diff --git a/doc/EN/mesh.org b/doc/EN/mesh.org index e8667b1f..75587c3b 100644 --- a/doc/EN/mesh.org +++ b/doc/EN/mesh.org @@ -14,346 +14,24 @@

Mesh Network

#+end_export -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_screenshot.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -|------------------------+---+-------------+---+----------------------+---+---------------| -| [[What the system can do]] | - | [[Disk Images]] | - | [[Building Disk Images]] | - | [[How to use it]] | -|------------------------+---+-------------+---+----------------------+---+---------------| - -#+begin_quote - "/I see mesh networks naturally evolving to become the dominant form of network over the next few decades, because it’s the most practical solution to a number of problems that will have to be solved in order to build the VR web as well as to connect the entire world to the internet. Centralized networks are only possible in highly developed countries with existing infrastructures like power and telephone grids, as well as roads. You can’t build a tower where you don’t have either power or access. For vast areas of the world, mesh networks will be the only feasible solution./" -- Valkyrie Ice -#+end_quote - The Freedombone Mesh is a wireless solution for autonomous or internet connected communication that can be rapidly deployed in temporary, emergency or post-disaster situations where internet access is unavailable or compromised. + * [[./mesh_philosophic.html][Philosophic]] + * [[./mesh_capabilities.html][Capabilities]] + * [[./mesh_images.html][Disk images and how to build them]] + * [[./mesh_custom.html][Customisation]] + * [[./mesh_usage.html][How to use it]] + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_architecture1.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + Mesh networks are useful as a quick way to make a fully decentralised communications system which is not connected to or reliant upon the internet. Think festivals, hacker conferences, onboard ships at sea, disaster/war zones, small businesses who don't want the overhead of server maintenance, protests, remote areas of the world, temporary "digital blackouts", scientific expeditions and off-world space colonies. If an internet connection is available then it can make use of that, but otherwise it can still work regardless of whether the internet exists. So it's not dependent upon ISPs and additional infrastructure other than USB drives isn't required. Systems only need to be within wifi range of each other for the mesh to be created, so it can be an very convenient way to create a local communications network. -The Freedombone mesh roughly follows MondoNet's ten social specifications: - - - *Decentralized*: The network should not be operated, maintained, or in any way reliant upon a single or minimally differentiated set of entities or technologies. No individual, entity or group should be central to the network to the extent that their absence would measurably impact its functionality or scope. Network participation should not require access to fixed, physical infrastructure of any sort. - - *Universally Accessible*: The requisite technology and expertise required to participate in the network should be available at minimal cost and effort to every human being on the planet. Furthermore, all users should be able to extend the network’s content and functionality to suit their own needs, or those of others. No aspect of the network’s functioning should be reliant upon proprietary technologies, information or capital. - - *Censor-proof*: The network should be resistant to both regulatory and technical attempts to limit the nature of the information shared, restrict usage by given individuals or communities, or render the network, or any portion of it, inoperable or inaccessible. - - *Surveillance-proof*: The network should enable users to choose exactly what information they share with whom, and to participate anonymously if they so desire. Users should only have access to information if they are the designated recipients, or if it has been published openly. - - *Secure*: The network should be organized in a way that minimizes the risk of malicious attacks or engineering failure. Information exchanged on the network should meet or exceed the delivery rate and reliability of information exchanged via the Internet. - - *Scalable*: The network should be organized with the expectation that its scale could reach or even exceed that of today’s Internet. Special care should be taken to address to the challenge of maintaining efficiency without the presence of a centralized backbone. - - *Permanent*: The network’s density and redundancy should be great enough that, despite its ad hoc nature, it will persistently operate on a broad scale, and be available in full to any user within range of another peer. - - *Fast (enough)*: The network should always achieve whatever speed is required for a “bottom line” level of social and cultural participation. At present, we assert that the network’s data transfer rate should, at a minimum, be enough for voice-over-IP (VoIP) communications, and low-bitrate streaming video. - - *Independent*: While the network will have the capacity to exchange information with Internet users and nodes, it should be able to operate independently, as well. A large-scale failure or closure of Internet infrastructure and content should have minimal effect on the network’s operations. - - *Evolvable*: The network should be built with future development in mind. The platform should be flexible enough to support technologies, protocols and modes of usage that have not yet been developed. - -* What the system can do - - - Discovery of other users on the network - - Text based chat, one-to-one and in groups - - Voice chat (VoIP) and video calls - - Private and public sharing of files - - Blogging - - Collaborative editing of documents and presentations - - Creating and broadcasting audio media/podcasts - - Social network stream. Follow/unfollow other peers - - No network administration required - - No servers - - Internet connection is optional - - Works from bootable USB drives or microSD drives - - Data is mesh routed between systems - - Private communications is end-to-end secured and forward secret - - Publicly shared data is /content addressable/ - -This system should be quite scalable. Both qTox and IPFS are based upon distributed hash tables (DHT) so that each peer does not need to store the full index of data for the entire network. Gossiping between SSB peers may be slower, but the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small-world_network][small world effect]] will presumably still make for quite efficient delivery in a large network. Caching or pinning of IPFS data and its content addressability means that if a file or blog becomes popular then performance should improve as the number of downloads increases, which is the opposite of the client/server paradigm. - -* Disk Images -** Writing many images quickly -There may be situations where you need to write the same disk image to multiple drives at the same time in order to maximize rate of deployment. In the instructions given below the *dd* command is used for writing to the target drive, but to write to multiple drives you can use a tool such as [[https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/MultiWriter][GNOME MultiWriter]]. - -For example on Arch/Parabola: - -#+begin_src bash -sudo pacman -S gnome-multi-writer -#+end_src - -Or on Debian based systems: - -#+begin_src bash -sudo apt-get install gnome-multi-writer -#+end_src - -The MultiWriter tool is also available within mesh client images, so that you can use mesh systems to create more copies of the same system. -** Client images - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_netbook.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -"Client" isn't exactly the right term, but it's a mesh peer with a user interface. These images can be copied to a USB drive, then you can plug it into a laptop/netbook/desktop machine and boot from it. You will probably also need an Atheros USB wifi dongle (the black protruding object on the left side of the netbook in the picture above), because most built-in wifi usually requires proprietary firmware. In the commands below substitute /dev/sdX with the USB drive device, excluding any trailing numbers (eg. /dev/sdb). The USB drive you're copying to will need to be at least 8GB in size. - -#+begin_src bash -sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget -wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz -wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz.sig -gpg --verify freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz.sig -sha256sum freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz -61e474afae14774d7aa479b6727fd5e77bdc1854e547b3c5b630bf10542a9581 -unxz freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz -sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8 -sudo dd bs=1M if=freedombone-meshclient-i386.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync -#+end_src - -To get a number of systems onto the mesh repeat the /dd/ command to create however many bootable USB drives you need. - -If you're in an emergency and don't have Atheros wifi dongles then there is also an "insecure" image which contains some proprietary wifi drivers which may work with a wider range of laptops. Proprietary drivers *are not recommended* because they're unsupportable and may be exploitable or contain malicious antifeatures which fundamentally compromise the security of the network. However, the trade-off between security/maintainability and simply having the ability to communicate at all may be a valid one in some situations. - -#+begin_src bash -sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget -wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz -wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz.sig -gpg --verify freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz.sig -sha256sum freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz -fec843303d7d280859f75f7a8edccd70512915a34d4cc0787b5de7d8fbde5c81 -unxz freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz -sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8 -sudo dd bs=1M if=freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync -#+end_src - -** Router images -Routers are intended to build network coverage for an area using small and low cost hardware. You can bolt them to walls or leave them on window ledges. They don't have any user interface and their only job is to haul network traffic across the mesh and to enable peers to find each other via running bootstrap nodes for Tox and IPFS. Copy the image to a microSD card and insert it into the router, plug in an Atheros wifi dongle and power on. That should be all you need to do. -*** Beaglebone Black -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_router.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -The above picture shows a Beaglebone Black with the image copied onto a microSD card (there's no need to do anything with the internal EMMC). A USB Atheros wifi adaptor with a large antenna is attached and in this case power is from the mains, although it could be from a battery or solar power system capable of supplying 5 volts and maybe 1A (depending upon how active the router is). - -#+begin_src bash -sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget -wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz -wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz.sig -gpg --verify freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz.sig -sha256sum freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz -45f131995e2f77188e7ddaf2b42ca3d8d48d821d37c7a31a21e2e6dcceaf510d -unxz freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz -sudo dd bs=1M if=freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync -#+end_src - -If you have a few Beaglebone Blacks to use as routers then repeat the /dd/ command to create however many microSD cards you need. - -There is still a software freedom issue with the Beaglebone Black, but it doesn't prevent you from running a fully free system on the board. The TI AM335X SOC has a PowerVR SGX530 GPU which will only run with a proprietary blob, but this would only be an issue for systems with a monitor or LCD screen attached running a desktop environment which also needs GPU acceleration. For "headless" systems such as servers or mesh routers this isn't a problem. - -* Building Disk Images -It's better not to trust images downloaded from random places on the interwebs. Chances are that unless you are in the web of trust of the above GPG signatures then they don't mean very much to you. If you actually want something trustworthy then build the images from scratch. It will take some time. Here's how to do it. - -First you will need to create an image. On a Debian based system (tested on Debian Stretch): - -#+begin_src bash -sudo apt-get -y install git wget build-essential -wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone.tar.gz -wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone.tar.gz.sig -gpg --verify freedombone.tar.gz.sig -sha256sum freedombone.tar.gz -e2715e27b142a21fa257eab15778ddc96f86fda70f8d91d47c4c9aa19f22e272 -tar -xzvf freedombone.tar.gz -cd freedombone -git checkout stretch -sudo make install -freedombone-image --setup debian -freedombone-image -t i386 -v meshclient -#+end_src - -If you don't have Atheros or free software compatible wifi adapter then you can include proprietary wifi drivers which will work with most laptops. This is *NOT RECOMMENDED* because proprietary drivers are unsupportable and may contain either malware or be exploitable in a way which can't be fixed. However, if you're in an emergency and don't have any Atheros or free software wifi USB dongles then you can use the following command to make the image: - -#+begin_src bash -freedombone-image -t i386 -v meshclient --insecure yes -#+end_src - -This takes a while. Maybe an hour or so, depending on the speed of your system and the internets. The good news though is that once created you can use the resulting image any number of times, and you don't need to trust some pre-built image. - -List what drives are on your system with: - -#+begin_src bash -ls /dev/sd* -#+end_src - -Now plug in the USB thumb drive, and do the same again. Notice which drive letter gets added. - -You can now copy the image to the USB thumb drive, replacing *sdX* with the identifier of the USB thumb drive. Don't include any numbers (so for example use *sdc* instead of *sdc1*). - -#+begin_src bash -sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8 -sudo dd bs=1M if=myimagefile.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync -#+end_src - -And wait. Again it will take a while to copy over. When that's done plug it into the laptop or netbook which you want to use on the mesh, power on and set the BIOS to boot from the USB stick. - -On first boot you'll be asked to set a username, and then you can open the chat client and select the *users* icon to show the Tox IDs for other users on the mesh. When folks join they will be announced. - -Rinse, repeat, for any number of laptops that you want to get onto the mesh or to build out coverage within an area. There are no servers. Just peer-to-peer communications routed through the network which are end-to-end secure after a friend request is accepted. By default the chat client doesn't log anything. - -You can also use single board computers (SBCs) such as the BeagleBone Black to make mesh routers which can be bolted to walls or the sides of buildings and consume minimal electrical power, so could be solar or battery powered for short term events such as festivals. To do that use the following command to make the image: - -#+begin_src bash -freedombone-image -t beaglebone -v mesh -#+end_src - -The resulting image can be copied to a microSD card, inserted into a Beaglebone Black and booted. Don't forget to plug in an Atheros USB wifi dongle. - -* Customisation -If you want to make your own specially branded version, such as for a particular event, then to change the default desktop backgrounds edit the images within *img/backgrounds* and to change the available avatars and desktop icons edit the images within *img/avatars*. Re-create disk images using the instructions shown previously. - -If you need particular /dconf/ commands to alter desktop appearance or behavior then see the function /mesh_client_startup_applications/ within *src/freedombone-image-customise*. -* How to use it -When you first boot from the USB drive the system will create some encryption keys, assign a unique network address to the system and then reboot itself. When that's done you should see a prompt asking for a username. This username just makes it easy for others to initially find you on the mesh and will appear in the list of users. - -After a minute or two if you are within wifi range and there is at least one other user on the network then you should see additional icons appear on the desktop, such as /Other Users/ and /Chat/. - -** Boot trouble -If the system doesn't boot and reports an error which includes */dev/mapper/loop0p1* then reboot with *Ctrl-Alt-Del* and when you see the grub menu press *e* and manually change */dev/mapper/loop0p1* to */dev/sdb1*, then press *Ctrl-x*. If that doesn't work then reboot and try */dev/sdc1* instead. - -After the system has booted successfully the problem should resolve itself on subsequent reboots. -** Set the Date -On the ordinary internet the date and time of your system would be set automatically via NTP. But this is not the internet and so you will need to manually ensure that your date and time settings are correct. You might need to periodically do this if your clock drifts. It's not essential that the time on your system be highly accurate, but if it drifts too far or goes back to epoch then things could become a little confusing in regard to the order of blog posts. - -*Right click on the date* in the top right corner of the screen. Select *preferences*, then click the *Time Settings* button. You can then select the date from the calendar and set the time, then click the *Set System Time* button. Enter the default password, which is /freedombone/. -** Check network status -Unlike with ordinary wifi, on the mesh you don't get a signal strength icon and so it's not simple to see if you have a good connection. - -Select the wifi icon on the desktop and enter the password '/freedombone/'. The network configuration will go into a monitoring mode and in the bottom right side of the window you will be able to see signal strength and other parameters. This can help you to locate systems or adjust antennas to get the best wifi performance. - - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_signal.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -When you are finished close the window and then select the /Network Restart/ desktop icon, which will restart the B.A.T.M.A.N. network. You can also use the restart icon if you are within range of the mesh network but the /Chat/ and /Other Users/ icons do not automatically appear after a few minutes. -** Connecting to the internet -If you need to be able to access the internet from the mesh then connect one of the peers to an internet router using an ethernet cable, then reboot it. Other peers in the mesh, including any attached mobile devices, will then be able to access the internet using the ethernet attached peer as a gateway. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freifunk][Freifunk]] works in a similar way. - -After connecting one peer to the internet you may need to reboot other peers in order to update their network configurations. - -If for legal reasons you need to connect to the internet via a VPN then openvpn is preinstalled and you can run the command: - -#+begin_src bash -sudo openvpn myclient.ovpn -#+end_src - -Where /myclient.ovpn/ comes from your VPN provider and with the password "/freedombone/". -** Connecting two meshes over the internet via a VPN tunnel -Maybe the internet exists, but you don't care about getting any content from it and just want to use it as a way to connect mesh networks from different geographical locations together. - -In your home directory on a system connected via ethernet to an internet router you'll find a file called *vpn.tar.gz*. If you want another mesh to be able to connect to yours then send them this file and get them to uncompress it into their home directory also on an internet gateway machine. If they have an external IP address or domain name for your router then they will be able to VPN connect using the *Connect Meshes* icon. They should also forward port 653 from their internet router to the mesh gateway machine. - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_connect.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -You should create a new *vpn.tar.gz* file for every other mesh which wants to be able to connect to yours. If you are prompted for a password it is 'freedombone'. - -From a deep packet inspection point of view the traffic going over the internet between mesh gateways will just look like any other TLS connection to a server. - -** Mobile devices (phones, etc) -To allow mobile devices to connect to the mesh you will need a second wifi adapter connected to your laptop/netbook/SBC. Plug in a second wifi adapter then reboot the system. The second adaptor will then create a wifi hotspot which mobile devices can connect to. The hotspot name also contains its local IP address (eg. "/mesh-192.168.1.83/"). - -On a typical Android device go to *Settings* then *Security* and ensure that *Unknown sources* is enabled. Also within *Wifi* from the *Settings* screen select the mesh hotspot. The password is "/freedombone/". Open a non-Tor browser and navigate to the IP address showing in the hotspot name. You can then download and install mesh apps. - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_mobileapps.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -On some android devices you may need to move the downloaded APK file from the *Downloads* directory to your *home* directory before you can install it. -** Chat System - -Ensure that you're within wifi range of at least one other mesh peer (could be a router or client) and then you should see that the /Chat/ and /Other Users/ icons appear. Select the users icon and you should see a list of users on the mesh. Select the /Chat/ icon and once you are connected you should see the status light turn green. If after a few minutes you don't get the green status light then try closing and re-opening the Tox chat application. Select the plus button to add a friend and then copy and paste in a Tox ID from the users list. - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_paste_tox_id.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -The other user can then accept or decline your friend request. - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_friend_request.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -You can also select an avatar by selecting the grey head and shoulders image. - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_choose_avatar.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -And by selecting the user from the list on the left hand side the chat can begin. - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_text_chat.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -One important point is that by default the microphone is turned off. When doing voice chat you can select the microphone volume with the drop down slider in the top right corner of the screen. - -At present video doesn't work reliably, but text and voice chat do work well. - -** Collaborative document editing -The mesh system includes the ability to collaboratively edit various sorts of documents using CryptPad. CryptPad is an almost peer-to-peer system in that it is designed for a client/server environment but that the server aspect of it is very minimal and limited to orchestrating the connected clients. With CryptPad installed on each mesh peer it effectively enables peer-to-peer collaborative editing. Documents are ephemeral and forgotten unless they're exported or copy-pasted to permanent storage. - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_cryptpad1.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -To create a document click on the CryptPad icon. Depending upon the specifications of your system it may take a few seconds to load, so don't be too disturned if the browser contents look blank for a while. Select _Rich Text Pad_ and give yourself a username. - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_cryptpad2.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -If you have the chat system running you can then copy and paste the URL for your pad into the chat, and the other user can then open the link and edit the document with you. You can repeat that for however many other users you wish to be able to edit. - -** Social Network - -Patchwork is available as a social networking system for the mesh. Like all social network systems it has a stream of posts and you can follow or unfollow other users. You can also send private messages to other users with end-to-end encryption. - -Double click on the "Social" icon to open the app, then add your nickname and optionally a description. If you want to choose an avatar image some can be found within the directory */usr/share/freedombone/avatars*. On older systems or systems without a hardware random number generator, Patchwork sometimes takes a long time (a few minutes) to open for the first time after clicking the icon. This is most likely due to the initial generation of encryption keys, so be patient. - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/patchwork_setup.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -Other Patchwork users on the mesh will appear automatically under the *local* list and you can select and follow them if you wish. It's also possible to select the dark theme from *settings* on the drop down menu if you prefer. - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/patchwork_public.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -The Secure Scuttlebutt protocol which Patchwork is based upon is intended to be robust to intermittent network connectivity, so you can write posts when out of range and they will sync once you are back in the network. - -** Sharing Files -You can make files publicly available on the network simply by dragging and dropping them into the /Public/ folder on the desktop. To view the files belonging to another user select the desktop icon called /Visit a site/ and enter the username or Tox ID of the other user. - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_share_files.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -** Blogging -To create a blog post select the /Blog/ icon on the desktop and then use the up and down cursor keys, space bar and enter key to add a new entry. Edit the title of the entry and add your text. You can also include photos if you wish - just copy them to the *CreateBlog/content/images* directory and then link to them as shown. - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_new_blog.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -To finish your blog entry just select /Save/ and then close the editor. On older hardware it may take a while to publish the results, and this depends upon the amount of computation needed by IPFS to create file hashes. If you make no changes to the default text then the new blog entry will not be saved. - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_new_blog2.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -#+BEGIN_CENTER -[[file:images/mesh_view_blog.jpg]] -#+END_CENTER - -You can also visit other blogs, edit or delete your previous entry and also change your blog theme. - - #+BEGIN_CENTER This site can also be accessed via a Tor browser at http://pazyv7nkllp76hqr.onion #+END_CENTER diff --git a/doc/EN/mesh_capabilities.org b/doc/EN/mesh_capabilities.org new file mode 100644 index 00000000..5adf8d8e --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/EN/mesh_capabilities.org @@ -0,0 +1,35 @@ +#+TITLE: +#+AUTHOR: Bob Mottram +#+EMAIL: bob@freedombone.net +#+KEYWORDS: freedombox, debian, beaglebone, red matrix, email, web server, home server, internet, censorship, surveillance, social network, irc, jabber +#+DESCRIPTION: Turn the Beaglebone Black into a personal communications server +#+OPTIONS: ^:nil toc:nil +#+HTML_HEAD: + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/logo.png]] +#+END_CENTER + +#+begin_export html +

