Deutsch - English - Español - Français - Українська - (+)

Contents

  1. Typical usage: Private Cloud
  2. Typical usage: Network-Attached Storage (NAS)
  3. Advanced usage: Smart Home Router
  4. Advanced usage: For Communities
  5. FreedomBox Interface
  6. What you need to get started
  7. How to get started
  8. Finding your way around
  9. Discussion Forum
  10. Matrix
  11. IRC #freedombox
  12. Email
  13. Help Back
  14. Downloading on Debian
  15. Downloading for SBC or Virtual Machine
  16. Obtaining Source Code
  17. Bepasty (File & Snippet Sharing)
  18. Calibre (e-Library)
  19. Coturn (VoIP Helper)
  20. Deluge (Distributed File Sharing via BitTorrent)
  21. Ejabberd (Chat Server)
  22. Postfix/Dovecot/Rspamd (Email Server)
  23. Feather Wiki (Personal Notebooks)
  24. GitWeb (Simple Git Hosting)
  25. I2P (Anonymity Network)
  26. Ikiwiki (Wiki and Blog)
  27. Infinoted (Collaborative text edition with Gobby)
  28. Janus (WebRTC server)
  29. JSXC (Web Chat Client)
  30. Matrix Synapse (Chat Server)
  31. MediaWiki (Wiki)
  32. Minetest (Block Sandbox)
  33. MiniDLNA / ReadyMedia (Simple Media Server)
  34. Miniflux (News Feed Reader)
  35. Mumble (Voice Chat) Server
  36. OpenVPN (Virtual Private Network)
  37. Privoxy (Web Proxy)
  38. Quassel (Text Chat Client via IRC)
  39. Radicale (Calendar and Addressbook)
  40. Roundcube (Email Client)
  41. RSS Bridge (RSS Feed Generator)
  42. Samba (Network File Storage)
  43. Searx (Web Search)
  44. Shaarli (Bookmarks)
  45. Shadowsocks (Bypass Censorship)
  46. Sharing (File Publishing)
  47. Syncthing (File Synchronization)
  48. TiddlyWiki (Non-linear Notebooks)
  49. Tiny Tiny RSS (News Feed Reader)
  50. Tor (Anonymity Network)
  51. Tor Proxy (Anonymity Network)
  52. Transmission (Distributed File Sharing via BitTorrent)
  53. User Websites
  54. WireGuard (Virtual Private Network)
  55. WordPress (Website and Blog)
  56. Zoph (Photo manager)
  57. Backups
  58. BIND (Domain Name Server)
  59. Cockpit (Server Administration)
  60. Configure
  61. Date & Time
  62. Diagnostics
  63. Dynamic DNS Client
  64. Firewall
  65. Let's Encrypt (Certificates)
  66. Name Services
  67. Networks
  68. PageKite (Public Visibility)
  69. Performance (System Monitoring)
  70. Power
  71. Secure Shell (SSH) Server
  72. Security
  73. Service Discovery
  74. Storage
  75. Storage Snapshots
  76. Software Updates
  77. Users and Groups
  78. Recommended Hardware
  79. Supported Hardware
  80. Additional Hardware
  81. Common Hardware Information
  82. Building Your Own Images
  83. Pioneer Edition FreedomBox
  84. A20 OLinuXino Lime2
  85. A20 OLinuXino MICRO
  86. APU
  87. Cubietruck
  88. Cubieboard 2
  89. Beagle Bone Black
  90. pcDuino3
  91. Debian
  92. VirtualBox
  93. Pine A64+
  94. Banana Pro
  95. Orange Pi Zero
  96. RockPro64
  97. Rock64
  98. Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
  99. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
  100. Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
  101. Raspberry Pi 4 Model B
  102. USB Wi-Fi
  103. FreedomBox 24.21 (2024-10-07)
  104. FreedomBox 24.20.1 (2024-09-25)
  105. FreedomBox 24.20 (2024-09-23)
  106. FreedomBox 24.19 (2024-09-09)
  107. FreedomBox 24.18 (2024-08-26)
  108. FreedomBox 24.17 (2024-08-12)
  109. FreedomBox 24.16 (2024-07-29)
  110. FreedomBox 24.15 (2024-07-16)
  111. FreedomBox 24.14 (2024-07-01)
  112. FreedomBox 24.13 (2024-06-17)
  113. FreedomBox 24.12 (2024-06-03)
  114. FreedomBox 24.11 (2024-05-20)
  115. FreedomBox 24.10 (2024-05-06)
  116. FreedomBox 24.9 (2024-04-22)
  117. FreedomBox 24.8 (2024-04-08)
  118. FreedomBox 24.7 (2024-03-25)
  119. FreedomBox 24.6 (2024-03-11)
  120. FreedomBox 24.5 (2024-02-26)
  121. FreedomBox 24.4 (2024-02-12)
  122. FreedomBox 24.3 (2024-01-29)
  123. FreedomBox 24.2 (2024-01-15)
  124. FreedomBox 24.1 (2024-01-01)
  125. FreedomBox 23.21 (2023-11-20)
  126. FreedomBox 23.20 (2023-11-06)
  127. FreedomBox 23.19 (2023-10-23)
  128. FreedomBox 23.18 (2023-09-25)
  129. FreedomBox 23.17 (2023-09-11)
  130. FreedomBox 23.16 (2023-08-28)
  131. FreedomBox 23.15 (2023-08-14)
  132. FreedomBox 23.14 (2023-07-31)
  133. FreedomBox 23.13 (2023-07-17)
  134. FreedomBox 23.12 (2023-06-19)
  135. FreedomBox 23.11 (2023-06-05)
  136. FreedomBox 23.10 (2023-05-22)
  137. FreedomBox 23.9 (2023-05-08)
  138. FreedomBox 23.6.2 (2023-05-01)
  139. FreedomBox 23.8 (2023-04-24)
  140. FreedomBox 23.6.1 (2023-04-10)
  141. FreedomBox 23.7 (2023-03-27)
  142. FreedomBox 23.6 (2023-03-13)
  143. FreedomBox 23.5 (2023-02-27)
  144. FreedomBox 23.4 (2023-02-13)
  145. FreedomBox 23.3 (2023-01-30)
  146. FreedomBox 23.2 (2023-01-16)
  147. FreedomBox 23.1 (2023-01-03)
  148. FreedomBox 22.27 (2022-12-19)
  149. FreedomBox 22.26 (2022-12-05)
  150. FreedomBox 22.25 (2022-11-21)
  151. FreedomBox 22.24 (2022-11-07)
  152. FreedomBox 22.23 (2022-10-24)
  153. FreedomBox 22.22.1 (2022-10-16)
  154. FreedomBox 22.22 (2022-10-10)
  155. FreedomBox 22.21.1 (2022-10-01)
  156. FreedomBox 22.21 (2022-09-26)
  157. FreedomBox 22.20 (2022-09-12)
  158. FreedomBox 22.19 (2022-08-29)
  159. FreedomBox 22.18 (2022-08-15)
  160. FreedomBox 22.17 (2022-08-01)
  161. FreedomBox 22.16 (2022-07-18)
  162. FreedomBox 22.15 (2022-07-04)
  163. FreedomBox 22.14.1 (2022-06-27)
  164. FreedomBox 22.14 (2022-06-20)
  165. FreedomBox 22.13 (2022-06-06)
  166. FreedomBox 22.12 (2022-05-23)
  167. FreedomBox 22.11 (2022-05-09)
  168. FreedomBox 22.10 (2022-04-25)
  169. FreedomBox 22.9 (2022-04-11)
  170. FreedomBox 22.8 (2022-03-28)
  171. FreedomBox 22.7 (2022-03-14)
  172. FreedomBox 22.6.1 (2022-03-06)
  173. FreedomBox 22.6 (2022-03-02)
  174. FreedomBox 22.5 (2022-02-14)
  175. FreedomBox 22.4 (2022-01-31)
  176. FreedomBox 22.3 (2022-01-17)
  177. FreedomBox 22.2 (2022-01-11)
  178. FreedomBox 22.1 (2022-01-03)
  179. FreedomBox 21.16 (2021-12-20)
  180. FreedomBox 21.15 (2021-12-06)
  181. FreedomBox 21.14.1 (2021-11-24)
  182. FreedomBox 21.14 (2021-11-22)
  183. FreedomBox 21.13 (2021-11-08)
  184. FreedomBox 21.12 (2021-10-25)
  185. FreedomBox 21.11 (2021-10-11)
  186. FreedomBox 21.10 (2021-09-27)
  187. FreedomBox 21.9 (2021-09-18)
  188. FreedomBox 21.8 (2021-08-30)
  189. FreedomBox 21.7 (2021-08-16)
  190. FreedomBox 21.6 (2021-05-31)
  191. FreedomBox 21.5 (2021-04-19)
  192. FreedomBox 21.4.2 (2021-03-28)
  193. FreedomBox 21.4.1 (2021-03-13)
  194. FreedomBox 21.4 (2021-02-28)
  195. FreedomBox 21.3 (2021-02-11)
  196. FreedomBox 21.2 (2021-02-05)
  197. FreedomBox 21.1 (2021-01-25)
  198. FreedomBox 21.0 (2021-01-11)
  199. FreedomBox 20.21 (2020-12-28)
  200. FreedomBox 20.20.1 (2020-12-19)
  201. FreedomBox 20.20 (2020-12-14)
  202. FreedomBox 20.19 (2020-11-30)
  203. FreedomBox 20.18.1 (2020-11-23)
  204. FreedomBox 20.18 (2020-11-16)
  205. FreedomBox 20.17.1 (2020-11-07)
  206. FreedomBox 20.17 (2020-11-02)
  207. FreedomBox 20.16 (2020-10-19)
  208. FreedomBox 20.15 (2020-10-05)
  209. FreedomBox 20.14.1 (2020-09-23)
  210. FreedomBox 20.14 (2020-09-15)
  211. FreedomBox 20.13 (2020-07-18)
  212. FreedomBox 20.12.1 (2020-07-05)
  213. FreedomBox 20.12 (2020-06-29)
  214. FreedomBox 20.11 (2020-06-15)
  215. FreedomBox 20.10 (2020-06-01)
  216. FreedomBox 20.9 (2020-05-18)
  217. FreedomBox 20.8 (2020-05-04)
  218. FreedomBox 20.7 (2020-04-20)
  219. FreedomBox 20.6.1 (2020-04-11)
  220. FreedomBox 20.6 (2020-04-06)
  221. FreedomBox 20.5.1 (2020-03-26)
  222. FreedomBox 20.5 (2020-03-23)
  223. FreedomBox 20.4 (2020-03-09)
  224. FreedomBox 20.3 (2020-02-24)
  225. FreedomBox 20.2 (2020-02-10)
  226. FreedomBox 20.1 (2020-01-27)
  227. FreedomBox 20.0 (2020-01-13)
  228. FreedomBox 19.24 (2019-12-30)
  229. FreedomBox 19.23 (2019-12-16)
  230. FreedomBox 19.22 (2019-12-02)
  231. FreedomBox 19.21 (2019-11-18)
  232. FreedomBox 19.20 (2019-11-04)
  233. FreedomBox 19.19 (2019-10-21)
  234. FreedomBox 19.18 (2019-10-07)
  235. FreedomBox 19.17 (2019-09-23)
  236. FreedomBox 19.16 (2019-09-09)
  237. FreedomBox 19.15 (2019-08-26)
  238. FreedomBox 19.14 (2019-08-12)
  239. FreedomBox 19.13 (2019-07-29)
  240. FreedomBox 19.12 (2019-07-22)
  241. FreedomBox 19.2.2 (2019-07-17)
  242. FreedomBox 19.2.1 (2019-07-09)
  243. FreedomBox 19.11 (2019-07-08)
  244. FreedomBox 19.10 (2019-06-24)
  245. FreedomBox 19.9 (2019-06-10)
  246. FreedomBox 19.8 (2019-05-27)
  247. FreedomBox 19.7 (2019-05-13)
  248. FreedomBox 19.6 (2019-04-29)
  249. FreedomBox 19.5 (2019-04-15)
  250. FreedomBox 19.4 (2019-04-01)
  251. FreedomBox 19.3 (2019-03-18)
  252. FreedomBox 19.2 (2019-03-02)
  253. FreedomBox 19.1 (2019-02-14)
  254. FreedomBox 19.0 (2019-02-09)
  255. Version 0.49.1 (2019-02-07)
  256. Version 0.49.0 (2019-02-05)
  257. Version 0.48.0 (2019-01-28)
  258. Version 0.47.0 (2019-01-14)
  259. Version 0.46.0 (2018-12-31)
  260. Version 0.45.0 (2018-12-17)
  261. Version 0.44.0 (2018-12-03)
  262. Version 0.43.0 (2018-11-19)
  263. Version 0.42.0 (2018-11-05)
  264. Version 0.41.0 (2018-10-22)
  265. Version 0.40.0 (2018-10-08)
  266. Version 0.39.0 (2018-09-24)
  267. Version 0.38.0 (2018-09-10)
  268. Version 0.37.0 (2018-08-27)
  269. Version 0.36.0 (2018-08-13)
  270. Version 0.35.0 (2018-07-30)
  271. Version 0.34.0 (2018-07-16)
  272. Version 0.33.1 (2018-07-04)
  273. Version 0.33.0 (2018-07-02)
  274. Version 0.32.0 (2018-06-18)
  275. Version 0.31.0 (2018-06-04)
  276. Version 0.30.0 (2018-05-21)
  277. Version 0.29.1 (2018-05-08)
  278. Version 0.29.0 (2018-05-07)
  279. Version 0.28.0 (2018-04-23)
  280. Version 0.27.0 (2018-04-09)
  281. Version 0.26.0 (2018-03-26)
  282. Version 0.25.0 (2018-03-12)
  283. Plinth v0.24.0 (2018-02-26)
  284. Plinth v0.23.0 (2018-02-12)
  285. Plinth v0.22.0 (2018-01-30)
  286. Plinth v0.21.0 (2018-01-15)
  287. Plinth v0.20.0 (2018-01-01)
  288. Plinth v0.19.0 (2017-12-18)
  289. Plinth v0.18.0 (2017-12-04)
  290. Plinth v0.17.0 (2017-11-20)
  291. Plinth v0.16.0 (2017-11-06)
  292. Plinth v0.15.3 (2017-10-20)
  293. Plinth v0.15.2 (2017-09-24)
  294. Plinth v0.15.0 (2017-07-01)
  295. Plinth v0.14.0 (2017-04)
  296. Plinth v0.13.1 (2017-01-22)
  297. Plinth v0.12.0 (2016-12-08)
  298. Plinth v0.11.0 (2016-09-29)
  299. Plinth v0.10.0 (2016-08-21)
  300. Version 0.9.4 (2016-06-24)
  301. Version 0.9 (2016-04-24)
  302. Version 0.8 (2016-02-20)
  303. Version 0.7 (2015-12-13)
  304. Version 0.6 (2015-10-31)
  305. Version 0.5 (2015-08-07)
  306. Version 0.3 (2015-01-20)
  307. Version 0.2 (2014-03-16)
  308. Version 0.1 (2013-02-26)
  309. Quick Links
  310. Welcome to newcomers
  311. Donate
  312. Spread the Word
  313. Feed Us Back (Comment)
  314. Request applications
  315. Translate
  316. Document: User Manual, Website and Wiki, HowTo/demo videos
  317. Assure Quality (Test and Check)
  318. Code
  319. Design
  320. Package Applications
  321. FreedomBox Service (Plinth)
  322. Freedom Maker

