# Opening up OpenWRT

## A: Administrative information

### A1. Project Title:
Opening up OpenWRT

### A2. Name of CoP:
Active Infrastructure

### A3. Name of CoP lead partner:
Janastu

### A4. Name of further participants:
Wakoma, Coolab

### A5. Country:
India, Brazil, South Africa

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## B. Information about the application

### B1. Brief project description (500-1000 characters)

Most CNs use hardware that runs proprietary firmwares and are not familiar with open source alternatives like OpenWRT, LibreMesh. That limits the capacity for CNs to address their networking needs to whatever the manufacturer decided they would add as a feature.
Open source firmware gives CNs the opportunity that the flexibility of a linux system provides, in an ecosystem that invites to hack, localize and explore (in a clear opposition to prorietary firmware that discourages hacking the device).
Even if they would learn about OpenWRT, using it with their existing infrastructure might not be possible, as not every device is supported there, but only those where support has been implemented.
Devices supported by LibreMesh are scarse, mainly because there is little shared experience outside Latin America in regards to what devices are able to run well with the mesh stack defined for LibreMesh.
OpenWRT supports a wide variety of devices already, and it would be great to identify those that work with LibreMesh also, but even still there are some devices, those most affordable and easy to find for the CNs involved, that might not have support yet... mainly because of lack of the skills required to provide support for new devices locally.

This project tries to address the knowledge gap for providing OpenWRT support to new devices by learning together how to provide this support through knowledge exchange and hackathon-style learning experiences.

Target:
1. Add new boards to LibreMesh
a. One supported in OpenWRT, give support to LibreMesh
b. No OpenWRT support, can it be supported? be guided to support
2. How to build a package, in general
a. Customize, build and publish firmware with local CN specific defaults
b. With focus on localization of the router landing page in LibreMesh - thisnode.info

LibreMesh says that they support a device when: someone has to back the device's support. so, if coolab uses the TPLink CPE510 and wants to advertise its support in LibreMesh, it will be coolab that will provide support to that device in case that there are issues with its use.
The supported hardware list in LibreMesh can be found here: https://libremesh.org/docs/hardware/

Primary outcome: adding new hardware to https://github.com/libremesh/lime-web/blob/master/docs/hardware/index.txt, based on devices available in India, South Africa and Brazil
Ideal Primary outcome: know-how to add new hardware to https://openwrt.org/toh/start

Secondary outcome: build, compile and publish customized/localized versions of LibreMesh

### B2. Project duration planned (estimate)
From: 21 Aug 2022
To: 31 Dec 2022

### B3. Budget estimate

| | Column 2 | Column 3 |
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| Text | Text | Text |
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Total project budget (USD): 3000

Equipment budget (USD): 750 (250 per CN)

Honorarium fees budget (USD): 500 (100 per training session)

Other budget (USD): 1500 for build

## C. OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES

### C1. Contributions of the project to the thematic scope of the CoP (500-1000 characters)

0. See project descrition for thematic scope.
1. To enable CNs to have extended openWRT support network
2. To document the activity so as to catalyze hackthons and explorations by local tech (FOSS/Network) groups

### C2. What are the objective/s of your project? List all objectives (in one key point or sentence each)

1. In addition to the above (C1), new hardware added to locally usable ones
2. Extended community of maintainers/owners of subnetworks

### C3. RELEVANCE FOR THE COMMUNITY NETWORK ECOSYSTEM (500-1000 characters)

1. In addition to C1 and C2 above, to have these documents and activities with other CN initiatives associated in other areas
2. To indicate the availability of resources for workshops and learning events for other CN interest groups

### C4. Project activities and outputs
> Your activities should be as well defined as possible. Outputs should be clearly and concisely described and should correspond to activities. We strongly suggest (although this is not obligatory) to add as one of your activities the writing of a blog post1 about your project. This blog post will be published at apc.org.

|Activity| Outputs| Responsible Persons| Estimated date of completion|
|---| ---| ---| --|
|Activity 1:| | | xx/xx/2022|
|Activity 2:| | | xx/xx/2022|
|Activity 3:| | | xx/xx/2022|
|Activity 4:| | | xx/xx/2022|
|Activity 5: Finalization|||31/12/2022|
|Activity 6: Narrative Report|||31/01/2023|

### C5. How do you plan to document and share the outcomes, outputs or impact of your project?

[..]

## D. RISK MITIGATION:
> What obstacles or risks could impact on or prevent this project from being successful? What will you do to try to prevent or overcome these obstacles

Complexity of the activity? It requires so many skills to be developed to be able to learn how to do it right...

## E. SUPPORT:
> Please describe the type of support you would like to receive from LocNet during the implementation of your project.

## F. DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION:
> Please describe the actions that are going to be taken in order to amplify the participation of women, young and elders, people of colour and indigenous and PwD.

## old format

https://communitynetworks.group/t/openwrt-image-building/796

Dates: Aug 22 - Dec 31

Training
Hackathon/Build
Documentation
Public facing demos/workshops (if budget permits)

#### Router Selection
* Each CN picks 1 router each from the following categories that are not yet supported by LibreMesh
* indoor dual band access point
* outdoor access point
(Suggested - one of them to be a mediatek chipset based router)

#### Training Ideas
* A session on
* Understanding OpenWRT and LibreMesh
* How to add new board/router support to LibreMesh
(How did AlterMundi port OpenWRT or LibreMesh to LibreRouter)
* How to build packages for LibreMesh (OpenWRT)
(Example - How to publish Pirania as a package to OpenWRT)
* How to customize UIs/landing pages for LibreMesh (OpenWRT)
* How mesh happens in Libremesh

#### Hackathon / Build Ideas
* CNs add LibreMesh support to the routers picked by them

Optional
* All CNs come together to build a common landing page for the routers
* Each CNs build their own mesh topology and then have mini,remote battlemesh of sorts

*Budget Estimate for 3 participating CNs*
$ 3300 (1000x3 per CN + 100x3 for trainers)
$ per CN breakdown
* $300 (100x3) for Training
* $400 (200x2) for Building
* $250 for purchasing routers
* $50 for misc

Training time. $600 (200x3 assuming 3 sessions)
Trainer per session - $ 100
Each participating CN per session - $ 100

Build time. $400 (200x2) per CN
Each CN contributing board support to LibreMesh
$200 per router

Materials required. $250 per CN
Each CN can procure 1 indoor router and 1 outdoor router with a total budget of $250

##### References

* Potential OpenWRT School: https://hackmd.io/WJQ4HXdEQuCqHgPyiTG8aw