Mesh Network: Capabilities

+#+end_export + +The mesh system has the following capabilities: + + - Discovery of other users on the network + - Text based chat, one-to-one and in groups + - Voice chat (VoIP) and video calls + - Private and public sharing of files + - Blogging + - Collaborative editing of documents and presentations + - Creating and broadcasting audio media/podcasts + - Social network stream. Follow/unfollow other peers + - No network administration required + - No servers + - Internet connection is optional + - Works from bootable USB drives or microSD drives + - Data is mesh routed between systems + - Private communications is end-to-end secured and forward secret + - Publicly shared data is /content addressable/ + +This system should be quite scalable. Both qTox and IPFS are based upon distributed hash tables (DHT) so that each peer does not need to store the full index of data for the entire network. Gossiping between SSB peers may be slower, but the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small-world_network][small world effect]] will presumably still make for quite efficient delivery in a large network. Caching or pinning of IPFS data and its content addressability means that if a file or blog becomes popular then performance should improve as the number of downloads increases, which is the opposite of the client/server paradigm. diff --git a/doc/EN/mesh_custom.org b/doc/EN/mesh_custom.org new file mode 100644 index 00000000..29596d8e --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/EN/mesh_custom.org @@ -0,0 +1,19 @@ +#+TITLE: +#+AUTHOR: Bob Mottram +#+EMAIL: bob@freedombone.net +#+KEYWORDS: freedombox, debian, beaglebone, red matrix, email, web server, home server, internet, censorship, surveillance, social network, irc, jabber +#+DESCRIPTION: Turn the Beaglebone Black into a personal communications server +#+OPTIONS: ^:nil toc:nil +#+HTML_HEAD: + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/logo.png]] +#+END_CENTER + +#+begin_export html +

Mesh Network: Customisation

+#+end_export + +If you want to make your own specially branded version, such as for a particular event, then to change the default desktop backgrounds edit the images within *img/backgrounds* and to change the available avatars and desktop icons edit the images within *img/avatars*. Re-create disk images using the instructions shown previously. + +If you need particular /dconf/ commands to alter desktop appearance or behavior then see the function /mesh_client_startup_applications/ within *src/freedombone-image-customise*. diff --git a/doc/EN/mesh_images.org b/doc/EN/mesh_images.org new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1527a332 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/EN/mesh_images.org @@ -0,0 +1,149 @@ +#+TITLE: +#+AUTHOR: Bob Mottram +#+EMAIL: bob@freedombone.net +#+KEYWORDS: freedombox, debian, beaglebone, red matrix, email, web server, home server, internet, censorship, surveillance, social network, irc, jabber +#+DESCRIPTION: Turn the Beaglebone Black into a personal communications server +#+OPTIONS: ^:nil toc:nil +#+HTML_HEAD: + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/logo.png]] +#+END_CENTER + +#+begin_export html +