FreedomBox: take your online privacy back

FreedomBox is a ready made personal server, designed with privacy and data ownership in mind. It is a subset of the Debian universal operating system and includes free software only. You can run it on a small, inexpensive and power-efficient computer box in your home that is dedicated for that use. It can also be installed on any computer running Debian or in a virtual machine.

In order to replace third-party communication services that are data mining your entire life, you will be able to host services yourself and use them at home or over the Internet through a browser or specialized apps. These services include chat and voice calls, webmail, file sharing and calendar, address book and news feed synchronization. For example, to start using a private chat service, activate the service from the administration interface and add your friends as authorized users of the service. They will be able to connect to the service hosted on your FreedomBox, using XMPP chat clients such as Conversations on Android, Pidgin on Windows and Linux, or Messages on Mac OS, for encrypted communications.

FreedomBox is a product you can just buy, set up and use. Once installed the interface is easy to use, similar to a smart phone.

User documentation:

FreedomBox can also host a Wi-Fi access point, ad blocking proxy and a virtual private network (VPN). More advanced users can replace their router with a FreedomBox.

Setting up FreedomBox on a specific hardware or on your computer running Debian may require a bit of technical expertise or help from the community.

Related technical documentation:

1. Typical usage: Private Cloud

FreedomBox provides services to the computers and mobile devices in your home, and to your friends. This includes secure instant messaging and low-bandwidth, high-quality voice conference calling. FreedomBox lets you publish your content in a blog and wiki to collaborate with the rest of the world. On the roadmap are a personal email server and federated social networking, to provide privacy-respecting alternatives to Gmail and Facebook.

2. Typical usage: Network-Attached Storage (NAS)

The storage space available to FreedomBox can be expanded by attaching an external disk drive. This allows FreedomBox to become a media library for your photos, music, and videos. The folders are shared to laptops and mobile phones on the local network, and the media can be streamed to local devices including smart TVs.

3. Advanced usage: Smart Home Router

FreedomBox runs in a physical computer and can route your traffic. It can sit between various devices at home such as mobiles, laptops and TVs and the Internet, replacing a home wireless router. By routing traffic, FreedomBox can remove tracking advertisements and malicious web bugs before they ever reach your devices. FreedomBox can cloak your location and protect your anonymity by "onion routing" your traffic over Tor. FreedomBox provides a VPN server that you can use while you are away from home to keep your traffic secret on untrusted public wireless networks and to securely access various devices at home.

It can also be carried along with your laptop and set up to offer its services on public networks at work, school or office. In the future, FreedomBox intends to deliver support for alternative ways of connecting to the Internet such as Mesh networking.

4. Advanced usage: For Communities

The primary design goal of FreedomBox is to be used as a personal server at home for use by a single family and their friends. However, at the core, it is a server software that can aid a non-technical user to setup services and maintain them with ease. Security is automatically managed and many of the technical choices in system administration are taken care by the software automatically thereby reducing complexity for a non-technical user. This nature of FreedomBox makes it well-suited for hosting services for small communities like villages or small firms. Communities can host their own services using FreedomBox with minimal effort. They can setup Wi-Fi networks that span the entire area of the community and draw Internet connections from long distances. Community members can enjoy previously unavailable Internet connectivity, ubiquitous Wi-Fi coverage, free VOIP services, offline education and entertainment content, etc. This will also boost privacy for individuals in the community, reduce dependence on centralized services provided by large companies and make them resistant to censorship.

The free e-book FreedomBox for Communities describes the motivation and provides detailed instructions to setup FreedomBox for this use case. Members of the FreedomBox project are involved in setting up Wi-Fi networks with free Internet connectivity in rural India. This e-book documents their knowledge and experiences.

5. FreedomBox Interface

5.1. Screenshot

FreedomBox front page

5.3. Video resources

Eben Moglen's talk, Eben Moglen - Freedom in the cloud, delivered before the FreedomBox project was started gives insights into the philosophy behind FreedomBox.

First demonstration of FreedomBox at SFLC, University of Columbia by Sunil Mohan Adapa.

Quick Start

1. What you need to get started

The easy way is to buy a FreedomBox kit.

Alternatively you may choose to build it yourself, by gathering all the components:

  • A supported device (including any device that can run Debian). We will call that the FreedomBox in the rest of this manual.

  • A power cable for your device.
  • An ethernet cable.
  • A microSD card (or equivalent storage media for your device), prepared according to the instructions on the Download page.

2. How to get started

  1. Plug one end of your ethernet cord into your FreedomBox's ethernet port, and plug the other end into your router.

  2. Power on the FreedomBox.

    • Note: On most single board computers, don't expect any output on a monitor connected via HDMI as the support may not exist in the kernel. See below to access and control your FreedomBox via network.

  3. On first boot, FreedomBox will perform its initial setup (older versions of FreedomBox reboot after this step). This process may take several minutes on some machines. After giving it about 10 minutes, proceed to the next step.

  4. After the FreedomBox has finished its initial setup, you can access its web interface through your web browser.

    • If your computer is connected directly to the FreedomBox through a second (LAN) ethernet port, you can browse to: http://freedombox/ or http://10.42.0.1/.

    • If your computer supports mDNS (GNU/Linux, Mac OSX or Windows with mDNS software installed), you can browse to: http://freedombox.local/ (or http://the-hostname-you-entered-during-install.local/)

    • If you know your way around the router's web interface, you can look up the IP address of the FreedomBox there, and browse to that address.

