Document for MP

[Pascal Laurent]

Hi,

Where do we keep the MP documents?

Thanks,
--Tipizo

[Sjur Eivind Usken]

I have just shared it with a couple of people helping me write on the
document through dropbox.

If anybody wants to help out, I can give access. I need to set off
some time to copy it into a wiki as well...

have attached the current version.

regards
sjur

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[Pascal Laurent]

Thanks a bunch. I will be more than happy to help with documentation.

I have a couple of "v1" (working) MPs (in my home net) with Revision: 233.  It's seems lots have changed for the past weeks since I was away. I also have two new "v2" MPs. I would like to catching up. Any new docs/ways for flashing the old MP with the most recent firmware? New scripts/config I should be aware of? What is the current firmware version? What are some fof the eatures?

Thanks,
--Tipizo

[elektra]

Hello Pascal -

you can flash with the potato-flash utility. I am still in the process of making
a new release. Features:

* Smaller, less memory consumption and hence a bit faster
* Tools that help in solving link problems
* Improved and more reliable remote firmware update process

Cheers,
Elektra

[Rael Lissoos]

Hi Elektra

On the reflash.  would you recommend  using 233 or 238

Thank You
Rael

--

[elektra]

Hello Rael -

> On the reflash. would you recommend using 233 or 238

the MPs in Orange-Farm are running rv249 testing. I'm working on fixing bugs /
improving some of the new features - however I think I would recommend this
one until the new release is available.

Cheers,
Elektra

[David Rowe]

Hi Elektra,

What link tuning tools are included in the new firmware? The guys in
Timor are still having link problems so it would be great to have a way
to help them solve their problems.

Cheers,

David

[elektra]

Hi David -

> What link tuning tools are included in the new firmware? The guys in
> Timor are still having link problems so it would be great to have a way
> to help them solve their problems.

"horst" (a mesh networking data sniffer), "rssi" extension reading SNR via
phone and a script "signal_and_mac.sh", and a html page showing batmand status
in the browser (MP-IP-Address/status.html).

"horst" is very powerful graphic (ncurses-based) network scanner - similar to
Kismet, but it is geared towards analyzing mesh networks. It shows SNR and
airtime consumption of beacons, TSF timestamps and a lot more. However in a
dense mesh it is recommended to use the tool only locally when connected to
the LAN port of the MP. (I have seen a MP crash and reboot in Orangefarm,
because all the bells and whistles consume RAM) Still it is very powerful -
but may be a bit scary for the not so advanced user. And it is advisable if
you can power-cycle the MP... However I'm sure you will like it. I have made a
horst screenshot from my laptop - however there are no mesh nodes in range
here.

"rssi" can be dialled from the phone and reads out the link quality value
continuously for the best next hop towards the batmand gateway. I recommend to
set up a batman node in the center of the mesh cloud announcing a gateway,
even if there is none to make best usage of this tool. I really like this one.

"signal_and_mac.sh" reports the SNR for all link local mesh nodes on the
command line.

"status.html" shows batmand nodes and gateways and the metrics in the browser,
without adding those darn line breaks that make it look messy.

And of course I have added your patches adding the abbreviated batmand debug
level 6 and 7.

Cheers,
Elektra

[Pascal Laurent]

Hi Elektra,

 

May I have a brief tutorial (command) how to do that?

Thanks,

--Pascal

 

--

[Pascal Laurent]

Hi Elektra,

 

Sorry... Reflash tutorial.. Thanks

[elektra]

Hi -

in a nutshell:

Get potato-flash from ftp://elektrad.info/MESH-POTATO and copy it into your
path, to /usr/local/sbin (for example)

Change into the directory with the files to flash.
Connect your laptops/workstations LAN port to MP LAN port directly with LAN
cable.
Unplug power from the MP.
Start potato-flash.

Usage is (typical):

potato-flash eth0 openwrt-atheros-root.squashfs openwrt-atheros-vmlinux.lzma

Connect power to the MP.

Cheers,
Elektra

> Sorry... Reflash tutorial.. Thanks
>
> On Fri, Nov 19, 2010 at 6:45 AM, Pascal Laurent <tip...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi Elektra,
> >
> > May I have a brief tutorial (command) how to do that?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > --Pascal
> >
> > On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 8:41 AM, elektra <onel...@gmx.net> wrote:
> >> Hello Pascal -
> >>
> >> you can flash with the potato-flash utility. I am still in the process
> >> of making
> >> a new release. Features:
> >>
> >> * Smaller, less memory consumption and hence a bit faster
> >> * Tools that help in solving link problems
> >> * Improved and more reliable remote firmware update process
> >>
> >> Cheers,
> >> Elektra
> >>
> >> --
> >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
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> >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to

> >> village-telco-...@googlegroups.com<village-telco-dev%2Bunsub
> >>scr...@googlegroups.com> .

[David Rowe]

Hello Elektra,

I am trying to get horst to run on an MP but get a blank screen (no
packets appear). I am using an image from a fresh build of SVN head
(rev 255) and starting it with horst.sh. The mon0 interface seems to
have been created. horst starts OK, the menus work but no packets
appear, even when I ping the MP running horst or place a call over it.
The MP is connected to a local mesh.

Is there any trick to starting horst, apart form horst.sh?

