Software installation

Skybrush Live is a platform-independent drone show controller framework. It is running under Linux, Windows 10 or macOS in standalone mode and can also be executed in a web browser as a cloud-based service. It relies on a server component called Skybrush Server to faciliate communication with drones and other hardware accessories. In the following sections, we describe the installation of the server and Skybrush Live itself.

Skybrush Server installation

Skybrush Live is always bundled together with Skybrush Server, the middleware between drones, hardware accessories and Skybrush Live clients. The purpose of the server is to facilitate communication with the drones; Skybrush Live itself does not need to know what types of drones you are working with as it communicates with the server only.

There are multiple ways to deploy the server and Skybrush Live on your computers:

  • In simple single-user cases, Skybrush Server acts as an additional software component that should be installed to the same device (e.g., your field laptop) where Skybrush Live is running. Please follow the steps as described below for Skybrush Live installation.

  • If you have multiple computers, you need to install Skybrush Server on exactly one of them, and you need to install Skybrush Live on all the computers that you intend to use the server from.

  • For more complex scenarios, we can provide dedicated hardware for you that runs Skybrush Server, and you can connect to this dedicated hardware with your computers (all of which would then require Skybrush Live only). In this case your device should be preconfigured with all server components and your active licence and you only need to install Skybrush Live on the computers you intend to connect to the server from.

Skybrush server as a standalone device

Skybrush Server in a box

Updates of Skybrush Server on the dedicated device are currently handled by our team manually through the internet. Contact us for support!

Installation on Windows

On Windows 10, Skybrush Server comes in an installation package. Click on the received single executable (.exe) and follow the steps of the installation.

Select whether you would like to install Skybrush Server for the current user or for all users on your system, select the destination of the installation and press the Install button.

The installation creates a thumbnail icon on your Desktop and adds Skybrush Server to the list of applications in your Start Menu.

Installation on Linux

On Linux platforms, Skybrush Server is distributed as a self-contained compressed .tar.gz archive that you need to extract to a dedicated folder.

Installation as the root user

If you have superuser rights on your machine, you can install it to a system-wide location like /opt as follows:

$ cd /opt
$ tar -xzf /full/path/to/skybrush-server-1.17.2.tar.gz

Make sure that you execute the commands above as the root user (use sudo -s to obtain a root sheel if needed) and make sure to substitude the full path to the place where you downloaded the server to.

The commands above will create a folder named /opt/skybrush-server-1.17.2 and install the server there. The version number may be different if you have a newer server version. The server can be started with /opt/skybrush-server-1.17.2/bin/skybrushd. Optionally, you can create a symbolic link from /usr/local/bin/skybrushd to the real server executable to allow you to start the server from the command line without typing its full path:

$ cd /usr/local/bin
$ ln -s /opt/skybrush-server-1.17.2/bin/skybrushd

The server itself does not need to run as root; you can use any user account to start the server as long as the user account has sufficient privileges to access the hardware that the server needs.

Installation in your home folder

If you do not have superuser rights on your machine, or if you do not want to make the server available to all users of your computer, you can install the server to your home folder as well:

$ mkdir -p ~/opt && cd ~/opt
$ tar -xzf /full/path/to/skybrush-server-1.17.2.tar.gz

The commands above will create a folder in ~/opt/skybrush-server-1.17.2 (i.e. in your home directory) and install the server there. The version number may be different if you have a newer server version. The server can be started with ~/opt/skybrush-server-1.17.2/bin/skybrushd. Optionally, you can create a symbolic link from ~/.local/bin/skybrushd to the real server executable to allow you to start the server from the command line without typing its full path, assuming that ~/.local/bin is on your system PATH (which is typically the case for systemd-based distributions like Ubuntu and Debian Linux):

$ mkdir -p ~/.local/bin && cd ~/.local/bin
$ ln -s ~/opt/skybrush-server-1.17.2/bin/skybrushd

If you do not have ~/.local/bin on your PATH (use echo $PATH to check), you can also create a symbolic link in any other folder that is on your PATH if you have write access to the folder. One common candidate in other (non-systemd) systems is ~/bin.

Installation on macOS

On macOS Big Sur or later, Skybrush Server comes in an installation package. Double-click on the received installer file (.pkg) and follow the steps of the installation. Skybrush Server will be installed in /usr/local/opt/skybrush-server, in versioned subfolders so you can keep multiple versions of the server around on the same machine. The main executable is then placed in /usr/local/bin/skybrushd, which starts the version in /usr/local/opt/skybrush-server/current.

