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Installation

Jacob Bashista edited this page May 30, 2018 · 18 revisions

1. Register at Amazon

First you need to obtain a set of credentials from Amazon to use the Alexa Voice service. Make a note of these credentials as you will be asked for them during the install process. Make sure to record your Product ID, Security Profile description, Security Profile ID, Client ID, and Client Secret for the device.

  • Login at https://developer.amazon.com and go to Alexa then Your Alexa Consoles (top right) then Products.

  • Click Create Product.

  • You are at Product Information page.

    • For the Product ID and Product name use something like AlexaPi or whatever you want.
    • For Product Type select Alexa-Enabled Device
    • For Category and Description enter whatever you want
    • All other fields can be filled out how you plan to use your AlexaPi
    • Next
  • You are at Security Profile page.

    • Click Create New Profile.
    • Choose whatever for Security Profile Name and Security Profile Description. Hit Next.
    • Under Web:
      • Allowed Origins - put there http://localhost:5050, https://localhost:5050, http://ALEXA.DEVICE.IP.ADDRESS:5050 and https://ALEXA.DEVICE.IP.ADDRESS:5050
      • Allowed Return URLs put http://localhost:5050/code, https://localhost:5050/code, http://ALEXA.DEVICE.IP.ADDRESS:5050/code and https://ALEXA.DEVICE.IP.ADDRESS:5050/code. You have to replace ALEXA.DEVICE.IP.ADDRESS with the IP (for example 192.168.1.123) of your AlexaPi device (for example Raspberry Pi). This is especially necessary when you are installing from another computer than AlexaPi is gonna run on.
  • You should now be at the devices page

  • Click Manage beside your new device

  • Click Capabilities and then enable:

    • Named Timers and Reminders
    • Display Cards
      • Display Cards with Text
  • Click Update.

2. Install AlexaPi

NOTE: For Windows, continue at https://github.com/EmerickH/EmerickH/blob/master/AlexaPi-wiki.md#windows

  1. Boot your PC and login to a command prompt.

  2. Make sure you are in /opt by issuing

    cd /opt
    
  3. Make sure you have git installed

    sudo apt-get install git # For Debian OSs (Debian, Raspbian, OSMC, OpenElec...)
    sudo pacman -Sy git # For Arch Linux
    
  4. Clone this repo

    sudo git clone https://github.com/alexa-pi/AlexaPi.git
    

    NOTE: You can also clone the repository to any other directory (and lose the sudo here, if you have permission to write to that directory), but you won't be able to run AlexaPi on boot with our init scripts. It is therefore recommended for advanced users (who know what they're doing) only.

  5. Run the setup script

    sudo ./AlexaPi/src/scripts/setup.sh
    

    Follow instructions...

NOTE: When asked for Device Type ID, use your Product ID

3. Post-installation steps

Now that you have installed AlexaPi there's a couple of things you need to do.

DO NOT REPORT AN ISSUE UNLESS YOU HAVE READ THIS THOROUGHLY!

  • Reboot your machine or start AlexaPi with

    sudo systemctl start AlexaPi.service
    
  • Check the status of AlexaPi with

    sudo systemctl status AlexaPi.service
    

    If it is not running, be sure to see the full logs.

  • In a lot of cases, you have to setup your input / output devices properly in the configuration file. Read the Audio setup & debugging section in the documentation.

  • If you have a desktop OS (such as default Raspbian), you have to set up system-wide PulseAudio. You usually get dbus and pulseaudio error in the log if you don't do this.

  • If you got this working, but audio playback is choppy, try changing the playback handler in the config from vlc to sox. This will be default in later versions of AlexaPi. If you're using pulseaudio, please read audio setup guide.

  • READ THE WHOLE DOCUMENTATION BEFORE ASKING.

Enjoy :)

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