site.rst

Site configuration

The site consists of the files site.conf and site.mk. In the first community based values are defined, which both are processed during the build process and runtime. The last is directly included in the make process of Gluon.

Configuration

The site.conf is a lua dictionary with the following defined keys.

hostname_prefix

A string which shall prefix the default hostname of a device.

site_name

The name of your community.

site_code

The code of your community. It is good practice to use the TLD of your community here.

prefix4 : optional

The IPv4 Subnet of your community mesh network in CIDR notation, e.g.

prefix4 = '10.111.111.0/18'

Required if next_node.ip4 is set.

prefix6

The IPv6 subnet of your community mesh network, e.g.

prefix6 = 'fdca::ffee:babe:1::/64'

timezone

The timezone of your community live in, e.g.

-- Europe/Berlin
timezone = 'CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3'

ntp_server

List of NTP servers available in your community or used by your community, e.g.:

ntp_servers = {'1.ntp.services.ffac','2.ntp.services.ffac'}

This NTP servers must be reachable via IPv6 from the nodes. If you don't want to set an IPv6 address explicitly, but use a hostname (which is recommended), see also the :ref:`FAQ <faq-dns>`.

opkg : optional

opkg package manager configuration.

There are two optional fields in the opkg section:

• lede overrides the default LEDE repository URL. The default URL would correspond to http://downloads.lede-project.org/snapshots/packages/%A and usually doesn't need to be changed when nodes are expected to have IPv6 internet connectivity.
• extra specifies a table of additional repositories (with arbitrary keys)

opkg = {
  lede = 'http://opkg.services.ffac/lede/snapshots/packages/%A',
  extra = {
    gluon = 'http://opkg.services.ffac/modules/gluon-%GS-%GR/%S',
  },
}

There are various patterns which can be used in the URLs:

• %n is replaced by the LEDE version codename
• %v is replaced by the LEDE version number (e.g. "17.01")
• %S is replaced by the target board (e.g. "ar71xx/generic")
• %A is replaced by the target architecture (e.g. "mips_24kc")
• %GS is replaced by the Gluon site code (as specified in site.conf)
• %GV is replaced by the Gluon version
• %GR is replaced by the Gluon release (as specified in site.mk)

regdom : optional

The wireless regulatory domain responsible for your area, e.g.:

regdom = 'DE'

Setting regdom is mandatory if wifi24 or wifi5 is defined.

wifi24 : optional

WLAN configuration for 2.4 GHz devices. channel must be set to a valid wireless channel for your radio.

There are currently three interface types available. You many choose to configure any subset of them:

• ap creates a master interface where clients may connect
• mesh creates an 802.11s mesh interface with forwarding disabled
• ibss creates an ad-hoc interface

Each interface may be disabled by setting disabled to true. This will only affect new installations. Upgrades will not change the disabled state.

Additionally it is possible to configure the supported_rates and basic_rate of each radio. Both are optional, by default hostapd/driver dictate the rates. If supported_rates is set, basic_rate is required, because basic_rate has to be a subset of supported_rates. The example below disables 802.11b rates.

ap requires a single parameter, a string, named ssid which sets the interface's ESSID.

mesh requires a single parameter, a string, named id which sets the mesh id.

ibss requires two parametersr: ssid (a string) and bssid (a MAC). An optional parameter vlan (integer) is supported.

Both mesh and ibss accept an optional mcast_rate (kbit/s) parameter for setting the multicast bitrate. Increasing the default value of 1000 to something like 12000 is recommended.

wifi24 = {
  channel = 11,
  supported_rates = {6000, 9000, 12000, 18000, 24000, 36000, 48000, 54000},
  basic_rate = {6000, 9000, 18000, 36000, 54000},
  ap = {
    ssid = 'alpha-centauri.freifunk.net',
  },
  mesh = {
    id = 'alpha-centauri-mesh',
    mcast_rate = 12000,
  },
  ibss = {
    ssid = 'ff:ff:ff:ee:ba:be',
    bssid = 'ff:ff:ff:ee:ba:be',
    mcast_rate = 12000,
  },
},

wifi5 : optional

Same as wifi24 but for the 5Ghz radio.

next_node : package

Configuration of the local node feature of Gluon

next_node = {
  ip4 = '10.23.42.1',
  ip6 = 'fdca:ffee:babe:1::1',
  mac = 'ca:ff:ee:ba:be:00'
}

The IPv4 next-node address is optional.

mesh : optional

Options specific to routing protocols.

