Tag: openwrt

OpenWrt team announces OpenWrt Kamikaze 808 Release with Luci Interface

Posted on by Mario Behling

The OpenWrt team (Cph) has announced a new version of its Linux distribution for embedded wireless devices named "OpenWrt Kamikaze 808 Release". I talked to Felix Fietkau already at the WCW. Unfortunately we did not have the time to do an interview at the end. But Cyrus from freifunk Halle gave a short showcase of his interface (in German). The OpenWrt team was also impressed by it and they now announce the enclosure of the Luci interface officially. Congratulations Cyrus!

It has been quite a while since OpenWrt had a new Kamikaze release. The developer team has decided that it is time to get things straight and focus on a new release. This release have the official name: OpenWrt Kamikaze 808 Release.

The schedule will look like this:
*Last day in July – final release candidate: 808 RC-1 808 RC-1 will be a feature freeze, and all changes after this point will be bug fixes.
*Last day in August – final release: OpenWrt Kamikaze 808 Release.

OpenWrt Kamikaze 808 Release will focus on bringing the following:
– Firewall rewrite
– Broadcom 47xx running reliably with the new Kernel, not including wifi
– IMQ and Traffic shaping tested with newer kernels, especially 2.6.25
– Sysupgrade for more platforms (x86 is tested again)
– The new web interface (LuCI, Lua Configuration Interface)
– Attention towards the integration of security updates
– Package maintaining and updates between releases
– Testing, testing and lots of testing…

The 808 Release will also include support for several new platforms/targets. (http://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?pid=69873 )

FFLuCI the Next Generation Lua web interface für OpenWRT von Steven Cyrus Barth

Posted on by Mario Behling

Steven Cyrus Barth im Gespräch mit Bastian Bittorf über das Freifunk-Luci-Interface für OpenWRT.



Luci-Interface für OpenWRT von Steven Cyrus Barth from Mario Behling on Vimeo.

Some more info in English: FFLuCI is a Lua MVC-Framework for Freifunk with templating support. There are
working configuration pages for many system, network, services and wifi settings. Please visit http://luci.freifunk-halle.net for an overview of functions, screenshots, tutorials, SVN URL and snapshot images for Atheros and Broadcom.

Steven Cyrus started to develop Luci because he was not satisfied projects like XWRT implemented things. He had a look at the X-WRT Lua files in their repository first, but what was missing was a clear abstraction layer and templating support so I decided to build everything from scratch. According to Cyrus – X-WRT has a very nice UI written in shell code but there are only limited capabilities of this scripting language and so "it is time
to bring this thing to the next level using OOP and such nifty stuff."

Luci already has a number of working configuration pages. There are more – or in a few cases less – working configuration pages in (for now) German titles and descriptions for the:

  • Ethernet Switch
  • Ethernet Interfaces
  • DHCP-Server
  • PPPoE/PPTP
  • Static Routes
  • Portforwarding
  • Firewall
  • QoS
  • Wifi Devices
  • Wifi Networks
  • OLSR + Plugins
  • FFLuci itself
  • Package Management
  • Root Password and SSH-Public Keys
  • Mount Points for external drives
  • HTTP-Server
  • SSH-Server
  • Dnsmasq

Also there are a few public status pages for basic system information, WLAN-Scan, Contact data and OLSR a bit like those in the Freifunk Firmware. Have a look at the screenshots here: http://firmware.freifunk-halle.net/ffluci/screenshots

Configuration Bind Interface (CBI):
You just describe the data model of the UCI file and Luci does the rest for you: It will create the HTML-form, parse and validate the user input and write the configuration data to UCI. So no need to redo all these things on every configuration page again and again. It also supports basic field dependencies, dynamic validation functions, section creation, deletion and more. See an example here: http://wiki.freifunk-halle.net/Luci:WritingModules#CBI_models

Privilege dropping:
To avoid remote exploits (like those in older versions of the Freifunk Firmware) FFLuCI will set the UID/GID of pages running in the main public non-protected section to nobody/nogroup. There are many things left to do like porting over dhcpsplash, accounting, statistics and more to Kamikaze. Contributors are welcome.

