Actualizaciones:
1.4.3 (03/02/2021) – Se arregló el soporte para el jumper del watchdog (JP8). Desde la 1.4 a la 1.4.2 inclusive, los LRs que tenían el jumper instalado (solo algunos pocos) se reiniciaban a los 10 minutos.
1.4.2 (04/10/2021) – Se corrigieron problemas de estabilidad y un problema que puede aparecer (dependiendo de la configuración del nodo) en enlaces de mas de 100 metros.
(Nota: los links de esta guía siempre estarán actualizados a la última versión 1.4.x)

Estamos contentxs de acercarles el trabajo de los últimos meses, con muchas mejoras de software y en particular nuevo material de formación y documentación!

Gracias a todes quienes colaboraron! Grán trabajo de @lachana @florlopezpeze @giudicejesica @germans en el material de documentación!

Una de las mejoras mas importantes es la posibilidad de realizar actualizaciones de software de forma super simplificada a través de la Lime-App 🙂

Nuevos materiales audiovisuales

Nuevos materiales audiovisuales de formación disponibles en https://docs.altermundi.net

• Cómo es un LibreRouter: https://altermundi.net/como-es-un-librerouter/
• Conectar: https://altermundi.net/conectar-un-equipo-librerouter/
• Configurar: https://altermundi.net/configurar-un-equipo-librerouter/
• Montaje de un nodo: https://altermundi.net/montar-un-nodo-librerouter/
• Usar la LimeApp: https://altermundi.net/documentacion/usar-limeapp1-4/
• Alineación de antenas: https://altermundi.net/documentacion/usar-limeapp1-4/alinear-antenas-de-un-equipo-librerouter-con-limeapp-1-4/
• Glosario: https://foro.librerouter.org/t/glosario-y-referencias-utiles/263

Tambien disponibles en Portugués: https://altermundi.net/documentacao/ e Inglés https://altermundi.net/documentation/

Mejoras y nueva funcionalidad

• Actualización de el sistema OpenWrt desde la versión 18.06 a la versión 19.07
• Se agregan las notas de la LimeApp al banner de la consola ssh, y un recordatorio de documentacion en /docs
• Se agregó a la salida del comando lime-report los mensajes de dmesg.
• Shared State ahora se sincroniza entre nubes L2 (batman-adv) conectadas por cable.
• Babeld anuncia las salidas a internet únicamente si estan operativas. Esto es útil para redes con múltiples salidas a internet. Ahora si una deja de funcionar los nodos eligen salir por la otra. (babeld-auto-gw-mode)
• FirstBootWizard se copia los lime-assets del nodo con quien se está configurando. Los lime-assets son archivos que permiten compartir configuración de cualquier tipo entre los nodos.
• Se aumentó el tamaño del buffer de los logs (logread) para que guarden más información.

Problemas arreglados

• Se arregló un problema de seguridad en la funcionalidad de FirstBootWizard. Ahora pide contraseña de root si está configurada.
• Se arregló el funcionamiento de FirstBootWizard cuando se utiliza de manera encadenada entre más de 2 nodos.
• El banner de la consola ssh se muestra siempre correctamente.
• El escaneo de redes nuevas en FirstBootWizard se hace únicamente cuando se pide, evitando resultados erróneos del escaneo.
• Se arregló el ruteo a direcciones locales ipv6 (ULA) en babeld.

Actualización de LibreRouterOS con un click

A partir de LibreRouterOS 1.4, cuando haya una nueva versión de LibreRouterOS, un mensaje aparecerá en la LimeApp invitándonos a actualizar el firmware con un solo click. Aquí hay un tutorial para ilustrar cómo funciona esta actualización: Actualizar Firmware en LibreRouterOS 1.4

Acceso Remoto

Ahora se puede abrir una sesión de consola con acceso remoto desde la LimeApp!

Para más información sobre cómo usar esta herramienta ver este post del foro

Nueva Pantalla de Alineación

La nueva pantalla de alineación trae muchas mejoras que esperamos faciliten el trabajo de alinear los nodos de la red.

