Any additional instructions for Linux newcomers?

[PWS]

Interested in taking a look at weewx but as someone who doesn't routinely use Linux there are some definite hurdles to the process. I can see that there's good and detailed documentation (ideally would have liked a PDF option too, but that's by the by) but, at the same time, trying to work my way around the user guide at the same time as tripping over various Linux gotcha's is not easy work. In fact it really seems harder than it could be. 

Some context: Today I built a simple Linux machine up from a barebones Intel NUC-2820 for use as a dedicated wx PC for this weewx project (which I know is going to have more horsepower than I need for this, but I was looking for a complete, compact, easy-build, low power consumption system that also potentially had CPU power to spare for multi-user server duties too and which was reasonable cost without being too price-constrained). Once the parts were to hand, it was just the work of an hour or two to build and try a first-time Linux install via a download and USB stick. (Actually there was a false-start here when I went with Mint to start with and then realised it was overkill for this project before falling back to Lubuntu - no idea whether this is the most sensible option but it's where I've reached.) But the point here is that I've managed to get to a working Linux machine that I can find my way around without too much ado.

But then trying to get weewx operational was distinctly more of a challenge, more because of permissions issues and simply not understanding various aspects of how Linux runs programs. I'm up and running with weewx now at least in an initial configuration. I can see that it's got a lot of potential but it's perhaps a shame that it's not more accessible to people who aren't already Linux users. 

Sorry for the long preamble, but to get to my first question: Has anyone written an introduction for users new to Linux to help get weewx running and to explain some of the background and pitfalls of the process? I've had a quick hunt around but the wiki seems to be mostly about more advanced topics, but maybe I've missed a good intro that someone's written somewhere. Although my installation is running to a first pass, I think I probably want to rebuild it with more insight into what's happening with the configuration so I'd still like to have a good read of such an intro, if indeed one exists.

I could make a short list of issues that have tripped me up today and which I haven't fully resolved or understood as yet, but this post is long enough already and maybe the answers already exist somewhere?

(For information, the data feed for this present prototype system will be VP2 data received via a Vue console and a USB logger.)

[Ξ]

In essence: a lot of it depends on what in particular you're trying to achieve and the Linux distro you're using, that's why there can be no one-fit-all Linux intro. If you have questions ask them. 

My case (tl;dr):
I am myself a not very experienced Linux user, I've had previous exposure to UNIX/Linux but on a very limited basis, to try it out I first installed weewx on a RedHat virtual machine which couldn't be easier as there is a ready made rpm package, but for my own project—a weather station on a remote property where I don't spend most of my time—I needed a low cost solution, hence I chose Raspberry Pi, as it turned out the Linux distro that occupies least space on an SD card for R-Pi is Arch Linux and that particular flavour I had never touched before.

In my particular case what I had to learn was pretty much how to use pacman (I know I know, far from rocket science, but for example with the default Arch Linux image for R-Pi the package lists are slightly out of date which meant I first learnt how to add and use a custom repository with pacman in order to install sqlite, only later did I figure out all I need to learn was to simply update the pkg list), then install the required packages (initially I overlooked one of the required pkgs), configure weewx and run it.

But running it from the command line isn't enough, as it's going to live on a remote machine I need it to start as a daemon during boot, in my own thread you can see I was asking how to do that on Arch Linux which uses systemd — something TOTALLY alien to me until a few days ago.

And that's only weewx, in addition I needed sakis3g for my gprs modem...

I know all these appear as extremely easy things and not terribly difficult to overcome roadblocks, but for the uninitiated user it can sometimes be a teensy-weensy challenging and not quite as obvious to figure out.

[PWS]

OK, well thanks for the invitation to ask away, I was a bit wary of asking any more Linux-specific questions here - the focus here should presumably be on weewx questions rather than OS-specific ones, but there's obviously an unavoidable dependence of weewx on the OS environment.

I understand the point about the variety of distributions out there. But one starting point would be a suggestion (or 2 or 3) for which distribution to choose. Running a dedicated wx PC (big or petite) if at all possible is something I'd always recommend - certainly not essential but a lot of benefits. And I'd suggest that there's a substantial constituency of potential users who don't currently (and possibly aren't going to in the future) run Linux for their mainstream computing needs. Their use of Linux might be solely for a wx PC and they like me might buy a small new device with no pre-installed OS specifically for that purpose. So some pointers as to which distribution to choose (in the absence of any prior experience) might be useful. In general, such devices might be relatively low-spec and potentially run headless so the prettiness and power of the DE perhaps isn't important whereas a relatively light footprint might be. That was my thinking in opting for Lubuntu, but it was based on almost zero experience.

