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Re: Make PirateBox more suitable for Schools - 5 years ago

You could probably do something using my own IPFS-based piratebox image? There's a single configuration option you can change that will render it read-only, but you can still connect to it via SSH to copy over new data. It'll host whole websites and directories too, not just individual files.

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (General)

Re: Started over with my own image. - 5 years ago

Mesh isn't coming when there's just me to set things up - it'd need to be more of a collaborative project.

by SuriRaven - Pi(rate)Box - unofficial images

Re: What's the status of mesh networking? - 5 years ago

There has been almost no interest in mesh networking because you never see two pirateboxes physically close enough to connect. It's just not a widely-used project, so there's little use for mesh functionality.

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (General)

Re: Started over with my own image. - 5 years ago

As promised! It's on IPFS though, so first fetch is going to be a bit slow.

by SuriRaven - Pi(rate)Box - unofficial images

Re: Started over with my own image. - 5 years ago

Sorry, got sidetracked in other things. I'll get this done today.

by SuriRaven - Pi(rate)Box - unofficial images

Re: Mesh Network - 5 years ago

Mesh support has been discussed many times, but never properly implimented. The problem is a lack of actual use cases: Unless civilisation collapses and the internet stays down, who actually has enough pirate boxes clustered within radio range to use a mesh?

by SuriRaven - Raspberry Pi(rate)Box

Re: Started over with my own image. - 5 years ago

I'm still making some refinements. Also, realized there's a small but crucial flaw in that version, so I'm working on a newer one now. You can still use it for testing, but I've un-pinned it from my IPFS node so it'll quickly go unavailable.

by SuriRaven - Pi(rate)Box - unofficial images

Re: Started over with my own image. - 6 years ago

There. Just extract, dd onto a 64GB MicroSD card, and insert into your Pi - tested on 3B and Zero W. default ssh is pi/piratebox.

by SuriRaven - Pi(rate)Box - unofficial images

Re: Started over with my own image. - 6 years ago

I didn't get any feedback on the image posted last time (In the other thread - just noticed I missed it here.) I'll prepare another soon, slightly more refined.

by SuriRaven - Pi(rate)Box - unofficial images

Re: Choose hardware (card and wifi) - 6 years ago

The pi is a good choice, yes. It's readily available, low cost, and will be around for the foreseeable future. You do not need an external wifi card, though you may want to use one anyway. The 3B and Zero W both have wireless capability built in which is quite capable of serving as an access point. You can use your 3B+ for testing purposes, but if you intend portable use then you would be

by SuriRaven - Raspberry Pi(rate)Box

Re: Started over. - 6 years ago

There we go. Just dd this onto a 64GB SD card and stick it in your pi. And hope it works. This thing is barely alpha-grade. User pi/piratebox, serial console enabled if you can't ssh in.

by SuriRaven - Raspberry Pi(rate)Box

Re: Started over. - 6 years ago

I can't do anything much to work on mesh support until I have a lot more equipment, but I will prepare the image tomorrow. It's mostly a matter of removing all the configuration relating to my own network and zeroing unused space for compression. There's a post under 'unofficial images' that's got a bit more detail of what makes this piratebox different.

by SuriRaven - Raspberry Pi(rate)Box

Started over with my own image. - 6 years ago

I posted this in another section first, before deciding that this would be a more appropriate place. I've been working on my own from-the-ground-up implementation of the piratebox on the Pi. It's reached the point where it works now, and I'm just refining the configuration scripts to make it into an image that can be just copied to SD card and used. It uses IPFS as the storag

by SuriRaven - Pi(rate)Box - unofficial images

Started over. - 6 years ago

I've been working on a new PirateBox of my own, using a Pi. It's a complete reworking of the concept - none of the piratebox code here used, rather reworking it from the ground up with quite a few improvements. I'm currently in the process of converting my prototype into an image I can share, and would like to gauge interest - who would like to evaluate it? It works really pretty w

by SuriRaven - Raspberry Pi(rate)Box

Re: Increasing txpower - 6 years ago

There's a better way, but you're not going to like it. The Pi's onboard antenna sucks, on all pis. This is not the Pi designer's fault - there's simply no way to make a good antenna in such a tiny amount of space. They tried, and they did a good job too - but there's no way that a dinky little PCB antenna can match the performance of a full-sized one. The desig

by SuriRaven - Raspberry Pi(rate)Box

Re: IPFS - 6 years ago

Well, that look long enough to repeat and document! My piratebox is a custom job, not one of the images provided, so this is all specific to me - but you should be able to adapt it. ----- Instructions for converting your piratebox to use IPFS. 1. Repartition the drive (optional). This is not actually required, but in the case of a piratebox it is wise to separate the IPFS data from the OS

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (Development)

Re: idea: P2P - Gnutella2 (G2) Protocal on a RPi or 2nd MR3020 - 6 years ago

I've been looking into a similar idea using IPFS, and think that software holds promise.