Mesh Network: Images

+#+end_export + +* Pre-built Disk Images +** Writing many images quickly +There may be situations where you need to write the same disk image to multiple drives at the same time in order to maximize rate of deployment. In the instructions given below the *dd* command is used for writing to the target drive, but to write to multiple drives you can use a tool such as [[https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/MultiWriter][GNOME MultiWriter]]. + +For example on Arch/Parabola: + +#+begin_src bash +sudo pacman -S gnome-multi-writer +#+end_src + +Or on Debian based systems: + +#+begin_src bash +sudo apt-get install gnome-multi-writer +#+end_src + +The MultiWriter tool is also available within mesh client images, so that you can use mesh systems to create more copies of the same system. +** Client images + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_netbook.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +"Client" isn't exactly the right term, but it's a mesh peer with a user interface. These images can be copied to a USB drive, then you can plug it into a laptop/netbook/desktop machine and boot from it. You will probably also need an Atheros USB wifi dongle (the black protruding object on the left side of the netbook in the picture above), because most built-in wifi usually requires proprietary firmware. In the commands below substitute /dev/sdX with the USB drive device, excluding any trailing numbers (eg. /dev/sdb). The USB drive you're copying to will need to be at least 8GB in size. + +#+begin_src bash +sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget +wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz +wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz.sig +gpg --verify freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz.sig +sha256sum freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz +61e474afae14774d7aa479b6727fd5e77bdc1854e547b3c5b630bf10542a9581 +unxz freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz +sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8 +sudo dd bs=1M if=freedombone-meshclient-i386.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync +#+end_src + +To get a number of systems onto the mesh repeat the /dd/ command to create however many bootable USB drives you need. + +If you're in an emergency and don't have Atheros wifi dongles then there is also an "insecure" image which contains some proprietary wifi drivers which may work with a wider range of laptops. Proprietary drivers *are not recommended* because they're unsupportable and may be exploitable or contain malicious antifeatures which fundamentally compromise the security of the network. However, the trade-off between security/maintainability and simply having the ability to communicate at all may be a valid one in some situations. + +#+begin_src bash +sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget +wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz +wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz.sig +gpg --verify freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz.sig +sha256sum freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz +fec843303d7d280859f75f7a8edccd70512915a34d4cc0787b5de7d8fbde5c81 +unxz freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz +sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8 +sudo dd bs=1M if=freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync +#+end_src + +** Router images +Routers are intended to build network coverage for an area using small and low cost hardware. You can bolt them to walls or leave them on window ledges. They don't have any user interface and their only job is to haul network traffic across the mesh and to enable peers to find each other via running bootstrap nodes for Tox and IPFS. Copy the image to a microSD card and insert it into the router, plug in an Atheros wifi dongle and power on. That should be all you need to do. +*** Beaglebone Black +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_router.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +The above picture shows a Beaglebone Black with the image copied onto a microSD card (there's no need to do anything with the internal EMMC). A USB Atheros wifi adaptor with a large antenna is attached and in this case power is from the mains, although it could be from a battery or solar power system capable of supplying 5 volts and maybe 1A (depending upon how active the router is). + +#+begin_src bash +sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget +wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz +wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz.sig +gpg --verify freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz.sig +sha256sum freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz +45f131995e2f77188e7ddaf2b42ca3d8d48d821d37c7a31a21e2e6dcceaf510d +unxz freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz +sudo dd bs=1M if=freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync +#+end_src + +If you have a few Beaglebone Blacks to use as routers then repeat the /dd/ command to create however many microSD cards you need. + +There is still a software freedom issue with the Beaglebone Black, but it doesn't prevent you from running a fully free system on the board. The TI AM335X SOC has a PowerVR SGX530 GPU which will only run with a proprietary blob, but this would only be an issue for systems with a monitor or LCD screen attached running a desktop environment which also needs GPU acceleration. For "headless" systems such as servers or mesh routers this isn't a problem. + +* Building Disk Images +It's better not to trust images downloaded from random places on the interwebs. Chances are that unless you are in the web of trust of the above GPG signatures then they don't mean very much to you. If you actually want something trustworthy then build the images from scratch. It will take some time. Here's how to do it. + +First you will need to create an image. On a Debian based system (tested on Debian Stretch): + +#+begin_src bash +sudo apt-get -y install git wget build-essential +wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone.tar.gz +wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone.tar.gz.sig +gpg --verify freedombone.tar.gz.sig +sha256sum freedombone.tar.gz +e2715e27b142a21fa257eab15778ddc96f86fda70f8d91d47c4c9aa19f22e272 +tar -xzvf freedombone.tar.gz +cd freedombone +git checkout stretch +sudo make install +freedombone-image --setup debian +freedombone-image -t i386 -v meshclient +#+end_src + +If you don't have Atheros or free software compatible wifi adapter then you can include proprietary wifi drivers which will work with most laptops. This is *NOT RECOMMENDED* because proprietary drivers are unsupportable and may contain either malware or be exploitable in a way which can't be fixed. However, if you're in an emergency and don't have any Atheros or free software wifi USB dongles then you can use the following command to make the image: + +#+begin_src bash +freedombone-image -t i386 -v meshclient --insecure yes +#+end_src + +This takes a while. Maybe an hour or so, depending on the speed of your system and the internets. The good news though is that once created you can use the resulting image any number of times, and you don't need to trust some pre-built image. + +List what drives are on your system with: + +#+begin_src bash +ls /dev/sd* +#+end_src + +Now plug in the USB thumb drive, and do the same again. Notice which drive letter gets added. + +You can now copy the image to the USB thumb drive, replacing *sdX* with the identifier of the USB thumb drive. Don't include any numbers (so for example use *sdc* instead of *sdc1*). + +#+begin_src bash +sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8 +sudo dd bs=1M if=myimagefile.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync +#+end_src + +And wait. Again it will take a while to copy over. When that's done plug it into the laptop or netbook which you want to use on the mesh, power on and set the BIOS to boot from the USB stick. + +On first boot you'll be asked to set a username, and then you can open the chat client and select the *users* icon to show the Tox IDs for other users on the mesh. When folks join they will be announced. + +Rinse, repeat, for any number of laptops that you want to get onto the mesh or to build out coverage within an area. There are no servers. Just peer-to-peer communications routed through the network which are end-to-end secure after a friend request is accepted. By default the chat client doesn't log anything. + +You can also use single board computers (SBCs) such as the BeagleBone Black to make mesh routers which can be bolted to walls or the sides of buildings and consume minimal electrical power, so could be solar or battery powered for short term events such as festivals. To do that use the following command to make the image: + +#+begin_src bash +freedombone-image -t beaglebone -v mesh +#+end_src + +The resulting image can be copied to a microSD card, inserted into a Beaglebone Black and booted. Don't forget to plug in an Atheros USB wifi dongle. diff --git a/doc/EN/mesh_philosophic.org b/doc/EN/mesh_philosophic.org new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b52f8cef --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/EN/mesh_philosophic.org @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +#+TITLE: +#+AUTHOR: Bob Mottram +#+EMAIL: bob@freedombone.net +#+KEYWORDS: freedombox, debian, beaglebone, mesh +#+DESCRIPTION: Turn any laptop or a Beaglebone Black into an off-the-grid mesh peer +#+OPTIONS: ^:nil toc:nil +#+HTML_HEAD: + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/logo.png]] +#+END_CENTER + +#+begin_export html +

Mesh Network: Philosophic

+#+end_export + +#+begin_quote + "/I see mesh networks naturally evolving to become the dominant form of network over the next few decades, because it’s the most practical solution to a number of problems that will have to be solved in order to build the VR web as well as to connect the entire world to the internet. Centralized networks are only possible in highly developed countries with existing infrastructures like power and telephone grids, as well as roads. You can’t build a tower where you don’t have either power or access. For vast areas of the world, mesh networks will be the only feasible solution./" -- Valkyrie Ice +#+end_quote + +The Freedombone mesh roughly follows MondoNet's ten social specifications: + +* Decentralized +The network should not be operated, maintained, or in any way reliant upon a single or minimally differentiated set of entities or technologies. No individual, entity or group should be central to the network to the extent that their absence would measurably impact its functionality or scope. Network participation should not require access to fixed, physical infrastructure of any sort. + +* Universally Accessible +The requisite technology and expertise required to participate in the network should be available at minimal cost and effort to every human being on the planet. Furthermore, all users should be able to extend the network’s content and functionality to suit their own needs, or those of others. No aspect of the network’s functioning should be reliant upon proprietary technologies, information or capital. + +* Censor-proof +The network should be resistant to both regulatory and technical attempts to limit the nature of the information shared, restrict usage by given individuals or communities, or render the network, or any portion of it, inoperable or inaccessible. + +* Surveillance-proof +The network should enable users to choose exactly what information they share with whom, and to participate anonymously if they so desire. Users should only have access to information if they are the designated recipients, or if it has been published openly. + +* Secure +The network should be organized in a way that minimizes the risk of malicious attacks or engineering failure. Information exchanged on the network should meet or exceed the delivery rate and reliability of information exchanged via the Internet. + +* Scalable +The network should be organized with the expectation that its scale could reach or even exceed that of today’s Internet. Special care should be taken to address to the challenge of maintaining efficiency without the presence of a centralized backbone. + +* Permanent +The network’s density and redundancy should be great enough that, despite its ad hoc nature, it will persistently operate on a broad scale, and be available in full to any user within range of another peer. + +* Fast (enough) +The network should always achieve whatever speed is required for a “bottom line” level of social and cultural participation. At present, we assert that the network’s data transfer rate should, at a minimum, be enough for voice-over-IP (VoIP) communications, and low-bitrate streaming video. + +* Independent +While the network will have the capacity to exchange information with Internet users and nodes, it should be able to operate independently, as well. A large-scale failure or closure of Internet infrastructure and content should have minimal effect on the network’s operations. + +* Evolvable +The network should be built with future development in mind. The platform should be flexible enough to support technologies, protocols and modes of usage that have not yet been developed. diff --git a/doc/EN/mesh_usage.org b/doc/EN/mesh_usage.org new file mode 100644 index 00000000..826c7f09 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/EN/mesh_usage.org @@ -0,0 +1,189 @@ +#+TITLE: +#+AUTHOR: Bob Mottram +#+EMAIL: bob@freedombone.net +#+KEYWORDS: freedombox, debian, beaglebone, red matrix, email, web server, home server, internet, censorship, surveillance, social network, irc, jabber +#+DESCRIPTION: Turn the Beaglebone Black into a personal communications server +#+OPTIONS: ^:nil toc:nil +#+HTML_HEAD: + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/logo.png]] +#+END_CENTER + +#+begin_export html +