Links:

Freifunk Application for Google Summer of Code – We did not make it .. this time

Posted on by Mario Behling

What happened to the application of the freifunk community (Blog entry) for the Google Summer of code? Well, as you can guess by now, unfortunately we did not get it.. even though we were close. I had asked Leslie Hawthorn and she wrote us back the following lines:

"I know OpenWRT and like them. We simply couldn’t accept everyone. You folks made our short list if that helps. I can give you more feedback if you send me the URL for your ideas list. Is there a way Google can help you beyond Summer of Code? Leslie Hawthorn"

We had some nice ideas. Our intention was to serve as an umbrella for all the freifunk projects here, but maybe we can join the program next year. We still have the ideas pages, which is probably also intresting for developers who want to join freifunk projects in the future.

Some of the project ideas were/are:

  • Multimedia Streaming in Mesh Networks / Porting Obamp to C++
  • Passive + Active Measurement in Mesh Networks / Porting OpenIMP probes to OpenWRT
  • Traffic Flow Visualization / IPFIX DataSource for freimap
  • Mesh Node Status Monitoring / SNMP DataSource for freimap
  • Service Discovery in Mesh Networks / Avahi DataSource for freimap
  • Service Control Module for freimap
  • Topology visualization / B.A.T.M.A.N and olsrd routing decision recovery for freimap
  • Database output for freimap
  • Antenna placement information elements in freifunk map data
  • Search in Wireless Mesh Networks – Yacy
  • Search in Wireless Mesh Networks – Nutch/Lucene
  • Peer-to-peer file sharing applications in Wireless Mesh Networks
  • Developing a Freifunk Theme for CMS
  • VoIP phoning in Freifunk Mesh Networks
  • Porting Freifunk to EeePC
  • Freifunk Webinterface for OpenWrt Kamikaze

( http://wiki.freifunk.net/Ideas)

Freifunk Wireless Community Weekend 2008 – Thank you!

Posted on by Mario Behling

The Freifunk Wireless Community Weekend 2008 is over. I had a fantastic time meeting so many people pushing the idea of free networks to new hights. The interest in free wireless was overwhelming and we probably had more than double the number of the 51 visitors who put their names on the participants list. Many developers were taking part. We saw presentations about OpenWRT, B.A.T.M.A.N., the HorstTool, mikroFM, OpenHardware and the Luci-Interface for Freifunk networks. Receiving questions about "free networks and the implications of the law" regularly, we were extremely pleased that Reto Mantz recently published a doctoral thesis about this subject and held a presentation at the WCW (slides now available).

Besides German communities we were very happy to meet many friends from other countries like www.guifi.net from Catalunia, Spain, Sergey Yugov from Russia, Jesper Svarre with 28 people from Denmark and our friends from the Rome community ninux.org.

Together with the help of Italian and German Freifunkers Saverio and me made tons of interviews. Be sure it will not take two years this time to see them online 😉 Get a little taste of the WCW2008 with the first of a series of videos already published by our Italian friends.

Per ora vi lascio con questo breve video, che mostra qualche immagine
della domenicale del Wireless Community Weekend. Molto presto verranno
pubblicate le interviste. (http://blog.ninux.org/2008/05/05/lultima-sera-al-wcw2008/)

Direct Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGZcH49j4hw

Last Preparations for the Freifunk Wireless Community Weekend 2008 in Berlin

Posted on by Mario Behling

The countdown for the Freifunk Wireless Community Weekend 2008 conference is running and cven is haevily working on the final preparation.

As of now we have 48 people who have put their name on the participants list on the wiki at http://wiki.freifunk.net/WCW08:participants and many more who have confirmed their participation to us directly. People are joining us in the upcoming days from Freifunk communities from all over Germany and from communities in other countries. Our friends from Italy will be represented by the two well known free wireless evangelists Nino and Saverio from ninux.org and we expect Jesper Svarre from Denmark with a group of 25 people from the Association of Computer Professionals.

The WCW is a self organized conference and community gathering. We will have a community track with communities presenting themselves, e.g. from Bastian from the Weimar Freifunkers and from Keks from the community in Berlin North-East.

