46 Comments
User's avatar
Hal's avatar

I don’t have the stuff or time to make it now but I’m def gonna follow your work because it’s fascinating and might be handy down the line.

Person1312's avatar

This was the first project like this that I had heard of and I have kept an eye on every similar one I could find. I am excited to start working on my first build soon with a friend who is a bit more tech savvy than I. Just got my first Linux computer up and running on a shitty old laptop. Finding parrotsec os to be the best lightweight Linux distro for my weak laptop. Might try and make a vs of this using parrot see how it functions. It’s a toss up it could make the the setup easier for some folks or be a complicated distro with too much fluff. I wish I was a bit further along in my programming journey cause I would love an open submission for books ect but that’s a logistical and software threat nightmare I’m not equipped to navigate yet. Great work and very inspirational. I started learning Linux because of your videos.

Forrest's avatar

What is your TikTok name? Someone “green screened” one of your videos but didn’t tag you. I’d like to add your name to the comments. This is life saving stuff!

HydroponicTrash's avatar

@HydroponicTrash on Tiktok and Twitter

Zachary A. Perlman's avatar

You are my new favorite person "on the internet". And in real life : ) Thank you.

HydroponicTrash's avatar

Wow that a great compliment thank you!

juni's avatar

I can't access the library drive, anyone have a working link?

Thoth's avatar

I had real problems getting Rocket Chat working on ubuntu 22.04.

But this worked in the end.

sudo snap info rocketchat-server --channel=3.x/stable

Tom Sepe's avatar

Thoth,

I think you meant:

sudo snap install rocketchat-server --channel=3.x/stable

Thoth's avatar

Yes, install not info.

Version 3 of rocketchat uses an older version of Mongodb which runs fine.

Tom Sepe's avatar

is this the command you used to get rocketchat to install? I've had no luck so far

HydroponicTrash's avatar

What error are you getting?

Tom Sepe's avatar

it seems to be an issue with mongoDB which isn't supported on Ubuntu Jammy. I tried installing Ubuntu18.04 LTS on the pi but I could never get a working image for some reason... and gave up

HydroponicTrash's avatar

Hm yeah looks like that’s a widespread issue.

This might work:

wget http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/o/openssl/libssl1.1_1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.16_amd64.deb

sudo apt-get update

dpkg -i libssl1.1_1.1.1f-1ubuntu2.16_amd64.deb

Tom Sepe's avatar

actually I'm trying the method Thoth suggest above

sudo snap install rocketchat-server --channel=3.x/stable

and it is at least installing now. no errors! onward!

Tom Sepe's avatar

error: snap "rocketchat-server" is not available on stable but is available to install on the following channels:

candidate snap install --candidate rocketchat-server

beta snap install --beta rocketchat-server

edge snap install --edge rocketchat-server

Please be mindful pre-release channels may include features not completely tested or implemented. Get more information with 'snap info rocketchat-server'.

DragonflySiouxsie's avatar

Pipe in bad news? Stay underground, cut the chord. Sever ALL ties to TECH!

SURVIVE

BazziH's avatar

Thank your for this! And also for the info about what went down with Raspberry pie, as I had missed that.

S2S's avatar

This is awesome! Thank you for educating me - I will be honest, it is over my head and I will have to read it over and over to have it sink in. It would be great to bring a few of us together and knock these out for our fellow neighbors over the weekend. I would help knowing my technical limitations. Peace to you all and I send you all love as One.

Onnie Koski's avatar

i'm starting a project just like this. are you near Houston?

HydroponicTrash's avatar

That’s awesome! No I’m in DFW.

Onnie Koski's avatar

i'm trying to put together a way to flash OpenWrt offline, any ideas?

rodney's avatar

i saw a video about some cubans that build their very own internet using nano stations on a large scale intranet

Skylar's avatar

I think an important thing to note is that Kiwix also has a server mode which can be set to launch on startup.

So the same off-grid internet Raspberry Pi that serves the chat program, Calibre library, and Plex server, can also be used to host an entire local copy of Wikipedia, Khan Academy, TED talks, Project Gutenberg, IFixit repair guides, and more.

Of course, this all depends on your specific situation and if you have the resources needed to run that extra server on your device.

jimmystikx's avatar

Is there a way that you know of to do this with an old laptop, using its wifi card?

HydroponicTrash's avatar

Yes, the big takeaway from this article was that you can do this with any bit of computing equipment, once you understand the core concepts, they can combine in different ways. So instead f a Raspberry Pi you can use an old laptop. While using an old laptop and broadcasting services is pretty easy, the special routing stuff might be a little harder when it comes to creating a mesh with only a laptop. Routers handle network routing, and are made just for that and are easier to operate than turning a laptop into a router. But you can use any router, a new one or an old one, a smaller one or a bigger one. It doesn't really matter, all that matters is understanding how you can take a computer, broadcast services for other computers to connect and optionally - create a network that can spread out and share connectivity with even more computers and devices.

Didact's avatar

How far can this be scaled up? If enough people did this, could we form something like another Project Cybersyn?

HydroponicTrash's avatar

Big thing about this article was pointing out that the internet is just a giant intranet that is connected across the globe, and regular people can start making our own communication networks (or taking them over and taking them out of corporate hands) to make a peoples autonomous internet, ran, and operated by the people collectively.

In terms of a modern project cybersyn, that is the goal! To make a federation of free an autonomous people who can connect together and communicate freely, we have the tech to automate most of the shitty jobs, and we can organize around a resource based economy, using technology to better distribute goods, materials, instead of profit.

Tech speaking we can make project cybersyn even better, I mean they were using telex machines back then, and even for that time telex was kinda old. Can't imagine what we could do with the tech we have now.

Thoth's avatar

Great stuff! Your are an inspiration!

Heard about this project on the Live like the world is dying podcast.

I have added the following to my server after looking at the internet in a box project.

Kiwix-Serve - which runs off line Wikipedia & The Anarchist Library and other .zim files

Azuracast - radio station, on demand audio content and podcast hosting.

Calibre-Web

Keep up the good work!

Tom Sepe's avatar

I had trouble getting rocketchat-server to install on a raspberryPi with Ubuntu 20.04.

I keep getting

error: snap "rocketchat-server" is not available on stable but is available to install on the

following channels:

candidate snap install --candidate rocketchat-server

beta snap install --beta rocketchat-server

edge snap install --edge rocketchat-server

Please be mindful pre-release channels may include features not completely tested or

implemented. Get more information with 'snap info rocketchat-server'.

I tried multiple times with different flavors of Ubuntu and kept running into problems :(