), but we have not had time to mount a concerted effort along those lines yet.

Summary of what we want in the CISN/WaveForm Display 2008-11-19

This is a revised version of the previous CISN Display installation instructions. Many of the steps were unclear and I have tried to go through and edit them to make it a little easier to understand. The CISN/Waveform Display is a project by Earthquake Engineering Group (EEG) (currently funded through NEES) which is a research group managed by ERI. The CISN portion will show near real-time earthquake locations, while the Wavefom display will show real time seismic waves at various location around California. The set up should explain about both the displays, ICS, and possibly NEES.

Historical Notes

This documentation project started in the 2007-08 school year.

This is the Original documentation on all all CISN/ Waveform Disply Information
This is Mehkin's Original hand written notebook about his work on the project

Current Status of Production

Current Status Summary 2008-11-17

Display Stand: done

• Can hold one or two screens as necessary, built by nick webster in the Geology Machine shop. (Document the building!) To see the Documentation of the Display Stand click this link.

CISN Kiosk Mode: done

• Mekhin did this (mostly) but I had to do some refining

Documentation of how to create CISN in Kiosk Mode: done

• Mekhin left documentation concerning all he did, but much of it is unclear, especially to those (like me) with little computer experience. I am reading it now, putting it in accessible language, while attempting to install it on the computer, "ruby" NEW: Am working on a shell script to automate quit finder, will also kill dock, works well.
• The only thing left to do for this is create a launchd script which:
  • starts CISN Display running coninuously
  • Kills finder while! CISN is loading (otherwise it doesnt stay dead)
  • restarts the dispaly every night to make sure windows aren't screwed up

Waveform Display Program: undone

• We need to meet with Jamie and see how antelope works
• Some questions/concerns
  • How do we lock users out of messing with the controls
  • We need to document its install process
  • Ask Aaron where to put in the

CISN/WAVEFORM Display (Physically): undone BUT the Temps is up

• I have designed a layout to go around the screen which contains information about the Kiosk. However, this must be approved by Jamie, and he must provide me with the information to insert. I have completed many of the info sections, I emailed Jamie and I need to get info on the UCSB Eq site, the Northridge EQ site and the program antelope so I can write thier blurbs.

Touchpad for the Kiosk: done

• indent we have a nice touchpad mouse, but we have to...
• joe built us a nice trackpad holder, I need to document it's desgin. it cost about 300 bucks

Setting up a CISN Display Kiosk

Reformat the disk of the Mac and install Leopard OS, disk name: CISN-display

• Obtain the Leopard install cd's from Aaron
• Insert Disk 1 into the desired computer
• Remember, this will delete any information on this computer, so make sure there is nothing you need on it.
• It will bring up a window, click the "install Leopard" icon, then click restart
• Choose English as the main language, then click continue until the select destination page
• There, click options and select "Erase and Install" and make sure you have the "Format disk as:" section selected as "Mac OS Extended" click continue
• On the installation type page select options, select the customize button and click the "X11" icon
• Continue and let it install.
• After install, go to the apple icon in the top left corner and select check for updates, let all the updates install.
• Open System Preferences by clicking the icon on the dock or opening the Finder and looking in the Applications Folder
• Click "Sharing"
• Turn on "Remote Login" and "Remote Management" under the "Service" section by checking the box to their left
• Go back System Preferences main screen, and click on Energy Saver
• Click "Schedule..." in the bottom right corner
• Check the "Start up or Wake" option and set it at Every Day at 7:00AM
• Check the option to "Sleep" on the bottom and set it at Every Day at 10:00PM

Install "Xcode Developer Tools"

• Xcode is needed because it provides a Property List Editor that simplifies the process of installing CISN Display as a kiosk
• If OS X 10.6 is used to run CISN Display, Xcode must be installed off of a OS X 10.6 installation cd because Apple does not allow the installation of Xcode 4 or higher onto any machine not running above OS X 10.7
• If running above OS X 10.7 Xcode can be downloaded for free off of the Mac App Store
• A default installation of Xcode will suffice to successfully install the Property List Editor

Create three different accounts

• Open System Preferences and go to "Accounts"
• Create two admin accounts, "Administrator" which you will have Aaron come and make the password, and "cisnadmin" which you should put the password at "1" for now temporarily
• Then create a user account named "cisndisplay"
• I think it is best to do most of the operations via the cisndisplay account, this may take longer due to repeated password typing but it will ensure that cisndisplay has access to all installed things.
• Log out of the current account and Log in as the user "cisndisplay"