    • If none of these methods are available, then you will need to figure out the IP address of your FreedomBox. You can use the "nmap" program from your computer to find its IP address:

           nmap -p 80 --open -sV 192.168.0.0/24 (replace the ip/netmask with the one the router uses)
      In most cases you can look at your current IP address, and change the last digits with zero to find your home network, like so: XXX.XXX.XXX.0/24

      Your FreedomBox will show up as an IP address with an open tcp port 80 using Apache httpd service on Debian, such as the example below which would make it accessible at http://192.168.0.165:

           Nmap scan report for 192.168.0.165
           Host is up (0.00088s latency).
           PORT   STATE SERVICE VERSION
           80/tcp open  http    Apache httpd 2.4.17 ((Debian))
      If nmap does not find anything with the above command, you can try replacing 192.168.0.0/24 with 10.42.0.255/24.
           nmap -n -sP 10.42.0.255/24
      The scan report will show something similar to the following:
           Nmap scan report for 10.42.0.1
           Host is up (0.00027s latency).
           Nmap scan report for 10.42.0.50
           Host is up (0.00044s latency).

      In this example, the FreedomBox is accessible at http://10.42.0.50. (10.42.0.1 is my laptop.)

  5. On accessing FreedomBox's web interface your browser will warn you that it communicates securely but that it regards the security certificate for doing so as invalid. This is a fact you need to accept because the certificate is auto generated on the box and therefore "self-signed" (the browser might also use words such as "untrusted", "not private", "privacy error" or "unknown issuer/authority"). Telling your browser that you are aware of this might involve pressing buttons such as "I understand the Risks", "proceed to ... (unsafe)" or "Add exception". After installation this certificate can be changed to a normal one using the Let's Encrypt option.

    • Self-signed certificate warning

    • Add Security Exception

    • If the domain name you are using already has a valid certificate from a recognised Certificate Authority, such as from Let's Encrypt, you may not be able to access the web interface. This means that the option to continue will not be offered. This might occur, for example, if you are reinstalling your FreedomBox or are otherwise reusing a domain name that has an associated certificate. This is normal, because your browser has a record of having visited the site and knows about the valid official certificate. The browser will not subsequently accept a self-signed certificate and you will be blocked. There are two ways to get beyond this hurdle.

      The first method is to access your FreedomBox by its IP address instead of by its domain name. So, instead of using something https://example.com, you would use something like https://198.51.100.2 (substitute your own IP address).

      The second method is to create a fresh profile for your browser and access your FreedomBox from the new profile. The new profile will have no memory of having visited the site nor memory of an official certificate. Once your FreedomBox has a new Let's Encrypt certificate, you can go back to using the old browser profile.

  6. The first time you access the FreedomBox web interface, you will see a welcome page. Click the "Start Setup" button to continue.

    • Welcome

      If you have installed FreedomBox using a Debian package, you will be asked for a secret key. This secret was generated during the installation of the Debian package. It can be read from the file /var/lib/plinth/firstboot-wizard-secret.

  7. The next page asks you to provide a user name and password. Fill in the form, and then click "Create Account."
    • Note: The user that you create here has Admin privileges and can also log in using ssh. For additional security, you may want to use a separate account for administrative tasks and for your normal, daily use. You can add more users later.

    • Account

  8. After completing the form, you will be logged in to FreedomBox's web interface and able to access apps and configuration through the interface.

    • Complete

Now you can try any of the Apps that are available on FreedomBox.

3. Finding your way around

3.1. Front page

The front page is the page that you will see when accessing the web root of your FreedomBox. You can also access it by clicking the FreedomBox logo in the top-left corner of the FreedomBox's web interface.

The front page includes shortcuts to apps that have been installed and are enabled. For web apps, clicking the shortcut will take you directly to the app's web page. For other services, clicking the shortcut will show more information about the service.

Front page

Front page

3.2. Apps menu

The Apps menu can be accessed by clicking the grid icon, next to the FreedomBox logo. This page lists all of the apps that are available for installing on FreedomBox. Click the name of an app to visit its page, where you can install and configure it.

Apps

3.3. Help menu

A drop-down Help menu can be accessed by clicking the question mark icon near the top-right corner. The menu includes helpful links and the FreedomBox manual.

Help

3.4. System menu

The System menu can be accessed by clicking the gear icon in the top-left corner. It includes a number of pages related to system configuration.

System

3.5. User menu

In the top-right corner, the name of the currently logged-in user is shown. A drop-down menu includes options for editing the current user or logging out of the user interface.

User

3.6. Burger menu

FreedomBox's web interface is responsive. When the display or browser window is very narrow, menu options may be hidden.

User

That is because the top menu options are collapsed into the burger icon shown at the top right corner of the window. Click on it to display a drop-down menu.

User

Getting Help

The FreedomBox community provides live help via forum, chat and email. Feel free to join and ask anything you like. If you receive help, please consider to report your solution to the Questions and Answers page, so others can benefit in the future.

1. Discussion Forum

The easiest way to get support is by using the discussion forum. You can browse solutions to known problems or request help from community contributors by asking a question. This is also the best way to provide community contributors with feedback about your FreedomBox experience.

To post new content, you will need to register for an account with name and email address (but you can provide pseudonym and non-primary email address). By watching topics and categories or by enabling 'mailing list mode' in your account preferences, you can interact with the forum by just sending and receiving emails similar to a mailing list.

2. Matrix

You can join our Matrix room #freedombox:matrix.org. The room is federated with the IRC channel and remembers the chat history. If you do not yet have a client installed, you can use your web browser to join. For more options, see this matrix client overview page.

3. IRC #freedombox

Providing you are familiar with Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and IRC client, you can get an instant online help from the community on irc.debian.org, channel #freedombox. Potentially it takes some time before some member is answering you, be patient, a reaction will come later.

4. Email

FreedomBox users and contributors can be reached by email via a discussion list. In order to ask a question and get an answer from the community, please register from the mailing list page providing your email adress and creating a password. You can also read discussions archives. This list gathers about 700 readers.

5. Help Back

Once you've got your solution, don't forget to add it to the Questions and Answers page and tell which features do you use from the box on Use Cases page. It could help others to use FreedomBox in a way they would have not imagined.

Download and Install

Welcome to the FreedomBox download page.

  • Note: If you purchased a FreedomBox kit, this section is not meant for you, so you can just skip it entirely. (Unless you specifically want to build an alternative software image).

You may either install FreedomBox on one of the supported inexpensive hardware devices, on any Debian operating system, or deploy it on a virtual machine.

Installing on a machine running a Debian system is easy because FreedomBox is available as a package. We do recommend to install FreedomBox on a supported single board computer (SBC). The board will be dedicated for FreedomBox use from home, this will prevent a lot of risks, such as accidental misconfiguration by the user. In case of trouble deciding which hardware is best for you or during the installation, please use the support page or read the Questions and Answers page based on posts on the Freedombox-discuss mailing list archives.

1. Downloading on Debian

If you are installing on an existing Debian installation, you don't need to download these images. Instead, read the instructions on setting up FreedomBox on Debian.

2. Downloading for SBC or Virtual Machine

2.1. Prepare your device

Read the hardware specific instructions on how to prepare your device at the Hardware section. On the web, there is a lot of documentation about setting your device up and flashing USB or SD Cards to boot your hardware.

2.2. Downloading Images

Recent images for supported targets are available here:

2.3. Verifying the Downloaded Images

It is important to verify the images you have downloaded to ensure that the file has not been corrupted during the transmission and that it is indeed the image built by FreedomBox developers.

Note: Testing and nightly images are automatically signed by the FreedomBox CI server.

  • First open a terminal and import the public keys of the FreedomBox developers who built the images:

    $ gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys BCBEBD57A11F70B23782BC5736C361440C9BC971
    $ gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 7D6ADB750F91085589484BE677C0C75E7B650808
    # This is the FreedomBox CI server's key
    $ gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 013D86D8BA32EAB4A6691BF85D4153D6FE188FC8
    # This is the new FreedomBox CI server's key
    $ gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys D4B069124FCF43AA1FCD7FBC2ACFC1E15AF82D8C
  • Next, verify the fingerprint of the public keys:
    $ gpg --fingerprint BCBEBD57A11F70B23782BC5736C361440C9BC971
    pub   4096R/0C9BC971 2011-11-12
          Key fingerprint = BCBE BD57 A11F 70B2 3782  BC57 36C3 6144 0C9B C971
    uid                  Sunil Mohan Adapa <sunil@medhas.org>
    sub   4096R/4C1D4B57 2011-11-12
    
    $ gpg --fingerprint 7D6ADB750F91085589484BE677C0C75E7B650808
    pub   4096R/7B650808 2015-06-07 [expires: 2020-06-05]
          Key fingerprint = 7D6A DB75 0F91 0855 8948  4BE6 77C0 C75E 7B65 0808
    uid                  James Valleroy <jvalleroy@mailbox.org>
    uid                  James Valleroy <jvalleroy@freedombox.org>
    sub   4096R/25D22BF4 2015-06-07 [expires: 2020-06-05]
    sub   4096R/DDA11207 2015-07-03 [expires: 2020-07-01]
    sub   2048R/2A624357 2015-12-22
    
    $ gpg --fingerprint 013D86D8BA32EAB4A6691BF85D4153D6FE188FC8
    pub   rsa4096 2018-06-06 [SC]
          013D 86D8 BA32 EAB4 A669  1BF8 5D41 53D6 FE18 8FC8
    uid           [ unknown] FreedomBox CI (Continuous Integration server) <admin@freedombox.org>
    sub   rsa4096 2018-06-06 [E]
    
    $ gpg --fingerprint D4B069124FCF43AA1FCD7FBC2ACFC1E15AF82D8C
    pub   rsa4096 2022-03-09 [SC]
          D4B0 6912 4FCF 43AA 1FCD  7FBC 2ACF C1E1 5AF8 2D8C
    uid           [ unknown] FreedomBox CI (Continuous Integration server) <admin@freedombox.org>
    sub   rsa4096 2022-03-09 [E]
  • Finally, verify your downloaded image with its signature file .sig. For example:

    $ $ gpg --verify freedombox-bookworm_all-amd64.img.xz.sig
    gpg: assuming signed data in 'freedombox-bookworm_all-amd64.img.xz'
    gpg: Signature made Wed 14 Jun 2023 03:22:04 PM PDT
    gpg:                using RSA key D4B069124FCF43AA1FCD7FBC2ACFC1E15AF82D8C
    gpg: Good signature from "FreedomBox CI (Continuous Integration server) <admin@freedombox.org>" [unknown]
    gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
    gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
    Primary key fingerprint: D4B0 6912 4FCF 43AA 1FCD  7FBC 2ACF C1E1 5AF8 2D8C

2.4. Installation

After the download you can use the image to boot your chosen hardware (including virtual machines). You'll need to copy the image to the memory card or USB stick as follows:

  1. Figure out which device your card actually is.
    1. Unplug your card.
    2. Run dmesg -w to show and follow the kernel messages.