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (Development)

Re: IPFS - 6 years ago

It's certainly IPv6 capable, so I can assume it does mdns on IPFS. If not, it should be easy to make it do so. There's an ARM binary that works on my pi, but chances are you'll have to compile it for OpenWrt - it's written in Go. The Pi runs it handily, but I did have to tweak the configuration a bit to lower CPU usage.

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (Development)

Re: IPFS - 6 years ago

The hacking in of IPFS is actually pretty easy. 1. Install IPFS. 2. Add two lines to the web server config and add mod_proxy. 3. Adjust IPFS config to enable writing. 4. Configure iptables to allow mdns discovery. 5. Add to the HTML greeting page a notice explaining how to use it, and a link to Qmd2jKm99A2pJucn58xg5nGVRtUuNgSpiZ3jjdL39Bw95V. My piratebox is now functional - mostly a roll-

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (Development)

IPFS - 6 years ago

I notice that nowhere on these forums has anyone mentioned IPFS. It's a distributed storage protocol. Obscure, and still un development, but I think it's worth looking in to because it would be the perfect storage backend for a piratebox. I know that mesh development has been proceeding with the pace of a lazy snail, but IPFS could make it easier. It works by storing all data in a si

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (Development)

Re: Can it be done? - 10 years ago

What's the cost and power consumption on these things? I like the idea of disposable pirateboxes, easily hidden away and abandoned, perhaps solar powered and thrown onto a roof or made small enough to hide inside what looks like a plug-in air freshener.

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (General)

Re: Minor bugfix - 10 years ago

I didn't think of that. But exceptions can be caught, if it throws one at all. Someone test? The problem is that there's no checking for the shared ownership. Same user is default, yes - but a lot of pirateboxes are a little modified, and the software isn't very robust. A package update, copying some files into the share... it's easily broken in some manner.

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (Development)

Minor bugfix - 10 years ago

I noticed that the piratebox software is rather sensitive to file ownership and permissions. It all worked at first, but as soon as I started making even the slighest alterations things started getting awkward. There's no checking, so it ends up doing things like all uploads turning into zero-byte files, or Droopy writing files that lighttpd can't than read unless both are running as t

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (Development)

Re: Alternative Piratebox in PHP - 11 years ago

The most important component of the piratebox right now is Droopy - an ugly, unreliable mess written in Python. It works, but only in the sense that everything else is even worse.

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (General)

Re: Change PirateBox Port - 11 years ago

Matthias is correct: Piratebox depends upon redirecting 80 to inform users that they are on a piratebox. I'd suggest you buy a second pi. They are cheap.

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (General)

I found a droopy bug. - 11 years ago

I don't have the code right now, so I can't give a line number. It's very easy to find though. During initialisation, Droopy attempts to read the 'HOME' environment variable to get the user's home directory. This is very well if you are starting it manually - but if it is being run by startup scripts, 'HOME' might not be set. This results in Droopy cr

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (Development)

Re: Strip metadata in uploaded documents - 11 years ago

There are some situations in which you don't want metadata stripped. I'd suggest implimenting it with a tick-box on the upload page for 'strip metadata.' Ticked by default.

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (Development)

Re: Using a USB as HDD ? - 11 years ago

There's a complication to be aware of: USB hard drives (The spinny ones) suck power. The Pi cannot put enough power out to drive one directly. That means you either need to do some soldering work to modify the Pi, or else use a seperate powered USB hub. Additionally, if you're using battery power, you need to make sure your power supply circuit is capable of handling the load - which ca

by SuriRaven - Raspberry Pi(rate)Box

Re: How to make piratebox? - 11 years ago

First, you need to decide what hardware to use as your base. You've a few options: - Laptop/netbook: Easiest to set up physically. Expensive, but if you're going to be using one anyway, why not run a piratebox on it too? - OpenWRT: Some hackery required. - Pi: Fiddley to get working just right. MR3020: Never used one, don't really know.

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (General)

Re: MR-3020 Current Requirements and Deep Cycle Batteries - 11 years ago

The voltage drop on a regulator depends upon the current load - there's usually a handy graph of drop vs current in the datasheet. You might find it has a one-volt drop under no load so appears to work, but as soon as you start drawing more than a little current the output voltage will sag and your device crash. If you've got 'cheap ones' then you've almost certainly g

by SuriRaven - PirateBox (General)