Using a simple FTP folder, you can get and view log files off of Baxter for help when debugging.

• Overview
• Usage
• Log Files
  • Relevant Files
  • Inaccessible Files

Baxter stores logs of the processes it runs in log files on-board the robot. These log files can contain useful information for debugging a robot-side issue with your RSDK Baxter. Users can access the log files on the robot via FTP. Inside the FTP directory there are Baxter-specific log files from the robotics software on the robot, and standard Linux system log files from the computer inside.

Connect to Baxter's FTP at the robot's IP address, or using the avahi "hostname.local" format. For example, in a compatable browser (Windows Explorer, Chrome, or Firefox) go to ftp://192.168.0.33 or ftp://baxterP0007.local. Alternatively, use a command line FTP program:

$ ftp baxterP0007.local
$ ls
hlr-log
sys-log

The wget tool is an easy way to grab all the log files and zip them up (say, for sharing when debugging a problem). For example, if your Baxter's name is baxterP0007 ...

# Get all log files (recursively) from Baxter's ftp server
$ wget -r ftp://baxterP0007.local/
# Create a gzipped tar archive of logs directory
$ tar cvzf ftp_logs.tar.gz baxterP0007.local/

There are two directories of log files. In the 'hlr-log' directory you will find 'rethink.log', which contains useful log output from the robotic software running on Baxter.

Inside the 'sys-log' directory, you will find standard Linux system logs such as start-up scripts 'rc.log'.

Note: There are some files and directories in the 'sys-log' folder that are not accessible. These files will typically give errors of "The file is not a directory" or "Insufficient permissions". The content of these files is either included in other accessible files, or are not relevant for users.

Sample Log Files:

./
|-- hlr-log
|   |-- EndEffectorUpdater.log
|   |-- eth-jfiload.log
|   |-- eth-jfiload.log.1.gz
|   |-- hlr
|   |   |-- 2a6faef2-977b-11e2-b03d-90b11c94fb4e
|   |   |   |-- master.log
|   |   |   |-- roslaunch-tuftsBaxter-4160.log
|   |   |   |-- rosout-1-stdout.log
|   |   |   `-- rosout.log
|   |   |-- plugin_manager_18590_1364456637330.log
|   |   |-- plugin_manager_20566_1364456643780.log
|   |   |-- rethink_repeaters.log
|   |   `-- xdisplay.log
|   |-- rethink.log
|   |-- robot_config.log
|   |-- robot_config.status
|   `-- root
`-- sys-log
    |-- Xorg.0.log
    |-- auth.log
    |-- daemon.log
    |-- kernel.log
    |-- messages.log
    |-- overcfg
    |   `-- overcfg-20130326-155114.log
    |-- portage
    |-- rc.log
    |-- syslog.log
    `-- user.log

• hlr-log/
  • rethink.log - Your primary source for Baxter's ROS-related errors. (Includes rosout logs).
  • hlr/
    • rethink_repeaters.log - Logs from the proxy node for internal Rethink Baxter messages (baxter_msgs).
    • basic start-up output from various on-robot ROS nodes
    • directories of rosmaster, roslaunch session logs
• sys-log/
  • rc.log - Startup information; good for diagnosing problems during boot-up.
  • daemon.log
  • kernel.log
  • messages.log
  • syslog.log

Here are some of the irrelevant files you may run into:

• 'The file is not a directory': elog, sandbox
• 'Insufficient permissions': dmesg, emerge.log, emerge-fetch.log, vsftpd.log