On the other side there will be technical talks from developers of OpenWRT, the B.A.T.M.A.N. routing protocol developers Marek Lindner and Simon Wunderlich; Thomas Hirsch – the developer of the freimap and a presentation of sven-ola – the main developer of the Freifunk Firmware,

Further panels cover subjects like Web 2.0 in the Freifunk Universe (by me, Mario Behling) or Open Networks and the current law by Dr. Reto Mantz, who has recently published a book on "Offene Netze und Recht",

Many opportunities to meet with some of the most exciting people in the international freifunk sphere! Open Mesh advocat Electra will take part in the WCW and after returning from the Open Tech Summit in Taiwan Juergen Neumann will present the latest advancements on Open Wireless Hardware. 

Last but not least we are happy to welcome participants from the academic scene coming from the TU Berlin and the Fraunhofer FOKUS Institute.

Join us at the Freifunki Wireless Community Weekend in Berlin from May 2-4! Check out the latest updates on http://wiki.freifunk.net/Wireless_Community_Weekend_2008

Freifunk Application for Google Summer of Code

Posted on by Mario Behling

Some fantastic work was done during the last days working with some great folks to get an application for freifunk networks for the Google Summer of Code out. Our goal is to get new students excited about the idea of free networks and to join us in the development process and contribute code. We have formed an international group to get this application done. Besides talking to our developers in Germany I have been busily speaking to ninux.org from Italy, guifi.net from Spain and France Wireless in order to recruit our most talented and active developers as mentors for the programme. Not everyone was able to give me a "yes" yet, but we have formed a great team to start off and we are happy to welcome even more prospective mentors from other free wireless networks from around the world.

Our starting team of mentors is:

  • Sven-Ola Tücke (http://ff-firmware.sf.net, Freifunk Firmware)
  • Alexander Morlang (Alx, p2p in freifunk networks, Fraunhofer, Germany)
  • Thomas Hirsch (freimap, Fraunhofer, Germany)
  • Felix Fietkau (OpenWRT, Europe)
  • Frithjof Hammer (Freifunk BNO, Germany)
  • Harald Schioeberg (t-labs, Germany)
  • Ramon Navarro Bosch (Guifi.net, Spain, former GSoC Plone student)
  • Xavi Martinez (Guifi.net, Spain)
  • Aaron Kaplan (OLSR.org, Austria)
  • Francesco Saverio Proto (ninux.org, Italy)
  • Mikolas Bingemer (Freifunk-Hannover.de, Germany, head of Software development of medium sized enterprise)
  • Jo-Philipp Wich (leipzig.freifunk.net, Freifunk Leipzig Firmware, Germany)
  • Andrea Detti is full researcher and adjoined Professor at the School of Telecommunications Engineering of the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" (Italy)

The backup organization administrator is Mario Behling (me), (Freifunkblog, perspektive89.com, Germany)

My idea is that we would have mentors for students who would maybe even be able to meet them locally. As we find already more than 170 free wireless communities worldwide on the global freifunk newswire, there is a chance we could do this in a lot of cases.

Freifunk serves as an umbrella for all the local projects here. We use the Freifunk-Wiki for our coordination. We started to collect ideas for possible student projects here already as well. Currently there are:

  • Multimedia Streaming in Mesh Networks / Porting Obamp to C++
  • Passive + Active Measurement in Mesh Networks / Porting OpenIMP probes to OpenWRT
  • Traffic Flow Visualization / IPFIX DataSource for freimap
  • Mesh Node Status Monitoring / SNMP DataSource for freimap
  • Service Discovery in Mesh Networks / Avahi DataSource for freimap
  • Service Control Module for freimap
  • Topology visualization / B.A.T.M.A.N and olsrd routing decision recovery for freimap
  • Database output for freimap
  • Antenna placement information elements in freifunk map data
  • Search in Wireless Mesh Networks – Yacy
  • Search in Wireless Mesh Networks – Nutch/Lucene
  • Peer-to-peer file sharing applications in Wireless Mesh Networks
  • Developing a Freifunk Theme for CMS
  • VoIP phoning in Freifunk Mesh Networks
  • Porting Freifunk to EeePC
  • Freifunk Webinterface for OpenWrt Kamikaze
  • more ideas are welcome…

After the application of Freifunk is accepted, prospective students have two weeks to apply at the summer of code programme. We hope our application will be accepted and we will soon see new
students contributing to the code base of our projects. We are looking forward to have students participating on an ongoing basis in the free wireless freifunk
networks all over the world.

