Richard, wasn’t sure where else to put this… but a development-themed thread seemed like a reasonable candidate. 
First up: THANK YOU for your continued work supporting Vera!
And now, down to business… I’m running VeraConcierge on a Pi3. I hit two significant roadblocks during installation; one was caused by my trying to run the initial “java -jar ConciergeServer” command from an ssh shell. The installer kept complaining about a missing libarary and quitting, because (I finally figured out) the jar file was trying to access the Xwindows environment while I was running headless. If there was something in the install docs which explained this, I missed it, but the install MUST be run from a terminal window on the Pi desktop, not from a shell, because the install process tries to launch a browser to configure the local server. Personally, I’d prefer a version that eliminated the graphics dependency(ies) so as to run cleanly under an ssh shell, and exited with a message telling me to point my Windows/Mac/iPad/iPhone browser at the appropriate URL to start configuration… but perhaps a “README.txt” item detailing the graphical environment requirement would suffice for the short term 8)
The second roadblock was that, after I finally figured my way past the first problem and I got a browser window to launch from the install, the server seemed like it had started, but was refusing all connections. “ps ax” was showing java up and running the right file; I just couldn’t connect to it as though the port was blocked. It took me an hour of poking around until I finally saw the “-delay 60” and in the init.d script, the proverbial lightbulb came on and I realized it might just be sleeping… so I let it sit for over a minute and tried again. Bingo! 
I subsequently found that you wrote in a sticky thread in this forum:
I found some problems when testing on a Raspberry Pi 3.
The network does not become stable for almost 1 minute after booting.
By then the Vera Concierge has already failed trying to connect the Vera Cloud Servers.
For normal operation the ConciergeServer jar file is run with a single argument:
java -jar ConciergeServer service
I have added some more arguments (available in 2.009) to help solve these problems:
-log LogFilePath
-delay SecondsToDelay
Well, ok then! I wish I’d read that sooner :
;D … Even so, the solution you implemented has the downside of having the VC server remain unreachable for the first minute after every restart – even a soft restarts, like updates. And it’s also unavailable for the first 60 seconds after boot, even if the network were to become available after (say) 30s (mine is usually up in around 20s).
As a workaround, I’ve dumped the init.d script and am using systemctl instead. I think it’s cleaner, easier, more efficient and requires less maintenance than wrangling shell scripts
If you’d like to try it out, here are the details (I’m assuming ConciergeServer.jar was installed in /home/pi/VC):
- sudo bash
- create /home/pi/VC/vc.service with perms -rw-r–r-- (644) and add contents as follows:
[code]
[Unit]
Description=Vera Concierge
Wants=network.target
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/VC
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -jar /home/pi/VC/ConciergeServer.jar service
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target[/code]
- create a softlink to the file for systemctl to find: I’ve called mine “myvc” to save typing ;D
ln -nsf /home/pi/VC/vc.service /etc/systemd/system/myvc.service
- inform systemd of the changes:
systemctl daemon-reload
and finally,
5. start the service:
systemctl start myvc
Now your server will be started on reboots as soon as the network is available, but not before. And it will be available immediately after any soft restart (software update, etc).
I have a suggestion for the configuration system: can the “save changes” button on the customization page perform the same action(s) as found on the “My Account” page, ie force rediscovery? I found that when aliases are added on the custom pages and “Save Changes” is clicked, the changes are saved but not initially recognized – ATM I have to click the “Force Discovery of new/changed Devices/Scenes” button on the My Account page (so I have to keep it open on another tab) to make the changes take effect.
I’m LOVING the Google Assistant shortcuts! FAR better than telling Alexa: “turn on Close Garage Door” :o :
… I now simply say “Hey Google, Close the Garage Door” … and that’s that! No more “Alexa, turn on bedtime scene”. Now I just say “OK Google, time for bed!” and all the usual lights/security stuff happens. Beautiful!
Thanks so much for creating this bridge, Richard! After a week or so now of wrestling with the broken Amazon/Vera Scene linkage fiasco, I finally had the impetus to get stuck into the VeraConcierge stuff, and I’m SO glad I did!