Mesh Network: How to use it

+#+end_export + + * [[Boot trouble]] + * [[Set the Date]] + * [[Check network status]] + * [[Connecting to the internet]] + * [[Connecting two meshes over the internet via a VPN tunnel]] + * [[Mobile devices (phones, etc)]] + * [[Chat System]] + * [[Collaborative document editing]] + * [[Social Network]] + * [[Sharing Files]] + * [[Blogging]] + +When you first boot from the USB drive the system will create some encryption keys, assign a unique network address to the system and then reboot itself. When that's done you should see a prompt asking for a username. This username just makes it easy for others to initially find you on the mesh and will appear in the list of users. + +After a minute or two if you are within wifi range and there is at least one other user on the network then you should see additional icons appear on the desktop, such as /Other Users/ and /Chat/. + +* Boot trouble +If the system doesn't boot and reports an error which includes */dev/mapper/loop0p1* then reboot with *Ctrl-Alt-Del* and when you see the grub menu press *e* and manually change */dev/mapper/loop0p1* to */dev/sdb1*, then press *Ctrl-x*. If that doesn't work then reboot and try */dev/sdc1* instead. + +After the system has booted successfully the problem should resolve itself on subsequent reboots. +* Set the Date +On the ordinary internet the date and time of your system would be set automatically via NTP. But this is not the internet and so you will need to manually ensure that your date and time settings are correct. You might need to periodically do this if your clock drifts. It's not essential that the time on your system be highly accurate, but if it drifts too far or goes back to epoch then things could become a little confusing in regard to the order of blog posts. + +*Right click on the date* in the top right corner of the screen. Select *preferences*, then click the *Time Settings* button. You can then select the date from the calendar and set the time, then click the *Set System Time* button. Enter the default password, which is /freedombone/. +* Check network status +Unlike with ordinary wifi, on the mesh you don't get a signal strength icon and so it's not simple to see if you have a good connection. + +Select the wifi icon on the desktop and enter the password '/freedombone/'. The network configuration will go into a monitoring mode and in the bottom right side of the window you will be able to see signal strength and other parameters. This can help you to locate systems or adjust antennas to get the best wifi performance. + + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_signal.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +When you are finished close the window and then select the /Network Restart/ desktop icon, which will restart the B.A.T.M.A.N. network. You can also use the restart icon if you are within range of the mesh network but the /Chat/ and /Other Users/ icons do not automatically appear after a few minutes. +* Connecting to the internet + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_architecture2.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +If you need to be able to access the internet from the mesh then connect one of the peers to an internet router using an ethernet cable (shown as yellow above), then reboot it. Other peers in the mesh, including any attached mobile devices, will then be able to access the internet using the ethernet attached peer as a gateway. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freifunk][Freifunk]] works in a similar way. + +After connecting one peer to the internet you may need to reboot other peers in order to update their network configurations. + +If for legal reasons you need to connect to the internet via a VPN then openvpn is preinstalled and you can run the command: + +#+begin_src bash +sudo openvpn myclient.ovpn +#+end_src + +Where /myclient.ovpn/ comes from your VPN provider and with the password "/freedombone/". +* Connecting two meshes over the internet via a VPN tunnel + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_architecture_vpn.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +Maybe the internet exists, but you don't care about getting any content from it and just want to use it as a way to connect mesh networks from different geographical locations together. + +In your home directory on a system connected via ethernet to an internet router you'll find a file called *vpn.tar.gz*. If you want another mesh to be able to connect to yours then send them this file and get them to uncompress it into their home directory also on an internet gateway machine. If they have an external IP address or domain name for your router then they will be able to VPN connect using the *Connect Meshes* icon. They should also forward port 653 from their internet router to the mesh gateway machine. + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_connect.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +You should create a new *vpn.tar.gz* file for every other mesh which wants to be able to connect to yours. If you are prompted for a password it is 'freedombone'. + +From a deep packet inspection point of view the traffic going over the internet between mesh gateways will just look like any other TLS connection to a server. + +* Mobile devices (phones, etc) + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_architecture3.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +To allow mobile devices to connect to the mesh you will need a second wifi adapter connected to your laptop/netbook/SBC. Plug in a second wifi adapter then reboot the system. The second adaptor will then create a wifi hotspot (the connection shown in green above) which mobile devices can connect to. The hotspot name also contains its local IP address (eg. "/mesh-192.168.1.83/"). + +On a typical Android device go to *Settings* then *Security* and ensure that *Unknown sources* is enabled. Also within *Wifi* from the *Settings* screen select the mesh hotspot. The password is "/freedombone/". Open a non-Tor browser and navigate to the IP address showing in the hotspot name. You can then download and install mesh apps. + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_mobileapps.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +On some android devices you may need to move the downloaded APK file from the *Downloads* directory to your *home* directory before you can install it. +* Chat System + +Ensure that you're within wifi range of at least one other mesh peer (could be a router or client) and then you should see that the /Chat/ and /Other Users/ icons appear. Select the users icon and you should see a list of users on the mesh. Select the /Chat/ icon and once you are connected you should see the status light turn green. If after a few minutes you don't get the green status light then try closing and re-opening the Tox chat application. Select the plus button to add a friend and then copy and paste in a Tox ID from the users list. + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_paste_tox_id.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +The other user can then accept or decline your friend request. + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_friend_request.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +You can also select an avatar by selecting the grey head and shoulders image. + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_choose_avatar.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +And by selecting the user from the list on the left hand side the chat can begin. + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_text_chat.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +One important point is that by default the microphone is turned off. When doing voice chat you can select the microphone volume with the drop down slider in the top right corner of the screen. + +At present video doesn't work reliably, but text and voice chat do work well. + +* Collaborative document editing +The mesh system includes the ability to collaboratively edit various sorts of documents using CryptPad. CryptPad is an almost peer-to-peer system in that it is designed for a client/server environment but that the server aspect of it is very minimal and limited to orchestrating the connected clients. With CryptPad installed on each mesh peer it effectively enables peer-to-peer collaborative editing. Documents are ephemeral and forgotten unless they're exported or copy-pasted to permanent storage. + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_cryptpad1.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +To create a document click on the CryptPad icon. Depending upon the specifications of your system it may take a few seconds to load, so don't be too disturned if the browser contents look blank for a while. Select _Rich Text Pad_ and give yourself a username. + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_cryptpad2.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +If you have the chat system running you can then copy and paste the URL for your pad into the chat, and the other user can then open the link and edit the document with you. You can repeat that for however many other users you wish to be able to edit. + +* Social Network + +Patchwork is available as a social networking system for the mesh. Like all social network systems it has a stream of posts and you can follow or unfollow other users. You can also send private messages to other users with end-to-end encryption. + +Double click on the "Social" icon to open the app, then add your nickname and optionally a description. If you want to choose an avatar image some can be found within the directory */usr/share/freedombone/avatars*. On older systems or systems without a hardware random number generator, Patchwork sometimes takes a long time (a few minutes) to open for the first time after clicking the icon. This is most likely due to the initial generation of encryption keys, so be patient. + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/patchwork_setup.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +Other Patchwork users on the mesh will appear automatically under the *local* list and you can select and follow them if you wish. It's also possible to select the dark theme from *settings* on the drop down menu if you prefer. + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/patchwork_public.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +The Secure Scuttlebutt protocol which Patchwork is based upon is intended to be robust to intermittent network connectivity, so you can write posts when out of range and they will sync once you are back in the network. + +* Sharing Files +You can make files publicly available on the network simply by dragging and dropping them into the /Public/ folder on the desktop. To view the files belonging to another user select the desktop icon called /Visit a site/ and enter the username or Tox ID of the other user. + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_share_files.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +* Blogging +To create a blog post select the /Blog/ icon on the desktop and then use the up and down cursor keys, space bar and enter key to add a new entry. Edit the title of the entry and add your text. You can also include photos if you wish - just copy them to the *CreateBlog/content/images* directory and then link to them as shown. + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_new_blog.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +To finish your blog entry just select /Save/ and then close the editor. On older hardware it may take a while to publish the results, and this depends upon the amount of computation needed by IPFS to create file hashes. If you make no changes to the default text then the new blog entry will not be saved. + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_new_blog2.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +#+BEGIN_CENTER +[[file:images/mesh_view_blog.jpg]] +#+END_CENTER + +You can also visit other blogs, edit or delete your previous entry and also change your blog theme. diff --git a/img/avatars/icon_blog.png b/img/avatars/icon_blog.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..bd3ccaee Binary files /dev/null and b/img/avatars/icon_blog.png differ diff --git a/img/avatars/icon_connect.png b/img/avatars/icon_connect.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ca498c77 Binary files /dev/null and b/img/avatars/icon_connect.png differ diff --git a/img/avatars/icon_cryptpad.png b/img/avatars/icon_cryptpad.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9f0a51ed Binary files /dev/null and b/img/avatars/icon_cryptpad.png differ diff --git a/img/avatars/icon_help.png b/img/avatars/icon_help.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8e56a5c2 Binary files 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differ diff --git a/img/icon_help.png b/img/icon_help.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..8e56a5c2 Binary files /dev/null and b/img/icon_help.png differ diff --git a/img/icon_new_identity.png b/img/icon_new_identity.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9deb0df7 Binary files /dev/null and b/img/icon_new_identity.png differ diff --git a/img/icon_restart_network.png b/img/icon_restart_network.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ab9cfd1d Binary files /dev/null and b/img/icon_restart_network.png differ diff --git a/img/icon_sites.png b/img/icon_sites.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..1480983e Binary files /dev/null and b/img/icon_sites.png differ diff --git a/img/icon_social.png b/img/icon_social.png index 6f51c5ce..3565f89c 100644 Binary files a/img/icon_social.png and b/img/icon_social.png differ diff --git a/img/icon_users.png b/img/icon_users.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..b4fe5b2c Binary files /dev/null and b/img/icon_users.png differ diff --git a/img/icon_wifi.png b/img/icon_wifi.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..af80ed65 Binary files /dev/null and b/img/icon_wifi.png differ diff --git a/img/icons_chat.png b/img/icons_chat.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ba813a72 Binary files /dev/null and b/img/icons_chat.png differ diff --git a/img/icons_invite.png b/img/icons_invite.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..195f07ef Binary files /dev/null and b/img/icons_invite.png differ diff --git a/img/logo_blue.png b/img/logo_blue.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3ac7ef6b Binary files /dev/null and b/img/logo_blue.png differ diff --git a/img/logo_white_large.png b/img/logo_white_large.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..9279079b Binary files /dev/null and b/img/logo_white_large.png differ diff --git a/img/mesh_architecture1.jpg b/img/mesh_architecture1.jpg new file mode 100644 index 00000000..2bb43e32 Binary files /dev/null and b/img/mesh_architecture1.jpg differ diff --git a/img/mesh_architecture2.jpg b/img/mesh_architecture2.jpg new file mode 100644 index 00000000..dcd27aa7 Binary files /dev/null and b/img/mesh_architecture2.jpg differ diff --git a/img/mesh_architecture3.jpg b/img/mesh_architecture3.jpg new file mode 100644 index 00000000..4b06ef59 Binary files /dev/null and b/img/mesh_architecture3.jpg differ diff --git a/img/mesh_architecture_vpn.jpg b/img/mesh_architecture_vpn.jpg new file mode 100644 index 00000000..3bc4b59b Binary files /dev/null and b/img/mesh_architecture_vpn.jpg differ diff --git a/img/postactiv_sprite2.png b/img/postactiv_sprite2.png new file mode 100644 index 00000000..d1621289 Binary files /dev/null and b/img/postactiv_sprite2.png differ diff --git a/src/freedombone-image-customise b/src/freedombone-image-customise index 3240ea2c..bbaab7df 100755 --- a/src/freedombone-image-customise +++ b/src/freedombone-image-customise @@ -779,18 +779,11 @@ function mesh_client_startup_applications { echo '' >> $START_DESKTOP echo 'INITIAL_TOX_USERNAME=""' >> $START_DESKTOP echo 'while [ ${#INITIAL_TOX_USERNAME} -eq 0 ]; do' >> $START_DESKTOP - echo ' data=$(tempfile 2>/dev/null)' >> $START_DESKTOP - echo ' trap "rm -f $data" 0 1 2 5 15' >> $START_DESKTOP - echo -n " dialog --title \"${MESH_TITLE}\" " >> $START_DESKTOP - echo -n "--backtitle \"${MESH_TITLE}\" " >> $START_DESKTOP - echo -n "--inputbox \"${MESH_SET_USERNAME}\" 12 60 Anon " >> $START_DESKTOP - echo '2>$data' >> $START_DESKTOP - echo ' sel=$?' >> $START_DESKTOP - echo ' case $sel in' >> $START_DESKTOP - echo ' 0)' >> $START_DESKTOP - echo ' INITIAL_TOX_USERNAME=$(<$data)' >> $START_DESKTOP - echo ' ;;' >> $START_DESKTOP - echo ' esac' >> $START_DESKTOP + echo " data=\$(zenity --forms --title=\"$MESH_TITLE\" --text=\"$MESH_SET_USERNAME\" --separator=\",\" --add-entry=\"Username\")" >> $START_DESKTOP + echo ' accepted=$?' >> $START_DESKTOP + echo ' if ((accepted == 0)); then' >> $START_DESKTOP + echo " INITIAL_TOX_USERNAME=\$(awk -F, '{print \$1}' <<<\$data)" >> $START_DESKTOP + echo ' fi' >> $START_DESKTOP echo 'done' >> $START_DESKTOP echo '' >> $START_DESKTOP echo 'toxid --setuser "$INITIAL_TOX_USERNAME"' >> $START_DESKTOP @@ -892,6 +885,9 @@ function configure_user_interface { # audio recording chroot "$rootdir" apt-get -yq install audacity + # for gtk dialog entry + chroot "$rootdir" apt-get -yq install zenity + # Produce a text file on the desktop listing users on the mesh cat < $rootdir/usr/bin/list-tox-users #!/bin/bash @@ -923,7 +919,7 @@ if [ \$no_of_users -gt 0 ]; then echo 'Type=Application' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/Users.desktop echo 'Comment=List of users' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/Users.desktop echo 'Exec=bash /home/$MY_USERNAME/showusers' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/Users.desktop - echo 'Icon=/usr/share/$PROJECT_NAME/avatars/otheruser.png' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/Users.desktop + echo 'Icon=/usr/share/$PROJECT_NAME/avatars/icon_users.png' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/Users.desktop echo 'StartupNotify=false' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/Users.desktop chmod +x /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/Users.desktop chown $MY_USERNAME:$MY_USERNAME /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/Users.desktop @@ -934,7 +930,7 @@ if [ \$no_of_users -gt 0 ]; then echo 'Type=Application' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/cryptpad.desktop echo 'Comment=Realtime collaborative editing of documents' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/cryptpad.desktop echo "Exec=$BROWSER http://\${HOSTNAME}.local" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/cryptpad.desktop - echo "Icon=/etc/cryptpad/icon_cryptpad.png" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/cryptpad.desktop + echo "Icon=/usr/share/$PROJECT_NAME/avatars/icon_cryptpad.png" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/cryptpad.desktop echo 'Terminal=false' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/cryptpad.desktop echo 'Categories=Application;' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/cryptpad.desktop chmod +x /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/cryptpad.desktop @@ -954,7 +950,7 @@ if [ \$no_of_users -gt 0 ]; then echo 'Type=Application' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop echo 'Comment=A decentralized messaging and sharing app built on top of Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB)' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop echo 'Exec=bash /usr/bin/start_patchwork' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop - echo "Icon=/etc/patchwork/icon_patchwork.png" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop + echo "Icon=/usr/share/$PROJECT_NAME/avatars/icon_social.png" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop echo 'Terminal=false' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop echo 'Categories=Application;' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop chmod +x /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop @@ -988,7 +984,7 @@ if [ \$no_of_users -gt 0 ]; then echo 'Name=Connect Meshes' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/vpn.desktop echo 'Comment=Connect to another mesh network via the internet' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/vpn.desktop echo 'Exec=mate-terminal -e /usr/local/bin/${PROJECT_NAME}-mesh-connect' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/vpn.desktop - echo 'Icon=/usr/share/${PROJECT_NAME}/avatars/connect.jpg' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/vpn.desktop + echo 'Icon=/usr/share/$PROJECT_NAME/avatars/icon_connect.png' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/vpn.desktop echo 'StartupNotify=false' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/vpn.desktop chmod +x /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/vpn.desktop chown $MY_USERNAME:$MY_USERNAME /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/vpn.desktop @@ -1000,7 +996,7 @@ if [ \$no_of_users -gt 0 ]; then echo "Name=Visit a site" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/sites.desktop echo 'Comment=Visit a site' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/sites.desktop echo 'Exec=mate-terminal -e /usr/local/bin/${PROJECT_NAME}-mesh-visit-site' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/sites.desktop - echo 'Icon=/usr/share/${PROJECT_NAME}/avatars/ipfs.jpg' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/sites.desktop + echo 'Icon=/usr/share/$PROJECT_NAME/avatars/icon_sites.png' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/sites.desktop echo 'StartupNotify=false' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/sites.desktop chmod +x /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/sites.desktop chown $MY_USERNAME:$MY_USERNAME /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/sites.desktop @@ -1010,7 +1006,7 @@ if [ \$no_of_users -gt 0 ]; then echo "Name=Blog" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/blog.desktop echo 'Comment=View or create blog entries' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/blog.desktop echo 'Exec=mate-terminal -e /usr/local/bin/${PROJECT_NAME}-mesh-blog' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/blog.desktop - echo 'Icon=/usr/share/${PROJECT_NAME}/avatars/blog.png' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/blog.desktop + echo 'Icon=/usr/share/$PROJECT_NAME/avatars/icon_blog.png' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/blog.desktop echo 'StartupNotify=false' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/blog.desktop chmod +x /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/blog.desktop chown $MY_USERNAME:$MY_USERNAME /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/blog.desktop @@ -1032,7 +1028,7 @@ if [ \$no_of_users -gt 0 ]; then echo 'Type=Application' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/tox.desktop echo 'Comment=Chat, Voice and Video' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/tox.desktop echo 'Exec=bash /home/$MY_USERNAME/runtox' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/tox.desktop - echo "Icon=/usr/share/$PROJECT_NAME/avatars/chat.png" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/tox.desktop + echo "Icon=/usr/share/$PROJECT_NAME/avatars/icon_chat.png" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/tox.desktop echo 'StartupNotify=true' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/tox.desktop chmod +x /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/tox.desktop chown $MY_USERNAME:$MY_USERNAME /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/tox.desktop @@ -1048,7 +1044,7 @@ if [ \$no_of_users -gt 0 ]; then echo 'Type=Application' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/invite.desktop echo 'Comment=Create an invite for Patchwork or Ferment' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/invite.desktop echo 'Exec=mate-terminal -e freedombone-mesh-invite' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/invite.desktop - echo 'Icon=/usr/share/freedombone/avatars/invite.png' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/invite.desktop + echo 'Icon=/usr/share/$PROJECT_NAME/avatars/icon_invite.png' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/invite.desktop echo 'Terminal=false' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/invite.desktop echo 'Categories=Application;' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/invite.desktop chmod +x /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/invite.desktop diff --git a/src/freedombone-image-mesh b/src/freedombone-image-mesh index 7148304a..362983fe 100755 --- a/src/freedombone-image-mesh +++ b/src/freedombone-image-mesh @@ -282,7 +282,7 @@ function show_desktop_icons { echo 'Type=Application' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/help.desktop echo 'Comment=Show help' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/help.desktop echo "Exec=bash -c /home/$MY_USERNAME/.showhelp" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/help.desktop - echo 'Icon=/usr/share/freedombone/avatars/help.png' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/help.desktop + echo "Icon=/usr/share/${PROJECT_NAME}/avatars/icon_help.png" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/help.desktop echo 'Terminal=false' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/help.desktop echo 'Categories=Application;' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/help.desktop @@ -292,7 +292,7 @@ function show_desktop_icons { echo 'Type=Application' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/wifi.desktop echo 'Comment=Check wifi status' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/wifi.desktop echo 'Exec=mate-terminal -e "sudo batman monitor"' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/wifi.desktop - echo 'Icon=/usr/share/freedombone/avatars/wifi.png' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/wifi.desktop + echo "Icon=/usr/share/${PROJECT_NAME}/avatars/icon_wifi.png" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/wifi.desktop echo 'Terminal=false' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/wifi.desktop echo 'Categories=Application;' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/wifi.desktop @@ -302,7 +302,7 @@ function show_desktop_icons { echo 'Type=Application' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/restart.desktop echo 'Comment=Restart batman' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/restart.desktop echo 'Exec=mate-terminal -e "sudo batman restart 2> /dev/null"' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/restart.desktop - echo 'Icon=/usr/share/freedombone/avatars/restart.png' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/restart.desktop + echo "Icon=/usr/share/${PROJECT_NAME}/avatars/icon_restart_network.png" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/restart.desktop echo 'Terminal=false' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/restart.desktop echo 'Categories=Application;' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/restart.desktop @@ -311,8 +311,8 @@ function show_desktop_icons { echo 'Name=New Identity' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/new_identity.desktop echo 'Type=Application' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/new_identity.desktop echo 'Comment=Create a new identity' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/new_identity.desktop - echo 'Exec=mate-terminal -e freedombone-mesh-reset' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/new_identity.desktop - echo 'Icon=/usr/share/freedombone/avatars/newidentity.png' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/new_identity.desktop + echo "Exec=mate-terminal -e ${PROJECT_NAME}-mesh-reset" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/new_identity.desktop + echo "Icon=/usr/share/${PROJECT_NAME}/avatars/icon_new_identity.png" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/new_identity.desktop echo 'Terminal=false' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/new_identity.desktop echo 'Categories=Application;' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/new_identity.desktop @@ -321,7 +321,7 @@ function show_desktop_icons { echo 'Type=Application' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop echo 'Comment=A decentralized messaging and sharing app built on top of Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB)' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop echo 'Exec=bash /usr/bin/start_patchwork' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop - echo "Icon=/etc/patchwork/icon_patchwork.png" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop + echo "Icon=/usr/share/${PROJECT_NAME}/avatars/icon_social.png" >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop echo 'Terminal=false' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop echo 'Categories=Application;' >> /home/$MY_USERNAME/Desktop/social.desktop diff --git a/src/meshavahi b/src/meshavahi index 7ea0d3af..74a66899 100755 --- a/src/meshavahi +++ b/src/meshavahi @@ -147,7 +147,7 @@ function detect_new_tox_users { # Produce notifications if new users appear if [ -f $PREV_TOX_USERS_FILE ]; then while IFS='' read -r line || [[ -n "$line" ]]; do - if [[ $line != "Failed*" && $line != "data "* && $line != "Anon "* && $line != "anon "* ]]; then + if [[ $line != "Failed*" && $line != "data "* && $line != "Anon "* && $line != "anon "* && $line != "anonymous "* && $line != "Anonymous "* ]]; then if ! grep -q "$line" $PREV_TOX_USERS_FILE; then # get the nick of the user toxidstr=$(echo "$line" | awk -F ' ' '{print $(NF)}') diff --git a/website/EN/mesh.html b/website/EN/mesh.html index a3303e18..86a2369c 100644 --- a/website/EN/mesh.html +++ b/website/EN/mesh.html @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> - + ‎ @@ -246,55 +246,26 @@ for the JavaScript code in this tag.

