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6 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: entries from October 2013</title>
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13 <div class="title">
14 <h1>
15 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
16
17 </h1>
18
19 </div>
20
21
22 <h3>Entries from October 2013.</h3>
23
24 <div class="entry">
25 <div class="title">
26 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oslo_community_mesh_network___with_NUUG_and_Hackeriet_at_Hausmania.html">Oslo community mesh network - with NUUG and Hackeriet at Hausmania</a>
27 </div>
28 <div class="date">
29 11th October 2013
30 </div>
31 <div class="body">
32 <p>Wireless mesh networks are self organising and self healing
33 networks that can be used to connect computers across small and large
34 areas, depending on the radio technology used. Normal wifi equipment
35 can be used to create home made radio networks, and there are several
36 successful examples like
37 <a href="http://www.freifunk.net/">Freifunk</a> and
38 <a href="http://www.awmn.net/">Athens Wireless Metropolitan Network</a>
39 (see
40 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wireless_community_networks_by_region#Greece">wikipedia
41 for a large list</a>) around the globe. To give you an idea how it
42 work, check out the nice overview of the Kiel Freifunk community which
43 can be seen from their
44 <a href="http://freifunk.in-kiel.de/ffmap/nodes.html">dynamically
45 updated node graph and map</a>, where one can see how the mesh nodes
46 automatically handle routing and recover from nodes disappearing.
47 There is also a small community mesh network group in Oslo, Norway,
48 and that is the main topic of this blog post.</p>
49
50 <p>I've wanted to check out mesh networks for a while now, and hoped
51 to do it as part of my involvement with the <a
52 href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG member organisation</a> community, and
53 my recent involvement in
54 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the Freedombox project</a>
55 finally lead me to give mesh networks some priority, as I suspect a
56 Freedombox should use mesh networks to connect neighbours and family
57 when possible, given that most communication between people are
58 between those nearby (as shown for example by research on Facebook
59 communication patterns). It also allow people to communicate without
60 any central hub to tap into for those that want to listen in on the
61 private communication of citizens, which have become more and more
62 important over the years.</p>
63
64 <p>So far I have only been able to find one group of people in Oslo
65 working on community mesh networks, over at the hack space
66 <a href="http://hackeriet.no/">Hackeriet</a> at Husmania. They seem to
67 have started with some Freifunk based effort using OLSR, called
68 <a href="http://oslo.freifunk.net/index.php?title=Main_Page">the Oslo
69 Freifunk project</a>, but that effort is now dead and the people
70 behind it have moved on to a batman-adv based system called
71 <a href="http://meshfx.org/trac">meshfx</a>. Unfortunately the wiki
72 site for the Oslo Freifunk project is no longer possible to update to
73 reflect this fact, so the old project page can't be updated to point to
74 the new project. A while back, the people at Hackeriet invited people
75 from the Freifunk community to Oslo to talk about mesh networks. I
76 came across this video where Hans Jørgen Lysglimt interview the
77 speakers about this talk (from
78 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2Kd7CLkhSY">youtube</a>:</p>
79
80
81 <p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N2Kd7CLkhSY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
82
83 <p>I mentioned OLSR and batman-adv, which are mesh routing protocols.
84 There are heaps of different protocols, and I am still struggling to
85 figure out which one would be "best" for some definitions of best, but
86 given that the community mesh group in Oslo is so small, I believe it
87 is best to hook up with the existing one instead of trying to create a
88 completely different setup, and thus this have decided to focus on
89 batman-adv for now. It sure help me to know that the very cool
90 <a href="http://www.servalproject.org/">Serval project in Australia</a>
91 is using batman-adv as their meshing technology when it create a self
92 organizing and self healing telephony system for disaster areas and
93 less industrialized communities. Check out this cool video presenting
94 that project (from
95 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30qNfzJCQOA">youtube</a>:</p>
96
97 <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/30qNfzJCQOA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
98
99 <p>According to the wikipedia page on
100 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_mesh_network">Wireless
101 mesh network</a> there are around 70 competing schemes for routing
102 packets across mesh networks, and OLSR, B.A.T.M.A.N. and
103 B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced are protocols used by several free software
104 based community mesh networks.</p>
105
106 </p>The batman-adv protocol is a bit special, as it provide layer 2
107 (as in ethernet ) routing, allowing ipv4 and ipv6 to work on the same
108 network. One way to think about it is that it provide a mesh based
109 vlan you can bridge to or handle like any other vlan connected to your
110 computer. The required drivers are already in the Linux kernel at
111 least since Debian Wheezy, and it is fairly easy to set up. A
112 <a href="http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki/Quick-start-guide">good
113 introduction</a> is available from the Open Mesh project. These are
114 the key settings needed to join the Oslo meshfx network:</p>
115
116 <table>
117 <tr><th>Setting</th><th>Value</th></tr>
118 <tr><td>Protocol / kernel module</td><td>batman-adv</td></tr>
119 <tr><td>ESSID</td><td>meshfx@hackeriet</td></tr>
120 <td>Channel / Frequency</td><td>11 / 2462</td></tr>
121 <td>Cell ID</td><td>02:BA:00:00:00:01</td>
122 </table>
123
124 <p>The reason for setting ad-hoc wifi Cell ID is to work around bugs
125 in firmware used in wifi card and wifi drivers. (See a nice post from
126 VillageTelco about
127 "<a href="http://tiebing.blogspot.no/2009/12/ad-hoc-cell-splitting-re-post-original.html">Information
128 about cell-id splitting, stuck beacons, and failed IBSS merges!</a>
129 for details.) When these settings are activated and you have some
130 other mesh node nearby, your computer will be connected to the mesh
131 network and can communicate with any mesh node that is connected to
132 any of the nodes in your network of nodes. :)</p>
133
134 <p>My initial plan was to reuse my old Linksys WRT54GL as a mesh node,
135 but that seem to be very hard, as I have not been able to locate a
136 firmware supporting batman-adv. If anyone know how to use that old
137 wifi access point with batman-adv these days, please let me know.</p>
138
139 <p>If you find this project interesting and want to join, please join
140 us on IRC, either channel
141 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#oslohackerspace">#oslohackerspace</a>
142 or <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#nuug">#nuug</a> on
143 irc.freenode.net.</p>
144
145 <p>While investigating mesh networks in Oslo, I came across an old
146 research paper from the university of Stavanger and Telenor Research
147 and Innovation called
148 <a href="http://folk.uio.no/paalee/publications/netrel-egeland-iswcs-2008.pdf">The
149 reliability of wireless backhaul mesh networks</a> and elsewhere
150 learned that Telenor have been experimenting with mesh networks at
151 Grünerløkka in Oslo. So mesh networks are also interesting for
152 commercial companies, even though Telenor discovered that it was hard
153 to figure out a good business plan for mesh networking and as far as I
154 know have closed down the experiment. Perhaps Telenor or others would
155 be interested in a cooperation?</p>
156
157 </div>
158 <div class="tags">
159
160
161 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
162
163
164 </div>
165 </div>
166 <div class="padding"></div>
167
168 <div class="entry">
169 <div class="title">
170 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_7_1_install_and_overview_video_from_Marcelo_Salvador.html">Skolelinux / Debian Edu 7.1 install and overview video from Marcelo Salvador</a>
171 </div>
172 <div class="date">
173 8th October 2013
174 </div>
175 <div class="body">
176 <p>The other day I was pleased and surprised to discover that Marcelo
177 Salvador had published a
178 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-GgpdqgLFc">video on
179 Youtube</a> showing how to install the standalone Debian Edu /
180 Skolelinux profile. This is the profile intended for use at home or