    3. Plug your card in. You will see messages such as following:
      [33299.023096] usb 4-6: new high-speed USB device number 12 using ehci-pci
      [33299.157160] usb 4-6: New USB device found, idVendor=058f, idProduct=6361
      [33299.157162] usb 4-6: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
      [33299.157164] usb 4-6: Product: Mass Storage Device
      [33299.157165] usb 4-6: Manufacturer: Generic
      [33299.157167] usb 4-6: SerialNumber: XXXXXXXXXXXX
      [33299.157452] usb-storage 4-6:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
      [33299.157683] scsi host13: usb-storage 4-6:1.0
      [33300.155626] scsi 13:0:0:0: Direct-Access     Generic- Compact Flash    1.01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
      [33300.156223] scsi 13:0:0:1: Direct-Access     Multiple Flash Reader     1.05 PQ: 0 ANSI: 0
      [33300.157059] sd 13:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg4 type 0
      [33300.157462] sd 13:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0
      [33300.462115] sd 13:0:0:1: [sdg] 30367744 512-byte logical blocks: (15.5 GB/14.4 GiB)
      [33300.464144] sd 13:0:0:1: [sdg] Write Protect is off
      [33300.464159] sd 13:0:0:1: [sdg] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
      [33300.465896] sd 13:0:0:1: [sdg] No Caching mode page found
      [33300.465912] sd 13:0:0:1: [sdg] Assuming drive cache: write through
      [33300.470489] sd 13:0:0:0: [sdf] Attached SCSI removable disk
      [33300.479493]  sdg: sdg1
      [33300.483566] sd 13:0:0:1: [sdg] Attached SCSI removable disk
    4. In the above case, the disk that is newly inserted is available as /dev/sdg. Very carefully note this and use it in the copying step below.

  2. Decompress the downloaded image using tar:
    $ xz -d freedombox-stable-free_buster_cubietruck-armhf.img.xz

    The above command is an example for the cubietruck stable image. Your downloaded file name will be different.

  3. Copy the image to your card. Double check to make sure you don't write to your computer's main storage (such as /dev/sda). Also make sure that you don't run this step as root to avoid potentially overriding data on your hard drive due to a mistake in identifying the device or errors while typing the command. USB disks and SD cards inserted into the system should typically be write accessible to normal users. If you don't have permission to write to your SD card as a user, you may need to run this command as root. In this case triple check everything before you run the command. Another safety precaution is to unplug all external disks except the SD card before running the command.

    For example, if your SD card is /dev/sdg as noted in the first step above, then to copy the image, run:

    $ dd bs=1M if=freedombox-stable-free_buster_cubietruck-armhf.img of=/dev/sdg conv=fdatasync status=progress

An alternative to copy to SD card command

  • $ cat freedombox-stable-free_buster_cubietruck-armhf.img > /dev/sdg ; sync

On MS Windows you will need a tool like etcher. On MacOS (OSX) you can use programs like balenaetcher and rosaimagewriter.

  • The above command is an example for the cubietruck stable image. Your image file name will be different.

    When picking a device, use the drive-letter destination, like /dev/sdg, not a numbered destination, like /dev/sdg1. The device without a number refers to the entire device, while the device with a number refers to a specific partition. We want to use the whole device. Downloaded images contain complete information about how many partitions there should be, their sizes and types. You don't have to format your SD card or create partitions. All the data on the SD card will be wiped off during the write process.

  • Use the image by inserting the SD card or USB disk into the target device and booting from it. Your device should also be prepared (see the Hardware section).

  • Read (the rest of) the Manual for instructions on how to use applications in FreedomBox.

2.5. Troubleshooting

  • Can't boot off your MicroSD card (and/or disk utilities like GPartEd report a missing/corrupt partition table).
    • You likely forgot or failed to extract the .img file with xz -d before writing it to your device (e.g. /dev/sdg).

3. Obtaining Source Code

FreedomBox is fully free software and you can obtain the source code to study, modify and distribute improvements.

3.1. From within FreedomBox

FreedomBox is made up of several software programs and you can obtain the source code to any of them. These instructions are similar to obtaining and building source code for Debian since FreedomBox is a pure blend of Debian. Using this process you can obtain the source code to the exact version of the package you are currently using in FreedomBox.

  1. To see the list of software packages installed on your FreedomBox, run the following in a terminal:

    dpkg -l
  2. To obtain the source code for any of those programs, then run:
    apt source <package_name>

    This requires that the apt sources list contains information about the source code repositories. These are present by default on all FreedomBox images. If you have installed FreedomBox using a package from Debian, you need to ensure that source repositories are added in the file.

  3. To build the package from source code, first install its dependencies
    apt build-dep <package_name>

    Switch to the source directory created by the apt source command:

    cd <source_directory>
    Then build the package
     dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc
  4. Install the package:
     dpkg -i ../<built_package>.deb

3.2. Other Ways to Obtain Source Code

  1. Source code for any of the packages can be browsed and searched using the web interface at sources.debian.org. For example, see the plinth package.

  2. Source code and pre-built binary package for any version of a package including historic versions can be obtained from snapshot.debian.org. For example, see the plinth package.

  3. You can also obtain the links to upstream project homepage, upstream version control, Debian's version control, changelog, etc. from the Debian tracker page for a project at tracker.debian.org. For example, see the tracker page for plinth package.

  4. You can build and install a package from its Debian's version control repository. For example,
     git clone https://salsa.debian.org/freedombox-team/freedombox.git
     cd freedombox
     apt build-dep .
     dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc
     dpkg -i ../freedombox*.deb

3.3. Building Disk Images

You can also build FreedomBox disk images for various hardware platforms using the freedom-maker tool. This is also available as a Debian package and source code for it may be obtained using the above methods. Build instructions for creating disk images are available as part of the source code for freedom-maker package.

FreedomBox disk images are built and uploaded to official servers using automated Continuous Integration infrastructure. This infrastructure is available as source code too and provides accurate information on how FreedomBox images are built.

3.3.1. U-boot on Pioneer Edition Images

There is one minor exception to the u-boot package present on the hardware sold as FreedomBox Home Server Kits Pioneer Edition. It contains a small but important fix that is not part of Debian sources. The fork of the Debian u-boot source repository along with the minor change done by the FreedomBox is available as a separate repository. We expect this change to be available in upstream u-boot eventually and this repository will not be needed. This package can be built on a Debian armhf machine as follows (cross compiling is also possible, simply follow instructions for cross compiling Debian packages):

apt install git git-buildpackage
git clone https://salsa.debian.org/freedombox-team/u-boot.git
cd u-boot
pbuilder create --distribution=buster
gbp buildpackage --git-pbuilder

The u-boot Debian package will be available in u-boot-sunxi*.deb. This package will contain

mkdir temp
dpkg -x u-boot-suxi*.deb temp
unxz <lime2_image_built_with_freedom_maker>
dd if=temp/usr/lib/u-boot/A20-OLinuXino-Lime2/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=<lime2.img> seek=8 bs=1k conv=notrunc

The resulting image will have the modified u-boot in it.

Apps

1. Bepasty (File & Snippet Sharing)

bepasty icon

Available since: version 20.14

1.1. What is bepasty?

bepasty is a web application that allows large files to be uploaded and shared. Text and code snippets can also be pasted and shared. Text, image, audio, video and PDF documents can be previewed in the browser. Shared files can be set to expire after a time period.

1.2. Screenshot

Screenshot of bepasty

1.3. Passwords and Permissions

bepasty uses only passwords (without usernames) to control access. Depending on which password is used to login to bepasty, the user will have different permissions. They can have any combination of the following permissions:

  • read: Read a file, if they know the URL.

  • list: List all files.

  • create: Paste or upload a new file.

  • delete: Delete a file.

  • admin: Can lock and unlock files.

After bepasty is installed, it comes pre-configured for the following roles:

  • Viewer: can view and list files
  • Editor: can view, list, create, and delete files
  • Administrator: has all permissions

These roles support a use-case of file sharing between known, authorized users. If needed, you can re-configure bepasty to support other roles and use-cases.

1.4. Distributing passwords

By default, the Public Access configuration is set to None, so a password is required for any use of bepasty. This means that you will need to distribute the passwords to the appropriate users, through any communication channels that you have.

Note that you may want to create multiple passwords with the same permissions. This allows you to distribute a unique password to each user (or to a group of users). Then if you want to revoke access to one user, you can simply delete their password. The other users with their own passwords will not be affected.

1.5. Using bepasty

After logging in to bepasty, if you have the Create permission, you will see a large text box where you can paste any text. Optionally, you can provide a filename or Content-Type for the data. After clicking Submit, the file is created.

You can also drag and drop files in the area at the bottom. They are uploaded immediate after dropping them in this area. You can also create a list to track a collection of uploaded files.

For either case, you can set a maximum lifetime value. After this time expires, the file will be deleted.

If you have the List permission, then you will see a link List all Items at the top of the page. This will show all files that have been created or uploaded.

If you have the Delete or Admin permission, you will see extra actions shown next to each file on the list page.

If you only have the Read permission, then to read files, you will need to have both a password and one or more URLs for existing files.

1.6. Managing passwords

The bepasty configuration page in FreedomBox interface allows you to create new passwords, or to remove a password. When you create a password, you can choose any combination of the permissions described above. Note that a typical Administrator should have all of the permissions (not just "Admin").

You can also set a Comment. This is recommended, and you should use the comment to help yourself remember the purpose of the password, or who will be using the password.

You can also configure Public Access, which sets the default permissions that are available even without logging in with a password. You can set this to allow reading files by their URL, or reading and listing all files.

2. Calibre (e-Library)

calibre app tile in FreedomBox web interface

Available since: version 20.15

calibre is an e-book management solution. You can organize your e-books into collections in calibre known as "libraries". calibre can do e-book format conversion between most of the popular e-book formats. It can also manage metadata of your e-books such as book covers, descriptions, author and publisher information etc.