Mesh Network

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mesh_screenshot.jpg -

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What the system can do-Disk Images-Building Disk Images-How to use it
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-"I see mesh networks naturally evolving to become the dominant form of network over the next few decades, because it’s the most practical solution to a number of problems that will have to be solved in order to build the VR web as well as to connect the entire world to the internet. Centralized networks are only possible in highly developed countries with existing infrastructures like power and telephone grids, as well as roads. You can’t build a tower where you don’t have either power or access. For vast areas of the world, mesh networks will be the only feasible solution." – Valkyrie Ice -

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The Freedombone Mesh is a wireless solution for autonomous or internet connected communication that can be rapidly deployed in temporary, emergency or post-disaster situations where internet access is unavailable or compromised.

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mesh_architecture1.jpg +

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Mesh networks are useful as a quick way to make a fully decentralised communications system which is not connected to or reliant upon the internet. Think festivals, hacker conferences, onboard ships at sea, disaster/war zones, small businesses who don't want the overhead of server maintenance, protests, remote areas of the world, temporary "digital blackouts", scientific expeditions and off-world space colonies.

@@ -307,619 +278,12 @@ If an internet connection is available then it can make use of that, but otherwi Systems only need to be within wifi range of each other for the mesh to be created, so it can be an very convenient way to create a local communications network.