Towards Wireless Open Hardware Routers and WLAN Servers

Posted on by Mario Behling

At the CeBIT I had the chance to talk to some fantastic folks of direct open embedded systems, a new Latvian company that is producing WLAN devices based on the GNU/Linux distributions like OpenWRT, OpenEmbedded and FlashSYS Linux.

In the video they present their devices and some show cases as well as FlashSYS, their own web based firmware for small router computers.

FlashSYS environment is a cross-operating system clent-server environment that allows developers to use existing web development skills (HTML, JavaScript, Ajax, Flash, SQLite, and Lua) to build and deploy Rich Internet Applications (RIA) for an embedded system with a very small footprint. (http://openrb.com)

direct open embedded systems is able to produce WLAN devices that can act as small web servers with currently up to 64 GB storage space.

Most of the free and open source companies presented their products in hall 5, which was packed with crowds of people. You can get an idea when you hear the background noise in the video. The interest in free and open source technologies is amazing and ever increasing.

 

Some more specifications of the router devices:

  • Bittorent, FTP, HTTP download clients included. Now you don’t have to leave your computer on to complete your downloads, they can be easily stored on a Compact Flash card (up to 64GB) or on external USB Flash / hard disk

  • Network OS with AJAX user interface

  • Integrated organizer with Calendar, To-do and Notes

  • RSS feed reader

  • LCD screen for displaying news, notes and current activities

  • P2P streaming media server for video and audio

  • Very rich network functionality (QoS, tunnels, routing, firewall, NAT, etc.)

Extendable

  • PCI bus for wireless interfaces, video, Ethernet and other miniPCI devices

  • I2C bus for serial memory, A/D and D/A converters, temperature/voltage monitors

  • RS232/RS485 for keyboard, LCD and other devices for industrial applications

  • USB host with two ports for various serial devices from flash disks to web cameras

  • GPIO for relays, LEDs, etc.

Memory

  • RAM: up to 512 MB

  • Flash: 8 MB on-board, extendable up to 64 GB using CompactFlash

Green and energy saving

  • Fully ROHS compliant

  • Processor power consumption (typical): 0.72 W at 266 MHz

Stable

  • Hardware watchdog timer

  • Industrial temperature grade

  • ESD protected Ethernet and power ports

  • Reliable tantalum capacitors on board except for only one electrolytic cap

Software ported to

  • OpenEmbedded Linux

  • OpenWRT Linux

  • FlashSYS Linux with revolutionary AJAX interface

  • eCOS Real Time operating system

Created for

  • Wireless and wired router solutions

  • Machine2Machine (M2M) applications

  • Industrial applications

  • Home wireless AP and media servers

  • Automation devices

Wireless

  • Chipset Atheros AR5414

  • IEEE Standards 802.11a/b/g (2.4/5 GHz)

  • Security Hardware 64 and 128 bit WEP; Hardware TKIP and AES-CCM encryption; WPA authentication

  • Bandwidth up to 108 Mbps

  • Modulation OFDM, TDD

Technical details

  • PowerPC processor: 266 or 333 MHz clock frequency

  • 1 or 2 ESD protected Ethernet ports

  • miniPCI sockets for 802.11 wireless cards and other expansion

  • 32-512 MB SDRAM, 64 bit wide for high memory bandwidth

  • 8 MB FLASH for system BIOS and programs

  • True IDE CompactFlash (CF) header for custom OS and applications

  • 7 to 36 V DC supply through DC jack or passive power over LAN connector

  • 2 RS232 serials ports (1 DB9 male socket), RS485 interface header

  • JTAG interface header

  • Hardware and software watchdog timers

  • LM75 thermal monitor

  • GPIO header

  • USB 2.0 host

  • I2C bus header (can be used for front panel interface)

  • 2 LEDs and 1 pushbutton switch, freely programmable

  • Board size: 115 mm x 97 mm

  • CE certified

Chaosradio mit Felix Fietkau über die Freifunk-Firmware-Basis OpenWRT

Posted on by Mario Behling

Chaosradio Express hat eine Sendung über OpenWRT mit Felix Fietkau gemacht. Auch die Freifunk-Firmware beruht auf der Linuxdistribution OpenWRT.