• Muestra todos los nodos asociados en cada radio a la vez, usando un tab para cada radio.
• Se puede hacer click sobre un nodo vecino en particular para ver la señal con ese nodo en específico, y la mejor señal lograda mientras se alinea.
• Cuando un nodo deja de estar asociado se muestra hace cuánto dejó de estar asociado.
• La información en general se refresca más rápido.

Otros cambios en la LimeApp.

• Se agregó la opción “No volver a mostrar este mensaje” al baner de FirstBootWizard para configuración automática de los nodos.
• Se eliminó la opción de no preservar configuración al actualizar el firmware. Recomendamos correr primero el comando firstboot antes de actualizar para no preservar la configuración.
• Se modificó la pantalla de Cambiar Nodo para que sea más intuitiva, ahora se llama Visitar Nodo Vecino :slight_smile:
• Se arregló la opción de “Ver Comunidad” en el mapa, que fallaba justo después de ubicar el nodo actual.

Nuevos problemas conocidos

Poco espacio disponible

En esta versión hemos añadido muchas funcionalidades nuevas lo que hizo que usemos mucho más espacio y por ende no quede mucho espacio para instalar nuevos paquetes, por ejemplo zerotier. Estamos trabajando en reducir el espacio utilizado, esta mejora se verá en la próxima versión. Si un nodo utiliza zerotier u otro software pesado les recomendamos no actualizar este nodo específico a la version 1.4 (y si actualizar el resto de los nodos).

Sin soporte a wifi ad-hoc

En este release no está funcional el soporte de wifi ad-hoc. Aún no sabemos la causa, muy probablemente relacionada con la actualización de Openwrt a su version 19.07. Les recomendamos actualizar la configuración de la red a utilizar mesh (iee80211s) en vez de adhoc antes de actualizar a la version 1.4. LibreRouterOS en cualquier versión utiliza mesh por defecto, por lo cual les usuaries de LibreRouterOS que no cambiaron esta configuración no tienen de qué preocuparse.

Cómo actualizar a la version 1.4

Cualquier duda con la instalación por favor pregunten aquí en el foro !

Desde la versión LibreRouterOs 1.3

Descargar el archivo desde aquí y luego subir el archivo en la LimeApp siguiendo estas instrucciones: https://altermundi.net/documentacion/usar-limeapp-1-3/un-paseo-por-el-menu-1-3/#Firmware

Desde versiónes anteriores a la 1.3

Procedimiento simplificado para equipo LibreRouter configurado

A partir de esta versión, la 1.3, el proceso de actualización se puede hacer desde la Lime-App! Pero para versiones anteriores, hay que hacerlo por consola:

1. Descargar el actualizador de https://repo.librerouter.org/lros/releases/1.4.3/targets/ath79/generic/upgrade-lr-1.4.sh
2. Copiar al nodo el actualizador: scp upgrade-lr-1.4.sh root@thisnode.info:/tmp/
3. Ejecutar el actualizador: ssh root@thisnode.info sh /tmp/upgrade-lr-1.4.sh
4. Esperar unos 2 minutos a que se actualice y el equipo se va a reiniciar
5. Confirmar la actualización antes de que pasen 10 minutos. Se puede realizar a través de la Lime-App (aparece un mensaje arriba en la pantalla para eso), o sino entrando por ssh y ejecutando safe-upgrade confirm.

Si el LibreRouter cuenta con internet puedes reemplazar los pasos 1. y 2 por lo siguiente:

• ssh root@thisnode.info “wget http://repo.librerouter.org/lros/releases/1.4.3/targets/ath79/generic/upgrade-lr-1.4.sh -O /tmp/upgrade-lr-1.4.sh”

Procedimiento para un LibreRouter aun no configurado

Ejecutar en el nodo:

• Descargar: wget -O /tmp/firmware.bin https://repo.librerouter.org/lros/releases/1.4.3/targets/ath79/generic/librerouteros-1.4.3-r11356-ea7e4a351f-ath79-generic-librerouter_librerouter-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