Moving your calibre library from your desktop to your FreedomBox has the benefit of being able to access your e-books from any device on the local network or through the Internet.

Only users who are members of the calibre group have access to the libraries. You can assign users to this group via the system app users and groups.

You might be familiar with the e-book reader shipped with the calibre application on your desktop. The server version of calibre that's installed on your FreedomBox has a web-based e-book reader with similar look and feel. This allows you to read your e-books from any device with a web browser.

2.1. Managing Libraries

After installation of calibre, a default library called "Library" will be made available. The FreedomBox administrator can add or delete any of the libraries including the default one from the app settings in FreedomBox web interface.

2.2. Access

calibre can be accessed after installation through the web client at https://<my_freedombox_name>/calibre.

3. Coturn (VoIP Helper)

Coturn icon

Available since: version 20.8

Coturn is a server to facilitate audio/video calls and conferences by providing an implementation of TURN and STUN protocols. WebRTC, SIP and other communication servers can use it to establish a call between parties who are otherwise unable connect to each other.

It is not meant to be used directly by users. Servers such as Matrix Synapse need to be configured with the details provided on the Coturn app page. Apart from Matrix Synapse, Jitsi, Ejabberd, Nextcloud Talk, etc. can use Coturn server for audio/video calls and conferences. There is no need for the servers to be running on the same machine as FreedomBox and external servers can use Coturn running on FreedomBox.

Coturn is configured in FreedomBox as an advanced app. This means that you need to check "Show advanced apps and features" in "General Configuration" to see Coturn icon in the "Apps" section.

3.1. How it works

When making an audio/video call, it is best to route the media streams between two peers directly. This will give the best possible latency (better signal quality) and avoid depending on a centralized server (privacy). It scales well because a simple chat server can host thousands of calls without involving the server in any way other than to setup the call. However, this approach does not work most of the time due to how networks are configured. Most peers on the network do not have a unique IP address allocated to them. They work hidden behind a network device that performs "Network Address Translation" (NAT) for them. This means that the two peers have no way of reaching each other.

To address this problem, a simple technique known as STUN was introduced. With the help of a third party STUN server, the peers can trick the NAT devices, to carry the traffic between the two peers. Unfortunately, this trick only works about 80% of the time. So, if STUN fails, peers have no choice but to route their traffic through an intermediary server called TURN server. All the mechanism of trying out STUN first and then falling back to TURN is described in a protocol known as ICE.

On FreedomBox, Coturn provides both STUN and TURN servers. Both services are provided over TCP as well as UDP. They are provided on unencrypted as well as encrypted channels (which have a higher chance of success). Since STUN servers are very inexpensive and don't consume a lot of server resources, there is no authentication needed to use them. TURN servers on the other hand need authentication. This authentication is highly simplified and does not require maintaining a database of users. A server such as matrix-synapse which is about to setup an audio/video call between two peers will generate a username and password using a shared secret. When the peers use the TURN server, they will be validated using these credentials because the TURN server also knows the same secret.

In summary, a communication server needs to know the URLs of the STUN/TURN servers along with a shared authentication secret for TURN. After that, during audio/video call setup, they will correctly guide the peers to use STUN/TURN servers. Coturn app in FreedomBox provides exactly this information. This information can be used to configure a communication server irrespective of whether it is running on the same FreedomBox or on another server.

3.2. Configuring Matrix Synapse

To configure Matrix Synapse to use Coturn TURN/STUN server, you need to check "Automatically manage audio/video call setup" in Matrix Synapse's configuration section, and then click on "Update seup".

Matrix with Coturn

3.3. Port Forwarding

If your FreedomBox is behind a router, you will need to set up port forwarding on your router. You should forward the following ports for Coturn:

  • UDP 3478
  • TCP 3478
  • UDP 3479
  • TCP 3479
  • UDP 5349
  • TCP 5349
  • UDP 5350
  • TCP 5350
  • UDP 49152-50175
  • TCP 49152-50175

4. Deluge (Distributed File Sharing via BitTorrent)

Deluge icon

Available since: version 0.5

4.1. What is Deluge?

Deluge is a BitTorrent node (both, client and server at the same time).

BitTorrent is a communications protocol for peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing.

  • It is not anonymous; you should assume that others can see what files you are sharing.

  • This technology works best for big, popular files.

There are two BitTorrent web nodes available in FreedomBox: Transmission and Deluge. They have similar features, but you may prefer one over the other.

Deluge is a lightweight BitTorrent client that is highly configurable. Additional functionality can be added by installing plugins.

4.2. Screenshot

Deluge Web UI

4.3. Initial Setup

After installing Deluge, it can be accessed by pointing your browser to https://<your freedombox>/deluge. You will need to enter a password to login:

Deluge Login

The initial password is "deluge". The first time that you login, Deluge will ask if you wish to change the password. You should change it to something that is harder to guess.

Next you will be shown the connection manager. Click on the first entry (Offline - 127.0.0.1:58846). Then click "Start Daemon" to start the Deluge service that will run in the background.

Deluge Connection Manager (Offline)

Now it should say "Online". Click "Connect" to complete the setup.

Deluge Connection Manager (Online)

At this point, you are ready to begin using Deluge. You can make further changes in the Preferences, or add a torrent file or URL.

5. Ejabberd (Chat Server)

ejabberd icon

Available since: version 0.3

5.1. What is ejabberd?

Ejabberd is a chat server which uses the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP).

5.2. What is XMPP?

XMPP is a federated server-client protocol for Instant Messaging. This means that users who have accounts on one server, can talk to users that are on another server.

XMPP can also be used for voice and video calls, if supported by the clients.

Currently FreedomBox offers both, a server (ejabberd) and a web client (JSXC) from its web interface.

5.3. Privacy

With XMPP, there are two ways that conversations can be secured:

  1. TLS: This secures the connection between the client and server, or between two servers. This should be supported by all clients and is highly recommended.
  2. End-to-end: This secures the messages sent from one client to another, so that even the server cannot see the contents. The latest and most convenient protocol is called OMEMO. There is another protocol called OTR that may be supported by some clients that lack OMEMO support. Both clients must support the same protocol for it to work.

5.4. Setting the Domain Name

For XMPP to work, your FreedomBox needs to have a Domain Name that can be accessed over the network.

If you only need the local network (LAN) users to chat with each other you can invent your domain name, but if you want users from the internet to join your rooms you need a public domain name. You can read more about obtaining a Domain Name in the Dynamic DNS section of this manual.

Once you have a Domain Name, you can tell your FreedomBox to use it by setting the Domain Name in the System Configuration.

Note: After changing your Domain Name, the Chat Server (XMPP) page may show that the service is not running. After a minute or so, it should be up and running again.

Please note that PageKite does not support the XMPP protocol at this time.

5.5. Registering FreedomBox users to use XMPP

Currently, all users created through FreedomBox will be able to login to the XMPP server. You can add new users through the System module Users and Groups. It does not matter which Groups are selected for the new user.

5.6. Port Forwarding

If your FreedomBox is behind a router, you will need to set up port forwarding on your router. You should forward the following ports for XMPP:

  • TCP 5222 (client-to-server)
  • TCP 5269 (server-to-server)

5.7. Compatible clients

  • FreedomBox provides a web client: JSXC.

  • XMPP clients are available for various desktop and mobile platforms. FreedomBox links to the download sources of some of them. Feel free to include more here (needs free registration). We'll notice and might list them in FreedomBox.

    XMPP clients

5.7.1. FreedomBox webclient

For maximum simplicity FreedomBox provides a web client: JSXC. No need for your users to install additional software on their side. They'll be able to just use their browser. This is usually the first choice for new and eventual users.

5.7.2. Mobile clients

You can download an XMPP client for your smartphone or tablet among the ones listed below.

5.7.2.1. Conversations (Android)

Conversations is an Android XMPP client with audio and video call support available on F-Droid or the Play Store. Audio and video calls also work between Conversations and Monal on iOS. In addition to text messaging, you can use Conversations to send images/files and have group chats.

Conversations - First screen Conversations - Login Conversations - Add contacts

From left to right: (1) First screen - (2) Login screen - (3) Add contacts.

When first starting the Conversations app, you will be asked whether you want to create a new account or if you want to use an existing account. Choose "I already have an account" (1)

With ejabberd installed, the FreedomBox provides an XMPP account for every FreedomBox user. Additional (non-admin) FreedomBox user accounts can be created under System > Users and Groups.

Once logged into a FreedomBox/XMPP account (2), the Conversation app provides a + button that brings up a few choices to contact other people (3).

5.7.2.2. Monal (iOS)

Monal is a free software XMPP client with audio and video call support available from the App Store. Audio and video calls also work between Conversations on Android and Monal. In addition to text messaging, you can use Monal to send images/files and have group chats.

5.7.2.3. Siskin (iOS)

Siskin is a free software XMPP client with videochat support available from the App Store.

5.7.3. Desktop clients

5.7.3.1. Gajim (Windows, MacOS, Linux)

Gajim is a XMPP open-source client for the desktop, available for Windows, MacOS and Linux. This application is available in Debian, and for other operating systems you can download it from this page and find instructions about installation.

Gajim - First screen Gajim - Login Gajim - Main Window

From left to right: (1) First screen - (2) Login screen - (3) Main window

A popup shows up right after you start Gajim for the first time (1), asking you to either login to your XMPP (FreedomBox) account or to register for a new account. When you choose to login, after clicking "Forward", you will be asked a Jabber ID and a password (2): you have to enter your FreedomBox account and password here.

Finally, after logging in successfully, you will see the main Gajim screen (3). From there, you can add a contact (Account > Add contact...) then you can start a conversation (Gajim > Start chat).

5.7.3.2. Dino (Linux)

Dino is another XMPP free software client for the desktop. It is available for https://github.com/dino/dino/wiki/Distribution-Packages.

Dino - First screen Dino - Login Dino - Start a conversation

From left to right: (1) First screen - (2) Login screen - (3) Start conversation

When first starting Dino after installation, click on the Setup account button. You will be then asked your JID: this is your FreedomBox account. Enter it then click Next (2). Alternatively, you can click on Create account if you don't have a FreedomBox account.

Once you have logged in, you will be able to either start a conversation with one of your XMPP contacts or to join a channel (3).

5.7.3.3. Movim (Linux)

Movim is a free software XMPP client with videochat support for Linux. The project provides an unofficial Debian package.

5.7.3.4. Monal (MacOS)

Monal is a free software XMPP client with videochat support available from the Mac App Store.

