naxalnet

naxalnet is an experiment to create a wireless mesh network for communicating with each other during an internet shutdown, using existing software and tech as much as possible. Currently you can only communicate with other peers running naxalnet or using the same network as naxalnet. It uses B.A.T.M.A.N. Advanced, an implementation of the B.A.T.M.A.N. routing protocol to communicate with peers.

The name naxal comes from Naxalbari, a village in Darjeeling, West Bengal.

This is the ongoing python rewrite branch, which uses dasbus to communicate with iwd.

How it works

The program naxalnet copies predefined systemd-networkd configuration into networkd's runtime configuration directory. It uses iwctl to start an ad-hoc network named "Hello World". The wireless interface is linked to bat0, the batman interface. A bridge bridge0 is created so that other devices such as wired connections and wireless ap can be bridged. bat0 is added to the bridge, and the bridge gets an ip address (link-local, or DHCP if any of the computers have a DHCP server configured). If these were successful, an intranet is created. You can now use services like IPFS, Jami, Secure Scuttlebutt and others which can work without internet access.

Requirements

• systemd v248 or more (for batman support)
• Linux kernel with batman-adv module (if modinfo batman-adv shows no error then you already have it)
• iwd (for starting ad-hoc network)
• wifi adapter with ad-hoc support
• two or more computers with wifi adapter

Installing

Manually

Clone the repo and cd into it.

Run sudo make install to install naxalnet. This will install naxalnet in /usr/bin/naxalnet.

After installing, reload systemd so that you can enable naxalnet.service without rebooting:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Running the program

You need more than one computer running for the connection to work. Start the naxalnet service:

sudo systemctl start naxalnet.service

Starting the service will stop NetworkManager.service and wpa_supplicant.service if it is running. If you start either of these services after naxalnet is started, naxalnet will be stopped by systemd.

To run naxalnet at boot, enable the service:

sudo systemctl enable naxalnet.service

Now naxalnet will configure a batman interface on every boot.

Uninstalling

Currently there is now way to uninstall naxalnet than manually removing the files:

sudo rm -rf /usr/{bin,share}/naxalnet \
/usr/lib/systemd/system/naxalnet.service

License

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

See LICENSE.md for the complete version of the license.

TODO

• add support for wireless ap (WiFi hotspot)

Add list of things here.

This project is in alpha stage. Documentation is incomplete.