At the moment, only the batman_adv routing protocol has such options:

The optional value gw_sel_class sets the gateway selection class. The default class 20 is based on the link quality (TQ) only, class 1 is calculated from both the TQ and the announced bandwidth.

mesh = {
  batman_adv = {
    gw_sel_class = 1,
  },
}

fastd_mesh_vpn

Remote server setup for the fastd-based mesh VPN.

The enabled option can be set to true to enable the VPN by default.

If configurable is set to false or unset, the method list will be replaced on updates with the list from the site configuration. Setting configurable to true will allow the user to add the method null to the beginning of the method list or remove null from it, and make this change survive updates. Setting configurable is necessary for the package gluon-luci-mesh-vpn-fastd, which adds a UI for this configuration.

In any case, the null method should always be the first method in the list if it is supported at all. You should only set configurable to true if the configured peers support both the null method and methods with encryption.

You can set syslog_level from verbose (default) to warn to reduce syslog output.

fastd_mesh_vpn = {
  methods = {'salsa2012+umac'},
  -- enabled = true,
  -- configurable = true,
  -- syslog_level = 'warn',
  mtu = 1280,
  groups = {
    backbone = {
      -- Limit number of connected peers from this group
      limit = 1,
      peers = {
        peer1 = {
          key = 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
          -- Having multiple domains prevents SPOF in freifunk.net
          remotes = {
            'ipv4 "vpn1.alpha-centauri.freifunk.net" port 10000',
            'ipv4 "vpn1.alpha-centauri-freifunk.de" port 10000',
          },
        },
        peer2 = {
          key = 'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX',
          -- You can also omit the ipv4 to allow both connection via ipv4 and ipv6
          remotes = {'"vpn2.alpha-centauri.freifunk.net" port 10000'},
        },
      },
      -- Optional: nested peer groups
      -- groups = {
      --   lowend_backbone = {
      --     limit = 1,
      --     peers = ...
      --   },
      -- },
    },
    -- Optional: additional peer groups, possibly with other limits
    -- peertopeer = {
    --   limit = 10,
    --   peers = { ... },
    -- },
  },

  bandwidth_limit = {
    -- The bandwidth limit can be enabled by default here.
    enabled = false,

    -- Default upload limit (kbit/s).
    egress = 200,

    -- Default download limit (kbit/s).
    ingress = 3000,
  },
}

mesh_on_wan : optional

Enables the mesh on the WAN port (true or false).

mesh_on_lan : optional

Enables the mesh on the LAN port (true or false).

poe_passthrough : optional

Enable PoE passthrough by default on hardware with such a feature.

autoupdater : package

Configuration for the autoupdater feature of Gluon.

The mirrors are checked in random order until the manifest could be downloaded successfully or all mirrors have been tried.

autoupdater = {
  branch = 'stable',
  branches = {
    stable = {
      name = 'stable',
      mirrors = {
        'http://[fdca:ffee:babe:1::fec1]/firmware/stable/sysupgrade/',
        'http://autoupdate.alpha-centauri.freifunk.net/firmware/stable/sysupgrade/',
      },
      -- Number of good signatures required
      good_signatures = 2,
      pubkeys = {
        'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX', -- someguy
        'XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX', -- someother
      }
    }
  }
}

All configured mirrors must be reachable from the nodes via IPv6. If you don't want to set an IPv6 address explicitly, but use a hostname (which is recommended), see also the :ref:`FAQ <faq-dns>`.

roles : optional

Optional role definitions. Nodes will announce their role inside the mesh. This will allow in the backend to distinguish between normal, backbone and service nodes or even gateways (if they advertise that role). It is up to the community which roles to define. See the section below as an example. default takes the default role which is set initially. This value should be part of list. If you want node owners to change the role via config mode add the package gluon-luci-node-role to site.mk.

The strings to display in the LuCI interface are configured per language in the i18n/en.po, i18n/de.po, etc. files of the site repository using message IDs like gluon-luci-node-role:role:node and gluon-luci-node-role:role:backbone.

roles = {
  default = 'node',
  list = {
    'node',
    'test',
    'backbone',
    'service',
  },
},

setup_mode : package

Allows skipping setup mode (config mode) at first boot when attribute skip is set to true. This is optional and may be left out.

setup_mode = {
  skip = true,
},

legacy : package

Configuration for the legacy upgrade path. This is only required in communities upgrading from Lübeck's LFF-0.3.x.

legacy = {
       version_files = {'/etc/.freifunk_version_keep', '/etc/.eff_version_keep'},
       old_files = {'/etc/config/config_mode', '/etc/config/ffac', '/etc/config/freifunk'},
       config_mode_configs = {'config_mode', 'ffac', 'freifunk'},
       fastd_configs = {'ffac_mesh_vpn', 'mesh_vpn'},
       mesh_ifname = 'freifunk',
       tc_configs = {'ffki', 'freifunk'},
       wifi_names = {'wifi_freifunk', 'wifi_freifunk5', 'wifi_mesh', 'wifi_mesh5'},
}

Packages

The site.mk is a Makefile which should define constants involved in the build process of Gluon.

