Raspberry Pi can be used as R.Net node controller. Both the older and newer B-models are supported ( Rasberry Pi 1 B, B+ and Raspberry Pi 2B), which have ethernet port.
A R.Net -specific operating system image has been created using standard Raspbian linux distribution for Raspberry Pi which has been shaved down by removing not needed components (including Graphical User Interface) and including compilation of TheLinkBox v0.53 with special Raspberry Pi GPIO suppor and other R.Net tools.
Getting and installing the image (UPDATED!)
The R.Net Raspberry Pi Raspbian image can be downloaded from this link (Dropbox link, file size 1.47 GB). The current version of the image is 28.4.2016 and it includes the Raspbian packages and Raspberry Pi firmware update up to the image version date.
The image is built on a 4GB memory card but can be extended to match your cardsize ( => 4GB) if required using the raspi-config command line tool.
The .IMG -file needs to be written to an SD card, please follow the guides from Raspberry Pi foundation for completing the task; Windows, Linux, Mac OS
When done, the SD card can be inserted to a Raspberry Pi and booted up the first time
R.Net Raspbian image specifications
The R.Net Rasbian Linux has been preconfigured with the following parameters;
- All graphical user interface components removed, only command line access
- Ethernet address is static 192.168.1.5 with netmask 255.255.255.0
- Support for USB Wi-Fi dongles, configurable through WPA-Supplicant configuration file to join known networks.
- GPIO serial console is enabled with parameters 115200 bps, 8 bits, No parity, 1 stopbit
- Standard de-facto user with sudo rights is pi with password raspberry. It is recommended to at least change the password of the ’pi’ -account or create another administrator account.
- R.Net specific user account ’tlb’ is enabled, TheLinkBox R.Net controller software is run as tlb user. R.Net management account public key put in place to allow remote administration/assistance through ’tlb’ user account.
- SSH server is enabled on all interfaces
- OpenVPN preinstalled, missing client-based files at /etc/openvpn (to be put in place by site admin)
- NTP configured and hardened to only update local machine time.
- IPTables preinstalled but not (yet) preconfigured with any rules
- Includes all updates on the ’Wheesy’ distribution up to 28.4.2016
R.Net specific parameters
- TheLinkBox v0.53 compiled with USB and Raspberry Pi GPIO support and preinstalled, executable located at /usr/sbin/tlb
- Configuration directory /etc/thelinkbox, log etc. directory /var/lib/thelinkbox
- tlbcmd command tool available at /usr/bin/tlbcmd
- Special RPi_GPIO_setup.sh script located at /etc/thelinkbox, invoked by /etc/rc.local at every startup to initialize GPIO ports for TheLinkBox COS/PTT usage
- Service ’thelinkbox’ available and enabled by default at startup. Default configuration at /etc/default/thelinkbox controls the actual startup. Currently disabled (commented off) at /etc/default/thelinkbox to prevent automatic startup. Enable automatic startup only when all with TheLinkBox is running smoothly
- Automatic connection script Connect_RNet_Primary.sh located at /etc/thelinkbox directory, invoked by /etc/rc.local at every startup . Currently disabled (commented off) at /etc/rc.local runlist