Install the CISN display

• All of the following should be done under the "cisnadmin" account
• Go online to to the CISN website: http://www.cisn.org/
• Click on the "apply for CISN display" icon on the top left of the website
• Under "User Accounts" you will find a link to "Maintain your account", Click "Maintain your account"
• Username: *********** Password: ***********
• Click "CISN Display client software"
• This program requires Java 1.5 or later, if you haven't updated, click the apple icon in the top left corner of your desktop and click "software update." Install all necessary updates
• Download the Mac OS X version installer by clicking on it
• Once the download is complete open the zip file it downloaded or the installer if your browser unzipped the file
• Start the CISN Display installer
• Keep clicking next, let it install where it wants to, let it put all the files in its default settings.
• Click Done when the installer completes
• Download http://support.crustal.ucsb.edu/stadm/projects/CISN-Display/NEES_Display_banner.gif as image for a NEES banner
• Go to Finder and search for the folder "banners"(or go to /Applications/CISN_Display/banners), then put the NEES banner in there. (this displays an image of the NEEs banner in the CISN program)

Configure CISN Display to its appropriate settings

• All of the following should be done under the "cisndisplay" account
• Save the following file Media: QWClientConfig.xml. Save this to the desktop under the exact name by right clicking(or control clicking) and selecting "Save Linked File as...", It may try to append ".txt" to the end of the file name. Delete that part if it does append or ask you to append and keep the original name
• Open the CISN Display Application by going to the CISN_Display folder inside the Applications Folder and double clicking "QWClient"
• Once the program has loaded, click "File" in the upper left hand corner and select "Load Configuration File", select "QWClientConfig.xml"
• Restart the program when it asks so the new configuration can be loaded
• On Restart you will get an error message , "Unable to connect to server: "Login username/password not valid(on...", it is okay, enter the Username and Password used to download that version of CISN display into the Username and Password fields
  • Note: Alternatively you can open the QWClientConfig.xml file in a text editor and search for "serverLogin", you can change that login to the login named used to download CISN display, and save and load that .xml file
• Unless done in the Note above, open the QWClientConfig.xml in a text editor such as textEdit
• Search for(using Command+F or it can be found in the Edit menu under Find) "serverLogin", and replace that login name:"***@eri.ucsb.edu" to the login name of the account used to download CISN display: "***@***.ucsb.edu"
• Save the file but do not rename it
• Open a Finder window and navigate to Documents, create a folder called "BackupConf" inside of Documents
• Copy and paste a copy of the new QWClientConfig.xml file into this folder

Setting CISN Display to Presentation Mode

• All of the following should be done under the "cisnadmin" account
• Xcode must be installed for the following instructions to work as they use the Property List Editor
• Go to where CISN is installed(Applications/CISN_Display)
• Right click on the executable icon "QWClient" (the icon which when pressed makes CISN run) and select "Show Package Contents"
• Click on contents, then click on info.plist. (if it does not open in the Property List Editor open the Property List Editor, located /Developer/Applications/Utilities, and open info.plist from that application)
• Click once on the root key called "Information Property List", then click on the arrow to its left and select "Add Child" in the top left corner
• The variables are as follows:
  • Key: LSUIPresentationMode (It may change the name to Application UI Presentation Mode, thats okay)
  • Value: All hidden (if it does not allow you to select "All hidden" type in the Value "3" into the field and it will select "All hidden")
• Save and exit out of the Property List Editor
• I am unclear how to do this via the conf file so for now it can be done manually, but you need to launch cisndisplay
• go to settings, then display, then at the reset view option enter 60 seconds
• simply exit out of the program without saving.

Installation of the Firewall

• The following steps for the installation of the firewall should be done from "cisnadmin" account created earlier
• Copy Media: Firewall.sh code for the Firewall and this code for the Firewall's startup parameters onto the Desktop by right clicking (or control+clicking) on the links, and selecting "Save Linked File as..." It will try to end".txt" to the end or something. Delete that part and keep the original names
• You need to create a folder, "Firewall", inside the StartupItems folder. To do this...
• Open up the "Terminal" Icon on the bottom menu
• Then type:

sudo bash
sudo mkdir /Library/StartupItems/Firewall 

• Go to /Library/StartupItems/Firewall and put the two files you downloaded ("Firewall" and "StartupParameters.plist") earlier into this

fwdir=/Library/StartupItems/Firewall
sudo chown -R root:wheel /Library/StartupItems/Firewall
chown 0:0 $fwdir/*
chmod ug+x $fwdir/Firewall
$fwdir/Firewall

• Creating the variable "fwdir" is not necessary but it saves time from having to type out the whole directory path
• this should start the firewall and show a whole bunch of new info

• The firewall rotation settings should be changed to store 9, rather than 5 logs and should also change the max file size to 10000 kb rather than 100
• The logging goes to /var/log/appfirewall.log

