Re: [lime] Upcoming meeting: 4th of January

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Author: Ilario
Date:  
To: LibreMesh
Subject: Re: [lime] Upcoming meeting: 4th of January
Dear all,
I copy and paste below the log of the meeting.
Check it out :)
Embedded in the meeting minutes, we wrote a rough "grant agreement" for
the testing grants (another email will follow) and the ideas for the
Google Summer of Code projects (if you have more ideas, please share
them on this mailing list. If you want to expand the 3 ideas that were
proposed during the meeting, please write your contributions directly on
the pad of the meeting).

As detailed on the website
https://libremesh.org/communication.html#online_meetings
the next project meeting will be on:
Saturday the 3rd of February 2024 at 13:00 UTC (14:00 CET, 10:00 ART).

Here the meeting minutes:

# Thursday 4th of January 2024 at 13:00 UTC (14:00 CET, 10:00 ART).

## People
Gothos, Pony, Nele, Ilario, Javier Jorge, Hiure, Cri

## Topics

* Website
* Assign the work-grant for testing the release candidate
* GSoC2024
* Tasks for the next release

### Website
The restyling has been approved in the previous meeting.
The new website will look like this:
https://libremesh.antennine.campiinrete.org

### Assign the work-grant for testing the release candidate
Hiure routers:
https://md.coolab.org/YaNewwIUSGuETd1uJRw1kw?view
they have routers with DSA.

Ilario:
There will be 500$ extra from GSoC mentor money, so we can fund 2
grants! 500$ per person should be enough for funding approx 30 hours of
work (one week).

Pony:
I would test in both levels. I just wanted to point out in my Email that
I have no experience with babeld.

as libremesh we decided to accept the proposal of working for testing
the last RC, from Hiure and Pony!

Money will be sent from:
https://opencollective.com/libremesh
we plan to divide a first part of the payament in the next week and
another when they finish the hours of testing.

Send bank details to Cri or Ilario (others admins are Pau, GMarcos,
Aparcar and an anonymous account (WTF)) for payment. Half now, half later.


#### Grant agreement

from email of 9/11/23:
"During the meeting, a person will be selected, and this person will be
entitled to receive the donations' money in an amount of 20 $ per worked
hour. Until now, we have available 617-70 = 547 $ so we can fund 27 work
hours. If the testing is not completed in the hours that the donations
can pay (likely) it is ok, the rest of the testing will be done by the
community as usual."

Reunited,
the LibreMesh project meeting participants, taking decisions on behalf
the whole LibreMesh community for topics related to the LibreMesh
project and infrastructure;
Pony pny@???;
Hiure hiure@???.

Observed,
that Pony and Hiure fulfill the requirements exposed in the email from
2023-11-09 sent by Ilario to the official LibreMesh mailing list, which
can be read here:
https://lists.autistici.org/message/20231101.163202.5a0742ed.en.html
applying a decision of the LibreMesh project meeting of 2023-11-01,
whose minutes can be read here:
https://pad.cas.cat/LibreMesh_meetup_2024?view#How-to-use-donations-buying-hardware

Decided,
that both and individually Pony and Hiure will receive the testing grant.

Clauses,
1) each of the grant holders will justify 30 hours of work with a short
report sent on the official project mailing list and the official chatroom;
2) the work of the recipients will have to be aimed to the grant goal
defined in the initial email as "Help the release of a LibreMesh release
based on OpenWrt 23.05: testing with a realistic setup, reporting issues
and, if enough time is available, fixing blocking issues."
3) specifically, the receivers are required to check if the observed
issues are already reported in the project bug tracker on Github, add
there any useful information gathered, and file a new bug report for
issues that are not yet properly described. The recipients are not
required to fix the observed bugs, but they are strongly encouraged to
use their work-hours for fixing the issues that they perceive as useful
in pursuing the grant goal of "Help the release of a LibreMesh release
based on OpenWrt 23.05";
4) both and each of the recipients will have to build a setup matching
the minimum requirements defined in the initial email:

*The minimal simple topology we drew is a linear one, represented here:*

*internet1 --wire-- dual_band#1 --wifi-- dual_band#2 --wire--
single_band#1 --wifi-- single_band#2 --wire or wifi-- internet2*