Beitrag: http://chaosradio.ccc.de/cre076.html
Download: http://chaosradio.ccc.de/archive/chaosradio_express_076.mp3
Aufnahme vom: 17.02.2008
Teilnehmer: Tim Pritlove (Moderation), Felix Fietkau

OpenWRT ist eine Linux-Distribution speziell für kleine WLAN-Router. Felix Fietkau ist einer der Entwickler des Projektes und berichtet im Gespräch mit Tim Pritlove über die Zeile, Schwerpunkte und Besonderheiten der Distribution. Felix berichtet, was OpenWRT genau ausmacht, warum man nicht einfach einen Standard-Linux-Kernel auf kleinen Geräten ohne weiteres laufen lassen kann, wie zusätzliche Software installiert wird, wie das Projekt mit Änderungen bei Linux Schritt hält, die Bemühungen des Projektes, freie Treiber für WLAN-Subsysteme bereitzustellen, welche Aufgaben ein WLAN-Treiber konkret erfüllen muss, wie heutige Treiber-Features langsam in den Kernel wandern, welche Probleme Hersteller haben, eine laufende Firmware zum Laufen zu bekommen und welche Chancen OpenWRT hat, künftig zur Standard-Software auf neuen Geräten zu werden, wie Kommunikation in einem WLAN funktioniert, wie man OpenWRT installiert, welche aktuellen und geplanten Oberflächen zur Konfiguration existieren, wie die Kommunikation innerhalb des Projektes funktioniert, welche Firmen mit OpenWRT kooperieren und warum ein XO Laptop (OLPC) mit OpenWRT schneller läuft.


Links:

Freifunk-Firmware auf Basis der Linuxdistribution OpenWRT ermöglicht Aufbau freier Netze

Posted on by Mario Behling

Was ist eine Firmware? Wozu brauche ich sie? Diese und weitere Fragen werden im Freifunk-Wiki behandelt. Ich habe versucht dies für Neueinsteiger etwas deutlicher zu machen und hierzu einige Hintergründe erläutert. Verbesserungen und Korrektionen bitte als Kommentar oder direkt im Wiki verbessern 🙂

Freifunk steht für den Aufbau freier lokaler Netze. Dies ermöglicht
die Freifunk-Firmware. Jeder Nutzer im Freifunk-Netz stellt seinen
WLAN-Router für den Datentransfer der anderen Teilnehmer zur Verfügung.
Die Router verbinden sich untereinander. Ein lokales Netz entsteht.
Dies funktioniert unabhängig vom Internet.

Standardmäßig verfügen WLAN-Router jedoch nur selten über die
Funktionalität sich untereinander zu verbinden. Die Software der Geräte
ist nicht dafür ausgelegt, dass sie sich automatisch mit anderen
verbinden und ein vermaschtes Netzwerk bilden. Sie sind oft lediglich
in der Lage Drahtlosgeräte wie z.B. Laptops per Funk an ein ebenfalls
angeschlossenes oder manchmal auch integriertes DSL-Gerät in das
Internet "zu routen".

In vielen WLAN-Routern ist die Hardware jedoch zu mehr in der
Lage. Damit ein WLAN-Router versteht, was er tun soll, braucht man
Software, ein System, was die Hardware steuert. Genauso wie jeder
Computer braucht ein WLAN-Router ein Betriebssystem. Kauft man einen
Router im Laden werden diese bereits mit einem System (oft proprietäres
unfreies System) ausgeliefert. Damit der Router in die Lage versetzt
wird zusätzliche Funktionalitäten auszuüben, braucht er ein
höherwertiges Betriebssystem. Aufgrund jahrelanger Vorarbeit der GNU
und Linuxcommunity, konnten Freifunk-Aktive auf Basis von OpenWRT ein
Betriebssystem für Router entwickeln, dass Routern neue
Funktionalitäten "beibringt" – die Freifunk-Firmware.