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-The Freedombone mesh roughly follows MondoNet's ten social specifications: -

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What the system can do

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  • Discovery of other users on the network
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  • Blogging
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  • Social network stream. Follow/unfollow other peers
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  • No network administration required
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  • No servers
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  • Internet connection is optional
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  • Works from bootable USB drives or microSD drives
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  • Data is mesh routed between systems
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  • Publicly shared data is content addressable
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-This system should be quite scalable. Both qTox and IPFS are based upon distributed hash tables (DHT) so that each peer does not need to store the full index of data for the entire network. Gossiping between SSB peers may be slower, but the small world effect will presumably still make for quite efficient delivery in a large network. Caching or pinning of IPFS data and its content addressability means that if a file or blog becomes popular then performance should improve as the number of downloads increases, which is the opposite of the client/server paradigm. -

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Disk Images

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Writing many images quickly

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-There may be situations where you need to write the same disk image to multiple drives at the same time in order to maximize rate of deployment. In the instructions given below the dd command is used for writing to the target drive, but to write to multiple drives you can use a tool such as GNOME MultiWriter. -

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-For example on Arch/Parabola: -

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sudo pacman -S gnome-multi-writer
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-Or on Debian based systems: -

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sudo apt-get install gnome-multi-writer
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-The MultiWriter tool is also available within mesh client images, so that you can use mesh systems to create more copies of the same system. -

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Client images

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mesh_netbook.jpg -

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-"Client" isn't exactly the right term, but it's a mesh peer with a user interface. These images can be copied to a USB drive, then you can plug it into a laptop/netbook/desktop machine and boot from it. You will probably also need an Atheros USB wifi dongle (the black protruding object on the left side of the netbook in the picture above), because most built-in wifi usually requires proprietary firmware. In the commands below substitute /dev/sdX with the USB drive device, excluding any trailing numbers (eg. /dev/sdb). The USB drive you're copying to will need to be at least 8GB in size. -

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sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget
-wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz
-wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz.sig
-gpg --verify freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz.sig
-sha256sum freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz
-995dd64538f46f6abf83ba258cca6cb82a72399cb9a099caeafc1de947ef795c
-unxz freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz
-sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8
-sudo dd bs=1M if=freedombone-meshclient-i386.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync
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-To get a number of systems onto the mesh repeat the dd command to create however many bootable USB drives you need. -

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-If you're in an emergency and don't have Atheros wifi dongles then there is also an "insecure" image which contains some proprietary wifi drivers which may work with a wider range of laptops. Proprietary drivers are not recommended because they're unsupportable and may be exploitable or contain malicious antifeatures which fundamentally compromise the security of the network. However, the trade-off between security/maintainability and simply having the ability to communicate at all may be a valid one in some situations. -

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sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget
-wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz
-wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz.sig
-gpg --verify freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz.sig
-sha256sum freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz
-b06e6ff5e56577025e6b994fe0bb28f02da7d2905ac32a2f38d7d074ffe801fc
-unxz freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz
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Router images

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-Routers are intended to build network coverage for an area using small and low cost hardware. You can bolt them to walls or leave them on window ledges. They don't have any user interface and their only job is to haul network traffic across the mesh and to enable peers to find each other via running bootstrap nodes for Tox and IPFS. Copy the image to a microSD card and insert it into the router, plug in an Atheros wifi dongle and power on. That should be all you need to do. -

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-The above picture shows a Beaglebone Black with the image copied onto a microSD card (there's no need to do anything with the internal EMMC). A USB Atheros wifi adaptor with a large antenna is attached and in this case power is from the mains, although it could be from a battery or solar power system capable of supplying 5 volts and maybe 1A (depending upon how active the router is). -

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sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget
-wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz
-wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz.sig
-gpg --verify freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz.sig
-sha256sum freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz
-45f131995e2f77188e7ddaf2b42ca3d8d48d821d37c7a31a21e2e6dcceaf510d
-unxz freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz
-sudo dd bs=1M if=freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync
-
-
- -

-If you have a few Beaglebone Blacks to use as routers then repeat the dd command to create however many microSD cards you need. -

- -

-There is still a software freedom issue with the Beaglebone Black, but it doesn't prevent you from running a fully free system on the board. The TI AM335X SOC has a PowerVR SGX530 GPU which will only run with a proprietary blob, but this would only be an issue for systems with a monitor or LCD screen attached running a desktop environment which also needs GPU acceleration. For "headless" systems such as servers or mesh routers this isn't a problem. -

-
-
-
-
- -
-

Building Disk Images

-
-

-It's better not to trust images downloaded from random places on the interwebs. Chances are that unless you are in the web of trust of the above GPG signatures then they don't mean very much to you. If you actually want something trustworthy then build the images from scratch. It will take some time. Here's how to do it. -

- -

-First you will need to create an image. On a Debian based system (tested on Debian Stretch): -

- -
-
sudo apt-get -y install git wget build-essential
-wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone.tar.gz
-wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone.tar.gz.sig
-gpg --verify freedombone.tar.gz.sig
-sha256sum freedombone.tar.gz
-fd0b3fe1527de893f4ece7ffe95fdf0c41e635a3f82d22a51b707c1aee541e88
-tar -xzvf freedombone.tar.gz
-cd freedombone
-git checkout stretch
-sudo make install
-freedombone-image --setup debian
-freedombone-image -t i386 -v meshclient
-
-
- -

-If you don't have Atheros or free software compatible wifi adapter then you can include proprietary wifi drivers which will work with most laptops. This is NOT RECOMMENDED because proprietary drivers are unsupportable and may contain either malware or be exploitable in a way which can't be fixed. However, if you're in an emergency and don't have any Atheros or free software wifi USB dongles then you can use the following command to make the image: -

- -
-
freedombone-image -t i386 -v meshclient --insecure yes
-
-
- -

-This takes a while. Maybe an hour or so, depending on the speed of your system and the internets. The good news though is that once created you can use the resulting image any number of times, and you don't need to trust some pre-built image. -

- -

-List what drives are on your system with: -

- -
-
ls /dev/sd*
-
-
- -

-Now plug in the USB thumb drive, and do the same again. Notice which drive letter gets added. -

- -

-You can now copy the image to the USB thumb drive, replacing sdX with the identifier of the USB thumb drive. Don't include any numbers (so for example use sdc instead of sdc1). -

- -
-
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8
-sudo dd bs=1M if=myimagefile.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync
-
-
- -

-And wait. Again it will take a while to copy over. When that's done plug it into the laptop or netbook which you want to use on the mesh, power on and set the BIOS to boot from the USB stick. -

- -

-On first boot you'll be asked to set a username, and then you can open the chat client and select the users icon to show the Tox IDs for other users on the mesh. When folks join they will be announced. -

- -

-Rinse, repeat, for any number of laptops that you want to get onto the mesh or to build out coverage within an area. There are no servers. Just peer-to-peer communications routed through the network which are end-to-end secure after a friend request is accepted. By default the chat client doesn't log anything. -

- -

-You can also use single board computers (SBCs) such as the BeagleBone Black to make mesh routers which can be bolted to walls or the sides of buildings and consume minimal electrical power, so could be solar or battery powered for short term events such as festivals. To do that use the following command to make the image: -

- -
-
freedombone-image -t beaglebone -v mesh
-
-
- -

-The resulting image can be copied to a microSD card, inserted into a Beaglebone Black and booted. Don't forget to plug in an Atheros USB wifi dongle. -

-
-
- -
-

Customisation

-
-

-If you want to make your own specially branded version, such as for a particular event, then to change the default desktop backgrounds edit the images within img/backgrounds and to change the available avatars and desktop icons edit the images within img/avatars. Re-create disk images using the instructions shown previously. -

- -

-If you need particular dconf commands to alter desktop appearance or behavior then see the function mesh_client_startup_applications within src/freedombone-image-customise. -

-
-
-
-

How to use it

-
-

-When you first boot from the USB drive the system will create some encryption keys, assign a unique network address to the system and then reboot itself. When that's done you should see a prompt asking for a username. This username just makes it easy for others to initially find you on the mesh and will appear in the list of users. -

- -

-After a minute or two if you are within wifi range and there is at least one other user on the network then you should see additional icons appear on the desktop, such as Other Users and Chat. -

-
- -
-

Boot trouble

-
-

-If the system doesn't boot and reports an error which includes /dev/mapper/loop0p1 then reboot with Ctrl-Alt-Del and when you see the grub menu press e and manually change /dev/mapper/loop0p1 to /dev/sdb1, then press Ctrl-x. If that doesn't work then reboot and try /dev/sdc1 instead. -

- -

-After the system has booted successfully the problem should resolve itself on subsequent reboots. -

-
-
-
-

Set the Date

-
-

-On the ordinary internet the date and time of your system would be set automatically via NTP. But this is not the internet and so you will need to manually ensure that your date and time settings are correct. You might need to periodically do this if your clock drifts. It's not essential that the time on your system be highly accurate, but if it drifts too far or goes back to epoch then things could become a little confusing in regard to the order of blog posts. -

- -

-Right click on the date in the top right corner of the screen. Select preferences, then click the Time Settings button. You can then select the date from the calendar and set the time, then click the Set System Time button. Enter the default password, which is freedombone. -

-
-
-
-

Check network status

-
-

-Unlike with ordinary wifi, on the mesh you don't get a signal strength icon and so it's not simple to see if you have a good connection. -

- -

-Select the wifi icon on the desktop and enter the password 'freedombone'. The network configuration will go into a monitoring mode and in the bottom right side of the window you will be able to see signal strength and other parameters. This can help you to locate systems or adjust antennas to get the best wifi performance. -

- - -
- -
-

mesh_signal.jpg -

-
-
- -

-When you are finished close the window and then select the Network Restart desktop icon, which will restart the B.A.T.M.A.N. network. You can also use the restart icon if you are within range of the mesh network but the Chat and Other Users icons do not automatically appear after a few minutes. -

-
-
-
-

Connecting to the internet

-
-

-If you need to be able to access the internet from the mesh then connect one of the peers to an internet router using an ethernet cable, then reboot it. Other peers in the mesh, including any attached mobile devices, will then be able to access the internet using the ethernet attached peer as a gateway. Freifunk works in a similar way. -

- -

-After connecting one peer to the internet you may need to reboot other peers in order to update their network configurations. -

- -

-If for legal reasons you need to connect to the internet via a VPN then openvpn is preinstalled and you can run the command: -

- -
-
sudo openvpn myclient.ovpn
-
-
- -

-Where myclient.ovpn comes from your VPN provider and with the password "freedombone". -

-
-
-
-

Connecting two meshes over the internet via a VPN tunnel

-
-

-Maybe the internet exists, but you don't care about getting any content from it and just want to use it as a way to connect mesh networks from different geographical locations together. -

- -

-In your home directory on a system connected via ethernet to an internet router you'll find a file called vpn.tar.gz. If you want another mesh to be able to connect to yours then send them this file and get them to uncompress it into their home directory also on an internet gateway machine. If they have an external IP address or domain name for your router then they will be able to VPN connect using the Connect Meshes icon. They should also forward port 653 from their internet router to the mesh gateway machine. -

- -
- -
-

mesh_connect.jpg -

-
-
- -

-You should create a new vpn.tar.gz file for every other mesh which wants to be able to connect to yours. If you are prompted for a password it is 'freedombone'. -

- -

-From a deep packet inspection point of view the traffic going over the internet between mesh gateways will just look like any other TLS connection to a server. -

-
-
- -
-

Mobile devices (phones, etc)

-
-

-To allow mobile devices to connect to the mesh you will need a second wifi adapter connected to your laptop/netbook/SBC. Plug in a second wifi adapter then reboot the system. The second adaptor will then create a wifi hotspot which mobile devices can connect to. The hotspot name also contains its local IP address (eg. "mesh-192.168.1.83"). -

- -

-On a typical Android device go to Settings then Security and ensure that Unknown sources is enabled. Also within Wifi from the Settings screen select the mesh hotspot. The password is "freedombone". Open a non-Tor browser and navigate to the IP address showing in the hotspot name. You can then download and install mesh apps. -

- -
- -
-

mesh_mobileapps.jpg -

-
-
- -

-On some android devices you may need to move the downloaded APK file from the Downloads directory to your home directory before you can install it. -

-
-
-
-

Chat System

-
-

-Ensure that you're within wifi range of at least one other mesh peer (could be a router or client) and then you should see that the Chat and Other Users icons appear. Select the users icon and you should see a list of users on the mesh. Select the Chat icon and once you are connected you should see the status light turn green. If after a few minutes you don't get the green status light then try closing and re-opening the Tox chat application. Select the plus button to add a friend and then copy and paste in a Tox ID from the users list. -