5.8.1. Client Apps

Links to recommended client apps, where applicable, can be found in FreedomBox by select the Apps page, selecting the application tile, and clicking the > Client Apps button.

6. Postfix/Dovecot/Rspamd (Email Server)

Available since: 22.6

6.1. About the Email Server

FreedomBox provides a complete email server solution using Postfix, Dovecot, and Rspamd. Postfix sends and receives emails. Dovecot allows email clients to access your mailbox using IMAP and POP3. Rspamd deals with spam. The following features are available:

  • Send and receive email
    • Interoperate with other mail servers
    • Prevent others from spoofing your email addresses using SPF
    • Sign all outgoing email using DKIM
    • Receive reports of spoofing attempts using DMARC
  • Access mails easily
    • Access mail from any device using Roundcube webmail

    • Configure email clients by just typing in email address and password
    • Auto-configuration works with clients using autoconf scheme such as Thunderbird
    • Auto-configuration works with clients using DNS scheme
    • Keep mails on server and access them with multiple clients using IMAP
    • Fetch mails to local machine using POP3
  • Email address for all your users
  • Filter messages on the server using sieve filters
    • Setup vacation auto-responders that work even when you are not using your email client
    • Forward to external/internal addresses, file in folders, delete, etc.
    • Manage filters on the server using email client (for example, Thunderbird with sieve add-on)
  • Automatically setup and configure TLS certificates obtained by Let's Encrypt
    • All services (SMTP, IMAP, POP3 and manageseive) are configured to use TLS/STARTTLS

    • Certificates are renewed every 3 months or so
    • Upon renewal, certificates are installed and services are restarted
  • Backup and restore emails, aliases and configuration
    • Set a schedule for periodic backups
  • Scan incoming email for spam
    • Check the message against various block lists
    • Automatically move spam to the Junk folder
    • Sets a flag on the message when spam score reaches a threshold
    • Rejects the message during receiving when spam score reaches a high threshold
    • Understand spam decisions using extended spam headers added to a message
    • View details of spam processing and manage settings using Rspamd web interface
    • Admins can login to spam web interface using FreedomBox single-sign-on

    • Teach spam vs. not-spam using example messages

6.2. Prerequisites

  • You must own a domain on which you can configure advanced DNS records (MX, TXT and SRV). Such a domain can be obtained by buying one from a registrar or by obtaining a paid service from one of the Dynamic DNS providers (such as freedns.afraid.org). Currently, free subdomains provided by FreedomBox Foundation's free Dynamic DNS service at ddns.freedombox.org are not suitable. Support is planned in future.

  • Your ISP or cloud provider, on your Internet connection, must not be blocking traffic to external mail servers. Quite a few of them block outgoing traffic on port 25. This will render the email server unable to send mails to external addresses. Many such providers allow you to request removing this restriction. To test whether this is a problem for your Internet connection, run the following command (you should see some text like this):

user@myserver:~$ nc freedombox.org 25
220 mx.sflc.info ESMTP Postfix (Debian/GNU)
^C

6.3. Installing

Go to the Apps menu.

If already installed, the Email Server will be shown above the Disabled line. This is likely not your case, but if it is, that means that the Email Server is already installed, so skip this step and jump to the next one.

  • Email Server enabled

If the Email Server is shown among the icons below the Disabled line, it is either not yet installed or it is currently disabled. This is the usual starting status.

  • Email Server disabled

Select the Postfix/Dovecot app. You are presented with the Postfix/Dovecot app page. If not installed yet you'll be shown the Install button. Click on it!

  • Email Server app page

This will trigger the installation process.

  • Installation installing sw packages Installation running post-processes

After installing all needed software packages and configuring them, FreedomBox will tell you that the installation is successful and the app page will show additional content such as port information, configuration form and DNS settings.

  • Email Server page as just installed

    Email Server page as just installed

Next time you go to the Apps Menu it will show the app enabled (above the disabled line).

6.4. Configuring the Email Server

  1. If you wish to send email to and receive mails from users on other email servers on the Internet, you need a proper domain. As explained in the Prerequisites section, either buy a domain from a registrar or obtain one from a Dynamic DNS provider. If you purchased a domain from a registrar add it in the System, Configuration page. If it is a Dynamic DNS, configured it in System, Dynamic DNS Client page.
  2. When a domain is added to FreedomBox, a TLS certificate is automatically obtained for the domain. This certificate is then used for encrypted communication with all the services that are configured with the domain. Go to System section, Let's Encrypt app page and verify that certificate has been successfully obtained for the domain. If not, click on the Obtain button and resolve any problems that show up. For successfully obtaining the certificate, your FreedomBox must be reachable from the Internet and your router, if any, must be configured to do port forwarding for the web ports (80, 443).

  3. After adding a domain to FreedomBox, visit the Email app page. In the Configuration section, select the configured domain as the primary domain for the purposes of sending and receiving email.

  4. After setting the primary domain, information will become available in the DNS Records section of the page. These are the records that must be manually configured on the domain. Login to your DNS provider's web interface for managing DNS records on your domain. There enter all the entries shown in the DNS records table.
    • The length of the value of DNS record for DKIM exceeds 255 characters in length. Typically, it must be broken into multiple values enclosed in the double quotes and separated by spaces. This is what FreedomBox does. If your DNS provider has a different way to enter these multiple values, consult their documentation.

    • All the records are assumed "under" the domain you are configuring but a full value can also be provided. For example, "Domain" value of "dkim._domainkey" means "dkim._domainkey.mydomain.example.". Use the latter form if necessary.
  5. Install Roundcube app if you want to access emails using a web interface. In Roundcube configuration, be sure enable option to "Use only the local mail server". This removes the server field in the login page and makes the app work without any further configuration.

6.5. Using the Email Server

As a user you can:

  • Start sending and getting emails using most email clients.
  • Create and/or manage your email aliases in the Aliases tab of the Email Server app page in FreedomBox web interface.

  • Manage filters on the server using sieve

Once an admin has set up RoundCube configuration for it to work with the FreedomBox Email server you can log into RoundCube and start sending emails without the need for other email clients. Use the same login credentials to RoundCube that you use to log into the FreedomBox web interface.

6.5.1. With FreedomBox Webmail Client (RoundCube)

RoundCube email client is provided by FreedomBox as an optional app. If RoundCube has been installed before the email server, there is an option to make it work with FreedomBox's email server. Once both apps are installed, you have a complete webmail setup ready.

6.5.2. With Thunderbird

Open Thunderbird. Go to hamburger menu → New → Existing Mail Account. Enter a display name, your FreedomBox email address, and your FreedomBox password. Click continue.

FreedomBox implements the Automatic Account Configuration endpoint which Thunderbird will make use of.

  • Thunderbird configuration

6.5.3. Manual Configuration

Tell your email client to use these parameters:

  • Username: your FreedomBox email address or just the username part

  • Incoming mail: IMAPS, port 993, forced SSL, normal password authentication

  • Outgoing mail: SMTPS, port 465, forced SSL, normal password authentication

STARTTLS on the SMTP submission port is also supported.

  • Email client parameters

6.5.4. Email Aliases

Email aliases are useful for privacy. Now as FreedomBox email user (you don't need to be an administrator) you can have temporary throw-away and specific email addresses under your control. You can list, create and delete email aliases from the My Email Aliases shortcut in FreedomBox home page.

Email alias management page

Email alias management page

Mails to non-existent users, non-existent aliases, or system users will be rejected at the SMTP connection level.

6.5.5. Automatic Email Aliases

In addition to allowing users to create their own aliases, FreedomBox also sets up automatic aliases by appending a string to your user name with a '+' sign. If your mail address is myname@mydomain.example, then all myname+anystring@mydomain.example is an automatic alias to your email address. For example, when subscribing to a mailing list call foolist, you can provide your email address as myname+foolist@mydomain.example. When mail is sent to that address, it ends up in your mailbox of myname@mydomain.example. This is primarily useful for mail sorting and spam control.

6.6. Advanced: Troubleshooting

6.6.1. How to debug an action script failure? How to access the system log?

Open a secure shell connection to your FreedomBox. Type sudo journalctl -b -o short-monotonic --no-pager

  • -b show journal entries since boot

  • -o short-monotonic use short timestamp format

  • --no-pager make it easier to copy and paste

6.6.2. Why does the server say "relay access denied"?

This is because Postfix was not aware of the email domain. To fix that,

  1. Ensure FreedomBox is aware of your internet domain name. If you don't have a domain name, skip to step 2.

    • Log into the FreedomBox web interface as an admin.

    • Go to System → Name Services

    • Add a domain name if you haven't done so.

6.6.3. Cannot send anything from Roundcube. It says "SMTP Error (250): Authentication failed".

Root cause: Roundcube tried to submit your email from an unencrypted connection, but ports 465 and 587 required SSL and STARTTLS encryption, respectively.

Solutions:

For RoundCube, edit the /etc/roundcube/config.inc.php file to make it use port 25 (unencrypted). Fix these settings:

$config['smtp_server'] = 'smtp://localhost';
$config['smtp_port'] = 25;

Notes:

  • Access your FreedomBox via SSH.

  • You can edit the file with nano text editor. The file is restricted, so you need to access it as superuser: sudo nano /etc/roundcube/config.inc.php.

If using another email client like Thunderbird, enforce SSL or STARTTLS usage by the email client.

6.7. Providing user feedback

Please provide your feedback on usage on this forum thread.

6.8. Technical info and discussion

FreedomBox email server was presented at Debconf21. Slides and video recording are available courtesy of the Debian Outreach team.

This salsa issue is driving the implementation. Feel free to join discussions and provide technical ideas.

6.9.1. Client Apps

Links to recommended email client apps can be found in FreedomBox by select the Apps page, selecting the Dovecot/Postfix tile, and clicking the > Client Apps button.

7. Feather Wiki (Personal Notebooks)

Feather Wiki icon

Available since: version 24.17

Feather Wiki is a simple tool to create personal wikis on the web. Each wiki is self-contained within a single HTML file stored on your FreedomBox. Only FreedomBox users can read or write to the wiki files. It is also possible to "publish" a Feather Wiki file from within the application.

7.1. A Nest of Feather Wikis

Feather Wiki is a web application that runs entirely in the browser. FreedomBox implements a Feather Wiki Nest, i.e. an application that can store and manage several Feather Wiki files.

Feather Wiki is a web quine, like its more popular, older and more feature-rich cousin TiddlyWiki. Every wiki file contains an entire copy of the source code (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) along with your content, which makes it extremely portable.

