LibreMesh packages

LibreMesh project includes the development of several tools used for deploying libre/free mesh networks.

The firmware (the main piece) will allow simple deployment of auto-configurable, yet versatile, multi-radio mesh networks. Check the Network Architecture to see the basic ideas.

We encourage each network community to create its firmware profile on network-profiles repository and build the images locally.

Supported hardware

In this page we provide a list of requirements that ensure you to have a working LibreMesh node on your router. This list comes with no warranties: read carefully the model-specific instructions on OpenWrt wiki and be extra-careful when flashing your routers!

Building a Firmware Image on Your PC

Building the stable release LibreMesh 2020.1

Using the BuildRoot

The BuildRoot will cross-compile the whole OpenWrt and the LibreMesh packages on your computer, so it will take approx 10 GB of disk space and a few hours of compilation time.

For compiling LibreMesh firmware with this method, you can follow these instructions.

Using the ImageBuilder

The ImageBuilder method is not available for the stable release.

Building the experimental firmware

The experimental code still has serious issues that have to be solved, use it only for developing or debugging.

Using the BuildRoot

As explained above, in the instuctions on the website you will find where to specify the version of the code to compile.

Using the ImageBuilder

The ImageBuiler will download pre-compiled parts of the OpenWrt releases, and add the pre-compiled LibreMesh packages, so it is much faster than the BuildRoot method (but less practical if you want to develop some new features modifying LibreMesh source code).

With Docker

Start an ImageBuilder of your choice, for example ath79-generic if your device is supported within it, use containers for an easier setup:

mkdir ./images/
docker run -it -v $(pwd)/images:/images/ ghcr.io/openwrt/imagebuilder:ath79-generic-v22.03.5

If your device is not part of ath79-generic profiles, you can replace it with another <target>-<subtarget> combination. For knowing which target and subtarget is best suited for your router, check out the page about it in the OpenWrt's Table of Hardware.

Within the container, add the lime-packages feeds:

echo "src/gz libremesh https://feed.libremesh.org/master" >> repositories.conf
echo "src/gz libremesh_arch_packages https://feed.libremesh.org/arch_packages/master/mips_24kc" >> repositories.conf
echo  "untrusted comment: signed by libremesh.org key a71b3c8285abd28b" > keys/a71b3c8285abd28b
echo "RWSnGzyChavSiyQ+vLk3x7F0NqcLa4kKyXCdriThMhO78ldHgxGljM/8" >> keys/a71b3c8285abd28b

If your device is not part of ath79-generic replace mips_24kc with the architecture of the selected <target>/<subtarget>.

Ideally add your own lime-community files within the container in the folder ./files/etc/config/. To find possible options consult the lime-example.txt file. It is also possible to mount an existing lime-community file directly. For example, when the lime-community file is in the current directory, append -v $(pwd)/lime-community:/builder/files/etc/config/lime-community to the docker run command.

Now create an image of your choice, to see the names of supported profiles run make info first.

make image PROFILE=ubnt_unifi PACKAGES="lime-system lime-proto-babeld lime-proto-batadv lime-proto-anygw lime-hwd-openwrt-wan lime-hwd-ground-routing lime-app lime-debug lime-docs lime-docs-minimal shared-state-babeld_hosts shared-state-bat_hosts shared-state-dnsmasq_hosts shared-state-nodes_and_links babeld-auto-gw-mode check-date-http batctl-default -dnsmasq -odhcpd-ipv6only" BIN_DIR=/images FILES=files

For more information about which packages to select, refer to section package-selection.

Your images should be available outside of the container in the ./images/ folder.

Without Docker

Go to https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/. Find your device. Click on the folder symbol right after "Links: ". Alternatively, find your device in OpenWrt's Table of Hardware, find the image download link, remove the filename from the right side of the link and put the result in your browsers address bar. Scroll down and download openwrt-imagebuilder-*. Unpack the file and open a terminal inside the directory. Add the lime-packages feed:

echo "src/gz libremesh https://feed.libremesh.org/master" >> repositories.conf
echo "src/gz libremesh_arch_packages https://feed.libremesh.org/arch_packages/master/mips_24kc" >> repositories.conf
echo  "untrusted comment: signed by libremesh.org key a71b3c8285abd28b" > keys/a71b3c8285abd28b
echo "RWSnGzyChavSiyQ+vLk3x7F0NqcLa4kKyXCdriThMhO78ldHgxGljM/8" >> keys/a71b3c8285abd28b

If your device is not part of ath79-generic replace mips_24kc with the architecture of the selected <target>/<subtarget>.