- -
- -
-

mesh_paste_tox_id.jpg -

-
-
- -

-The other user can then accept or decline your friend request. -

- -
- -
-

mesh_friend_request.jpg -

-
-
- -

-You can also select an avatar by selecting the grey head and shoulders image. -

- -
- -
-

mesh_choose_avatar.jpg -

-
-
- -

-And by selecting the user from the list on the left hand side the chat can begin. -

- -
- -
-

mesh_text_chat.jpg -

-
-
- -

-One important point is that by default the microphone is turned off. When doing voice chat you can select the microphone volume with the drop down slider in the top right corner of the screen. -

- -

-At present video doesn't work reliably, but text and voice chat do work well. -

-
-
- -
-

Collaborative document editing

-
-

-The mesh system includes the ability to collaboratively edit various sorts of documents using CryptPad. CryptPad is an almost peer-to-peer system in that it is designed for a client/server environment but that the server aspect of it is very minimal and limited to orchestrating the connected clients. With CryptPad installed on each mesh peer it effectively enables peer-to-peer collaborative editing. Documents are ephemeral and forgotten unless they're exported or copy-pasted to permanent storage. -

- -
- -
-

mesh_cryptpad1.jpg -

-
-
- -

-To create a document click on the CryptPad icon. Depending upon the specifications of your system it may take a few seconds to load, so don't be too disturned if the browser contents look blank for a while. Select Rich Text Pad and give yourself a username. -

- -
- -
-

mesh_cryptpad2.jpg -

-
-
- -

-If you have the chat system running you can then copy and paste the URL for your pad into the chat, and the other user can then open the link and edit the document with you. You can repeat that for however many other users you wish to be able to edit. -

-
-
- -
-

Social Network

-
-

-Patchwork is available as a social networking system for the mesh. Like all social network systems it has a stream of posts and you can follow or unfollow other users. You can also send private messages to other users with end-to-end encryption. -

- -

-Double click on the "Social" icon to open the app, then add your nickname and optionally a description. If you want to choose an avatar image some can be found within the directory /usr/share/freedombone/avatars. On older systems or systems without a hardware random number generator, Patchwork sometimes takes a long time (a few minutes) to open for the first time after clicking the icon. This is most likely due to the initial generation of encryption keys, so be patient. -

- -
- -
-

patchwork_setup.jpg -

-
-
- -

-Other Patchwork users on the mesh will appear automatically under the local list and you can select and follow them if you wish. It's also possible to select the dark theme from settings on the drop down menu if you prefer. -

- -
- -
-

patchwork_public.jpg -

-
-
- -

-The Secure Scuttlebutt protocol which Patchwork is based upon is intended to be robust to intermittent network connectivity, so you can write posts when out of range and they will sync once you are back in the network. -

-
-
- -
-

Sharing Files

-
-

-You can make files publicly available on the network simply by dragging and dropping them into the Public folder on the desktop. To view the files belonging to another user select the desktop icon called Visit a site and enter the username or Tox ID of the other user. -

- -
- -
-

mesh_share_files.jpg -

-
-
-
-
- -
-

Blogging

-
-

-To create a blog post select the Blog icon on the desktop and then use the up and down cursor keys, space bar and enter key to add a new entry. Edit the title of the entry and add your text. You can also include photos if you wish - just copy them to the CreateBlog/content/images directory and then link to them as shown. -

- -
- -
-

mesh_new_blog.jpg -

-
-
- -

-To finish your blog entry just select Save and then close the editor. On older hardware it may take a while to publish the results, and this depends upon the amount of computation needed by IPFS to create file hashes. If you make no changes to the default text then the new blog entry will not be saved. -

- -
- -
-

mesh_new_blog2.jpg -

-
-
- -
- -
-

mesh_view_blog.jpg -

-
-
- -

-You can also visit other blogs, edit or delete your previous entry and also change your blog theme. -

- -

This site can also be accessed via a Tor browser at http://pazyv7nkllp76hqr.onion

-
-
-
+ + + + +
+ +
+
+
+ +
+

logo.png +

+
+
+ +

Mesh Network: Capabilities

+ +

+The mesh system has the following capabilities: +

+ +
    +
  • Discovery of other users on the network
    • +
  • Text based chat, one-to-one and in groups
    • +
  • Voice chat (VoIP) and video calls
    • +
  • Private and public sharing of files
    • +
  • Blogging
    • +
  • Collaborative editing of documents and presentations
    • +
  • Creating and broadcasting audio media/podcasts
    • +
  • Social network stream. Follow/unfollow other peers
    • +
  • No network administration required
    • +
  • No servers
    • +
  • Internet connection is optional
    • +
  • Works from bootable USB drives or microSD drives
    • +
  • Data is mesh routed between systems
    • +
  • Private communications is end-to-end secured and forward secret
    • +
  • Publicly shared data is content addressable
    • +
+ +

+This system should be quite scalable. Both qTox and IPFS are based upon distributed hash tables (DHT) so that each peer does not need to store the full index of data for the entire network. Gossiping between SSB peers may be slower, but the small world effect will presumably still make for quite efficient delivery in a large network. Caching or pinning of IPFS data and its content addressability means that if a file or blog becomes popular then performance should improve as the number of downloads increases, which is the opposite of the client/server paradigm. +

+
+
+ + + +
+Back to top | E-mail me +
+
+ + diff --git a/website/EN/mesh_custom.html b/website/EN/mesh_custom.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..f7adf440 --- /dev/null +++ b/website/EN/mesh_custom.html @@ -0,0 +1,282 @@ + + + + + + + +‎ + + + + + + + + + +
+ +
+
+
+ +
+

logo.png +

+
+
+ +

Mesh Network: Customisation

+ +

+If you want to make your own specially branded version, such as for a particular event, then to change the default desktop backgrounds edit the images within img/backgrounds and to change the available avatars and desktop icons edit the images within img/avatars. Re-create disk images using the instructions shown previously. +

+ +

+If you need particular dconf commands to alter desktop appearance or behavior then see the function mesh_client_startup_applications within src/freedombone-image-customise. +

+
+
+ + + +
+Back to top | E-mail me +
+
+ + diff --git a/website/EN/mesh_images.html b/website/EN/mesh_images.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..7b4f32d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/website/EN/mesh_images.html @@ -0,0 +1,495 @@ + + + + + + + +‎ + + + + + + + + + +
+ +
+
+
+ +
+

logo.png +

+
+
+ +

Mesh Network: Images

+ +
+

Pre-built Disk Images

+
+
+
+

Writing many images quickly

+
+

+There may be situations where you need to write the same disk image to multiple drives at the same time in order to maximize rate of deployment. In the instructions given below the dd command is used for writing to the target drive, but to write to multiple drives you can use a tool such as GNOME MultiWriter. +

+ +

+For example on Arch/Parabola: +

+ +
+
sudo pacman -S gnome-multi-writer
+
+
+ +

+Or on Debian based systems: +

+ +
+
sudo apt-get install gnome-multi-writer
+
+
+ +

+The MultiWriter tool is also available within mesh client images, so that you can use mesh systems to create more copies of the same system. +

+
+
+
+

Client images

+
+
+ +
+

mesh_netbook.jpg +

+
+
+ +

+"Client" isn't exactly the right term, but it's a mesh peer with a user interface. These images can be copied to a USB drive, then you can plug it into a laptop/netbook/desktop machine and boot from it. You will probably also need an Atheros USB wifi dongle (the black protruding object on the left side of the netbook in the picture above), because most built-in wifi usually requires proprietary firmware. In the commands below substitute /dev/sdX with the USB drive device, excluding any trailing numbers (eg. /dev/sdb). The USB drive you're copying to will need to be at least 8GB in size. +

+ +
+
sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget
+wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz
+wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz.sig
+gpg --verify freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz.sig
+sha256sum freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz
+61e474afae14774d7aa479b6727fd5e77bdc1854e547b3c5b630bf10542a9581
+unxz freedombone-meshclient-i386.img.xz
+sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8
+sudo dd bs=1M if=freedombone-meshclient-i386.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync
+
+
+ +

+To get a number of systems onto the mesh repeat the dd command to create however many bootable USB drives you need. +

+ +

+If you're in an emergency and don't have Atheros wifi dongles then there is also an "insecure" image which contains some proprietary wifi drivers which may work with a wider range of laptops. Proprietary drivers are not recommended because they're unsupportable and may be exploitable or contain malicious antifeatures which fundamentally compromise the security of the network. However, the trade-off between security/maintainability and simply having the ability to communicate at all may be a valid one in some situations. +

+ +
+
sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget
+wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz
+wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz.sig
+gpg --verify freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz.sig
+sha256sum freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz
+fec843303d7d280859f75f7a8edccd70512915a34d4cc0787b5de7d8fbde5c81
+unxz freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img.xz
+sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8
+sudo dd bs=1M if=freedombone-meshclient-insecure-i386.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync
+
+
+
+
+ +
+

Router images

+
+

+Routers are intended to build network coverage for an area using small and low cost hardware. You can bolt them to walls or leave them on window ledges. They don't have any user interface and their only job is to haul network traffic across the mesh and to enable peers to find each other via running bootstrap nodes for Tox and IPFS. Copy the image to a microSD card and insert it into the router, plug in an Atheros wifi dongle and power on. That should be all you need to do. +

+
+
+

Beaglebone Black

+
+
+ +
+

mesh_router.jpg +

+
+
+ +

+The above picture shows a Beaglebone Black with the image copied onto a microSD card (there's no need to do anything with the internal EMMC). A USB Atheros wifi adaptor with a large antenna is attached and in this case power is from the mains, although it could be from a battery or solar power system capable of supplying 5 volts and maybe 1A (depending upon how active the router is). +

+ +
+
sudo apt-get install xz-utils wget
+wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz
+wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz.sig
+gpg --verify freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz.sig
+sha256sum freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz
+45f131995e2f77188e7ddaf2b42ca3d8d48d821d37c7a31a21e2e6dcceaf510d
+unxz freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img.xz
+sudo dd bs=1M if=freedombone-mesh_beaglebone-armhf.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync
+
+
+ +

+If you have a few Beaglebone Blacks to use as routers then repeat the dd command to create however many microSD cards you need. +

+ +

+There is still a software freedom issue with the Beaglebone Black, but it doesn't prevent you from running a fully free system on the board. The TI AM335X SOC has a PowerVR SGX530 GPU which will only run with a proprietary blob, but this would only be an issue for systems with a monitor or LCD screen attached running a desktop environment which also needs GPU acceleration. For "headless" systems such as servers or mesh routers this isn't a problem. +

+
+
+
+
+ +
+

Building Disk Images

+
+

+It's better not to trust images downloaded from random places on the interwebs. Chances are that unless you are in the web of trust of the above GPG signatures then they don't mean very much to you. If you actually want something trustworthy then build the images from scratch. It will take some time. Here's how to do it. +

+ +

+First you will need to create an image. On a Debian based system (tested on Debian Stretch): +

+ +
+
sudo apt-get -y install git wget build-essential
+wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone.tar.gz
+wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/current/freedombone.tar.gz.sig
+gpg --verify freedombone.tar.gz.sig
+sha256sum freedombone.tar.gz
+e2715e27b142a21fa257eab15778ddc96f86fda70f8d91d47c4c9aa19f22e272
+tar -xzvf freedombone.tar.gz
+cd freedombone
+git checkout stretch
+sudo make install
+freedombone-image --setup debian
+freedombone-image -t i386 -v meshclient
+
+
+ +

+If you don't have Atheros or free software compatible wifi adapter then you can include proprietary wifi drivers which will work with most laptops. This is NOT RECOMMENDED because proprietary drivers are unsupportable and may contain either malware or be exploitable in a way which can't be fixed. However, if you're in an emergency and don't have any Atheros or free software wifi USB dongles then you can use the following command to make the image: +

+ +
+
freedombone-image -t i386 -v meshclient --insecure yes
+
+
+ +

+This takes a while. Maybe an hour or so, depending on the speed of your system and the internets. The good news though is that once created you can use the resulting image any number of times, and you don't need to trust some pre-built image. +