Adding the Ability to Quit Finder and Kill Dock

• Open up a Terminal window, by opening a Finder window and searching Terminal or by looking in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder
• Typing this line into the terminal adds the ability to Quit the Finder, type:

defaults write com.apple.Finder QuitMenuItem 1

• You may need to restart your computer for the changes to take effect
• Download Media: cisnmaster.sh shellscript, cisnmaster which will be used to keep the kiosk running, and Media: startdisplay.command startdisplay shell script.
• Use the finder to put them in the "bin" file. (/sbin)
• If you wish to know more about the contents of the file, click here to learn the Specifics of how it works
• Now we will need to make cron jobs to continuously run the scripts, first log out and log in as cisnadmin
• Open a terminal (we are about to allow non super users to use the reboot command) type

sudo bash

• It will prompt for a password, enter the "cisnadmin" password
• Then type:

chmod +s /sbin/shutdown

• Followed by:

/sbin/shutdown

• It should simply reboot so you can now sign in as "cisndisplay"
• once in as cisn display and use the finder and open up the terminal window, try the "sbin/shutdown" command again ( to make sure it works)
• now , download the cisn config file to your desktop again so we can make a back which copies itself in the config file every night, create a folder under documents entitled called "BackupConf" and put it in here Back
• then go open the terminal again
• type "crontab -e"

hit "a" to be able to write one the first line type "*/5 * * * * ~/bin/cisnmaster begin" then press enter on this second line type "58 23 * * * ~/bin/cisnmaster mvconf" then press enter on this third line type "59 23 * * * /sbin/shutdown -r now" then press enter

• then click esc, followed by "shift+z" twice
• in the terminal type "cd bin" enter, "./cisnmaster stop" enter. This will casue the temporary stoppage of cisn trying to consistently boot itself. Know the cisnmaster commands!
• exit out of the terminal and click on the CISN-Disply icon which contols the computer and is located on the desktop
• right click on the applications icon and selcet get info
• scroll down to the "owners and permission section" and change the owner to cisnadmin, you will need to use the password which is now "1"
• now open up the applications folder and try to delete the chess game or something unimportant, it should ask permission. Now we know it works!
• use the finder to open system preferences, click on the accounts icon
• select login items under cisn-display and select the plus button
• search for bin and select startdisplay.command, this will make the ./cisnmaster rmblock run on start up of the machine
• sign in as cisnadmin and change the password to....... you and Aaron decide, dont post it here! write it down in office somewhere
• I think you're all set now! lets learn how to run this computer from another computer via remote connection

Configuring a system as a waveform display

Install Antelope

The setup of the waveform viewer we envision will require installing Antelope software (http://www.brtt.com/software.html) to access potential data streams.

1. Put in the Antelope Disc and click its image when it appears on the Desktop
2. Click on the Install.
3. It will request an information form which can be ignored
4. Continue through, select "full distribution" when the option arises
5. Install all unapplied patches
6. Set up default values for the network
   • Seed Net: SB
   • Int: UCSB
   • Orig Net:Institute of Crustal Studies
   • Mail Dom: crustal.ucsb.edu
   • Mail host: mail.crustal.ucsb.edu
7. Stick license in ..WHERE? ASK AARON

References/Related

Here are some potentially useful links Mehkin suggested if you get stuck...

• https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#technotes/tn2062/_index.html - Apple's Kiosk Setup Info Page
• https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man5/launchd.plist.5.html - MacOSX man page launchd commands
• https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/launchd.8.html - MacOSX man page for launchd
• https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man8/ipfw.8.html - ipfw man page
• http://oreilly.com/pub/a/mac/2005/03/15/firewall.html?page=1 - ipfw guide
• http://www.ibiblio.org/macsupport/ipfw/ - really good ipfw guide
• http://www.macworld.com/article/55321/2007/02/hidemenubar.html - How to hide the top menu and dock] Use the property editor list method and set LSUIP to 3
• https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#technotes/tn2062/_index.html - more awesome kiosk ui stuff Really good stuff.
• http://macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/11/07/scripting_osx.html?page=1 - mac shell scripting

Ideas on Setting up the Trackpad

• This is all done, all I need to do is document it. did I document it....?

Usable Controls from CISNMaster to Manipulate Program

• remember you must have downloaded the commands first and they may not work unless all the directions above have been followed.
• Find out the name of your machine from aaron, the current one is "ruby" so I will use ruby here in the examples.
• open the terminal on your own computer and type "ssh cisndisplay@ruby.crustal.ucsb.edu" it will ask for the cisndisplay password, type 'er in!

cd bin
./cisnmaster   # follwed by a space and then any of these sub-commands
begin # kills finder and starts cisn display in kiosk mode
mvconf # deletes the current file in the conf folder and replaces it with our back up one in which is located in Documents/BackupConf, just in case its been compromised
sdwn # shuts down the computer and restarts it
stop # stops cronjob from restarting cisn every five minutes via file called "blockfile" which is placed on the desktop, will automatically undo itself in one hour. to manually restart the dispaly use "rmblock" disscussed below
rmblock # manually gets ride of the blockfile and allows the "begin" command to restart cisn every minute. Also starts up