Turn the Beaglebone Black into a personal communications server
Author: Bob Mottram
Keywords: freedombox, debian, beaglebone, red matrix, email, web server, home server, internet, censorship, surveillance, social network, irc, jabber

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Home | Preparation for the Beaglebone Black | Checklist | GPG Keys | Interactive Setup | Non-Interactive Setup | Post-Setup | On Client Machines

## Preparation for the Beaglebone Black

This section is specific to the Beaglebone Black hardware. If you're not using that hardware then just skip to the next section.

To get started you will need:

- A Beaglebone Black
- A MicroSD card
- Ethernet cable
- Optionally a 5V 2A power supply for the Beaglebone Black
- Access to the internet via a router with ethernet sockets
- USB thumb drive (for backups or storing media)
- One or more domains available via a dynamic DNS provider, such as https://freedns.afraid.org/
- A purchased domain name and SSL certificate (only needed for Red Matrix)
- A laptop or desktop machine with the ability to write to a microSD card (might need an adaptor)

You will also need to know, or find out, the IP address of your internet router and have a suitable static IP address for the Beaglebone on your local network. The router should allow you to forward ports to the Beaglebone (often this is under firewall or "advanced" settings).

You can either install from a debian package or manually as follows:

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install git dialog build-essential
    git clone https://github.com/bashrc/freedombone
    cd freedombone
    sudo make install

Plug the microSD card into your laptop/desktop and then run the freedombone-prep command. For example:

    freedombone-prep -d /dev/sdX --ip freedombone_IP_address --iprouter router_IP_address

where /dev/sdX is the device name for the microSD card. Often it's /dev/sdb or /dev/sdc, depending upon how many drives there are on your system. The script will download the Debian installer and update the microSD card. It can take a while, so be patient.

When the initial setup is done follow the instructions on screen to run the main freedombone command.

## Checklist

Before running the freedombone command you will need a few things.

- Have some domains, or subdomains, registered with a dynamic DNS service
- System with a new installation of Debian Jessie
- Ethernet connection to an internet router
- It is possible to forward ports from the internet router to the system
- If you want to set up a social network or microblog then you will need SSL certificates corresponding to those domains
- Have ssh access to the system

## GPG Keys

If you have existing GPG keys then copy the .gnupg directory onto the system.

    scp -r ~/.gnupg username@freedombone_IP_address:/home/username

## Interactive Setup

The interactive server configuration setup is recommended for most users. On the system where freedombone is to be installed create a configuration file.

    ssh myusername@freedombone_IP_address
    su
    sudo apt-get update
    apt-get install git dialog build-essential
    git clone https://github.com/bashrc/freedombone
    cd freedombone
    make install

Now the easiest way to install the system is via the interactive setup.

    freedombone menuconfig

You can select which variant you wish to install and then enter the details as requested. A video of the install sequence can be seen here.

## Non-Interactive Setup

If you don't want to install interactively then it's possible to manually create a configuration file as follows:

On the system where freedombone is to be installed create a configuration file.

    ssh myusername@freedombone_IP_address
    su
    sudo apt-get update
    apt-get install git build-essential
    git clone https://github.com/bashrc/freedombone
    cd freedombone
    make install
    nano /home/myusername/freedombone/freedombone.cfg

Add the following, and set the values as needed. DEFAULT_DOMAIN_NAME is where your email/xmpp/irc/voip will be accessed from. It could be the same as one of your other domains, or separate.

    MY_USERNAME=myusername
    DEFAULT_DOMAIN_NAME=mywikidomain
    SYSTEM_TYPE=full
    INSTALLING_ON_BBB=no
    DDNS_PROVIDER=default@freedns.afraid.org
    DDNS_USERNAME=ddnsusername
    DDNS_PASSWORD=ddnspassword3471326
    MY_NAME=MyFullNameOrNick
    MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS=myusername@mywikidomain
    LOCAL_NETWORK_STATIC_IP_ADDRESS=192.168.1.60
    ROUTER_IP_ADDRESS=192.168.1.254
    ENABLE_CJDNS=no
    DEBIAN_REPO=ftp.us.debian.org
    NAMESERVER1=85.214.73.63
    NAMESERVER2=213.73.91.35
    WIKI_TITLE=my wiki title
    WIKI_DOMAIN_NAME=mywikidomain
    MY_BLOG_TITLE=my blog
    FULLBLOG_DOMAIN_NAME=myblogdomain
    MICROBLOG_DOMAIN_NAME=mymicroblogdomain
    REDMATRIX_DOMAIN_NAME=myredmatrixdomain
    OWNCLOUD_DOMAIN_NAME=myownclouddomain

Both of the IP addresses are local IP addresses, typically of the form 192.168.x.x, with one being for the system and the other being for the internet router.

Save the configuration file and exit from your editor.

Now you can begin the installation. If you are doing this on a Beaglebone Black:

    freedombone -c freedombone.cfg

The above command should be run in the same directory in which your configuration file exists.

Also see the manpage for additional options which can be used instead of a configuration file.

## Post-Setup

Setup of the server and installation of all the relevant packages is not quick, and depends upon which variant you choose and your internet bandwidth. Allow about three hours for a full installation on the Beaglebone Black. On the Beaglebone installation is in two parts, since a reboot is needed to enable the hardware random number generator and zram.

When done you can ssh into the Freedombone with:

    ssh myusername@domain -p 2222

Any manual post-installation setup instructions or passwords can be found in /home/username/README. You should remove any passwords from that file and store them within a password manager such as KeepassX.

On your internet router, typically under firewall settings, open the following ports and forward them to your server.

Service | Ports
--- | ---
HTTP | 80
HTTPS | 443
SSH | 2222
DLNA | 1900
DLNA | 8200
XMPP | 5222..5223
XMPP | 5269
XMPP | 5280..5281
IRC | 6697
IRC | 9999
Git | 9418
Email | 25
Email | 587
Email | 465
Email | 993
VoIP | 64738

## On Client Machines

You can configure laptops or desktop machines which connect to the Freedombone server in the following way. This alters encryption settings to improve overall security.

    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install git dialog haveged build-essential
    git clone https://github.com/bashrc/freedombone
    cd freedombone
    sudo make install
    freedombone-client

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