181 on laptops that should not be integrated into the provided network
182 services (no central home directory, no Kerberos / LDAP directory etc,
183 in other word a single user machine). The result is 11 minutes long,
184 and show some user applications (seem to be rather randomly picked).
185 Missed a few of my favorites like celestia, planets and chromium
186 showing the <a href="http://www.zygotebody.com/">Zygote Body 3D model
187 of the human body</a>, but I guess he did not know about those or find
188 other programs more interesting. :) And the video do not show the
189 advantages I believe is one of the most valuable featuers in Debian
190 Edu, its central school server making it possible to run hundreds of
191 computers without hard drives by installing one central
192 <a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">LTSP server</a>.</p>
193
194 <p>Anyway, check out the video, embedded below and linked to above:</p>
195
196 <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/w-GgpdqgLFc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
197
198 <p>Are there other nice videos demonstrating Skolelinux? Please let
199 me know. :)</p>
200
201 </div>
202 <div class="tags">
203
204
205 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
206
207
208 </div>
209 </div>
210 <div class="padding"></div>
211
212 <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="10.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
213 <div id="sidebar">
214
215
216
217 <h2>Archive</h2>
218 <ul>
219
220 <li>2013
221 <ul>
222
223 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
224
225 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
226
227 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
228
229 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
230
231 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
232
233 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
234
235 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
236
237 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
238
239 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
240
241 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (2)</a></li>
242
243 </ul></li>
244
245 <li>2012
246 <ul>
247
248 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
249
250 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
251
252 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
253
254 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
255
256 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
257
258 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
259
260 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
261
262 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
263
264 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
265
266 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
267
268 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
269
270 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
271
272 </ul></li>
273
274 <li>2011
275 <ul>
276
277 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
278
279 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
280
281 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
282
283 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
284
285 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
286
287 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
288
289 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
290
291 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
292
293 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
294
295 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
296
297 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
298
299 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
300
301 </ul></li>
302
303 <li>2010
304 <ul>
305
306 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
307
308 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
309
310 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
311
312 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
313
314 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
315
316 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
317
318 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
319
320 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
321
322 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
323
324 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
325
326 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
327
328 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
329
330 </ul></li>
331
332 <li>2009
333 <ul>
334
335 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
336
337 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
338
339 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
340
341 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
342
343 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
344
345 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
346
347 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
348
349 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
350
351 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
352
353 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
354
355 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
356
357 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
358
359 </ul></li>
360
361 <li>2008
362 <ul>
363
364 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
365
366 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
367
368 </ul></li>
369
370 </ul>
371
372
373
374 <h2>Tags</h2>
375 <ul>
376
377 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
378
379 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
380
381 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
382
383 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
384
385 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (7)</a></li>
386
387 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
388
389 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
390
391 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (86)</a></li>
392
393 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (142)</a></li>
394
395 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
396
397 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (10)</a></li>
398
399 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
400
401 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (219)</a></li>
402
403 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
404
405 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
406
407 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (12)</a></li>
408
409 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (2)</a></li>
410
411 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
412
413 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (37)</a></li>
414
415 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (7)</a></li>
416
417 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
418
419 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
420
421 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
422
423 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
424
425 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
426
427 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (235)</a></li>
428
429 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (154)</a></li>
430
431 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (8)</a></li>
432
433 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
434
435 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (44)</a></li>
436
437 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (66)</a></li>
438
439 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
440
441 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
442
443 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
444
445 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (7)</a></li>
446
447 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
448
449 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
450
451 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
452
453 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (31)</a></li>
454
455 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
456
457 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
458
459 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (43)</a></li>
460
461 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
462
463 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (8)</a></li>
464
465 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (18)</a></li>
466
467 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
468
469 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
470
471 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (39)</a></li>
472
473 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
474
475 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (28)</a></li>
476
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