• Actualizar: safe-upgrade upgrade -n firmware.bin
• Reiniciar: reboot
• Confirmar la actualización entrando con la Lime-App o por ssh ejecutando safe-upgrade confirm

Para otros equipos (TP-Link 3500, 4600, 4200)

• Descargar la versión necesaria de https://repo.librerouter.org/lros/releases/1.4.3/targets/ath79/generic/
• Para simplificar los próximos pasos conviene renombrar el archivo descargado a firmware.bin
• Copiar el firmware al nodo: scp firmware.bin root@thisnode.info:/tmp/
• Si se quiere mantener la configuración:
• Realizar un backup de la configuracion: tar cvfz /tmp/archive.tar.gz /etc/config/lime-node /etc/config/lime-community /etc/config/libremap /etc/dropbear/ /root/.ssh/known_hosts /etc/shadow
• Actualizar sysupgrade --force -f /tmp/archive.tar.gz /tmp/firmware.bin
• Si no se requiere mantener la configuracion:
• Actualizar sysupgrade --force -n /tmp/firmware.bin
  Nota: Es necesario hacerlo con –force porque LibreRouterOS 1.4 está basado en OpenWrt 19.x, y las versiones anteriores en OpenWrt 18.x

Many communities all around the world are using the LibreRouter technology to deploy their Community Networks!!! Many in Argentina!

More than 300 LibreRouters wre distributed in at least the following countries: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italia, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Myanmar, Nigeria, Rwanda, Spain, Thailand, Uganda, Zimbabwe.

As of today, 6 April 2021, there are LibreRouters available in stock and we will start a new production batch as soon as funds allow it.

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LibreRouterOs 1.3 “El galpón”

We are happy to bring you the work of the last 6 months, with many improvements!
Thanks to everyone who collaborated with testing, documentation, development and ideas! A special recognition of the great work of @gferrero in the Lime-App, thank you Germán!
One of the most important improvements is the possibility of software updates in a simplified way through the Lime-App.

We recommend updating as soon as possible, there are many improvements and corrections!

New features and improvements

Changes and improvements in LibreMesh

• Shared password for the administration of the community nodes
• Utilities to use Qemu as a development platform emulating a network with several nodes
• Support for OpenWrt versions 18.06 and 19.07
• Utility check-internet
• Support for ethernet in batman, which makes it possible to connect nodes by ethernet without problems.
• Improvements in DNS:
  • The node name returns the primary IP and not that of anycast
• New configuration possibilities and assets files:
  • copy_asset to copy files
  • run_asset: to run scripts
  • generic_uci_config: to be able to configure any UCI file from libremesh
• New functionalities of safe-upgrade:
  • Automatic reboot when the upgrade is finished. Use –no-reboot to disable this functionality.
  • Validate that the firmware is for the current device
  • Allows you to backup files from the current partition to the new one.
• Firmware update remotely (for example through the Lime-App)

And many other small improvements and bug fixes!

Lime-App

• New screen to update the firmware.
• Allows you to choose a firmware image from the device.
• Creation of the shared node administration password when creating a new network.
• More intuitive menu item names.
• Fix of bugs in the functionality of “Locate”, now “Map”.

General changes

• OpenWrt updated to 18.06.8
• Generation of automated firmwares in continuous integration of Gitlab
• In addition to generating firmwares for the LibreRouter, they are also generated for WDR3500, WDR3600, WDR4300, x86_64 (qemu)
• Automatic and dynamic wireless link distance configuration (using ATH_DYNACK). Configured by default.
• Many improvements in the release process, firmware names, versions, etc.
• Increase of the minimum multicast bitrate value for 5GHz. This improves the choice of skips for routing protocols (batman advanced and babel).

How to update

Please read the upgrade instructions in the forum where you can ask for help 🙂

After a lot of work from the Coolab organization and with the support of Altermundi, the LibreRouter has received the standarization certificate in Brasil.

There is more information in the following article in Portuguese:

Libre Router Homologado no Brasil

LibreRouter is a free hardware and software router, designed and produced with features that aim to make it easier for communities to install their own mesh network.