Then, for those of us from the Windows world, the idea of running an application without a UI is a little alien (not unknown of course, but unfamiliar). Normally you launch the program and even when not running as a service you can readily detect its presence even if the focus is on another program. But unless I've misunderstood, there are only two ways of running weewx: as a service (which doesn't seem like a beginner's option); or from the command line in a Terminal session. But then if you close the Terminal (which my instinct wants me to do to avoid lots of messy stuff frequently scrolling down the screen) then this closes the program. I suppose this isn't too different from a DOS box (sorry Command Prompt), in Windows, but it still feels odd and unfamiliar for a modern program. 

It's this unfamiliarity that really gets in the way. None of these points are remotely rocket science but a tutorial which gave a little more hand-holding and explanation could I think lower the energy barrier to a lot more users from the Windows world trying out weewx.

I've got other points especially relating to permissions but I'll leave those for now to avoid an over-long post.

[Ξ]

I don't think it's feasible to expect a short guide which distro to choose as it widely varies on a myriad of factors. weewx is available for the most widely used distros, some beginners might like Fedora, others Ubuntu or SuSe. As I said I never imagined myself having to deal with Arch Linux, but I found out that's the most suitable solution for my purposes.

You need to be as specific as you can with your questions. Personally, I've never had permission issues on either Red Hat or Arch Linux.

There are two ways to start weewx running:
a) from the command line (which as you've observed starts printing on the screen endless rows of output), this is how I start it on my R-Pi: /home/weewx/bin/weewxd /home/weewx/weewx.conf if I'm inside the /home/weewx directory I can only type: ./bin/weewxd weewx.conf
b) as a daemon, it starts during the boot process of the OS, and on my RedHat I can make use of the following commands:
/etc/init.d/weewx start
/etc/init.d/weewx status
/etc/init.d/weewx restart
/etc/init.d/weewx stop

[Thomas Keffer]

Mr. PWS,

You didn't say how you installed weewx. Did you use the DEB file? Or, the setup.py method? The former is extremely simple and doesn't require much Linux expertise.

-tk

Fat-fingered from my Android

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[vds]

On Friday, April 18, 2014 11:34:57 AM UTC-7, PWS wrote:

Sorry for the long preamble, but to get to my first question: Has anyone written an introduction for users new to Linux to help get weewx running and to explain some of the background and pitfalls of the process?

Not understanding the question - you built a PC from scratch using two Linux distributions and the volumes of weewx manuals and wiki and years of searchable Google Group postings are somehow daunting ?

There is no right answer for which distro to use.  That depends on your experience, your need (or not) to have long-term patch support from the distribution provider, your budget (commercial or free software), and your selected hardware.  To some extent it also likely depends on who you lean on normally for a shoulder to cry on when stuff doesn't work :-)

In general, there are three basic variants (Debian - RedHat - SuSE) that are indicated in the installation section of the User's Guide.   You can either use the native packaging format expected by those basic variants (.deb or .rpm) or you can do a manual installation (python setup.py).   Ideally, they're equivalent, although each distribution has a different idea of where files should be kept, so you'll have to actually learn and understand your Linux distribution.

Once you pick a distribution, I'd suggest a google search for "getting started with mydistributionname" or the like.   There are a million of them out there.

New users, especially new to Linux, should probably stick with a mainstream distro (CentOS or Debian/*buntu) and use the pre-packaged weewx software.  At that point all you'd need to do would be edit your weewx.conf and stuff should run.

[PWS]

Thanks for the interest and the comments - much appreciated. 

 I guess my overall concern is whether you're happy to limit use of weewx either to users already familiar with Linux and to those Linux newcomers willing to spend some significant time and effort learning about the new OS environment. That would be a perfectly understandable point of view, but with the result that it might deter many thousands of other potential weewx users who could be interested in transitioning to weewx if only there was a more hand-holding guide available. But that's obviously just IMHO.

