Mesh Network

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:

sudo su
apt-get -y install build-essential libc6-dev-i386 \
    gcc-multilib g++-multilib git python-docutils mktorrent \
    vmdebootstrap xz-utils dosfstools btrfs-tools extlinux \
    python-distro-info mbr qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
    u-boot-tools qemu
git clone https://github.com/bashrc/freedombone
cd freedombone
git checkout stockholm
make install
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).

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.

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.

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 Tox chat and users icons appear. Select the users icon and you should see a list of users on the mesh. Select the Tox 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.

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

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

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

One important point is that by default sound and microphone is turned off. In the top right corner of the screen you can increase the sound volume and enable the microphone if you're doing voice chat or need audible notifications.

At present video doesn't work reliably, but text and voice chat do work well. In future IPFS or Tahoe-LAFS may be added to create a distributed filesystem for the mesh.