lora Mesh - Ubuntu and MeshChat

Installing a new Ubuntu operating system on a dedicated computer just for running Reticulum MeshChat

These steps take you through the steps of freshly installing Ubuntu on a computer (the computer will be wiped of all data) in order to use it as a dedicated machine to run a lora rnode. The rnode flashing is not covered here, so in these instructions it is assumed you have flashed an rnode successfully already.

Follow these instructions , but use this link to select the 22.04.5 LTS, not the latest version, as this older version has good track-record of suitability for our purposes. The above instructions state that you copy the Ubuntu installation onto an USB stick, and boot your machine from that stick and follow the instructions. This usually means powering your machine on and pressing F12 before it fully boots. This accesses a menu to select to boot from the USB stick (listed as generic USB or similar). If in your machine the BIOS is set to prevent booting from the USB drive (a very common setting), then you have to change that setting in the BIOS, by accessing the bios on boot and changing the settings accordingly. For that step, consult a web-search for your computer, but normally you only need to access the BIOS using F12 and disable secure boot. On a Dell machine you may enter a menu in which the USB boot iso drive is listed with a long number and USB symbol on the left of it, and then use tab key to jump to that option and press return.

In these instructions here it is suggested to use the minimum Ubuntu installation option, because you do not need loads of software just to run the rnode. During the installation process, enter the username and computer name data and password (best write it down), and answer the questions that pop up. When the machine asks to re-start, remove the USB drive and press enter to continue (as the pop-up states).

Keep the USB thumb drive in a safe place so you can do all of this again on a new machine, or on the same machine, even if there is no internet. The update and upgrade steps cannot be done without internet, so once done, one can, I am told one can use Clonezilla to make a recovery instalation iso.

When stated below, paste the command into the command line in sequence and press enter, waiting for it to complete before continuing. (Pasting into the terminal is not done with Ctrl+V but with Ctrl+shift+V or similar for your system; or right click with the mouse/pointer).
If the above worked, you have a working Ubuntu computer. Let the machine power on or start normally, and you should see the Ubuntu desktop.
The Ubuntu 'Software Updater' app may pop up. Do not update as it suggests. Go to settings and the 'Updates' tab and select 'Never'under 'Notify me of a new Ubuntu version' to stop the Software Updater app from popping up all the time.

Make sure you have an internet connection. Open a terminal and run:

    
    sudo apt update 
    sudo apt upgrade

Now restart the computer.

If you want to run the GUI of MeshChat on a browser via a web-page, served by MeshChat, over your local wifi/LAN network, you can just use, instead of steps 6-12 below, step 11 and 12 of these Raspberry Pi instructions (noting the special steps for Ubuntu 22).
Download Reticulum MeshChat from the GitHub site, go to the version you want, press 'assets' if need be, click once on the listed .AppImage file, and wait for it to download.
Find the downloaded .AppImage file in the file manager, click right on 'properties', select 'permissions', tick 'allow executing file as program'; or, instead, at the terminal command prompt, when in the directory of the AppImageAppImage run: chmod +x ReticulumMeshChat-v1.19.0-linux.AppImage
Open a terminal, and at the command prompt run, the following two commands, where 'username' is your username that you set above:
```
    
    sudo apt install libfuse2
    sudo adduser username dialout
    
    
```
Then restart the computer. If you do not, the user will not be able to use the rnode via MeshChat, because the user being set to the dialout group, requires a computer restart in order to take effect.
Plug your functioning rnode into a functioning usb port of the functioning computer.
At the command prompt run:
```
   
   lsusb
   
   
```
and look at the output, and make sure the rnode appears e.g. Adafruit WisBlock RAK4631, Espressif USB JTAG/serial debug unit
Make sure you are in the directory in which the AppImage file is located and run the file downloaded e.g. for v.1.19 (yours might be a later version):
```
   
   ./ReticulumMeshchat-v1.19.0-linux.AppImage
   
   
```
In the MeshChat GUI go to the interfaces button and add the following interface by selecting or entering the relevant settings as stated:
Port: select the port that has the node listed by it e.g. /dev/ttyACM0 (Product: WisBlock RAK4613, Serial: ?)

Name: enter the name under which you want your rnode to appear in the interfaces list of interfaces

Type: rnode

For the Frequency, Bandwidth, Transmit Power, Spreading factor, Coding rate settings see settings.

(A banwidth of 150 kHz and spreading factor of 11 did not work but generated excessively long transmits from the sending node such that no delivery confirmations were ever received though messages got through very often.)
Disable the default interface i.e. Ethernet / Wifi (because we are aiming to test the radio lora function only here).
Now press on the 'add interface' button
Restart MeshChat by closing the window and re-running at the command prompt (use the up/down-arrow keys to find the command again):
```
./ReticulumMeshchat-v1.19.0-linux.AppImage
```
otherwise the interface changes will not take effect.
To get announces to pass to other nodes, set the node in settings to be a propagation node and in the Interfaces menu you can set an interface, in the three-dot menu - 'Optional Interface Settings' to be mode 'gateway'.
To pass on packets to other nodes (make a mesh), set the node in the settings menu to be a transport node.
You can add as many rnodes as you wish, so you can use one Ubuntu computer to run two or more nodes.
You can now see if you can receive and message via lora. Always best to have two rnodes installed to test in-house first. No point trying sending files or images or voice, lora will not really do that well, so stick to messages first for testing. If you want to reach anyone else via lora, the rnode antenna has to be as high as humanly possible. The antenna should not be attached by a long cable to the rnode, but as short as possible to get the best raw radio signal to the rdnode. The rnode can be connected by a long USB data cable to the Ubuntu machine, but obviously USB will not support all lengths - so check the cable works for your length. I can use a 10 m USB C cable made from many daiy-chained USB C cables, which can help place the rnode up high.

Further helpful software to install on the Ubuntu machine

If you install rustdesk on the Ubuntu machine via software installer, then you can control it via another machine, for example if the rnode and its computer are in a cold attic or outside in the garden or on the roof (switch off any VPN for rustdesk to work). To install rustdesk on e.g. Ubuntu, see the download link on the rustdesk site.

Consider installing the timeshift app in Ubuntu software installer (orange briefcase) to enable going back to a previous version of the Ubuntu installation (just use all defaults as suggested when installing).