To start with, I'm not sure that it's recognised just how bewildering it is for someone new to Linux starting our with bare hardware and then trying to make a decision about which distribution to use. It's just an alphabet soup of rather meaningless names, Debian, Redhat, SuSE, CentOS, Ubuntu etc and then with innumerable variations like Mint, Lubuntu, Xubuntu etc etc. In a situation where you're starting from scratch with bare hardware and with no idea of the pros and cons of any of these different names, it's really easy to be put off at this first hurdle. I understand that there may be no strong reasons for choosing one over another, but that doesn't really help the newbie - they do need some pointers

Is it really so impossible to suggest just one or two distributions that a Linux-naive user might want to look at first as a taster of weewx running on Linux when the alternative might be picking one out with a pin. Let's assume that this is for a dedicated wx PC/device and hence one with low power and modest hardware resources. and free is obviously going to be appealing to many new users. Does that not narrow down the field significantly? 

@vds Thanks - your comments do offer something along these lines, which could well be the basis of a section in a more basic tutorial (although even here, one line says 'Debian - RedHat - SuSE' and then the second named reference says 'CentOS or Debian/*buntu' - Debian is obviously the only name common to both lists. What's a newcomer to make of that? And my rather random choice of Lubuntu - any particular pros and cons to that which I'm likely to notice running weewx?

@vds again: 'daunting' wouldn't be the word I'd use, the experience was more 'frustrating' - following an instruction and then eg trying to work out why I was blocked from saving an edited config file (and, more frustratingly, working out how to fix the issue). The prime objective here was to get weewx up and running robustly asap, not embarking on a crash course in Linux - obviously acquiring some basic Linux knowledge is unavoidable, but no more than strictly necessary would be a good start. And yes I can well imagine that choosing the setup.py route was a mistake - I was seduced by the apparent extra flexibility of this approach and the neatness of having everything in one folder. I'll perhaps try rebuilding the system today from the .deb download.

[Andrew Milner]

I think you re coming at this from the wrong direction ...

1. Select your Linux - and this has nothing to do with weewx 

2. Learn how to use your choice of OS - use the web for tutorials and teach-yourself Linux

3. Read the weewx documentation and ensure that you are able to satisfy the pre-requisites and have understood the steps involved in the installation

4. Follow the weewx install instructions and all should work

Going at this in other sequences is a little bit like leaping into an aircraft cockpit and immediately saying "what does this button do" before casually pressing the button and wondering why you are shooting down the runway ..... and then saying, whilst extricating oneself from a tree, "wow - my car didn't used to start like that"

[PWS]

Maybe, but it is the direction that quite a number of potential users of weewx are likely to head down. For a lot of the users I'm thinking about (who routinely run Weatherlink, WD, Cumulus or some other analogous Windows package. but may be interested in running weewx as a further alternative and perhaps attracted by the idea of running a simple inexpensive dedicated wx PC, for which weewx might be ideal) the thought process will undoubtedly start from wanting to run weewx. They very possibly won't want to use Linux in any other context and so the choice of Linux _is_ very much secondary to their interest in trialling weewx.

Maybe weewx is not intended to appeal to such users, which - I'd repeat - would be a shame from what I've seen of weewx so far. But this (potentially very large, eg 100,000+) constituency of users won't start from the point of thinking about which version of Linux might best suit their needs. It will be 'what do I need in order to run weewx as simply and - often - as cheaply as possible.

[Andrew Milner]

For those users (like me) the 'cheapest' option are the likes or the RPi and Beaglebone at the £30-£50 mark as the hardware base - and these come with their own blends of Linux and their own other yet-to-be-found quirks.  These are this year's hardware - next year there will no doubt be new flavours and new things to learn and experiment with.  Hopefully weewx will still be the same though!!  The old windows based PC hardware is nothing like economical enough on its power needs to justify keeping running - even with Linux installed when compared to the later miniaturised hardware platforms.  The low cost platforms all have their own forums and sources of expertise and knowledge - weewx is nothing more than a software application to be installed on a running Linux based OS.  Many users no doubt (like me) also run web servers, webcams and so on - even though the 'main' use is data gathering from a weather station using weewx.  Few are probably so limited as to be ONLY running weewx.

[Thomas Keffer]

Good discussion. 

Your comment, "Maybe weewx is not intended to appeal to such users..." is at the heart of this.

Weewx had two original design goals, listed on the very top of the feature list:

• Robust, hard to crash
• Easily extensible

I wanted something that was of industrial quality for its ability to run unattended. And, I wanted something that was easily played with as new ideas occurred to me. I think it's safe to say both design goals were solidly met. Installations routinely run for months without reboots, and the amazing ecosystem that has emerged around weewx testifies to its adaptability. I don't think any other weather software system, Windows, Mac, or Linux, comes close to doing these two things as well. So, weewx is secure in its chosen, perhaps overly tiny, niche.

