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6 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: entries from October 2013</title>
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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 <p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/N2Kd7CLkhSY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
81
82 <p>I mentioned OLSR and batman-adv, which are mesh routing protocols.
83 There are heaps of different protocols, and I am still struggling to
84 figure out which one would be "best" for some definitions of best, but
85 given that the community mesh group in Oslo is so small, I believe it
86 is best to hook up with the existing one instead of trying to create a
87 completely different setup, and thus this have decided to focus on
88 batman-adv for now. It sure help me to know that the very cool
89 <a href="http://www.servalproject.org/">Serval project in Australia</a>
90 is using batman-adv as their meshing technology when it create a self
91 organizing and self healing telephony system for disaster areas and
92 less industrialized communities. Check out this cool video presenting
93 that project (from
94 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30qNfzJCQOA">youtube</a>):</p>
95
96 <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/30qNfzJCQOA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
97
98 <p>According to the wikipedia page on
99 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_mesh_network">Wireless
100 mesh network</a> there are around 70 competing schemes for routing
101 packets across mesh networks, and OLSR, B.A.T.M.A.N. and
102 B.A.T.M.A.N. advanced are protocols used by several free software
103 based community mesh networks.</p>
104
105 <p>The batman-adv protocol is a bit special, as it provide layer 2
106 (as in ethernet ) routing, allowing ipv4 and ipv6 to work on the same
107 network. One way to think about it is that it provide a mesh based
108 vlan you can bridge to or handle like any other vlan connected to your
109 computer. The required drivers are already in the Linux kernel at
110 least since Debian Wheezy, and it is fairly easy to set up. A
111 <a href="http://www.open-mesh.org/projects/batman-adv/wiki/Quick-start-guide">good
112 introduction</a> is available from the Open Mesh project. These are
113 the key settings needed to join the Oslo meshfx network:</p>
114
115 <p><table>
116 <tr><th>Setting</th><th>Value</th></tr>
117 <tr><td>Protocol / kernel module</td><td>batman-adv</td></tr>
118 <tr><td>ESSID</td><td>meshfx@hackeriet</td></tr>
119 <td>Channel / Frequency</td><td>11 / 2462</td></tr>
120 <td>Cell ID</td><td>02:BA:00:00:00:01</td>
121 </table></p>
122
123 <p>The reason for setting ad-hoc wifi Cell ID is to work around bugs
124 in firmware used in wifi card and wifi drivers. (See a nice post from
125 VillageTelco about
126 "<a href="http://tiebing.blogspot.no/2009/12/ad-hoc-cell-splitting-re-post-original.html">Information
127 about cell-id splitting, stuck beacons, and failed IBSS merges!</a>
128 for details.) When these settings are activated and you have some
129 other mesh node nearby, your computer will be connected to the mesh
130 network and can communicate with any mesh node that is connected to
131 any of the nodes in your network of nodes. :)</p>
132
133 <p>My initial plan was to reuse my old Linksys WRT54GL as a mesh node,
134 but that seem to be very hard, as I have not been able to locate a
135 firmware supporting batman-adv. If anyone know how to use that old
136 wifi access point with batman-adv these days, please let me know.</p>
137
138 <p>If you find this project interesting and want to join, please join
139 us on IRC, either channel
140 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#oslohackerspace">#oslohackerspace</a>
141 or <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/#nuug">#nuug</a> on
142 irc.freenode.net.</p>
143
144 <p>While investigating mesh networks in Oslo, I came across an old
145 research paper from the university of Stavanger and Telenor Research
146 and Innovation called
147 <a href="http://folk.uio.no/paalee/publications/netrel-egeland-iswcs-2008.pdf">The
148 reliability of wireless backhaul mesh networks</a> and elsewhere
149 learned that Telenor have been experimenting with mesh networks at
150 Grünerløkka in Oslo. So mesh networks are also interesting for
151 commercial companies, even though Telenor discovered that it was hard
152 to figure out a good business plan for mesh networking and as far as I
153 know have closed down the experiment. Perhaps Telenor or others would
154 be interested in a cooperation?</p>
155
156 </div>
157 <div class="tags">
158
159
160 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
161
162
163 </div>
164 </div>
165 <div class="padding"></div>
166
167 <div class="entry">
168 <div class="title">
169 <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>
170 </div>
171 <div class="date">
172 8th October 2013
173 </div>
174 <div class="body">
175 <p>The other day I was pleased and surprised to discover that Marcelo
176 Salvador had published a
177 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-GgpdqgLFc">video on
178 Youtube</a> showing how to install the standalone Debian Edu /
179 Skolelinux profile. This is the profile intended for use at home or
180 on laptops that should not be integrated into the provided network
181 services (no central home directory, no Kerberos / LDAP directory etc,
182 in other word a single user machine). The result is 11 minutes long,
183 and show some user applications (seem to be rather randomly picked).
