GPSD cannot start properly on boot

Question

I'm on a Raspberry PI Zero W (Raspbian NOOBS v2.9.0)

• The GPS module is a Neo 6M GPS module https://www.amazon.it/ILS-navigazione-satellitare-posizionamento-Arduino/dp/B07911Z266/ref=sr_1_46?ie=UTF8&qid=1542095676&sr=8-46&keywords=gps+raspberry+pi

• I've installed GPSD with the following command

  sudo apt-get install gpsd gpsd-clients python-gps
  

• I've enabled the hardware serial port and disabled the serial console with raspi-config

• I've edited the file /etc/default/gpsd as follows:

  START_DAEMON="true"
  GPSD_OPTIONS="/dev/ttyS0"
  DEVICES=""
  USBAUTO="false"
  GPSD_SOCKET="/var/run/gpsd.sock"
  

• I've added the following lines to /etc/rc.local (BEFORE the "exit 0")

  sudo gpsd /dev/ttyS0 -F /var/run/gpsd.sock
  sudo python /home/pi/code.py
  

• In the code.py I have this code running:

  import os
  import sys
  from gps import *
  import threading
  from threading import Thread
  
  class GpsPoller(threading.Thread):
  
      # object needed to obtain GPS data
      gpsd = None
  
      def __init__(self):
          print "Initializing GPS poller..."
          global gpsd         
  
          threading.Thread.__init__(self)
          gpsd = gps(mode=WATCH_ENABLE)
          self.current_value = None
          self.running = True
  
      def run(self):
          print "Starting GPS loop..."
          global gpsd
  
          while self.running:
  
              # get the next set of data
              gpsd.next()
  
              # clear screen
              os.system("clear")
  
              print
              print 'GPS'
              print
              print '----------------------------------------'
              print 'latitude    ' , gpsd.fix.latitude
              print 'longitude   ' , gpsd.fix.longitude
              print 'time (utc)     ' , gpsd.utc,' + ', gpsd.fix.time
              print 'altitude (m)' , gpsd.fix.altitude
              print 'eps           ' , gpsd.fix.eps
              print 'epx           ' , gpsd.fix.epx
              print 'epv           ' , gpsd.fix.epv
              print 'ept           ' , gpsd.fix.ept
              print 'speed (m/s)' , gpsd.fix.speed
              print 'mode      ' , gpsd.fix.mode
              print '----------------------------------------'
              print
  
  gpsp = GpsPoller()
  gpsp.run()
  

• I've disabled the GPSD service at startup (to prevent the system from starting it and let this task to be achieved by rc.local) with the following commands:

  sudo systemctl stop gpsd.socket
  sudo systemctl disable gpsd.socket
  

The result is that when i power on the Rpi, the code and the gpsd daemon start properly but the data cannot be obtained, if I then kill the python code and start it manually, it works.

Answer 1

I had the same problem on my RPi-Zw, don't know what the problem was. I have tried all tricks described on internet and got nowhere, gpsd would only start manually. In the end I started with a clean image, installed gpsd, did all the other things as prescribed on https://wiki.dragino.com/index.php?title=Getting_GPS_to_work_on_Raspberry_Pi_3_Model_B and added service gpsd start to /etc/rc.local and it works. Checking it with cgps -s immediately came up working allright.