[Legacy] Run a PaperCut NG or MF Release Station from a Raspberry Pi

Obtain the latest Raspberry Pi Release Station image

The Raspberry Pi is a great little low-cost educational computer platform that some people use as a low power consumption PaperCut release station.

Please download the PaperCut Release station image built on top of Raspbian GNU/Linux below:

• papercut-ng-mf-raspberry-pi-release-station-21.2.5-buster.zip

Note:

• This image requires a 16GB SD Card.
• This image is based on log4j v2.17.1.

Setup instructions for the Raspberry Pi Release Station

The instructions assume some basic understanding of managing Raspberry Pis and using the Linux command line. It is very unlikely that a Pi Zero or a Raspberry Pi model A will be suitable because of a lack of network and USB connections.

1. On a workstation (Mac, Windows or Linux) download and unzip the PaperCut Raspberry PI Release Station image from the above link.

2. Copy the image to a suitable SD card (NB the current image will fit on a 4GB card). A class 10 SD card is recommended. Instructions to do this can be found at the following links.

   • Windows Instructions

   • Mac Instructions

   • Linux Instructions

3. With the SD card still mounted (it may be need to re-inserted to force a re-mount) in the workstation edit the following files in /boot:

   • pc-config.properties. Follow the standard release station documentation

   • pc-connection.properties. It contains the IP address of the PaperCut application server and the port number to use for communication.

   On newer versions (16.3 and above) of the release station image you can also configure the wifi settings and hostname by editing the file

   • machine.local

4. Unmount the SD card from the workstation.

5. Insert the SD card into your Pi and power it up. It should (eventually) boot up into the release station display or display an error message that it cannot contact the PaperCut application server.

   On newer versions (16.3 and above) of the release station image you will be reminded to configure the keyboard, timezone and locale (see below).

6. From a workstation on the same network use ssh to connect to release station.

7. Login as the admin account, currently username admin and password password. On images before release 16.3 it’s username pi and password raspberry.

8. Make sure the operating system is fully up to date with the command:

   sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -y && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y

9. Run the command: sudo raspi-config

   See http://elinux.org/RPi_raspi-config#Running_raspi-config_another_time for more information.

10. Set the options options for your region (i.e. timezone, locales, keyboard). Note that in order to configure a keyboard you will need a USB keyboard connected to the Pi, even if you are connected across a network

11. Configure other options if required.

12. Exit raspi-config.

13. Delete the file /boot/prompt4Locale

14. Run the command sudo init 6 to reboot the Pi

15. Test

Setup notes

• On the current image password for admin user is password. This should be changed.

• On the current image password for papercut user is secure and unknown.

• To shut the release station down or perform system maintenance:

  From a workstation on the same network use ssh to connect to release station.

  Login as user admin and do whatever you need to do. e.g. sudo init 0 to shutdown or sudo init 6 to reboot.

• All these commands are executed on the command line unless otherwise stated.

• Use a good quality class 10 SD card.

• Each connection of the release station requires a PaperCut release station license (one connection license is included in the base product for testing).

• Every time the Raspberry Pi reboots it will automatically perform a file system check and repair.

FAQs

Yes you can! The compatibility of each card reader would need to be tested but it is possible to authenticate on a PaperCut Raspberry Pi Release Station via a card reader!

1. Mount the SD card into the desktop workstation. This means you should be able to edit the config.properties file (located on in the partition that get’s mounted as /boot on the Pi).

2. Copy over the image file to the SD card. Let’s pretend it is called myimage.png

3. Edit the config.properties file on the SD card. Specifically you need a property that says logo-image=/boot/myimage.png — make sure you use the correct filename for your image file.

   Note that the text "logo-image=/boot/" is fixed.

4. Unmount the SD card.

5. Test to make sure the custom logo is installed.

The Please Wait screen displays the IP/Hostname so that the Admin can SSH in with their Admin User to make changes. By removing this screen, we must then assume that the admin knows the: IP, Hostname, Admin Username & Password. To remove this message:

1. SSH into the Raspberry Pi Release Station as the Admin User.
2. Edit the following file with root privileges: /usr/local/papercut/.profile
   • For example: sudo nano /usr/local/papercut/.profile
3. On line 28, comment it out with a # at the start of the line and then save the file.
4. Reboot the Pi.

The screen should only flash on the screen and then afterwards it should boot into the PaperCut Release Station as per usual.