[ArborMesh] Arbormesh Hackathon: What needs doing?

[Ryan Hughes]

> This is how ROBIN doesit: http://trac6.assembla.com/RobinMesh/browser/trunk/robin/robin-mesh/file
> s/lib/robin/watchout/80_gateway_to_inet
> -ben

Excellent.  I should look at what Robin is doing.

--Ryan


> On Wed, Apr 20, 2011 at 10:10 PM, Ryan Hughes <ryan at iheartryan.com> wrote:
>       Hi.  So I wanted to get the ball rolling on the discussion of
>       what should happen at the ArborMesh hackathon, Friday, May 6.
>
>       We could use a website!  Also, artwork, logo, and so forth!
>
>       There are things to be done on the firmware.
>
>       I got openwrt configured to speak OLSR and Batman-adv, both.  It
>       uses two different network prefixes (one for each protocol).  I
>       was wanting to do that so we could do tests/upgrades on one
>       routing protocol while the other makes the actual network
>       happen.  That sort of thing.
>
>       One thing that olsr does that batman-adv does not is this:  It
>       detects whether the router has access to the internet.  If it
>       does, it reports itself as a gateway.  It periodically pings a
>       set of hard-coded addresses to test whether it can get to the
>       internet.
>
>       I'd like us to implement a cron script that would do the
>       equivalent for batman.
>
>       Perhaps, before the hackathon, we should have a little "clinic"
>       on how to work with openwrt, and a more in-depth technical
>       introduction to the routing protocols.  I can show you what I've
>       been doing, and we can get y'all up to speed.  If anybody would
>       like to attend such a "clinic", tell me and we can arrange a
>       time.
>
>       We could also do this type of thing at the hackathon itself.  I
>       just thought that if anybody wanted a pre-introduction, they
>       could do a little tinkering before we got there, and then we
>       could get more work done at the hackathon.
>
>       I'm gonna try to convert what I've been doing into an "OpenWRT
>       ImageBuilder script".  Right now, I've got a .config file and so
>       forth, so you need a full OpenWRT source tree.  But an
>       imagebuilder script is a little easier to share and faster to
>       produce.
> 
>
>       Now, in addition to the router firmware, we will probably want a
>       web-app that can do some of the central management tasks.  I was
>       thinking we'd use "Nodewatcher" for this purpose.  The central
>       management tasks include such things as assigning IP addresses
>       and showing a cool map with our nodes and connections, to brag.
>        Nodewatcher is a django app.
>              http://dev.wlan-si.net/wiki/Podrobnosti/Nodewatcher
>
>       Here's a live sample of nodewatcher being run on wlan-slovenia.
>              https://nodes.wlan-si.net/
>
>       Nodewatcher needs to be installed and configured for us, but
>       it's also a pretty new software project.  Only recently has it
>       gained the ability to operate outside of wlan-slovenia.  We will
>       almost certainly have to add features.
> 
>
>       Also, we will probably want to add some stuff to the web-UI
>       that's on each router.  This would be done in OpenWRT's "LuCI"
>       environment.  LuCI is a web-app framework written in lua that
>       runs on each router.
>
>       Some of the things to add:  Maybe some kind of "configuration
>       wizard", like what Freifunk has.
>              http://wiki.freifunk.net/Freifunk_Firmware_%28English%29
>
>       Also, there is already a luci app to show a visualization of the
>       olsr topology, but I don't think there are any luci apps to deal
>       with batman at all.  It'd be nice if we could start one -- at
>       least as a topology visualizer, but also to see other status
>       information and do some configuration, maybe.
> 
>
>       Also, it'd be sweet if we had one of those "welcome screens".
>        Like, when you first log into the network and it's like "You
>       are about to use ArborMesh.  Plz to agree to our policies."
>        There are openwrt packages ready to use, but we'd have to
>       configure them, and put our own artwork and info inthere.
>       But this would also be cool if we could use that space to
>       advertise hyperlocal things, like "You are about to use
>       arbormesh.  Here's a cool irc channel and mailing list.  Y'know
>       what's cool?  AHA.  And other community organizations and stuff.
>        Oh, and look:  These are some network services being run on the
>       inside of the network!  Check out this website without even
>       going down to the copper at all!".
>
>       We could come up with some sort of broadcast mechanism that we
>       could use to push out changes to the welcome page.
> 
>
>       This is my brainstorm.  Anybody else got any ideas?  List 'em,
>       here.  When we get to the hackathon, we can prioritize.
>       --Ryan
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> 
> 
> 
>