OwnTracks
OwnTracks is an Open Source project which provides an iOS and an Android app with which your smartphone records its current location.
Note
For this guide you should be familiar with the basic concepts of
License
The OwnTracks components are distributed under different licenses, including GNU Public License and MIT License.
Prerequisites
Node version 18, the compilation process for the frontend is not compatible with Node 20 yet
Installation
Mosquitto
Follow the Mosquitto guide to set up the MQTT broker Mosqitto.
Make a note of the port you opened in your firewall, you will need it later for the recorder and for the client setup. Then create users. You need at least two users, one for the recorder and one for every user you want to allow access to.
[isabell@stardust ~]$ mosquitto_passwd -c ~/etc/mosquitto/passwd recorder
Password: [hidden]
Reenter password: [hidden]
[isabell@stardust ~]$ mosquitto_passwd ~/etc/mosquitto/passwd isabell
Password: [hidden]
Reenter password: [hidden]
[isabell@stardust ~]$
Note
Make sure that you use the -c argument only on the first user. Otherwise a new password file will be created.
Installing ot-recorder
Compiling ot-recorder
OwnTracks does not provide binary packages for CentOS, we need to build it ourself.
Check the recorder release page for the latest version and download and extract it:
[isabell@stardust ~]$ wget https://github.com/owntracks/recorder/archive/refs/tags/0.9.7.tar.gz
[isabell@stardust ~]$ tar xfz 0.9.7.tar.gz
[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd recorder-0.9.7/
[isabell@stardust recorder-0.9.7]$ cp config.mk.in config.mk
You need to change some values to change in config.mk, some can be overriden later in the configuration, but not all of them:
STORAGEDEFAULT = /home/isabell/lib/ot-recorder/
DOCROOT = /home/isabell/lib/ot-recorder/htdocs
CONFIGFILE = /home/isabell/etc/default/ot-recorder
Note
You might want to keep your config.mk file for later updates, but you can get the values from the compiled binaries using the --version argument.
[isabell@stardust recorder-0.9.7]$ make
[...]
[isabell@stardust recorder-0.9.7]$
Now create the bin and the config directory and copy the binaries there.
[isabell@stardust recorder-0.9.7]$ mkdir -p ~/bin ~/etc/default/ ~/lib/ot-recorder/htdocs
[isabell@stardust recorder-0.9.7]$ install --target-directory=/home/isabell/bin/ --mode=0755 ocat ot-recorder
[isabell@stardust recorder-0.9.7]$
[isabell@stardust ~]$ ocat --version
This is OwnTracks Recorder, version 0.9.7
built with:
WITH_MQTT = yes
WITH_HTTP = yes
WITH_TOURS = yes
WITH_PING = yes
CONFIGFILE = "/home/isabell/etc/default/ot-recorder"
DOCROOT = "/home/isabell/lib/ot-recorder/htdocs"
DEFAULT_HISTORY_HOURS = 6
JSON_INDENT = "NULL"
LIBMOSQUITTO_VERSION = 1.6.10
MDB VERSION = LMDB 0.9.22: (March 21, 2018)
GIT VERSION = tarball
[isabell@stardust ~]$
Configuration
Create configuration file
Create a config file in ~/etc/default/ot-recorder. Add the following content:
OTR_HOST="isabell.uber.space"
OTR_USER="recorder"
OTR_PASS="c9itHRjPfu9qUnEMbA9zJEPbHvA3kutv"
OTR_PORT=40132
OTR_STORAGEDIR="/home/isabell/lib/ot-recorder"
OTR_VIEWSDIR="/home/isabell/etc/ot-recorder/views"
OTR_CAFILE="/etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt"
For OTR_PORT you need to use the port you noted earlier during the Mosqitto installation.
Setup daemon
Create a config file in ~/etc/services.d/ot-recorder.ini with the following content:
[program:ot-recorder]
command=ot-recorder 'owntracks/#'
autostart=yes
autorestart=unexpected
startsecs=30
After creating the configuration, tell supervisord to refresh its configuration and start the service:
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl reread
SERVICE: available
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl update
SERVICE: added process group
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl status
SERVICE RUNNING pid 26020, uptime 0:03:14
[isabell@stardust ~]$
If it’s not in state RUNNING, check your configuration.
Setup frontend
To set up the web frontend you need to download the latest archive from the frontend releases page, extract it, build it with yarn and copy it into your web directory.
[isabell@stardust ~]$ wget https://github.com/owntracks/frontend/archive/refs/tags/v2.12.0.tar.gz
[isabell@stardust ~]$ tar xfz v2.12.0.tar.gz
[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd frontend-2.12.0/
[isabell@stardust frontend-2.12.0]$ yarn install
[isabell@stardust frontend-2.12.0]$ yarn build
[isabell@stardust frontend-2.12.0]$ mkdir /var/www/virtual/$USER/isabell.uber.space/
[isabell@stardust frontend-2.12.0]$ cp dist/* /var/www/virtual/$USER/isabell.uber.space/
[isabell@stardust frontend-2.12.0]$
Warning
Since recording your movements is a sensitive thing you should protect that web frontend with a .htaccess file with basic auth.
Note
OwnTracks is by default running on port 8083.
While some resources of the frontend are loaded directly from the web server, some requests need to be directed directly to the recorder daemon. To make them accessible from the outside, configure web-backends:
[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web backend set --http --port 8083 isabell.uber.space/api
[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web backend set --http --port 8083 isabell.uber.space/ws
[isabell@stardust ~]$
Now the frontend is available via the uberspace URL https://isabell.uber.space.
Set up views
OwnTracks views are a nice feature to share your movements during a restricted timespan without actual timestamps, just the locations. This is useful for example, to share a road trip with family and friends.
To set up views you need to copy some more files and map a couple more paths to the backend.
[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd ~/recorder-0.9.7/
[isabell@stardust recorder-0.9.7]$ cp -r docroot/static docroot/utils ~/lib/ot-recorder/htdocs/
[isabell@stardust recorder-0.9.7]$
For the backend configuration:
[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web backend set --http --port 8083 isabell.uber.space/utils
[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web backend set --http --port 8083 isabell.uber.space/static
[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web backend set --http --port 8083 isabell.uber.space/view
[isabell@stardust ~]$
Now you can place your view definitions in ~/etc/... and the view is instantly reachable from the web.
Cleanup
[isabell@stardust recorder-0.9.7]$ cd ~
[isabell@stardust ~]$ rm -rf 0.9.7.tgz recorder-0.9.7
[isabell@stardust ~]$
Client Setup
Apps for Android and iOS are available from the App Stores, other clients are available as well. The client setup is pretty easy.
Key |
Value |
|---|---|
Modus |
MQTT |
Hostname |
Uberspace URL without https:// |
Port |
noted in Mosquitto setup |
Client ID |
free to choose |
Username |
configured username |
Password |
configured password |
Device ID |
free to choose |
Tracker ID |
free to choose |
Seurity |
TLS |
Note
In the frontend you are able to filter for Username and then further for all Devices of the specified users. The Device ID configured here will show up there.
The Tracker ID is explained in the Tracker ID booklet page
Update
Note
Check the update recorder release page and the frontend releases page regularly to stay informed about the newest version.
The update steps are basically the same as the installation steps, without one time configurations like supervisord and web backends.
Restart your supervisorctl afterwards. If it’s not in state RUNNING, check the log files.
Tested with OwnTracks 0.9.7, Uberspace 7.15.10
Written by: Gerald Schneider <gerald@schneidr.de>