GPSD cannot start properly on boot

Question

I'm on a Raspberry PI Zero W (Raspbian NOOBS v2.9.0)

The GPS module is a Neo 6M GPS module https://www.amazon.it/ILS-navigazione-satellitare-posizionamento-Arduino/dp/B07911Z266/ref=sr_1_46?ie=UTF8&qid=1542095676&sr=8-46&keywords=gps+raspberry+pi

I've installed GPSD with the following command

sudo apt-get install gpsd gpsd-clients python-gps

I've enabled the hardware serial port and disabled the serial console with raspi-config

I've edited the file /etc/default/gpsd as follows:

START_DAEMON="true"
GPSD_OPTIONS="/dev/ttyS0"
DEVICES=""
USBAUTO="false"
GPSD_SOCKET="/var/run/gpsd.sock"

I've added the following lines to /etc/rc.local (BEFORE the "exit 0")

sudo gpsd /dev/ttyS0 -F /var/run/gpsd.sock
sudo python /home/pi/code.py

In the code.py I have this code running:

import os
import sys
from gps import *
import threading
from threading import Thread

class GpsPoller(threading.Thread):

    # object needed to obtain GPS data
    gpsd = None

    def __init__(self):
        print "Initializing GPS poller..."
        global gpsd         

        threading.Thread.__init__(self)
        gpsd = gps(mode=WATCH_ENABLE)
        self.current_value = None
        self.running = True

    def run(self):
        print "Starting GPS loop..."
        global gpsd

        while self.running:

            # get the next set of data
            gpsd.next()

            # clear screen
            os.system("clear")

            print
            print 'GPS'
            print
            print '----------------------------------------'
            print 'latitude    ' , gpsd.fix.latitude
            print 'longitude   ' , gpsd.fix.longitude
            print 'time (utc)     ' , gpsd.utc,' + ', gpsd.fix.time
            print 'altitude (m)' , gpsd.fix.altitude
            print 'eps           ' , gpsd.fix.eps
            print 'epx           ' , gpsd.fix.epx
            print 'epv           ' , gpsd.fix.epv
            print 'ept           ' , gpsd.fix.ept
            print 'speed (m/s)' , gpsd.fix.speed
            print 'mode      ' , gpsd.fix.mode
            print '----------------------------------------'
            print

gpsp = GpsPoller()
gpsp.run()

I've disabled the GPSD service at startup (to prevent the system from starting it and let this task to be achieved by rc.local) with the following commands:
```
sudo systemctl stop gpsd.socket
sudo systemctl disable gpsd.socket
```

The result is that when i power on the Rpi, the code and the gpsd daemon start properly but the data cannot be obtained, if I then kill the python code and start it manually, it works.

I think you have the content interchanged for `GPSD_OPTIONS` and `DEVICES` in `/etc/default/gpsd` — Mark Setchell, Nov 13 '18 at 10:44
Did you try adding the relevant user to the `dialout` group? `sudo adduser dialout` — Mark Setchell, Nov 13 '18 at 16:20
@MarkSetchell thanks for your suggestions, however I tried to switch to Rpi 3 B+ and it seems to work... it's not a real solution (because i'd rather make it work on Rpi Zero) but for now It's enough — user2959923, Nov 14 '18 at 12:00

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 04 '20 at 13:04

I had the same problem on my RPi-Zw, don't know what the problem was. I have tried all tricks described on internet and got nowhere, gpsd would only start manually. In the end I started with a clean image, installed gpsd, did all the other things as prescribed on https://wiki.dragino.com/index.php?title=Getting_GPS_to_work_on_Raspberry_Pi_3_Model_B and added service gpsd start to /etc/rc.local and it works. Checking it with cgps -s immediately came up working allright.

GPSD cannot start properly on boot

1 Answers1