Laird: Sentrius RG191 (RG1xx) Semtech Basics Station CUPS (CUPS Boot Server)

ElectronicallyE · March 16, 2021, 1:09am

I’m currently configuring a RG191 gateway to work with the Semtech Basics Station forwarder. I am trying to set it up with the Configuration and Update Server (CUPS). I am unable to get it to connect to The Things Stack (au1.cloud.thethings.network).

I’ve followed the setup guide by The Things Industries.

In the web portal for the gateway, I have the following fields:

Server Configuration
CUPS Boot Server: BLANK
CUPS Server: https://au1.cloud.thethings.network:443

CUPS Certificates
Server Certificate File: caret.pem (from https://curl.haxx.se/ca/cacert.pem)
Client Certificate File: FILE NOT LOADED
Key File: cups.key (from echo "Authorization: Bearer $CUPS_KEY" | perl -p -e 's/\r\n|\n|\r/\r\n/g' > cups.key)

CUPS-Boot Certificates
Server Certificate File: FILE NOT LOADED
Client Certificate File: FILE NOT LOADED
Key File: FILE NOT LOADED

The only information about the “CUPS Boot Server” I can find is a mention in the User Guide -Sentrius RG1xx on page 37:

Table 5: InternetGatewayDevice.Laird.LORASettings
Parameter Name: InternetGatewayDevice.Laird.LORASettings.SBSCUPSBootURL
R/W: R/W
Description: This is the CUPS-Boot URL used by Basic Station.
Input Data: A string representing the URL of the CUPS-Boot server.

Here’s the log from the gateway with the current configuration:

RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:39	2021-03-16 00:52:28.374 [CUP:ERRO] No CUPS-bak URI configured
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:39	2021-03-16 00:52:28.374 [CUP:INFO] Starting a CUPS session now.
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:39	2021-03-16 00:52:28.373 [CUP:INFO] Starting a CUPS session in 0 seconds.
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:38	2021-03-16 00:52:27.373 [CUP:INFO] Interaction with CUPS failed - retrying in 1s
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:38	2021-03-16 00:52:27.373 [AIO:ERRO] cups URI requires TLS but no trust configured
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:38	2021-03-16 00:52:27.373 [CUP:INFO] Connecting to CUPS … https://au1.cloud.thethings.network:443 (try #131)
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:38	2021-03-16 00:52:27.373 [CUP:INFO] Starting a CUPS session now.
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:38	2021-03-16 00:52:27.372 [CUP:INFO] Starting a CUPS session in 0 seconds.
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:37	2021-03-16 00:52:26.372 [CUP:ERRO] No CUPS-boot URI configured
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:37	2021-03-16 00:52:26.372 [CUP:INFO] Starting a CUPS session now.
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:37	2021-03-16 00:52:26.371 [CUP:INFO] Starting a CUPS session in 0 seconds.
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:36	2021-03-16 00:52:25.371 [CUP:ERRO] No CUPS-bak URI configured
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:36	2021-03-16 00:52:25.371 [CUP:INFO] Starting a CUPS session now.
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:36	2021-03-16 00:52:25.370 [CUP:INFO] Starting a CUPS session in 0 seconds.
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:35	2021-03-16 00:52:24.370 [CUP:INFO] Interaction with CUPS failed - retrying in 1s
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:35	2021-03-16 00:52:24.370 [AIO:ERRO] cups URI requires TLS but no trust configured
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:35	2021-03-16 00:52:24.370 [CUP:INFO] Connecting to CUPS … https://au1.cloud.thethings.network:443 (try #128)
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:35	2021-03-16 00:52:24.370 [CUP:INFO] Starting a CUPS session now.
RG1xx29630B	lora	user.notice	Mar 16 00:57:35	2021-03-16 00:52:24.369 [CUP:INFO] Starting a CUPS session in 0 seconds.

Here’s a few questions I have:

Clearly I need to enter something for the “CUPS Boot Server”. Anyone know what the URL is and what certificates I need?
Should I be using au1 for the CUPS server or should I be using eu1?
Do I need a client certificate under the “CUPS Certificates” and “CUPS-Boot Certificates”?

Location: Australia
Frequency plan: AU915 SB2
Network server: au1.cloud.thethings.network

ElectronicallyE · March 19, 2021, 1:00am

Issue Resolved

Upon further searching on the forums, I found this configurations which works. Configure the RG1xx as described there.

To answer my own questions:

1. Clearly I need to enter something for the “CUPS Boot Server”. Anyone know what the URL is and what certificates I need?
Nothing needs to be entered for the CUPS Boot Server. The LNS certificates and URL need to be added instead. See the other forum post for more info.

2. Should I be using au1 for the CUPS server or should I be using eu1?
Use au1 for both the CUPS and LNS server.

3. Do I need a client certificate under the “CUPS Certificates” and “CUPS-Boot Certificates”?
No you don’t.

TonySmith · March 20, 2021, 12:14am

@ElectronicallyE To help understand why the solution did not include all the certificates it’s important to understand LoRa Basics™ Station supports four different authentication modes and therefore 4 different levels of security all depending on the files added to your gateway.

No Authentication
TLS Server Authentication
TLS Server and Client Authentication
TLS Server Authentication and Client Token

More detail can be found at
Authentication Modes - LoRa Basics for Gateways | DEVELOPER PORTAL (semtech.com)

bwooce · March 20, 2021, 3:44am

Small topic diversion: Was your RG1xx a native Australian one, or a US915 one @ElectronicallyE ?

I am very interested if the Basic Station will configure the band plan into the device. This is important as now there is an AU915 variant they have locked down the new firmware versions so the US915 hardware can’t be manually reconfigured to do AU915.

ElectronicallyE · March 21, 2021, 3:21am

I purchased my RG191 from Element14 in December 2019. It’s the US version with a firmware upgrade.

Ordercode: 2802549
Description: LAIRD TECHNOLOGIES RG191 Wireless Gateway, WiFi, LoRaWAN, Bluetooth, IoT Network Development, 915MHz (US Version)

Looking under Settings → Gateway Config, I have two options for “Region”:

AU915
AS923

The “Software / Firmware Information” under Settings → Version Information is:

SDK: 6.0.0.158-3.5.7.5
Driver: 96.0.1.89
Supplicant: sdcsupp v6.0.0.158-40.3.11.15
Build: Laird Linux gatwick-laird-93.8.5.21
Hardware Chipset: 50 Workgroup Bridge
Firmware: ar6004 hw 3.0 fw 3.5.0.10023 api 5
CLI: 96.0.1.88-3.5.6.1

Gateway sticker:

Top right: "Sentrius RG191 (450-0179)
Top of QR code: 0218505
Left of QR code: Rev: 4

bwooce · March 21, 2021, 12:52pm

Thanks so much for that comprehensive report. It appears Laird have opened up the lock a little, as you can select a region now which wasn’t possible in the previous firmware versions in this generation. Thanks (if they’re reading this).

I rolled back to “Laird Linux gatwick-laird-93.7.2.10” because of the dropping of the old packet forwarder, the locking to US915 and the limited support for Basic Station in TTNv2. I will now plan an upgrade, since you’ve got it working and I’ll need to move to TTN v3 later this year.

Thanks again @ElectronicallyE , this is a great step forward and restores my faith in Laird.

system · March 22, 2021, 12:53pm

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