E12 Software Specifics

The SNAPconnect E12 uses Canonical’s Ubuntu 14.04 operating system. There are many resources out there for learning about Ubuntu online, and the topic possibilities far exceed the scope of this manual; however, there are a few details that warrant discussion.

Passwords and root access

The default configuration for Ubuntu Linux is to have the root user disabled. This is a security precaution, as it means a hacker who comes across a connection to your device does not automatically know the login name of a user with full administrative rights to your device.

Instead, Ubuntu works with the sudo paradigm: when you need to perform a function that requires administrative access, you preface your command with sudo and are prompted for your password (as a reminder that what you are doing could potentially affect the device’s ability to function).

The default snap user on the E12 has sudo access, and can perform all device administrative tasks. You can create user accounts on the device and grant them sudo access as well. For added security, you can create sudo-enabled user accounts and then delete the snap user account to further reduce a potential hacker’s knowledge of how to access the gateway.

If you would rather work with the root account anyway, you can enable it by assigning a password:

sudo passwd root

Similarly, you can change the snap password with the same command:

sudo passwd snap

Note

No account can connect via SSH without a password, though connecting over a serial terminal session is possible for accounts with no password.

E12 Software Packages

The SNAPconnect E12 comes with several support packages installed, and additional ones are available via apt and pip.

Note

Before installing new packages, be sure to run sudo apt-get update to sync your E12 with the package servers and obtain the newest version. This action may take a few minutes, depending on your Internet connection speed.

You can pull the latest updates for your gateway by calling:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gateway-updates-latest

Note

You can upgrade SNAPconnect, SNAPtoolbelt, and the encryption libraries necessary for AES128 communications using these commands:

sudo -H pip install --extra-index-url https://update.synapse-wireless.com/pypi --upgrade snapconnect snaptoolbelt pycrypto