184 Missed a few of my favorites like celestia, planets and chromium
185 showing the <a href="http://www.zygotebody.com/">Zygote Body 3D model
186 of the human body</a>, but I guess he did not know about those or find
187 other programs more interesting. :) And the video do not show the
188 advantages I believe is one of the most valuable featuers in Debian
189 Edu, its central school server making it possible to run hundreds of
190 computers without hard drives by installing one central
191 <a href="http://www.ltsp.org/">LTSP server</a>.</p>
192
193 <p>Anyway, check out the video, embedded below and linked to above:</p>
194
195 <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/w-GgpdqgLFc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
196
197 <p>Are there other nice videos demonstrating Skolelinux? Please let
198 me know. :)</p>
199
200 </div>
201 <div class="tags">
202
203
204 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>.
205
206
207 </div>
208 </div>
209 <div class="padding"></div>
210
211 <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>
212 <div id="sidebar">
213
214
215
216 <h2>Archive</h2>
217 <ul>
218
219 <li>2013
220 <ul>
221
222 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
223
224 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
225
226 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
227
228 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
229
230 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
231
232 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
233
234 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
235
236 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
237
238 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
239
240 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (2)</a></li>
241
242 </ul></li>
243
244 <li>2012
245 <ul>
246
247 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
248
249 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
250
251 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
252
253 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
254
255 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
256
257 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
258
259 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
260
261 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
262
263 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
264
265 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
266
267 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
268
269 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
270
271 </ul></li>
272
273 <li>2011
274 <ul>
275
276 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
277
278 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
279
280 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
281
282 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
283
284 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
285
286 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
287
288 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
289
290 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
291
292 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
293
294 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
295
296 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
297
298 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
299
300 </ul></li>
301
302 <li>2010
303 <ul>
304
305 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
306
307 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
308
309 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
310
311 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
312
313 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
314
315 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
316
317 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
318
319 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
320
321 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
322
323 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
324
325 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
326
327 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
328
329 </ul></li>
330
331 <li>2009
332 <ul>
333
334 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
335
336 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
337
338 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
339
340 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
341
342 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
343
344 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
345
346 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
347
348 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
349
350 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
351
352 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
353
354 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
355
356 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
357
358 </ul></li>
359
360 <li>2008
361 <ul>
362
363 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
364
365 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
366
367 </ul></li>
368
369 </ul>
370
371
372
373 <h2>Tags</h2>
374 <ul>
375
376 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
377
378 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
379
380 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
381
382 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
383
384 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (7)</a></li>
385
386 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
387
388 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
389
390 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (86)</a></li>
391
392 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (142)</a></li>
393
394 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
395
396 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (10)</a></li>
397
398 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
399
400 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (219)</a></li>
401
402 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
403
404 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
405
406 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (12)</a></li>
407
408 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (3)</a></li>
409
410 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
411
412 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (37)</a></li>
413
414 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (7)</a></li>
415
416 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
417
418 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
419
420 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
421
422 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
423
424 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
425
426 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (235)</a></li>
427
428 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (154)</a></li>
429
430 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (8)</a></li>
431
432 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
433
434 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (44)</a></li>
435
436 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (66)</a></li>
437
438 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
439
440 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
441
442 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
443
444 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (7)</a></li>
445
446 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
447
448 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
449
450 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
451
452 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (31)</a></li>
453
454 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
455
456 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
457
458 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (43)</a></li>
459
460 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
461
462 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (8)</a></li>
463
464 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (18)</a></li>
465
466 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
467
468 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
469
470 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (39)</a></li>
471
472 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
473
474 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (28)</a></li>
475
476 </ul>
477
478
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