Now, could we add ease of installation to that list? Maybe, but to do so would require a graphical user interface and that starts leading to complications.

First, no headless installations, so robustness starts getting compromised. Also, tiny platforms with limited horsepower, like the RPi, become harder to support. Extensibility becomes more difficult: rather than adding a new section to weewx.conf, a new HTML tab must be added. The unique hierarchical relationship of options within weewx, where it's possible to override lower down options, would be very hard to capture in a GUI control panel.

Maybe I'm wrong about needing a GUI for true ease-of-installation --- I'm sure open to ideas on this. Wview took a novel approach of using PHP web pages to set its configuration files and it seems to work (although its requirement to install a webserver arguably makes things more complicated, not less, for a noobie).

Finally, I think it's important to recognize that there may be an inherent contradiction of wanting the ease-of-installation of a mature platform like Windows, but on a bleeding edge platform like a Beaglebone.

-tk

--

[Joe Percival]

Personally, I think that you hit the bullseye with weewx and that it was well worth the effort to learn a bit of linux and python in order to get it up and running.  I’m still running one of the earliest versions and it has survived multiple power outages, internet outages, a change in weather stations and it just keep on running.  It has been so robust and kept running for so long that I would actually have to go back and brush up on linux and python in order to make any changes or upgrades at this point.

Extremely well done IMHO.

thank you!

joe

[Andrew Milner]

Well I certainly think that weewx beats its rivals into the dust as far as Linux based software is concerned - just as Cumulus beats the Windows brigade into the ground.

Now what I'd really like to do of course is run weewx on my Android TV box that I also have on 24/7 - and it has a couple of spare USB ports just looking at me enticingly saying "Why can't I have a weather station plugged in to me?" .... maybe Linux is 'old hat' and we should all move over to the Chrome/Android flavour of Unix/Linux ...???!!!  (said all tongue-in-cheek of course) ... but where are the Chrome install instructions??

[vds]

Switching operating systems is stressful.  Learning is stressful.  Stress sometimes isn't fun.

I've been doing unix since 1986 and Linux since 1992 so I keep getting asked whether people should buy a PC or a Mac or run Linux and my answer is always the same:

• how much can you spend in your money
• how much can you spend in your time
• how much can you spend in your blood pressure level
• what apps 'must' you be able to run
• how much 'fiddling time' do you want to spend routinely on it 
• what else is important to you (weight, power, sound level, footprint, etc)
• and remember - I'm not your IT support, you'll be own your own mostly, so choose wants vs. needs wisely

Which Linux ?  There 'really' is not a preferred answer.

• Debian seems to have the most packages and probably the best package installation/upgrade/repository implementation that I've seen.  Learn "apt-get update" and "apt-get upgrade" and what's under the hood there and you'll almost certainly be able to find added packages to do almost anything if they exist.......but the debian community is a bit 'harsh' to say the least.  This eliminates it from being a reasonable choice for a true Linux newbie at least initially.
• Ubuntu is to me a more user-friendly interface on top of the underlying Debian plumbing that a new user doesn't want to get into anyway.  Ubuntu gets a lot of good press as being where new users should start.  There are a lot of good online resources and many books on Ubuntu.
• CentOS (free) is based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (commercial) which is to me the preferred server platform for real work, as it has 'long' support.  The current version will be supported until 2020 so patches will come out for years for security issues.  That said, that comes at a cost in most packages lagging far behind current, sometimes many years.  Its packaging mechanism is a bit finicky, and it's hard to find many things packaged for CentOS
• Fedora is Red Hat's bleeding edge technical evaluation distro that someday largely winds up as a future CentOS release if they choose to keep the implementation the same.  Great on laptops.  Not supported long at all, so you'll be nuking your system every couple years. Changes architecturally pretty frequently, so you'll be learning a lot of new stuff.  Frequently.

For a new user, I'd have to suggest Ubuntu I guess, due to their large set of packages available and pretty good repositories for finding new/updated things.  There are lot of Ubuntu books and references online.  It seems to be as gentle an introduction to Linux as you can get from what I've seen.  Even many 20+ year Linux people I used to work with run it at home.

If you really want to learn, try them all.  The free VirtualBox software would let you build a virtual machine of any distro or configuration you could think of basically.  I'm typing this on a Macbook Air that has CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu, and Win7 virtual machines installed on it.  I just fire up the one I want when I need to.  Pretty cool.