Anyone else running horst OK on their MP?

Elektra if you have a working image with horst can u pls post it?

I can run horst OK on my laptop (although that's not madwifi), and am
working on a spectrum analyser patch (screen shot attached showing two
networks in operation).

BTW there appear to be two horst packages in SVN, feeds/potato/net/horst
(2.0-rc1) and potato/net/horst (git-latest). The former is the one
being built and installed in the image.

Thanks,

David

[David Rowe]

OK I cross compiled the horst-git-latest.tar.gz tar ball for the MP and
it runs on the MP now. However my spec-an patch depends on the ability
to scan channels:

horst.sh -s

which doesn't seem to be working correctly, I can see a lot of
"ioctl[SIOCSIWFREQ]: Invalid" messages on the screen as it runs. I'll
dig a little deeper. Here's the MP executable, you need horst.sh from
SVN to start it:

http://rowetel.com/downloads/horst

- David

[David Rowe]

OK the problem was the driver choking with channels selected above
number 11, guess that needs a different ioctl.

It's working OK now, even on a MP running rev233 firmware. The files
are:

http://rowetel.com/downloads/horst
http://rowetel.com/downloads/horst.sh

Place them in /usr/sbin on your MP. Make your console on your Host PC
100 x 30 characters. To start:

host.sh -s -b 50000

Without the -b 50000 horst is unstable on the MP, especially as it pick
ups more packets (a nearby ping flood for example). This sets the size
of the capture buffer, the default is about 5.75Mbyte which is too much
for the MP.

The -s option means scan over all channels. Note that this option can
only be used when you connect to the MP using Ethernet. If the radio
channel keeps changing it's hard to keep up a connection via Wifi....

That means the spec an feature will only be useful when you run Ethernet
up the pole which is unfortunate. My use case is debugging problems
with interference, so that's OK for the bad sites I guess.

The MadWifi driver on the MP has the remarkable property of listening to
it's own packets as they are sent, which means some very strong packets
are received. The traffic from the MP running horst can be stopped by
taking the ath0 interface down:

ifconfig ath0 down

A first pass patch is here, I haven't checked it against clean source
yet, still very much a work in progress:

https://villagetelco.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/villagetelco/david/horst/specan.patch

- David

[Steve Song]

That fixed it on my MPs as well. Seems to work at any console size too.

Cheers... Steve

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>

--
Steve Song
Telecommunications Fellow, Shuttleworth Foundation

email:   steve...@shuttleworthfoundation.org
mobile:  +27 83 482 2088
skype:   steve_l_song
blog:    http://manypossibilities.net
next:    http://villagetelco.org
twitter: stevesong

[Steve Song]

And the spectrum analyser feature is amazing. Works very solidly
here. Who needs an AirView now? Ahh the magic of ascii. :-)

Thanks.... S

On 28 November 2010 08:45, Steve Song

[David Rowe]

On Sun, 2010-11-28 at 08:45 +0200, Steve Song wrote:
> That fixed it on my MPs as well. Seems to work at any console size too.

It will run on smaller consoles, but some windows (like C - Channel)
won't pop up if the overall console is too small. It's a bit subtle, as
there is no error message. I thoughts some menus weren't working at
first.

I have it seg-faulting some times when I cycle the labels (i) on the
spec an window. Also some strange values (very high like 0 or +x dBm)
coming out of the MadWifi driver on the MP (weren't present on my
laptop) , might need to filter them out in software.

Thanks,

David

[Steve Song]

On 28 November 2010 09:28, David Rowe <da...@rowetel.com> wrote:
> On Sun, 2010-11-28 at 08:45 +0200, Steve Song wrote:
>> That fixed it on my MPs as well.  Seems to work at any console size too.
>
> It will run on smaller consoles, but some windows (like C - Channel)
> won't pop up if the overall console is too small.  It's a bit subtle, as
> there is no error message.  I thoughts some menus weren't working at
> first.
>
> I have it seg-faulting some times when I cycle the labels (i) on the
> spec an window.  Also some strange values (very high like 0 or +x dBm)
> coming out of the MadWifi driver on the MP (weren't present on my
> laptop) , might need to filter them out in software.

Same here. Now that I know how you cycle the labels :-) it does also
segfault on my MP.

It's a pity. It appears that you can filter to monitor just one
specific BSSID but you can't do the opposite to exclude a single BSSID
such as the MP.

-S

[David Rowe]

Hello,

1/ I've typed up a README that download (x86 and MP versions) and
install instructions:

https://villagetelco.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/villagetelco/david/horst/README.txt

2/ I am experimenting with different views, with a goal of something
useful to debug interference and LOS problems.

Have attached one view from an MP on my roof. It displays the last
octet of the IPs on your mesh and a * for _all_ other wireless traffic.
If there is a * above the level of your mesh IPs, it indicates an
interference problem. So .21 and is good, .14 is OK, and .56 is down in
the mud.

This maps nicely to the ranking on the batman scores, although to get
sensible batman scores you need to stop scanning.

But in general the spectrum around my mesh isn't very busy, there is
more activity on the lower channels.

It responds really fast to changing signal levels, like moving an MP
around. Should be useful for alignment of MPs and directional antennas.

I feel like I can see what's happening for the first time. Feels like I
was looking through a key hole using other tools.

- David