How to Install Ignition Edge on Ubuntu Linux

I have looked and I cannot find any clear instructions for installing Ignition 8.05 Edge on Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS. Does that exist? I am happy to be corrected (and hang my head in shame) if I have just overlooked it somewhere [Update: I have corrected myself, see next post].

Current Ignition version as of writing this is 8.05.20191015-1642.
There is a .run executable available from the Ignition downloads page, that file works only for installing the non-Edge Ignition edition.

The ignition University video for ‘installing-ignition-on-linux’ uses the the 8.0.0-beta version of the the .run executable and that shows the installation prompting for the choice of Platform Edition, Ignition or Ignition Edge. However in the current 8.05 version of the .run executable the Platform Edition prompt is not presented.
Installing Ignition On Linux
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A search of the forums indicates that the removal of Edge from the .run executable was intentional and that “Edge will only be distributed via the zip bundles and not the installers”.
Installer no longer supports –edition flag for Edge vs Full?

So it would appear that, for reasons unknown, the .zip bundle is the way to install Ignition Edge on Linux but no real guidance on how to do that properly is provided (that I could find).

I did find a knowledge base article for 'Installing Ignition Edge of Rasberry Pi", however that is based on v7.9.2. I was able to use that as a reference to get things working on Ubuntu to the point where I can access the Gateway webpage and connect with the Designer. But there are a number of steps in these instructions that are not correct for v8.x (Installing Oracle Java, list of files to make executable, etc.) I took by best guess but am worried that I overlooked something.
Installing Ignition Edge on Raspberry Pi

So, is there any official (or non-official) documentation of how to configure Ignition Edge 8.x correctly in Ubuntu Linux?


Decides to do a double check before posting, finds answer, decides to post anyway for the edification of others who may have the same questions. Will update answer in next post.



[Written with head hanging in shamed position]
I’ll blame my disorientation on having gone to the online documentation and found only instructions relevant to Window installation using a .bat file.
Installing Edge
…and finding outdated videos on Inductive university showing that Edge could be installed with the .run executable.


OK, so there is in fact a README file included with (in) the Ignition-Edge-linux-64-8.0.5.zip bundle that includes installation/upgrade instructions. I advise you to read that README file. I hope Inductive will update their online documentation and Ignition University videos to match.

Here is a quick summary of the steps with additions by me for clarity.

Extract the downloaded .zip file to the location where Ignition Edge program files are to live. If you want to be consistent with where the .run executable for the full version Ignition places the files, then place them at /usr/local/bin/ignition.

unzip Ignition-Edge-linux-64-8.0.5.zip -d /usr/local/bin/ignition

Change the working directory to that of the unzipped folder
cd /usr/local/bin/ignition

Set the executable permission on all .sh files in the unzipped folder:
chmod +x *.sh

Start the Ignition Edge gateway service.
./ignition.sh start

It would seem that this still omits instruction on how to get the Ignition Edge gateway to start automatically when the machine is rebooted. As I don’t live in Linux everyday I’ll have to look that up and I’ll comment on that after further investigation.

I think all you need to do to get it to start automatically is ./ignition.sh install.

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I found I had to set the file ignition-gateway as executable as well to resolve this error message “/usr/local/bin/ignition/./ignition-gateway Found but not executable.”, is that normal?

Then I used this command to install and start running as daemon process:
./ignition.sh installstart.

Yes, that's normal, I guess the README needs to be updated.

How can I check on a Linux device if Ignition Edge is already set to run on startup? I am almost 100% sure that I set it to start automatically but after power failure yesterday I see our edge device came back online but not the ignition runtime. I logged in and had to “sudo ./ignition.sh start” to get it to run again.

Now I typed in “sudo ./ignition.sh install” and it stated “The Ignition-Gateway daemon is already installed with systemd.”

Type sudo systemctl enable Ignition-Gateway.

Note that the systemd unit name has undergone changes over the years. First “ignition”, then “Ignition Gateway” (with space), now “Ignition-Gateway”, IIRC. I force mine to use the original “ignition” service name.

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You can also issue:

sudo systemctl list-units --type=service --no-pager

… to generate a listing of services. You’ll likely see some form of Ignition listed there (which you can then use with the other systemd commands).

I am having trouble with this "ignition-gateway" not executing. I tried to make it executable by using chmod +x ignition-gateway but I am still having this issue:
/usr/local/bin/ignition/./ignition-gateway: Exec format error

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

You probably have a CPU architecture mismatch between whatever version of Ignition you downloaded and the hardware you’re trying to install it on?

Typically you might see something like this if you're trying to run an Intel executable on ARM architecture (or vice-versa). Are you sure that you've downloaded the right installer/zip for the computer you're trying to run on?

If you run uname -i and see x86_64, you need the Intel 64-bit installer, if you see aarch64, then ARM64 is what you need.

I am attempting to install Ignition Edge - Linux 64-bit zip (1.4 GB) on a linux machine running on ubuntu. I followed the ReadME file and I am able to install ignition as a system service but when I try to start the service I get that error.

Yes, I see aarch64. So I guess I need ARM64, thanks for this, will be back on here if I run into anything else!