The Nest is essentially a !WebDAV server provided by FreedomBox's Apache web server, so Feather Wiki doesn't require installation of any additional packages. It requires no additional system resources either, since Apache is always running.

7.2. Setting up wikis

Creating and deleting wiki files is handled by the FreedomBox app itself. Every new wiki file is created from the latest available version of the empty Feather Wiki file downloaded from the official website. Deletion cannot be undone. You have to either restore the deleted file from a backup or import any saved local copy into a new wiki file. Uploading your existing Feather Wiki files is supported if they are at least v1.8.0 (Skylark). For older Feather Wiki files, you can use the import option as described below.

To import an old Feather Wiki file, first create a new wiki on your FreedomBox.The page called "Wiki Settings" in Feather Wiki provides a button that lets you import the contents of an existing wiki file into a new wiki by uploading the file from your local machine.

Upgrading Feather Wiki is a manual process that is very similar to importing.

  1. Save a local copy of the wiki file.
  2. Delete the wiki file from the server.
  3. Create a new empty wiki file (this will be of the latest version by default).
  4. Open the new wiki.
  5. Import the contents of your local copy into the new wiki from the "Wiki Settings" page.

Wiki Settings page

7.3. Publishing a wiki

The Feather Wiki app on FreedomBox doesn't provide a "public access" option, unlike MediaWiki. To share your wiki file with someone who doesn't have an account on your FreedomBox or to publish the file on the Internet, follow these steps:

  1. Save a local copy of the wiki file.
  2. Open the local copy in a web browser.
  3. Go to "Wiki Settings" page and enable the "Publish" setting. (This makes the wiki non-editable. Hence the local copy.)
  4. Save the local copy.

Now you can share the HTML file or publish it on the web using Apache userdir or placing it under the /var/www/html directory on your FreedomBox.

7.4. As many wikis as you need

The source code of Feather Wiki is tiny - less than 60 kilobytes. You are encouraged to create as many wiki files as you need, since the storage cost of each file is negligible, even on a FreedomBox running from an SD card.

The shortcut for Feather Wiki app opens a page with the list of wiki files stored on FreedomBox. Creating a front page shortcut for each wiki file (like Ikiwiki does) would clutter the front page, considering the number of Feather Wiki files people might create.

7.5. Use cases

  • Notebook: A student can use Feather Wiki as a web notebook with one wiki file per course. About 40 files for a bachelor's degree!

  • Self-publishing: An author can self-publish an online book using Feather Wiki as a GitBook alternative.

  • Refile: One wiki file as a general notes dump that can be refiled later into more organized formats.

  • One wiki file for each issue of a magazine (indie web zine) maybe with some custom CSS added.
  • Simple internal websites for organizations to publish information.
  • One Feather Wiki file for each of your projects. Keep all project-related notes and tasks in one file.
  • Shipping documentation/user-guide with your product, in a single file.

For more inspiration, see the Gallery on the official website.

You might want to configure your wiki with different extensions for Feather Wiki depending on the use case.

8. GitWeb (Simple Git Hosting)

Gitweb icon

Available since: version 19.19

8.1. What is Git

Git is a distributed version-control system for tracking changes in source code during software development. GitWeb provides a web interface to Git repositories. You can browse history and content of source code, use search to find relevant commits and code. You can also clone repositories and upload code changes with a command-line Git client or with multiple available graphical clients. And you can share your code with people around the world.

To learn more on how to use Git visit Git tutorial.

8.2. Managing the repositories

After installation of GitWeb, a new repository can be created. It can be marked as private to limit access.

8.3. Access

GitWeb can be accessed after installation e.g. by the web client through https://<my_freedombox_name>/gitweb.

8.4. HTTP basic auth

GitWeb on FreedomBox currently supports HTTP(S) remotes only (i.e. not SSH). To avoid having to enter the password each time you pull/push to the repository, you can edit your remote to include the credentials.

Example: https://username:password@my.freedombox.rocks/gitweb/myrepo

Your username and password will be encrypted. Someone monitoring the network traffic will notice the domain name only.

Note: If using this method, your password will be stored in plain text in the local repository's .git/config file. For this reason, you should create a FreedomBox user who has only access to the gitweb and never use an admin account.

For GNOME users (Advanced)

GNOME "Passwords and Keys" utility can be used to store the username and password. See this StackOverflow Answer for details on how to do it.

8.5. Mirroring

Though your repositories are primarily hosted on your own FreedomBox, you can configure a repository on another Git hosting system like GitLab as a mirror.

8.6. Enabling/Disabling Features

In FreedomBox, some of the default features of gitweb have been changed:

  • Enabled: Blame feature to show what revision and author last modified each line of a file
  • Enabled: Pickaxe feature to list the commits that introduced or removed a given string
  • Enabled: Highlight feature to perform syntax highlighting on blobs
  • Disabled: Snapshot feature that provides a download of a compressed tar file for a given revision (due to high resource usage).

These features can be changed on a per-repository bases by an administrator by editing the git configuration file for the repository on FreedomBox. See manual page for gitweb.conf(5) for more details on syntax and features. For example, to re-enable the snapshot feature on myrepo repository, login to a FreedomBox terminal via SSH or web console as administrator and edit the file /var/lib/git/myrepo/config to contain the following section:

[gitweb]
snapshot = tgz

9. I2P (Anonymity Network)

I2P icon

9.1. About I2P

The Invisible Internet Project is an anonymous network layer intended to protect communication from censorship and surveillance. I2P provides anonymity by sending encrypted traffic through a volunteer-run network distributed around the world.

9.2. Services Offered

The following services are offered via I2P in FreedomBox by default. Additional services may be available when enabled from I2P router console that can be launched from FreedomBox web interface.

  • Anonymous Internet browsing: I2P can be used to browse Internet anonymously. For this, configure your browser (preferable a Tor Browser) to connect to I2P proxy. This can be done by setting HTTP proxy and HTTPS proxy to freedombox.local (or your FreedomBox's local IP address) and ports to 4444 and 4445 respectively. This service is available only when you are reaching FreedomBox using local network (networks in internal zone) and not available when connecting to FreedomBox from the Internet. One exception to this is when you connect to FreedomBox's VPN service from Internet you can still use this service.

  • Reaching eepsites: I2P network can host websites that can remain anonymous. These are called eepsites and end with .i2p in their domain name. For example, http://i2p-projekt.i2p/ is the website for I2P project in the I2P network. eepsites are not reachable using a regular browser via regular Internet connection. To browse eepsites, your browser needs to be configured to use HTTP, HTTPS proxies as described above. This service is available only when you are reaching FreedomBox using local network (networks in internal zone) and not available when connecting to FreedomBox from the Internet. One exception to this is when you connect to FreedomBox's VPN service from Internet you can still use this service.

  • Anonymous torrent downloads: I2PSnark, an application for anonymously downloading and sharing files over the BitTorrent network is available in I2P and enabled by default in FreedomBox. This application is controlled via a web interface that can be launched from 'Anonymous torrents' section of I2P app in FreedomBox web interface or from the I2P router console interface. Only logged-in users belonging to 'Manage I2P application' group can use this service.

  • IRC network: I2P network contains an IRC network called Irc2P. This network hosts the I2P project's official IRC channel among other channels. This service is enabled by default in FreedomBox. To use it, open your favourite IRC client. Then configure it to connect to host freedombox.local (or your FreedomBox's local IP address) with port number 6668. This service is available only when you are reaching FreedomBox using local network (networks in internal zone) and not available when connecting to FreedomBox from the Internet. One exception to this is when you connect to FreedomBox's VPN service from Internet you can still use this service.

  • I2P router console: This is the central management interface for I2P. It shows the current status of I2P, bandwidth statistics and allows modifying various configuration settings. You can tune your participation in the I2P network and use/edit a list of your favourite I2P sites (eepsites). Only logged-in users belonging to 'Manage I2P application' group can use this service.

10. Ikiwiki (Wiki and Blog)

Ikiwiki icon

Avaiable since: version 0.5

10.1. What is Ikiwiki?

Ikiwiki converts wiki pages into HTML pages suitable for publishing on a website. It provides particularly blogging, podcasting, calendars and a large selection of plugins.

10.2. Creating a wiki or blog

You can create a wiki or blog to be hosted on your FreedomBox through the Wiki & Blog (Ikiwiki) page in FreedomBox. The first time you visit this page, it will ask to install packages required by Ikiwiki.

After the package install has completed, select the "Create Wiki or Blog" button. ikiwiki: Manage

You can select the type to be Wiki or Blog. Also type in a name for the wiki or blog, and the username and password for the wiki's/blog's admin account. Then click Update setup and you will see the wiki/blog added to your list. Note that each wiki/blog has its own admin account. ikiwiki: Manage

10.3. Accessing your wiki or blog

Your wikis and blogs are listed in the Ikiwiki app. Clicking on your site's name will bring you to its start page.

ikiwiki: Manage

From here, if you click Edit or Preferences, you will be taken to a login page. To log in with the admin account that you created before, select the Other tab, enter the username and password, and click Login.

10.4. User login through SSO

Besides the wiki/blog admin, other FreedomBox users can be given access to login and edit wikis and blogs. However, they will not have all the same permissions as the wiki admin. They can add or edit pages, but cannot change the wiki's configuration.

To add a wiki user, go to the Users and Groups page in FreedomBox (under System configuration, the gear icon at the top right corner of the page). Create or modify a user, and add them to the wiki group. (Users in the admin group will also have wiki access.)

To login as a FreedomBox user, go to the wiki/blog's login page and select the Other tab. Then click the "Login with HTTP auth" button. The browser will show a popup dialog where you can enter the username and password of the FreedomBox user.

10.5. Adding FreedomBox users as wiki admins

  1. Login to the site, using the admin account that was specified when the site was created.
  2. Click "Preferences", then "Setup".
  3. Under "main", in the "users who are wiki admins", add the name of a user on the FreedomBox.

  4. (Optional) Under "auth plugin: passwordauth", uncheck the "enable passwordauth?" option. (Note: This will disable the old admin account login. Only SSO login using HTTP auth will be possible.)
  5. At the bottom of the page click "Save Setup".
  6. Click "Preferences", then "Logout".
  7. Login as the new admin user using "Login with HTTP auth".

10.6. Avoiding Spam

By default, every wiki page also has a "Discussion" page, which can be edited anonymously, without logging in. To avoid spam, you may want to disable the Discussion feature all together, by unchecking the "enable Discussion pages?" option in the setup.