*If the topology is going to be different, it is ok, as far as it is
useful to test the release in a realistic setup.*

*Requirements for dual_band router:*
* *at least 1 radio at 2.4 GHz*
* *at least 1 radio at 5 GHz*
* *DSA supported*

*Requirements for single_band router:*
* *maximum 1 radio at either 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz*
* *DSA supported*

*Requirements for internet connections:*
* *internet1 and internet2 should preferably be two different internet
connections (P.S. either wireless WAN or ethernet WAN, both are fine),
but if they are the same it is ok*

5) the minimum scenarios to test are, as defined in the initial email:

* *checking if the internet connection internet1 goes down, if the wifi
clients (common AP name) still have connection*
* *checking if the internet connection internet2 goes down, if the wifi
clients (common AP name) still have connection*
* *checking if the internet connection internet1 goes down, if the cabled
clients (on dual_band#2) still have connection*
* *checking if the internet connection internet2 goes down, if the cabled
clients (on dual_band#2) still have connection*
* *checking roaming, e.g. with an audio call*
* *define exactly how router wire to router is connected: LAN to LAN with
mesh configuration e.g.
https://github.com/libremesh/network-profiles/tree/master/calafou#lime-community-configuration-3*

6) some additional interesting things to inspect are included here but
are not required:

* document how to set ethernet interfaces for mesh only or clients only
* inspect local DNS configuration
* split the test network in two different clouds and checking the
connection via wireless and via cable

7) the LibreMesh project meeting will send 270 $ to each of the
recipients as soon as bank details are provided. The received amount
could be lower due to the bank transfer expenses.
8) the LibreMesh project meeting will send 270 $ to each of the
recipients as soon as each of them sends their reports on the mailing
list. The received amount could be lower due to the bank transfer expenses.



### GSoC2024

https://projects.freifunk.net/#/projects
https://github.com/freifunk/projects/tree/main/_projects

https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/timeline

DEADLINE 6th of FEBRUARY


#### Enable wifi simulations for qemu
Javier:
NIIT (INTI) + Altermundi

https://github.com/freifunk/projects/blob/main/_projects/_template.md

#### Pirania
Hiure


#### lime-app
Cri

additionally to LibreRouter fix some part that are not working to
generic routers with libremesh, create an app external of the firmware
that replaces lime-app, can be an android or a PWA, progressive web app.
A the moment is not clear where the devoloping od lime-app is happening,
here is stuck from 3of may 2023: https://github.com/libremesh/lime-app



### Tasks for the next release

* testing
* lime-app release (Javier)
* update the website removing mentions to LuCI
* testing x86 images with virtual machines 
https://github.com/libremesh/lime-packages/pull/938
* firmware selector https://repo.libremesh.org/selector/
     * Gothos will fork (include feature to append configs, e.g. 
CONFIG_VERSION_DIST) the Attended System Upgrade software for having the 
files named LibreMesh
https://firmware-selector.openwrt.org/
* Gothos will compile the release
* remove images with ath10k-ct
* document the usage of the imagebuilder


######### gothos proposals
I recently rebuilded libremesh based on openwrt 23.05.2
I've done another development build
`libremesh-master-ow23.05.2-361645e-20231224` [0]
https://downloads.libremesh.org/selector/?version=master-ow23.05.2-361645e-20231224
https://downloads.libremesh.org/development/master-ow23.05.2-361645e-20231224/

Since the default configuration of libremesh use 802.11s for wireless
mesh networking
In this build all 'ath10k-ct' packages are replaced with the default not
'-ct' driver [1]

I'm going to add the following steps for next development-builds/releases

- include by default the package `wifi-unstuck-wa`, that contains a
userspace workaround, in each devices that have the buggy ath9k driver [2]
- ??include by default `wpad-mesh-wolfssl` or `wpad-mesh-mbedtls` in
devices that has enough space, to allow by default to encrypt the mesh
traffic [3]
- do a mini release

