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

#

Home | Download the code | On a Beaglebone Black | On a laptop/PC/netbook | Internet Router

## Download the code

Firstly you'll need to download the code as follows:

    sudo apt-get install git
    git clone https://github.com/bashrc/freedombone
    cd freedombone

## On a Beaglebone Black

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 subdomains created on 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).

Check that within initial_setup.sh the router IP address and static IP for the Beaglebone are set correctly.

Plug the microSD card into your laptop/desktop and then run the initial_setup.sh script. For example:

    ./initial_setup.sh /dev/sdX

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 script. You can either edit the variables within the install-freedombone.sh script directly, or create a separate configuration file called freedombone.cfg which contains those variables. Variables which you might want to put into a freedombone.cfg file are:

    MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS=<your email address>
    MY_NAME=<your name/nick/pseudonym>
    MY_BLOG_TITLE=<title of your blog>
    MY_BLOG_SUBTITLE=<subtitle of your blog>
    SSH_PORT=2222
    FULLBLOG_DOMAIN_NAME=<freedns subdomain for your blog>
    FULLBLOG_FREEDNS_SUBDOMAIN_CODE=<freedns subdomain code for your blog>
    MICROBLOG_DOMAIN_NAME=<domain name for your microblog>
    MICROBLOG_FREEDNS_SUBDOMAIN_CODE=1234
    REDMATRIX_DOMAIN_NAME=<domain name for your Red Matrix site>
    OWNCLOUD_DOMAIN_NAME=<freedns subdomain for your Owncloud site>
    OWNCLOUD_FREEDNS_SUBDOMAIN_CODE=<freedns subdomain code for your Owncloud site>
    WIKI_TITLE=<title of your wiki>
    WIKI_DOMAIN_NAME=<freedns subdomain for your wiki>
    WIKI_FREEDNS_SUBDOMAIN_CODE=<freedns subdomain code for your wiki>
    MY_GPG_PUBLIC_KEY=<exported public key filename>
    MY_GPG_PRIVATE_KE=<exported private key filename>
    PUBLIC_MAILING_LIST=<name of your mailing list>
    LOCAL_NETWORK_STATIC_IP_ADDRESS=192.168.1.60
    ROUTER_IP_ADDRESS=192.168.1.254

The GPG public/private key variables are for the filenames of exported GPG keys, and if a private key filename is given then it will be automatically shredded after import.

The FreeDNS subdomain codes can be found under "Dynamic DNS" and "quick cron example". On the last line it will be the string located between the '?' and the '==' characters.

The syntax of the install-freedombone.sh script is:

    ./install-freedombone.sh <your wiki domain name> <your username> <your wiki FreeDNS domain code> [optional variant type]

If you don't specify a variant type with the final option then everything will be installed. If you have a freedombone.cfg file then it should be in the same directory as install-freedombone.sh.

Installation 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 username@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 a laptop/PC/netbook

It's also possible to install Freedombone onto other hardware, including other types of single board computer. Any system with a fresh installation of Debian Jessie will do. Just make sure that you change the variable INSTALLING_ON_BBB to "no" within freedombone.cfg or the install-freedombone.sh script. Obviously, you don't need to run the initial_setup.sh script on non-Beaglebone systems.

- Download the Debian Jessie "netinst" installer
- Use Startup Disk Creator or Unetbootin to copy the netinst image to a USB thumb drive
- Connect the machine to your internet router using an ethernet patch lead. Freedombone is a fully free (as in freedom) system and so wifi drivers may not work. A wired network connection will give better performance anyway.
- On the target machine boot from the USB drive and go through the installation. It's a good idea to use LVM and disk encryption together with a long passphrase which will be hard to crack by brute force methods. Keep a note of the passphrase in your password manager.
- Within the installer unselect the print server and select the ssh server
- After installation use ssh to access the machine and become the root user

    ssh username@192.168.1.60
    su

- If you have GPG keys you may wish to transfer them to the /home/usernname directory. If the machine has a second USB socket or an SD card slot then that may be the most secure way to do it.
- Run the following commands:

    cd /home/<username>
    apt-get install git
    git clone https://github.com/bashrc/freedombone
    cd freedombone
    nano freedombone.cfg

- Now create a configuration file, such as the following, filling in the details for your FreeDNS subdomains.

    INSTALLING_ON_BBB=no
    MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS=<your email address>
    MY_NAME=<your name/nick/pseudonym>
    MY_BLOG_TITLE=<title of your blog>
    MY_BLOG_SUBTITLE=<subtitle of your blog>
    SSH_PORT=2222
    FULLBLOG_DOMAIN_NAME=<freedns subdomain for your blog>
    FULLBLOG_FREEDNS_SUBDOMAIN_CODE=<freedns subdomain code for your blog>
    MICROBLOG_DOMAIN_NAME=<domain name for your microblog>
    MICROBLOG_FREEDNS_SUBDOMAIN_CODE=1234
    REDMATRIX_DOMAIN_NAME=<domain name for your Red Matrix site>
    OWNCLOUD_DOMAIN_NAME=<freedns subdomain for your Owncloud site>
    OWNCLOUD_FREEDNS_SUBDOMAIN_CODE=<freedns subdomain code for your Owncloud site>
    WIKI_TITLE=<title of your wiki>
    WIKI_DOMAIN_NAME=<freedns subdomain for your wiki>
    WIKI_FREEDNS_SUBDOMAIN_CODE=<freedns subdomain code for your wiki>
    MY_GPG_PUBLIC_KEY=<exported public key filename>
    MY_GPG_PRIVATE_KE=<exported private key filename>
    PUBLIC_MAILING_LIST=<name of your mailing list>
    LOCAL_NETWORK_STATIC_IP_ADDRESS=192.168.1.60
    ROUTER_IP_ADDRESS=192.168.1.254

- Save and exit, then run:

    ./install-freedombone.sh <your wiki domain name> <your username> <your wiki FreeDNS domain code>

## Internet Router

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

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

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