[vds]

On Saturday, April 19, 2014 6:19:38 AM UTC-7, Tom Keffer wrote:

Now, could we add ease of installation to that list? Maybe, but to do so would require a graphical user interface and that starts leading to complications.

Tom - I still don't think there is a problem here, given the .rpm and .deb installer options.  I think it's reasonable to expect a user can edit a simple text weewx.conf file to set their location / lat / lon / station to get started.

I suppose you could cook up a text-mode thing ala the "setup" program on CentOS if you wanted to do it in dialog and not require a gui.

War story - wview's php approach was very painful under Fedora for me years ago due to Fedora bugs in their php/mysql rpms.  I needed to patch their sources and recompile my own fixed variant to get wview's admin gui to work.  Not fun.

 

[vds]

Just one more data point for the distro question.

Late last week I decided to reinstall my Linux system that was running zoneminder to act as a motion-sensitive home security camera recorder.  Previously it was running debian with upgrades but I was never happy with the installation and it was slowing down due to cruft I'd added.  Being a CentOS-centric person, I installed CentOS-6.5 which worked fine as an os, but I spent two days battling trying to get zoneminder and its various prerequisites compiled and installed for about 12 hours before deciding this was crazy.  The list of packages just wasn't including the one key app I run that computer for.

So just as a test, this morning I grabbed the brand new ubuntu 14.04 server minimal image and installed it, taking the defaults for all the questions.

Installing and configuring zoneminder was as simple as 'apt-get install zoneminder', creating one symlink per the zoneminder forums+wiki, and defining my two cameras via the zoneminder gui correctly based on a recent howto I found on the web.   Total time to install and configure zoneminder - about five minutes.   No compiling. No editing files.  No stress.

So as a minimal server installation, I have to say Ubuntu sure has evolved into something nicely put together, FWIW.

[Ξ]

Tom - I still don't think there is a problem here, given the .rpm and .deb installer options.  I think it's reasonable to expect a user can edit a simple text weewx.conf file to set their location / lat / lon / station to get started.

Indeed, editing the weewx.conf file to get it started is simple and self-evident, but sometimes there are small things that lead to big stumble blocks to the uninitiated user: I wanted to change the date format on the report page and it took me a lot of frustration and time to figure out firstly, what exactly I need to edit and secondly, "%X | Locale’s appropriate time representation." on the python site doesn't really tell you (me) much, I'd be still scratching my head if I didn't have a 2.5.1 version where luckily it's specified differently.

To give you an idea: First I looked at the source code of a generated report page to see where the values come from, then I turned to the index.html.tmpl, then I looked up $current.dateTime and after that I was left to figure out the syntax in skin.conf and all that. I did read and refer to the Customization Guide, it's just that it doesn't become immediately clear and obvious how to do it.

[Andrew Milner]

Nothing that you listed had anything to do with Linux or the flavour of linux used - all to do with html, css and cheetah - apart from possible implementations of locale.

Like saying the car handbook for a new car should provide 'Teach Youself Paint spraying in 10 easy lessons' in order to appeal to all those who may have a small scrape in the future (hundreds of thousands per annum no doubt).....

[PWS]

Actually, I wasn't specifically thinking of suggesting a GUI though that's an interesting idea. It was more wondering if there were any additional 'easy-start' instructions separate from the main user manual to help get weewx going for new users who've never used Linux before? The answer seems to be no, but if one were ever written it could cover things like:

** A slightly fuller description of weewx itself so as to provide some overall orientation. For example, despite having browsed through the documentation several times, I'm still not clear about the relation of LOOP data to the archive database (in the context of Davis stations). I can see that weewx by default requests LOOP data about every 2 (?) seconds. Is weewx then using this LOOP data as the source of its archive data (perhaps using the same archive interval as currently set in the logger) or is the archive data only sourced from archive record downloads from the logger? If it's not the case that LOOP==>Archive then is the LOOP data available somewhere else.(I won't be surprised if this information is actually in the documentation somewhere - it seems fairly comprehensive, but I can't see it at present.) And as a follow-up is LOOP2 data currently supported at all via the LPS command (assuming appropriate console F/W)?

** More info about data outputs: eg am I right in thinking that there's only one default design of web page as the main interface for viewing the weather data? (aside from eg WU uploads etc). But there's a stripchart-type presentation shown as an example on the main weewx web page - where does that fit in? Is it a customised skin or something that is there in the default set.