During 2019, the first version of this device went into production and is expected to be tested and used in different community networks around the world.

One of the difficulties encountered to advance with its implementation, has been the approval required in some countries for its operation. In Colombia, the entity in charge of certification is the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC), to whom a request was submitted to confirm whether the certification process was required for its implementation in the country. At the end of October, the CRC issued a notification confirming that this process is not required for use in Colombia. This gives the CRC a free hand to carry out tests and implementations in community networks or other citizen connectivity initiatives.

Download the document: CRC Communication on LibreRouter

Currently, local organizations such as NuestraRed.org , Semillero Red Fusa Libre and Colnodo have LibreRouter equipment for testing, training and implementation.

Note originally published in Spanish at https://redescomunitarias.co/es/noticias/librerouter-con-via-libre-para-ser-probado-en-redes-comunitarias-en-colombia

Recently, the Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones (ENACOM) of Argentina granted the certification to the LibreRouter.

This procedure, which took a lot of dedication and joint effort among several actors, is an important achievement. The homologation certifies that the technology built for community networks is at the level of the current regulations, that its features are measured and certified, granting a guarantee of quality and that, in addition, it is possible to be commercialized in Argentina.

Why to certify?

In most of the countries of the world it is necessary to carry out a certification of the equipments that make use of the radioelectric spectrum. The certification verifies that the equipment complies with the corresponding technical standards. 

In Argentina, the Ente Nacional de Comunicaciones (ENACOM) is the body in charge of the standardization of communications equipment. This standardization is carried out through the dictation of technical standards based on user safety, efficient use of the radio spectrum and compatibility with authorized communications networks and systems.

An achievement of teamwork

Obtaining the certification was a process that implied a sustained work during several months. To achieve this, LibreRouter and AlterMundi worked as a team, together with the valuable participation of the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI) and ITon Consulting.  
As this is the first time that we have manufactured our own technology, and there are not many other similar experiences, the contributions, services and accompaniment provided were key to successfully completing the certification. 

On the other hand, it is worth mentioning that INTI is a decentralized organism of the Ministry of Production and Labor of Argentina that supports the development of the industry throughout the country through the transfer of technology, the strengthening of measurement capacities and the impulse to innovation in all productive areas. At the same time, with more than 60 years of trajectory, it is the national institute of reference in the field of innovation with an important role and prestige in terms of services, quality and metrology for the industry in order to face the competitive technological challenges at an international level. 

The relationship with INTI began years ago when they also explored, participated in and accompanied some experiences in community networks. They could not be sustained over time, among other reasons, due to the lack of appropriate technology to deploy networks that are decentralized and managed by the people. That is why now, with LibreRouter in hand and working, they put all their measurement work to achieve the certification of our router created specifically for communities that organize themselves to connect and build their bits of the Internet.

Along with the contribution and excellent work of Miguel Mourad of ITon were the participations that made possible to get the homologation.  We emphasize that the organized work and teamwork among actors interested in the subject was a decisive factor to achieve it.

A certification  that opens doors and proposes challenges

For those of us who work on the LibreRouter Project and AlterMundi, having managed to certificate our technology is both motivating and valuable. On the one hand, because the measurements show that it works and very well and that the technology and open source hardware developed through collaborative work by organizations that are not companies, can live up to the highest international standards.

We understand that this first certification in Argentina shows the need to carry it out in other countries of the Global South where LibreRouter will be used.  We understand these processes as part of the necessary actions to continue on the path to build technological sovereignty and generate favorable conditions for communities to really operate and manage their own Internet networks in rural and disconnected places where the digital divide currently excludes about 4 billion people in the world. 

In November, the latest version of LibreRouter arrived in Buenos Aires. SAn was in charge of doing the hardware testing and in this chronicle we told how this important moment was.