+ +

+List what drives are on your system with: +

+ +
+
ls /dev/sd*
+
+
+ +

+Now plug in the USB thumb drive, and do the same again. Notice which drive letter gets added. +

+ +

+You can now copy the image to the USB thumb drive, replacing sdX with the identifier of the USB thumb drive. Don't include any numbers (so for example use sdc instead of sdc1). +

+ +
+
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8
+sudo dd bs=1M if=myimagefile.img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync
+
+
+ +

+And wait. Again it will take a while to copy over. When that's done plug it into the laptop or netbook which you want to use on the mesh, power on and set the BIOS to boot from the USB stick. +

+ +

+On first boot you'll be asked to set a username, and then you can open the chat client and select the users icon to show the Tox IDs for other users on the mesh. When folks join they will be announced. +

+ +

+Rinse, repeat, for any number of laptops that you want to get onto the mesh or to build out coverage within an area. There are no servers. Just peer-to-peer communications routed through the network which are end-to-end secure after a friend request is accepted. By default the chat client doesn't log anything. +

+ +

+You can also use single board computers (SBCs) such as the BeagleBone Black to make mesh routers which can be bolted to walls or the sides of buildings and consume minimal electrical power, so could be solar or battery powered for short term events such as festivals. To do that use the following command to make the image: +

+ +
+
freedombone-image -t beaglebone -v mesh
+
+
+ +

+The resulting image can be copied to a microSD card, inserted into a Beaglebone Black and booted. Don't forget to plug in an Atheros USB wifi dongle. +

+
+
+
+
+ + + +
+Back to top | E-mail me +
+
+ + diff --git a/website/EN/mesh_philosophic.html b/website/EN/mesh_philosophic.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..46858dfc --- /dev/null +++ b/website/EN/mesh_philosophic.html @@ -0,0 +1,374 @@ + + + + + + + +‎ + + + + + + + + + +
+ +
+
+
+ +
+

logo.png +

+
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Mesh Network: Philosophic

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+"I see mesh networks naturally evolving to become the dominant form of network over the next few decades, because it’s the most practical solution to a number of problems that will have to be solved in order to build the VR web as well as to connect the entire world to the internet. Centralized networks are only possible in highly developed countries with existing infrastructures like power and telephone grids, as well as roads. You can’t build a tower where you don’t have either power or access. For vast areas of the world, mesh networks will be the only feasible solution." – Valkyrie Ice +

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+The Freedombone mesh roughly follows MondoNet's ten social specifications: +

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Decentralized

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+The network should not be operated, maintained, or in any way reliant upon a single or minimally differentiated set of entities or technologies. No individual, entity or group should be central to the network to the extent that their absence would measurably impact its functionality or scope. Network participation should not require access to fixed, physical infrastructure of any sort. +

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Universally Accessible

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+The requisite technology and expertise required to participate in the network should be available at minimal cost and effort to every human being on the planet. Furthermore, all users should be able to extend the network’s content and functionality to suit their own needs, or those of others. No aspect of the network’s functioning should be reliant upon proprietary technologies, information or capital. +

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Censor-proof

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+The network should be resistant to both regulatory and technical attempts to limit the nature of the information shared, restrict usage by given individuals or communities, or render the network, or any portion of it, inoperable or inaccessible. +

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Surveillance-proof

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+The network should enable users to choose exactly what information they share with whom, and to participate anonymously if they so desire. Users should only have access to information if they are the designated recipients, or if it has been published openly. +

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Secure

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+The network should be organized in a way that minimizes the risk of malicious attacks or engineering failure. Information exchanged on the network should meet or exceed the delivery rate and reliability of information exchanged via the Internet. +

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Scalable

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+The network should be organized with the expectation that its scale could reach or even exceed that of today’s Internet. Special care should be taken to address to the challenge of maintaining efficiency without the presence of a centralized backbone. +

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Permanent

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+The network’s density and redundancy should be great enough that, despite its ad hoc nature, it will persistently operate on a broad scale, and be available in full to any user within range of another peer. +

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Fast (enough)

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+The network should always achieve whatever speed is required for a “bottom line” level of social and cultural participation. At present, we assert that the network’s data transfer rate should, at a minimum, be enough for voice-over-IP (VoIP) communications, and low-bitrate streaming video. +

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Independent

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+While the network will have the capacity to exchange information with Internet users and nodes, it should be able to operate independently, as well. A large-scale failure or closure of Internet infrastructure and content should have minimal effect on the network’s operations. +

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Evolvable

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+The network should be built with future development in mind. The platform should be flexible enough to support technologies, protocols and modes of usage that have not yet been developed. +

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+Back to top | E-mail me +
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Mesh Network: How to use it

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+When you first boot from the USB drive the system will create some encryption keys, assign a unique network address to the system and then reboot itself. When that's done you should see a prompt asking for a username. This username just makes it easy for others to initially find you on the mesh and will appear in the list of users. +

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+After a minute or two if you are within wifi range and there is at least one other user on the network then you should see additional icons appear on the desktop, such as Other Users and Chat. +

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Boot trouble

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+If the system doesn't boot and reports an error which includes /dev/mapper/loop0p1 then reboot with Ctrl-Alt-Del and when you see the grub menu press e and manually change /dev/mapper/loop0p1 to /dev/sdb1, then press Ctrl-x. If that doesn't work then reboot and try /dev/sdc1 instead. +

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+After the system has booted successfully the problem should resolve itself on subsequent reboots. +

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Set the Date

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+On the ordinary internet the date and time of your system would be set automatically via NTP. But this is not the internet and so you will need to manually ensure that your date and time settings are correct. You might need to periodically do this if your clock drifts. It's not essential that the time on your system be highly accurate, but if it drifts too far or goes back to epoch then things could become a little confusing in regard to the order of blog posts. +

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+Right click on the date in the top right corner of the screen. Select preferences, then click the Time Settings button. You can then select the date from the calendar and set the time, then click the Set System Time button. Enter the default password, which is freedombone. +

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Check network status

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+Unlike with ordinary wifi, on the mesh you don't get a signal strength icon and so it's not simple to see if you have a good connection. +

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+Select the wifi icon on the desktop and enter the password 'freedombone'. The network configuration will go into a monitoring mode and in the bottom right side of the window you will be able to see signal strength and other parameters. This can help you to locate systems or adjust antennas to get the best wifi performance. +

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mesh_signal.jpg +

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+When you are finished close the window and then select the Network Restart desktop icon, which will restart the B.A.T.M.A.N. network. You can also use the restart icon if you are within range of the mesh network but the Chat and Other Users icons do not automatically appear after a few minutes. +

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Connecting to the internet

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mesh_architecture2.jpg +

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+If you need to be able to access the internet from the mesh then connect one of the peers to an internet router using an ethernet cable (shown as yellow above), then reboot it. Other peers in the mesh, including any attached mobile devices, will then be able to access the internet using the ethernet attached peer as a gateway. Freifunk works in a similar way. +

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+After connecting one peer to the internet you may need to reboot other peers in order to update their network configurations. +

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+If for legal reasons you need to connect to the internet via a VPN then openvpn is preinstalled and you can run the command: +

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sudo openvpn myclient.ovpn
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+Where myclient.ovpn comes from your VPN provider and with the password "freedombone". +

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Connecting two meshes over the internet via a VPN tunnel

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mesh_architecture_vpn.jpg +

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+Maybe the internet exists, but you don't care about getting any content from it and just want to use it as a way to connect mesh networks from different geographical locations together. +

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+In your home directory on a system connected via ethernet to an internet router you'll find a file called vpn.tar.gz. If you want another mesh to be able to connect to yours then send them this file and get them to uncompress it into their home directory also on an internet gateway machine. If they have an external IP address or domain name for your router then they will be able to VPN connect using the Connect Meshes icon. They should also forward port 653 from their internet router to the mesh gateway machine. +

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mesh_connect.jpg +

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+You should create a new vpn.tar.gz file for every other mesh which wants to be able to connect to yours. If you are prompted for a password it is 'freedombone'. +

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+From a deep packet inspection point of view the traffic going over the internet between mesh gateways will just look like any other TLS connection to a server. +

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Mobile devices (phones, etc)

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mesh_architecture3.jpg +

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+To allow mobile devices to connect to the mesh you will need a second wifi adapter connected to your laptop/netbook/SBC. Plug in a second wifi adapter then reboot the system. The second adaptor will then create a wifi hotspot (the connection shown in green above) which mobile devices can connect to. The hotspot name also contains its local IP address (eg. "mesh-192.168.1.83"). +

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+On a typical Android device go to Settings then Security and ensure that Unknown sources is enabled. Also within Wifi from the Settings screen select the mesh hotspot. The password is "freedombone". Open a non-Tor browser and navigate to the IP address showing in the hotspot name. You can then download and install mesh apps. +

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+On some android devices you may need to move the downloaded APK file from the Downloads directory to your home directory before you can install it. +

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Chat System

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+Ensure that you're within wifi range of at least one other mesh peer (could be a router or client) and then you should see that the Chat and Other Users icons appear. Select the users icon and you should see a list of users on the mesh. Select the Chat icon and once you are connected you should see the status light turn green. If after a few minutes you don't get the green status light then try closing and re-opening the Tox chat application. Select the plus button to add a friend and then copy and paste in a Tox ID from the users list. +

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+The other user can then accept or decline your friend request. +

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+You can also select an avatar by selecting the grey head and shoulders image. +

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+And by selecting the user from the list on the left hand side the chat can begin. +

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+One important point is that by default the microphone is turned off. When doing voice chat you can select the microphone volume with the drop down slider in the top right corner of the screen. +

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+At present video doesn't work reliably, but text and voice chat do work well. +

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Collaborative document editing

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+The mesh system includes the ability to collaboratively edit various sorts of documents using CryptPad. CryptPad is an almost peer-to-peer system in that it is designed for a client/server environment but that the server aspect of it is very minimal and limited to orchestrating the connected clients. With CryptPad installed on each mesh peer it effectively enables peer-to-peer collaborative editing. Documents are ephemeral and forgotten unless they're exported or copy-pasted to permanent storage. +

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+To create a document click on the CryptPad icon. Depending upon the specifications of your system it may take a few seconds to load, so don't be too disturned if the browser contents look blank for a while. Select Rich Text Pad and give yourself a username. +

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+If you have the chat system running you can then copy and paste the URL for your pad into the chat, and the other user can then open the link and edit the document with you. You can repeat that for however many other users you wish to be able to edit. +

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Social Network

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+Patchwork is available as a social networking system for the mesh. Like all social network systems it has a stream of posts and you can follow or unfollow other users. You can also send private messages to other users with end-to-end encryption. +

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+Double click on the "Social" icon to open the app, then add your nickname and optionally a description. If you want to choose an avatar image some can be found within the directory /usr/share/freedombone/avatars. On older systems or systems without a hardware random number generator, Patchwork sometimes takes a long time (a few minutes) to open for the first time after clicking the icon. This is most likely due to the initial generation of encryption keys, so be patient. +

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+Other Patchwork users on the mesh will appear automatically under the local list and you can select and follow them if you wish. It's also possible to select the dark theme from settings on the drop down menu if you prefer. +

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+The Secure Scuttlebutt protocol which Patchwork is based upon is intended to be robust to intermittent network connectivity, so you can write posts when out of range and they will sync once you are back in the network. +

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Sharing Files

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+You can make files publicly available on the network simply by dragging and dropping them into the Public folder on the desktop. To view the files belonging to another user select the desktop icon called Visit a site and enter the username or Tox ID of the other user. +

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Blogging

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+To create a blog post select the Blog icon on the desktop and then use the up and down cursor keys, space bar and enter key to add a new entry. Edit the title of the entry and add your text. You can also include photos if you wish - just copy them to the CreateBlog/content/images directory and then link to them as shown. +

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+To finish your blog entry just select Save and then close the editor. On older hardware it may take a while to publish the results, and this depends upon the amount of computation needed by IPFS to create file hashes. If you make no changes to the default text then the new blog entry will not be saved. +

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+You can also visit other blogs, edit or delete your previous entry and also change your blog theme. +

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