A Python client library for the Almighty Lightweight Fact Remove Exchange Daemon (A.L.F.R.E.D.) by Open-Mesh

This project relies upon alfred which in turn depends upon a configured batman-adv environment.

See instructions for installing batctl and alfred below

Install the application by setting up and activating a virtual environment, and then running:

$ python3 -m venv ./env
$ source ./env/bin/activate
$ python setup.py install

Make a copy of the example config file and edit as needed:

$ cp alfred_client/example_config.py alfred_client/config.py

And then run the application by calling the provided entry point:

alfred_client --config=config.py

To have alfred_client start at boot, follow the System startup instructions below

The development of this project has focused nearly entirely on the Raspberry Pi platform. In order to build and run batctl and alfred, you will need to install the following:

• make
• gcc
• git
• python3-dev
• python3-venv
• libnl-3-dev
• libnl-genl-3-dev
• libcap-dev
• libgps-dev
• gpsd (optional, assuming we add gps modules later)

Pull and build batctl from the OpenMesh source repository:

$ git clone https://git.open-mesh.org/batctl.git
$ cd batctl
$ sudo make install

Pull and build alfred from the OpenMesh source repository:

$ git clone https://git.open-mesh.org/alfred.git
$ cd alfred
$ sudo make install

To have alfred and batadv-vis start at system boot, unit files have been included in with this project in the config directory. At a minimum, this project requires that the alfred service is running. To enable visualization data to be shared, the batadv-vis service must also be running.

On Raspbian (or Debian), perform these steps for each service you wish to run:

$ sudo cp config/alfred.service /etc/systemd/system/alfred.service
$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload
$ sudo systemctl enable alfred.service
$ sudo systemctl start alfred.service

Add the batman-adv module to /etc/modules:

sudo echo "batman-adv" >> /etc/modules

Configure ethernet for IPv4, DHCP. This will be our outside interface to the mesh, as well as our maintenance interface.

On Raspbian (or Debian) edit /etc/network/interfaces to contain:

auto eth0
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

Configure your wireless interface and attach the batman-adv interface:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet6 manual
  wireless-channel 1
  wireless-essid <your essid>
  wireless-mode ad-hoc
  wireless-ap 02:12:34:56:78:9A
  pre-up ifconfig wlan0 mtu 1532

auto bat0
iface bat0 inet6 auto
pre-up /usr/local/sbin/batctl if add wlan0

After completing this step, you may bring up the configured interfaces:

sudo systemctl restart networking