Skybrush Server has no digital signature at the moment. As a consequence, the Gatekeeper security mechanism built into recent macOS versions may prevent skybrushd from starting up. If this happens, open the System Preferences app, navigate to the Security & Privacy module, and allow skybrushd manually on the General tab of the dialog.

License file installation

If you are using a paid, professional version of Skybrush Live, you will receive a license file upon purchase of the software for activating your pro features.

After successful installation of Skybrush Server, your licence file named skybrushd.cml has to be copied to the folder where you installed the server itself.

This is typically /opt/skybrush-server-…​ or ~/opt/skybrush-server-…​ on Linux, /usr/local/opt/skybrush-server/current on MacOS and C:\Users...\AppData\Local\Programs\Skybrush Server on Windows. You might need system administrator privileges to write into these folders.

The terminal log of Skybrush Server will give you instant feedback about the presence and content of your currently used license file upon execution of the server.

Server configuration

If you need to configure the server for any reason, follow the steps described in the appropriate step of the outdoor or indoor hardware setup tutorials.

Skybrush Live installation

Skybrush Live comes in an installation package. Installation is very straightforward and takes only a short time. Please follow the guide below according to your preferred operating system.

Installation on Windows

On Windows 10, Skybrush Live comes in an installation package. Click on the received single executable (.exe) and follow the steps of the installation.

Select whether you would like to install Skybrush Live for the current user or for all users on your system, select the destination of the installation and press the Install button.

The installation creates a thumbnail icon on your Desktop and adds Skybrush Live to the list of applications in your Start Menu.

Installation on Linux

On Linux platforms, Skybrush Live comes as a single AppImage executable that can be executed from the command line or by double-clicking on it in the file manager of your choice. No installation is needed.

Ubuntu Linux 24.04 has introduced some changes in its AppArmor configuration that prevents running AppImages in certain configurations. This affects not only Skybrush but also many other applications based on AppImages. You can disable the newly introduced restrictions by running sudo sysctl -w kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0 or by adding kernel.apparmor_restrict_unprivileged_userns=0 to /etc/sysctl.d/local.conf. Note that these steps require system administrator privileges and disable a built-in security feature of the OS. See here, here and here for more details.

Installation on macOS

On macOS platforms (11.0 Big Sur or later) Skybrush Live comes as a single disc image file (.dmg) that you need to open in Finder by double-clicking on it. Then you need to drag the new Skybrush Live icon over the Applications folder to install it. Skybrush Live can then be invoked from the Applications folder.

Skybrush Live has no digital signature at the moment. As a consequence, the Gatekeeper security mechanism built into recent macOS versions may prevent the application from starting up. If this happens, right-click on the icon of Skybrush Live (or hold down the ⌘ key while clicking), and then select menu:Open from the pop-up menu, then confirm your choice by clicking on the Open button again in the pop-up dialog. This will allow Skybrush Live to bypass Gatekeeper security checks in the future.

Installation as a browser-based service

  1. Register an account on https://account.skybrush.io and then log in.

  2. Make sure you have an active license for Skybrush Live under the LICENSES menu item.

  3. Choose and launch Skybrush Live under the APPLICATIONS menu item.

The APPLICATIONS menu item shows Skybrush Live and its browser-based demo version as separate items. The demo can connect to our test server only, so make sure you launch the correct application (i.e. Live itself, not its demo).
Registration may be disabled temporarily on the website. If this is the case and you would like to try Skybrush Live from the browser, contact us and we will create an account for you.

Uninstalling components

Uninstallation on Windows

If you need to uninstall Skybrush components from your system for any reason, follow the official instructions from the Windows 10 support page to remove them.

Uninstallation on Linux and macOS

On Linux and macOS-based systems, the uninstallation procedure is different for the server and Skybrush Live. To uninstall the server, you can simply delete the folder you created during the installation process (i.e. /opt/skybrush-server-…​ or ~/opt/skybrush-server-…​), and delete any additional symbolic links that you might have created for the server executable. To uninstall Skybrush Live, simply remove the AppImage file from your system on Linux, or drag the applicaton icon from your Applications folder to the Bin on the Dock at the bottom of your screen on macOS.