FreedomBox: Difference between revisions

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Learn more at the [https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox FreedomBox wiki]
Learn more at the [https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox FreedomBox wiki]
== Tips and Tricks ==
=== Software ===
* Matrix Synapse works for voice and video calls over LAN. It seems to be P2P.
* Use [https://medium.com/@JosephKiran/replacing-cloud-based-to-do-apps-with-orgzly-and-syncthing-6a065419d61 Syncthing with Orgzly/Emacs] for writing lists.
* Use Boostnote with Syncthing for note-taking and lists if Orgzly seems too weird. Boostnote has Github-flavored markdown.
==== Mediawiki ====
* Use MediaWiki [https://www.packetmischief.ca/2013/11/22/why-i-use-mediawiki-for-taking-notes/ for taking notes] as I'm doing right now and as a personal knowledge base.
* Since MediaWiki on FreedomBox doesn't have the [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:VisualEditor Visual Editor extension] yet, use Wikipedia's [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Sandbox Sandbox] to write your content in the Visual Editor, and after you're done, switch back to source code editing mode. You can then cut and paste the content into your MediaWiki instance.
==== Tiny Tiny RSS ====
* Tiny Tiny RSS web UI is unpalatable for people used to things like Medium, but the [https://git.tt-rss.org/fox/tt-rss-android official Android app] is really good.
* Follow medium blogs using Tiny Tiny RSS without having to create an account.
* Follow activity feed from GitLab sites (e.g. Debian Salsa) using TT-RSS.
* Backup Tiny Tiny RSS feeds list (the opml file) to a Syncthing folder.
* Add  feed subscriptions to [https://linuxmonk.ch/wordpress/index.php/2014/make-firefox-subscribe-rss-feeds-with-tinytinyrss/ Tiny Tiny RSS from Firefox].
* Use Privoxy for ad-blocking on all the Android devices on the Wi-Fi by setting it as a proxy.
=== Hardware ===
* Make sure the device is getting adequate power supply (e.g. 2 Amp for a Raspberry Pi) or the performance will suffer.
* Your microSD card's speed impacts performance of your FreedomBox more than anything else. Make sure to buy something fast enough (UHS 1 or more).
* microSD cards are unreliable in general. Make sure to keep a ''dd'' backup of the entire SD card to another computer frequently.
==== Raspberry Pi 3 Wi-Fi Access Point ====
Raspberry Pi 3 comes with a built-in Broadcom Wi-Fi module. The firmware for this is non-free and must be installed manually on FreedomBox.
Run the commands in the following steps on the FreedomBox using ssh.
# A file must be added to the firmware directory first.
<pre>cd /lib/firmware/brcm/
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RPi-Distro/firmware-nonfree/54bab3d6a6d43239c71d26464e6e10e5067ffea7/brcm80211/brcm/brcmfmac43430-sdio.txt
</pre>
<ol start="2">
<li>Make sure that non-free is enabled in <code>/etc/apt/sources.list</code></li>
<li>Install the package <code>firmware-brcm80211</code></li>
<li><code>reboot</code> or run <code>rmmod brcmfmac &amp;&amp; modprobe brcmfmac</code></li></ol>
After this, if you run the 'ip addr' command, you should see a new 'wlan0' interface come up.
Go to Plinth -> Networks -> Add WiFi, select device, give any name, set ssid, set infrastructure mode, ipv4 ''shared mode'' and set access point password.
Then activate connection to get Wi-Fi access point from FreedomBox.
=== Unsupported Software ===
==== NextCloud ====
NextCloud is a Google Drive replacement that
* can update itself
* can play a lot of multimedia formats and display epub files
* has a simple project-tracking tool similar to Trello
* can be a personal content server with streaming capabilities
* can be used as a CalDAV/WebDAV server (contacts and calendar sync)
* can store your bookmarks
* has cool mobile apps

Revision as of 05:23, 31 July 2018

My personal notes about using FreedomBox and self-hosted applications.


Learning Resources

Here are some links to improve your understanding of FreedomBox.

1. The legendary talk from which FreedomBox and Diaspora (federated social network) were born.
https://peertube.mastodon.host/videos/watch/2d7f1421-2e64-4756-9d90-c75860e3c378

2. Sunil Mohan's first demonstration of FreedomBox.
http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/sflc2015/04_freedombox.webm

3. An old blog post I wrote on how to install FreedomBox on a Raspberry Pi 2
https://njoseph.me/ikiwiki/blog/posts/you_don__8217__t_have_to_be_a_geek_to_setup_freedombox__33__/

Learn more at the FreedomBox wiki