Failed to start the concentrator - Lorank8 Issue with Packet Forwarder v4.0.1"

Hello everyone,

I am encountering an issue with my Lorank8 gateway after updating the Packet Forwarder to version 4.0.1 (Semtech Packet Forwarder) and using the software from Ideetron’s repository.

When I run lora_pkt_fwd, the program fails to start, giving me the following error:

root@lorank8:/home/debian/lorank8v1# ./start
Starting the standard Semtech packet forwarder.
*** Beacon Packet Forwarder for Lora Gateway ***
Version: 4.0.1
*** Lora concentrator HAL library version info ***
Version: 5.0.1;


INFO: Little endian host
INFO: found global configuration file global_conf.json, parsing it
INFO: global_conf.json does contain a JSON object named SX1301_conf, parsing SX1301 parameters
INFO: lorawan_public 1, clksrc 1
INFO: no configuration for LBT
INFO: antenna_gain 0 dBi
INFO: no configuration for tx gain lut 12
INFO: no configuration for tx gain lut 13
INFO: no configuration for tx gain lut 14
INFO: no configuration for tx gain lut 15
INFO: Configuring TX LUT with 12 indexes
INFO: radio 0 enabled (type SX1257), center frequency 867500000, RSSI offset -166.000000, tx enabled 1, tx_notch_freq 0
INFO: radio 1 enabled (type SX1257), center frequency 868500000, RSSI offset -166.000000, tx enabled 0, tx_notch_freq 0
INFO: Lora multi-SF channel 0> radio 1, IF -400000 Hz, 125 kHz bw, SF 7 to 12
INFO: Lora multi-SF channel 1> radio 1, IF -200000 Hz, 125 kHz bw, SF 7 to 12
INFO: Lora multi-SF channel 2> radio 1, IF 0 Hz, 125 kHz bw, SF 7 to 12
INFO: Lora multi-SF channel 3> radio 0, IF -400000 Hz, 125 kHz bw, SF 7 to 12
INFO: Lora multi-SF channel 4> radio 0, IF -200000 Hz, 125 kHz bw, SF 7 to 12
INFO: Lora multi-SF channel 5> radio 0, IF 0 Hz, 125 kHz bw, SF 7 to 12
INFO: Lora multi-SF channel 6> radio 0, IF 200000 Hz, 125 kHz bw, SF 7 to 12
INFO: Lora multi-SF channel 7> radio 0, IF 400000 Hz, 125 kHz bw, SF 7 to 12
INFO: Lora std channel> radio 1, IF -200000 Hz, 250000 Hz bw, SF 7
INFO: FSK channel> radio 1, IF 300000 Hz, 125000 Hz bw, 50000 bps datarate
INFO: global_conf.json does contain a JSON object named gateway_conf, parsing gateway parameters
INFO: gateway MAC address is configured to 1DEE3B4B876FE5E8
INFO: server hostname or IP address is configured to “eu1.cloud.thethings.network”
INFO: upstream port is configured to “1700”
INFO: downstream port is configured to “1700”
INFO: downstream keep-alive interval is configured to 10 seconds
INFO: statistics display interval is configured to 30 seconds
INFO: upstream PUSH_DATA time-out is configured to 100 ms
INFO: packets received with a valid CRC will be forwarded
INFO: packets received with a CRC error will NOT be forwarded
INFO: packets received with no CRC will NOT be forwarded
INFO: Reference latitude is configured to 38.978150 deg
INFO: Reference longitude is configured to -1.856430 deg
INFO: Reference altitude is configured to 686 meters
INFO: Beaconing period is configured to 128 seconds
INFO: Beaconing signal will be emitted at 869525000 Hz
INFO: Beaconing datarate is set to SF9
INFO: Beaconing modulation bandwidth is set to 125000Hz
INFO: Beaconing TX power is set to 14dBm
INFO: Beaconing information descriptor is set to 0
INFO: found local configuration file local_conf.json, parsing it
INFO: redefined parameters will overwrite global parameters
INFO: local_conf.json does not contain a JSON object named SX1301_conf
INFO: local_conf.json does contain a JSON object named gateway_conf, parsing gateway parameters
INFO: gateway MAC address is configured to 1DEE3B4B876FE5E8
INFO: packets received with a valid CRC will be forwarded
INFO: packets received with a CRC error will NOT be forwarded
INFO: packets received with no CRC will NOT be forwarded
INFO: Reference latitude is configured to 38.978149 deg
INFO: Reference longitude is configured to -1.856433 deg
INFO: Reference altitude is configured to 686 meters
ERROR: [main] failed to start the concentrator

In the system logs (/var/log/syslog), I see this message:

Nov 27 09:41:35 lorank8 systemd[1]: lorank.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Nov 27 09:41:35 lorank8 systemd[1]: lorank.service: Unit entered failed state.
Nov 27 09:41:35 lorank8 systemd[1]: lorank.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.

I would appreciate any guidance or troubleshooting steps to resolve the issue.

Thank you in advance!

You appear to have marked a post on another topic as the solution - does this mean this topic is no longer needed?

Yes, I am still experiencing the same issue. It hasn’t been resolved, so this topic is still needed.

Problem Solved: Adjusting the SPI Device Path in libloragw
The problem was related to the SPI device path used by the library. After some investigation, I solved it by checking the available spidev devices on my system.

In the file /src/loragw_spi.native.c within the library, there’s a line that defines the SPI device path:#define SPI_DEV_PATH “/dev/spidev0.0”
In my case, my system was using spidev1.0 instead of spidev0.0. I changed this line to:#define SPI_DEV_PATH “/dev/spidev1.0”
After recompiling the library with this modification, everything worked as expected.

I hope this helps someone facing a similar issue! If you need guidance on finding your spidev devices, you can check them using: ls /dev/spidev*

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