GLUON_SITE_PACKAGES

Defines a list of packages which should be installed additionally to the gluon-core package.

GLUON_RELEASE

The current release version Gluon should use.

GLUON_PRIORITY

The default priority for the generated manifests (see the autoupdater documentation for more information).

GLUON_REGION

Region code to build into images where necessary. Valid values are the empty string, us and eu.

GLUON_LANGS

List of languages (as two-letter-codes) to be included in the web interface. Should always contain en.

Config mode texts

The community-defined texts in the config mode are configured in PO files in the i18n subdirectory of the site configuration. The message IDs currently defined are:

gluon-config-mode:welcome

Welcome text on the top of the config wizard page.

gluon-config-mode:pubkey

Information about the public VPN key on the reboot page.

gluon-config-mode:altitude-label

Label for the altitude field

gluon-config-mode:altitude-help

Description for the usage of the altitude field

gluon-config-mode:reboot

General information shown on the reboot page.

There is a POT file in the site example directory which can be used to create templates for the language files. The command msginit -l en -i ../../docs/site-example/i18n/gluon-site.pot can be used from the i18n directory to create an initial PO file called en.po if the gettext utilities are installed.

Note

An empty msgstr, as is the default after running msginit, leads to the msgid being printed as-is. It does not hide the whole text, as might be expected.

Depending on the context, you might be able to use comments like <!-- empty --> as translations to effectively hide the text.

Site modules

The file modules in the site repository is completely optional and can be used to supply additional package feeds from which packages are built. The git repositories specified here are retrieved in addition to the default feeds when make update it called.

This file's format is very similar to the toplevel modules file of the Gluon tree, with the important different that the list of feeds must be assigned to the variable GLUON_SITE_FEEDS. Multiple feed names must be separated by spaces, for example:

GLUON_SITE_FEEDS='foo bar'

The feed names may only contain alphanumerical characters, underscores and slashes. For each of the feeds, the following variables are used to specify how to update the feed:

PACKAGES_${feed}_REPO

The URL of the git repository to clone (usually git:// or http(s)://)

PACKAGES_${feed}_COMMIT

The commit ID of the repository to use

PACKAGES_${feed}_BRANCH

Optional: The branch of the repository the given commit ID can be found in. Defaults to the default branch of the repository (usually master)

These variables are always all uppercase, so for an entry foo in GLUON_SITE_FEEDS, the corresponding configuration variables would be PACKAGES_FOO_REPO, PACKAGES_FOO_COMMIT and PACKAGES_FOO_BRANCH. Slashes in feed names are replaced by underscores to get valid shell variable identifiers.

Examples

site.mk

site.conf

i18n/en.po

i18n/de.po

modules

site-repos in the wild

This is a non-exhaustive list of site-repos from various communities:

• site-ffa (Altdorf, Landshut & Umgebung)
• site-ffac (Regio Aachen)
• site-ffbs (Braunschweig)
• site-ffhb (Bremen)
• site-ffda (Darmstadt)
• site-ffeh (Ehingen)
• site-fffl (Flensburg)
• site-ffgoe (Göttingen)
• site-ffgt-rhw (Guetersloh)
• site-ffhh (Hamburg)
• site-ffho (Hochstift)
• site-ffhgw (Greifswald)
• site-ffka (Karlsruhe)
• site-ffki (Kiel)
• site-fflz (Lausitz)
• site-ffl (Leipzig)
• site-ffhl (Lübeck)
• site-fflg (Lüneburg)
• site-ffmd (Magdeburg)
• site-ffmwu (Mainz, Wiesbaden & Umgebung)
• site-ffmyk (Mayen-Koblenz)
• site-ffmo (Moers)
• site-ffmg (Mönchengladbach)
• site-ffm (München)
• site-ffhmue (Münden)
• site-ffms (Münsterland)
• site-neuss (Neuss)
• site-ffniers (Niersufer)
• site-ffnw (Nordwest)
• site-ffrgb (Regensburg)
• site-ffrn (Rhein-Neckar)
• site-ffruhr (Ruhrgebiet, Multi-Communities)
• site-ffs (Stuttgart)
• site-fftr (Trier)