** A bit more hand-holding for Linux. For instance, having installed weewx via the .deb route in a Lubuntu (14.04) environment and edited the weewx.conf file, I then found that Leafpad would not allow me to save the file. Obviously a permissions problem but then why and what's the magic incantation to fix it? And a bit more info about starting and stopping weewx would be handy. eg Is there any alternative to command line or daemon? Could I create desktop shortcut as an alternative option? Could there be links to a suggested tutorial website or two for those wanting to learn more about Linux?

I could go on, but let me stop there with this post. More comments/questions to follow if anyone is willing to have a further discussion.

[Andrew Milner]

The WIKI site and the forum contain links to other skins/reporting formats and extensions created by other weewx users and not necessarily a part of 'standard' weewx.

Weewx wins because of its adaptability and the work of users who then publish and provide links to their work and efforts.

Weewx itself though remains as a firm base, and future upgrades may or may not work in combination with such extensions and modifications - although Tom usually does his absolute best to make all upgrades backwards compatible - but once you step outside what is provided you enter your own world is the hard fact of life!!

[Thomas Keffer]

These are all good suggestions. I often find it useful to keep notes as I try something new, which can then be a useful primer to those who follow. Or, even myself when I have to do the same thing again 6 months later! Perhaps you could write up your own experience?

Here's a good example, written by user "TonyPerk", posted on wxforum.net.

-tk

[PWS]

It's evident that weewx is extensible and this is clearly one its strengths. But it was clarification about what is part of 'standard' weewx that I was asking about.

Weewx wins but perhaps only within a certain niche of Linux users and hobbyists at present. My broader question was whether there is interest in extending the appeal of Weewx beyond this present niche and, if so (and strictly IMHO of course, but speaking as someone who supports some 2000+ Davis stations currently), then some supplementary instructions would greatly facilitate that process.

[PWS]

Well, maybe. But as a total Linux novice I scarcely feel qualified to do so. Or at least I could only imagine doing so if I continue to pester this forum with naive questions. But in case anyone feels like answering here are the two questions that are in my head right now:

1. I've installed weewx from the .deb download into Lubuntu 14.04 (IIRC the version). So why doesn't this installation allow me write access to the weewx.conf file by default? Have I tried to edit the file with the wrong editor or the wrong invocation of the editor. Or is this expected behaviour? Then how should it be fixed?

2. The LOOP archive question I mentioned in a previous post. What does weewx do with the LOOP records it requests from a Davis station? Do they get processed for the archive database at all? Or are archive downloads the sole data feed for the archive database?

[vds]

On Monday, April 21, 2014 8:05:26 AM UTC-7, PWS wrote:

Well, maybe. But as a total Linux novice I scarcely feel qualified to do so. Or at least I could only imagine doing so if I continue to pester this forum with naive questions. But in case anyone feels like answering here are the two questions that are in my head right now:

1. I've installed weewx from the .deb download into Lubuntu 14.04 (IIRC the version). So why doesn't this installation allow me write access to the weewx.conf file by default? Have I tried to edit the file with the wrong editor or the wrong invocation of the editor. Or is this expected behaviour? Then how should it be fixed?

I just did a .deb installation as a test.

weewx.conf is located in /etc/weewx and it's owned by root, so you (probably) didn't edit it as root, you probably edited it as the normal non-privileged use that ubuntu normally sets up for you to log into the system.

From the command line you'd need to run 'sudo vi /etc/weewx/weewx.conf' or the like, if you use vi as your command line editor.

I can't help you with how to make a gui editor run as root under Ubuntu - I never use gui editors, I'm a command line guy. Sorry.

[PWS]

Thanks. Presumably I could change the ownership of weewx.conf to my userid and then use any GUI editor? Or would this cause unintended consequences? So would this require:

sudo chown myuserid /etc/weewx/weewx.conf

??

[Andrew Milner]

Why do you have to use a GUI editor at all??  This is Linux we are talking about - the operating system for Geeks and Nerds (apologies to all weewx users), hobbyists and control freaks - it is not Windows or Apple iOS we are dealing with here - even though it is much better in many respects than those two it is still not necessarily for the faint hearted just as a fast sports car is not necessarily the right choice for all drivers!!!

AppleiOS is Unix underneath, and has superb graphical interfaces - hence why it is the favourite of artistic types .....

Windows wraps its OS into a protective wrapper where one has to search to even find the command line interface, but is quite deficient in its consumer versions when it comes to security and permissions.

Android is poor man's Unix/Linux/iOS and gives the worst of all the worlds one can imagine - where 'rooting' has become commonplace just to make the system do what one wants.

Horses for courses 

...