First of all, when unpacking the boxes, a review of the shipping was made. This consists of a check to verify if there is any breakage for the trip from China and that nothing is missing. The shipment consisted of 4 routers, their antennas with their pigtails and PoE injectors. Fortunately everything was as Dragino promised us 🙂

Resisting the temptation to plug in the routers, they were opened with a screwdriver and a detailed ocular inspection of the boards and their components was carried out, at the same time as it was recorded with photographs. This part is very important because it allows us to document how the boards associated with a manufacturing lot were received, so that in the future we do not have to remember if a chip was soldered or not, the exact part number of a component, etc.

Except for some small details (there were missing some pins in the GPS module, some LEDs had desoldado in the shipping) everything looked very good.

At last the moment arrived!
Using a laboratory power source and with a lot of excitement, the first LibreRouter was connected to 12V: some LEDs came on, others flashed, all right! A serial to USB adapter was connected to the pins of the serial port of the LibreRouter and it was observed to boot: the network interfaces raised, then the mPCI wifi modules and the onboard WiFi 🙂

Now, what to test?
This version of the LibreRouter changed significantly the organization of the boards. Originally the whole design was a single board and now there are two: the CoreBoard with the QCA9558 processor, memmory (RAM and Flash); and the MegaBoard, a peripheral expansion and power supply board.

Based on the great previous work of measurements made by the community in the first prototype, mostly carried out by Terry Gilliett, we had a roadmap of what to do.

In principle, make sure that what was working was still working and especially to review the changes we had requested from Dragino based on the issues we found in the tests of the first prototype.

At that time we had 20 issues that were documented in github, some of vital importance, others were details or improvements.

To enter the world of hardware measurements, the first thing we needed was to update and install the bootloader and firmware. A few weeks before the shipment arrived, SAn had resumed work in the bootloader to support the new boards, make some improvements and make an open source release of it:

The firmware that was used in the laboratory tests is based on OpenWrt 18.06.01 with modifications to support the LibreRouter

Once the LibreRouter was flashed with this software, all the hardware components were tested: Ethernet, USB, GPIO ports, button, LEDs, JTAG, GPS, power supplies, PoE, PoE Passthrough, HW watchdog and wireless. In general, everything went very well.

The wireless measurements of reception and transmission gave super well in the 3 radios:

• 1 embedded 2.4GHz radio with two Rx / Tx chains
• 2 mPCI 5.8GHz radios with two Rx / Tx chains

The details of wireless measurements can be read here

In this test some hardware problems arose in PoE and PoE Passthrough. Thanks to the community that develops the LibreRouter we find very fast solutions for these issues. SAn made new tests with these small hardware changes that only required a soldering iron, some resistors and capacitors.

This solved all the known hardware problems of the previous version and the current one 🙂

Indoor field testing.
During those days, PyConAr 2018 was celebrated in Buenos Aires and what better opportunity for our router to perform an indoor field test.
We used a LibreRouter to provide Internet to the Django Girls Workshop with near 100 atendees for a whole day.

Our LibreRouter performed great, WiFi coverage in 5.8GHz and 2.4GHz was very good!

Field testing outdoors.
In addition, the field tests of the LibreRouter are being carried out on the QuitanaLibre network, where the it is routing traffic of 20 nodes of the San Isidro network. In this test we are testing how well the antennas work, the box of the LibreRouter, that does not get water, that can be mounted easily, that it is robust, the PoE power supply and the use for long periods in outdoors.

Some documentation of measurements is here and here

Very soon we will have the LibreRouter available to everyone!

AlterMundi wrote a chapter on the LibreRouter for The community network manual : how to build the Internet yourself . This volume is jointly published by the Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Internet Society (ISOC). It is the result of the 2018 Call for Papers of the UN IGF Dynamic Coalition on Community Connectivity (DC3) and is the Official 2018 DC3 Outcome.

This video registers NicoEchániz’s presentation of the LibreRouter chapter during the Internet Governance Forum 2018 in Paris.

SAn got his hands on the latest prototype produced by Dragino, and shares here detailed pictures of it. He’s currently working on a bootloader for the board, and making great progress towards a safe sysupgrade mechanism, implementing a dual-boot system with u-boot.

Description

The LibreRouter is an Open Source Hardware WiFi Router designed from the ground up for Community Networks.