Create an image with

make image PROFILE=ubnt_unifi FILES=path-to-root-dir PACKAGES="lime-system lime-proto-babeld lime-proto-batadv lime-proto-anygw lime-hwd-openwrt-wan lime-hwd-ground-routing lime-app lime-debug lime-docs lime-docs-minimal shared-state-babeld_hosts shared-state-bat_hosts shared-state-dnsmasq_hosts shared-state-nodes_and_links babeld-auto-gw-mode check-date-http batctl-default -dnsmasq -odhcpd-ipv6only"

where path-to-root-dir is the path to a directory where your lime-community file is located, like so: path-to-root-dir/etc/config/lime-community. ubnt_unifi needs to be replaced with the profile that fits your device. Run make info to see the names of supported profiles. You find the resulting image files in ./bin/target/*/*/.

For more information about which packages to select, refer to section package-selection.

For more information about commands and parameters of imagebuilder, run make help.

Possible errors from the ImageBuilder

If you get a docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?. error, means that you don't have Docker's daemon running. Make sure you have docker installed and start its daemon with systemctl start docker.service.

If you get a opkg_download: Check your network settings and connectivity. error, both check the connectivity and make sure that the firewall rules of your computer allow the container to reach the internet.

Package selection

With the PACKAGES= argument, you can specify which packages should be preinstalled inside the image. All packages and packages they depend on will be included in the image. This list of packes will produce an image close to the official ones:

PACKAGES="lime-system lime-proto-babeld lime-proto-batadv lime-proto-anygw lime-hwd-openwrt-wan lime-hwd-ground-routing lime-app lime-debug lime-docs lime-docs-minimal shared-state-babeld_hosts shared-state-bat_hosts shared-state-dnsmasq_hosts shared-state-nodes_and_links babeld-auto-gw-mode check-date-http batctl-default -dnsmasq -odhcpd-ipv6only"

There are some target and profile specific packages that are included by default. They can be excluded by prepending them with a minus sign. Note that when there is a package in the selection that depends on another package, that package will always be included. You can find out which packages depend on another package using package_whatdepends, for example:

make package_whatdepends PACKAGE=lime-system

If you have a device that uses an atk10k wireless driver, you need to make sure to use the one that isn't suffixed with -ct. With the -ct-version, 802.11s meshing does not work. After building an image, open the .manifest-file that is created within the same folder as the image with a text editor. Check if there are any packages ending with -ct. If this is the case, exclude them from the image. Include the packages with the same name but without the -ct. For example, append

-kmod-ath10k-ct kmod-ath10k -ath10k-firmware-qca988x-ct ath10k-firmware-qca988x

If you planning to use encrypted mesh, you need to make sure to have the wpad-mesh-*, not wpad-basic-* package, where * is mbedtls, openssl or wolfssl. OpenWrt 23 by default uses mbedtls. For example, append

-wpad-basic-mbedtls wpad-mesh-mbedtls

If you want to save some space on the devices flash, there are some packages that can savely be excluded. For example, you can remove lime-debug from the above example and save about 540KB. Append -ppp -ppp-mod-pppoe to save another 140KB (if you don't need pppoe).

Testing

LibreMesh has unit tests that help us add new features while keeping maintenance effort contained.

To run the tests simply execute ./run_tests.

Please read the [Unit Testing Guide] for more details about testing and how to add tests to LibreMesh.

Get in Touch with LibreMesh Community

Mailing Lists

The project has an official mailing list libremesh@krutt.org and an Element (#libremesh-dev:matrix.guifi.net) chat room; check out this page with the links for joining the chatroom.

Contributors

This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute. [Contribute].

Donations

We are now a member of open collective, please consider a small donation!

Backers

Thank you to all our backers! 🙏 [Become a backer]

Sponsors

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