Mit Hilfe der auf WLAN-Routern installierten Freifunk Firmware können sich Nutzer in freien Funknetzen untereinander verbinden und freie Meshnetzwerke aufbauen. Unabhängig vom Internet können sie innerhalb dieser Netze Daten, wie zum Beispiel Text, Musik und Filme über das interne Freifunk-Netz übertragen oder über von Teilnehmern eingerichtete Dienste im Netz Chatten, Telefonieren und gemeinsam Onlinegames spielen. Viele Teilnehmer stellen ebenfalls ihren Internetzugang zur Verfügung und ermöglichen anderen mit ihnen verbundenen Teilnehmern den Zugang zum weltweiten Netz. Über Plugins kann die Freifunk-Firmware zudem erweitert werden, so wie man es auch vom Firefox-Browser kennt.

Mehr im Freifunk-Wiki unter: http://wiki.freifunk.net/Freifunk_Firmware und http://wiki.freifunk.net/Freifunk-Firmware_Installation

Meshcube-Produktion offensichtlich eingestellt – Suche nach Alternativgeräten für freifunk-Netze

Posted on by Mario Behling

Mit seiner guten Ausstattung, einem kompakten Design und
einem „freundlichem“ Preis für Drahtlos-Initiativen fand der Meshcube auch in
der freifunk-Community lange Zeit große Zustimmung. Leider konnte die Firma das
Angebot längerfristig nicht aufrechterhalten. Auf Anfrage von Gero E. von der
Berliner Freifunk-Community hat 4G Systems
aus Hamburg nun mitgeteilt, dass der Meshcube (meshcube.org), auch unter der Bezeichnung
Access Cube bekannt, im Moment nicht mehr vertrieben wird.

… vielen Dank für Ihre Nachfrage. Leider vertreiben wir im
Moment den meshcube und access cube nicht mehr. Wir haben unser Produktportfolio geändert.
Mit freundlichen Grüssen
Thomas Lüdemann

Der 4G AccessCube
war eine Hardware-Plattform, die das drahtlose Netzwerken wie in
freifunk-Netzen ermöglicht. Ausgestattet wurden die Geräte mit einem 400MHz
MIPS Prozessor, 64MB RAM, 32MB flash und bis zu 8 MiniPci-Karten.

Die Daten des Meshcubes:

  • Abmessungen:
    kleiner Würfel (7x5x7cm)

  • keine
    beweglichen Teile

  • geringer
    Stromverbrauch (ca. 4-6W)

  • 100Mbps
    Ethernet

  • Power over Ethernet (802.3af
    Standard)

  • bis
    zu 2 WLAN (802.11a/b/g) Karten (RP-SMA Anschlüsse)

  • 400MHz
    MIPS Prozessor

  • 32MB
    Flash

  • 64MB
    RAM

  • USB
    1.1

 (vgl. http://www.meshcube.org/deutsch/techdat.html)

Die Software der Cubes – nylon – beruht auf Linux, das
speziell für drahtloses Netzwerken und Meshing angepasst wurde. Erst im Oktober
des vergangenen Jahres (25.10.2005) war die Meshcube-Firmware als Stable
Release in der Version 1.0 erschienen. Die Software steht unter der freien
Lizenz GPL und ist somit auch
zukünftig im Netz abrufbar. Offensichtlich arbeiten einige Entwickler von
4G-Systems trotz des „Aus“ für den Cube ebenfalls weiterhin an der Firmware.

Auf Mailinglisten der freifunk-Community wird nun über
Alternativen zu den Meshcubes diskutiert. Unter anderem werden dabei folgende Geräte
und Boards genannt:

– Routerboard: routerboard.com,
Fragen: bisher nicht freifunk-getestet, eine Lieferung erfolgt zudem erst ab
1000 Euro Mindestbestellmenge. Bei www.discomp.cz
 gibt es das RB112 ab ca. 85 Euro, bei www.diswire.com für ca. 99 Euro (+ 22 Euro
Versand).

– WRAP-Board, Hersteller: www.pcengines.ch,
Vertrieb-de: www.tronico.net und www.nrg-systems.de. Es ist größer als ein
Cube, etwa so breit & lang wie ein MacMini, aber nur halb oder 1/3 so hoch
und wird von einem x86er angetrieben. Das Board selber kostet ca. 120 – 130,-
Euro, ein Vollausbau (Gehäuse, PoE-Adapter, Pigtails, 2 WLAN-Karten, 512 MB
Compact-Flasch) ungefähr 250,- Euro.