Technical Specification

Based on the the AR9558 SoC and AR8327 Gigabit Switch, the router features:
• 128 MB DDR RAM, allowing all the required services to run with no burden
• 16 MB Flash, plenty for most router needs
• Hardware Watchdog based on PIC10F200, to handle failed flashes or hardware failures
• 1 on-chip 2.4Ghz 802.11bgn MIMO 3×3 Atheros radio
• optional GPS module
• 2 mPCIe slots, to connect WiFi radios or GSM cards, and allowing expandability
• 2 populated Gigabit Ethernet Sockets
• 1 USB 2.0 internal connector, where additional storage, webcams, bluetooth, sensors, etc. can be plugged in
• 1 Serial console pinout allowing external debugging
• POE and POE Passthrough up to 24W meaning one cable can power all the devices in an installation, no matter if there are 1 or more routers.
• Exposed GPIO pins, which will allow tinkerers to connect other electronics to the device
The standard LibreRouter setup will come with 2 mPCIe Power Amplified 5 Ghz 802.11an MIMO 2×2 Atheros radio based on the AR9582.

The full LibreRouter spec can be found at:
(https://www.LibreRouter.org/media/documents/LibreRouter_specifications_v6.pdf)

The current prototype

The current prototype is the second iteration of the LibreRouter, where we had the chance to fix most of the bugs and experiment with a two board design that will allow communities to explore local manufacturing, leaving the more densely populated (and more complex) electronics on the small blue board in the center, and a second green board with all the peripherals.

This will also allow faster iterations for alternative board designs, because we will only have to design the bigger and less densely populated green board to be manufactured.

We are already exploring such collaborations in Argentina and Mexico, and maintaining conversations with communities in India who want to do this.
This also means the device will be easier to repair.

Current tests

We have tested an initial batch to ensure that the device meets the expected performance and robustness required for Community Networks.
We have deployed 5 devices in existing networks in Argentina, where they have been operating non-stop for over three months as the main routers for 5 villages.
We have also tested the radios in Barcelona, Catalunya. The test results are here:
(https://www.LibreRouter.org/article/first-outdoor-radio-and-antenna-test/)
The hardware has proven to be reliable and performant.

How it works

In a nutshell, the LibreRouter is a weatherproof 3-radio wireless router, but it is much more than that.

It comes from the factory with LibreMesh, an Operating System for Geek-Free Wireless Mesh Networks, that makes it easy for a non-technical community to do the deployment, maintenance and expansion of the network.
Using its two 5 GHz radios and sector antennas, the LibreRouter automatically forms a mesh network with other LibreRouters within range. Using the 2.4 GHz radio, it creates a hotspot around it for clients to connect to the network, and the resulting mesh network enables communication between all the devices connected to it.

Moreover, if any router on the local network connects to other networks (such as Internet) all devices on the local network automatically have access to the external network through the mesh.

It also allows a multi-mesh environment, where each mesh is an administrative boundary (like a neighbourhood, a community, a building). Each mesh can relate with the others easily, including peering (allowing users of each network to reach the other network) and transit (to get to other networks through one of your neighbours).
A built-in mobile app facilitates the management of your LibreRouter, such as set up and troubleshooting.

We have also prepared a video to explain you how you can use it in your communities: (http://gg.gg/LR-video)

Translations

We have recently connected our software development repositories to translatewiki.net, a community of translators that support open source projects.
The same day the integration was done, the whole software got translated to 9 languages!

If your language is not there yet, or you want to contribute in a language you know, join at
(https://translatewiki.net/wiki/Translating:LibreMesh)

Survey link

We have prepared a brief survey for those that are interested in purchasing the LibreRouter once it is available. This will allow us to forecast the initial demand and look for support to manufacture the device in bulk, thus lowering the price: (http://gg.gg/LibreRouter-whowantsone)

We are excited about all the interest expressed so far, and we are eager to see what the LibreRouter will help all of us do.

For any inquiry or consultation, use the emails or the contact form at (https://www.LibreRouter.org/)