[0] the name follow this scheme:
[version_dist]-[libremesh_branch]-ow[openwrt_version]-[libremesh_commit]-[build_start_date]
[1]
https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wifi/mesh/80211s#wireless_hardware_support
changes are documented here
https://gitlab.com/a-gave/libremesh-ansible-collection/-/tree/master/target/libremesh_master/openwrt_23.05.2?ref_type=heads
[2] https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/issues/7016
https://github.com/libremesh/lime-packages/issues/144
https://github.com/freifunk-gluon/gluon/issues/130
[3] https://libremesh.org/development.html
################# /end of gothos proposals

#### Discussion - Mini image
Gothos: we could make a release mini with less packages to fit in
routers with small flash memories. Trying to not get far away from the
default ones for not adding too much maintenance stress.
Ilario: no need. It would be harder to use (one of the values of the
project is to make things easy for non-technical people), so the people
able to use it would be technical enough to compile it by themselves.
Hiure: good idea to have a small release. There are people able to use
the CLI interface but cannot compile. It allows us to use old routers.
Ilario: ok!

KEEP lime-docs-minimal (LibreMesh minimal documentation)
NOT NEEDED lime-app (LibreMeshApp)
KEEP lime-hwd-openwrt-wan (Respect openwrt wan interface as default)
KEEP lime-proto-anygw (LibreMesh anygw proto support)
KEEP lime-proto-babeld (LibreMesh babeld proto support)
KEEP lime-proto-batadv (LibreMesh batman-adv proto support)
KEEP shared-state-babeld_hosts (babeld-hosts module for shared-state)
NOT NEEDED shared-state-bat_hosts (bat-hosts module for shared-state)
NOT NEEDED shared-state-nodes_and_links (nodes_and_links module for
shared-state)
KEEP babeld-auto-gw-mode
NOT NEEDED batctl-default (B.A.T.M.A.N. Advanced user space
configuration tool)

Gothos: what about including WolfSSL or Mbed-TLS? It is better to keep safe.
Ilario: OpenWrt moved from WolfSSL to Mbed-TLS. So for sure we should
avoid WolfSSL. During BattleMesh, Marek mentioned that OpenSSL is the
one that deals better with encrypted mesh over lossy links. But OpenSSL
increases the size of the images of about 1 MB, so it could be that it
does not fit on some routers. For people just wanting HTTPS on the web
interface, Mbed-TLS should be more than enough.

#### Discussion: differences between ImageBuilder and BuildRoot
Cri: there is no documentation from openWRT about the differences in
output, we need that before suggesting to our users to use the ImageBuilder

Gothos: selecting batctl-default or other versions, this changes between
the build methods

Ilario: for sure these settings will not be present in the ImageBuilder,
but they are not important.

bmx7-auto-gw-bw-mode/Makefile:  select CONFIG_BUSYBOX_CONFIG_CROND
bmx7-auto-gw-bw-mode/Makefile:  select CONFIG_BUSYBOX_CONFIG_CRONTAB
bmx7-mdns/Makefile:  select CONFIG_BUSYBOX_CONFIG_CROND
bmx7-mdns/Makefile:  select CONFIG_BUSYBOX_CONFIG_CRONTAB
lime-debug/Makefile:    select BUSYBOX_CUSTOM
lime-debug/Makefile:    select BUSYBOX_CONFIG_NC
lime-debug/Makefile:    select BUSYBOX_CONFIG_NC_SERVER


Someone, at some point, should ask to some OpenWrt guru about the
differences.


On 1/3/24 09:57, Ilario wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> Just wanted to remind that on Thursday the 4th of January (tomorrow), at
> 13:00 UTC (14:00 CET, 10:00 ART) there will be a PROJECT MEETING.
>
> The pad for adding more topics to discuss is this:
> https://pad.cas.cat/LibreMesh_meetup_2024#Thursday-4th-of-January-2024-at-1300-UTC-1400-CET-1000-ART
>
> The links for the call are these:
> primary https://jitsi.unp.edu.ar/LibreMesh
> fallback https://meet.guifi.net/LibreMesh
>
> The dates for the next meetings are already fixed and listed here, but
> please feel free to propose (here or on the chat) more dates if you like:
> https://libremesh.org/communication.html#online_meetings
>
> Ciao!
> Ilario
>
>


--
Ilario
iochesonome@???
ilario@???