10.7. Theming

  1. Login to the site, using the admin account that was specified when the site was created.
  2. Click "Preferences", then "Setup".
  3. Under "web plugin: theme", check "enable theme?"
  4. Right under the checkbox, type in the name of the desired theme. You can choose from the following officially supported themes:
    • actiontabs - mobile friendly
    • blueview - non-mobile friendly
    • goldtype - non-mobile friendly
    • monochrome - mobile friendly
  5. At the bottom of the page click "Save Setup".

For your changes to become visible, you might have to delete your browser's cache or wait a few minutes and refresh your ikiwiki's page.

It is also possible to install user-contributed themes from ikiwiki's Theme Market. Please note, that this requires additional technical knowledge.

11. Infinoted (Collaborative text edition with Gobby)

Infinoted icon

Available since: version 0.5

infinoted is a server for Gobby, a collaborative text editor.

To use it, download Gobby desktop client and install it. Then start Gobby and select "Connect to Server" and enter your FreedomBox's domain name.

11.1. Port Forwarding

If your FreedomBox is behind a router, you will need to set up port forwarding on your router. You should forward the following ports for infinoted:

  • TCP 6523

11.2.1. Client apps

Client software from the Infinoted team is named, "Gobby." Links to recommended client apps, where applicable, can be found in FreedomBox by select the Apps page, selecting the application tile, and clicking the > Client Apps button.

12. Janus (WebRTC server)

Janus icon

Available since version: 22.13

Janus is a lightweight, general purpose WebRTC server. It can support different kinds of real-time communication apps, such as video chat and streaming.

Currently, in FreedomBox, a simple video conference room is included with Janus. This video room can be accessed by anyone who visits your FreedomBox; it does not require logging in with a user account.

In the future, the simple video room app will be replaced by Jangouts, a fully-featured video conference app.

Coturn is required to use Janus, so it also needs to be installed and running on your FreedomBox.

12.1. Screenshot

Janus Video Room

12.2. Using Janus

The Janus shortcut will take you to the Janus Video Room page. From here, press the Start button at the top of the page.

Next, you will need to provide a display name. Any name can be used here. Press the "Join the room" button to enter the room.

The first time you enter the video room, your web browser will ask if this page has permission to access your camera and microphone. Press "Allow" to proceed.

Your own video will be displayed in the "Local Video" window. From here you can mute your audio, or use unpublish to stop sharing your video and audio. If other people join the video room, they will appear in the "Remote Video" windows.

13. JSXC (Web Chat Client)

JSXC icon

Available since: version 0.11.0

JSXC is a web chat client. It can be used to join compatible chat servers.

FreedomBox offers both parties, a server (ejabberd) and a web client (JSXC), from its web interface.

13.1. Technical Specifications

JSXC features the XMPP over BOSH protocol and is implemented in HTML5.

XMPP is a federated server-client protocol for Instant Messaging. This means that users who have accounts on one server, can talk to users that are on another server.

XMPP can also be used for voice and video calls, if supported by the clients.

13.2. Installation

You can install JSXC through its icon in the Apps section of FreedomBox web interface. The ejabberd (XMPP server) icon also offers to launch the web client (and installs JSXC if not yet installed).

13.3. Usage

After the JSXC module install completes, the JSXC can be accessed through its icon in the Apps section of FreedomBox web interface. The ejabberd (XMPP server) icon also offers to launch the web client. Both will redirect you to https://<your freedombox>/plinth/apps/xmpp/jsxc/.

To use it, you need to input the domain name of the server to connect to. It will automatically check the BOSH server connection to the given domain name as you type it.

JSXC not connecting

JSXC connecting

Videoconferencing and file transfer features are offered by JSXC but don't seem to work in FreedomBox yet.

13.4. Port Forwarding

If your FreedomBox is behind a router and you want to connect to other servers, you will need to set up port forwarding on your router. You should forward the following ports for XMPP:

  • TCP 5222 (client-to-server)

13.5.1. Client apps

JSXC is the client app used with ejabberd server included in FreedomBox.

14. Matrix Synapse (Chat Server)

Matrix Synapse icon

Available since: version 0.14.0

14.1. What is Matrix?

Matrix is an open protocol for interoperable, decentralized, real-time communication over IP. Synapse is the reference implementation of a Matrix server. It can be used to setup instant messaging on FreedomBox to host chat rooms with end-to-end encrypted communication and audio/video calls. Matrix Synapse is a federated application where chat rooms can exist on any server and users from any server in the federated network can join them. Learn more about Matrix.

14.2. How to access your Matrix Synapse server?

We recommend the Element client to access the Matrix Synapse server. You can download Element for desktops. Mobile applications for Android and iOS are available from their respective app stores.

14.3. Port Forwarding

If your FreedomBox is behind a router, you will need to set up port forwarding on your router. You should forward the following ports for Matrix:

  • TCP 8448

14.4. Setting up Matrix Synapse on your FreedomBox

To enable Matrix Synapse, first navigate to the Chat Server (Matrix Synapse) page and install it. Matrix needs a valid domain name to be configured. After installation, you will be asked to configure it. You will be able to select a domain from a drop down menu of available domains. Domains are configured using System -> Configure page. After configuring a domain, you will see that the service is running. The service will be accessible on the configured FreedomBox domain. Currently, you will not be able to change the domain once is it configured.

Your router has to be configured to forward port 8448.

All the registered users of your FreedomBox will have their Matrix IDs as @username:domain. If public registration is enabled, also your chosen client can be used to register a user account.

14.5. Setting up Audio/Video calls

The Matrix Synapse server is only responsible for establishing calls between participants in rooms. Matrix clients such as Element are actually responsible for the transfer of the audio/video traffic. Element supports calling in both one-to-one conversations and in groups.

For one-to-one conversations, Element tries to make a peer-to-peer connection between the two participants. This works when both the participants are using Element on computers with a public IP address or if they're on the same network. If both the participants are behind different NAT devices, establishing a direct peer-to-peer connection between them will not be possible. This problem can be solved by configuring Matrix Synapse with a STUN/TURN server. FreedomBox provides an app called Coturn for this purpose. FreedomBox doesn't automatically install Coturn on installing Matrix Synapse. However, as soon as Coturn app is installed, FreedomBox automatically configures Matrix Synapse to use it for audio/video calls. It is possible to override this configuration with a different STUN/TURN server in the web interface.

For calling groups with more than two participants (i.e. not one-on-one conversations), Element uses an external Jitsi Meet instance. Element uses jitsi.riot.im as its default Jitsi Meet instance. If the Matrix Synapse server is configured to use a different Jitsi Meet instance as the default, Element will use it instead for all users on that server.

14.6. Federating with other Matrix instances

You will be able to interact with any other person running another Matrix instance. This is done by simply starting a conversation with them using their matrix ID which is of the format @their-username:their-domain. You can also join rooms which are in another server and have audio/video calls with contacts on other server.

14.7. Memory usage

The Synapse reference server implemented in Python is known to be quite RAM hungry, especially when loading large rooms with thousands of members like #matrix:matrix.org. It is recommended to avoid joining such rooms if your FreedomBox device only has 1 GiB RAM or less. Rooms with up to a hundred members should be safe to join. The Matrix team is working on a new implementation of the Matrix server written in Go called Dendrite which might perform better in low-memory environments.

Some large public rooms in the Matrix network are also available as IRC channels (e.g. #freedombox:matrix.org is also available as #freedombox on irc.debian.org). It is better to use IRC instead of Matrix for such large rooms. You can join the IRC channels using Quassel.

14.8. Advanced usage

  1. If you wish to create a large number of users on your Matrix Synapse server, use the following commands on a remote shell as root user:
    • cat /dev/urandom | tr -dc 'a-zA-Z0-9' | fold -w 32 | head -n 1 | sed "s+^+registration_shared_secret: +" > /etc/matrix-synapse/conf.d/registration_shared_secret.yaml
      chmod 600 /etc/matrix-synapse/conf.d/registration_shared_secret.yaml
      chown matrix-synapse:nogroup /etc/matrix-synapse/conf.d/registration_shared_secret.yaml
      systemctl restart matrix-synapse
      register_new_matrix_user -c /etc/matrix-synapse/conf.d/registration_shared_secret.yaml
  2. If you wish to see the list of users registered in Matrix Synapse, the following as root user:
    • apt install sqlite3
      echo 'select name from users' | sqlite3 /var/lib/matrix-synapse/homeserver.db  
  3. If you wish to create a community in Matrix Synapse, a Matrix user with server admin privileges is needed. In order to grant such privileges to username run the following commands as root user:

    • sudo apt install sqlite3
      echo "UPDATE users SET admin=1 WHERE name='@username:domainname'" | sudo sqlite3 /var/lib/matrix-synapse/homeserver.db  

14.9.1. Client apps

Links to recommended client apps, where applicable, can be found in FreedomBox by select the Apps page, selecting the application tile, and clicking the > Client Apps button.

15. MediaWiki (Wiki)

MediaWiki icon

Available since: version 0.20.0

15.1. About MediaWiki

MediaWiki is the software that powers the Wikimedia suite of wikis.

Read more about MediaWiki on Wikipedia

15.2. MediaWiki on FreedomBox

MediaWiki on FreedomBox is configured to be publicly readable and privately editable. Only logged in users can make edits to the wiki. This configuration prevents spam and vandalism on the wiki.

15.2.1. User management

Users can be created by the MediaWiki administrator (user "admin") only. The "admin" user can also be used to reset passwords of MediaWiki users. The administrator password, if forgotten can be reset anytime from the MediaWiki app page in web interface.

15.2.2. Use cases

MediaWiki is quite versatile and can be put to many creative uses. It also comes with a lot of plugins and themes and is highly customizable.

15.2.2.1. Personal Knowledge Repository
  • MediaWiki on FreedomBox can be your own personal knowledge repository. Since MediaWiki has good multimedia support, you can write notes, store images, create checklists, store references and bookmarks etc. in an organized manner. You can store the knowledge of a lifetime in your MediaWiki instance.

15.2.2.2. Community Wiki
  • A community of users can use MediaWiki as their common repository of knowledge and reference material. It can used as a college notice board, documentation server for a small company, common notebook for study groups or as a fan wiki like wikia.

15.2.2.3. Personal Wiki-based Website
  • Several websites on the internet are simply MediaWiki instances. MediaWiki on FreedomBox is read-only to visitors. Hence, it can be adapted to serve as your personal website and/or blog. MediaWiki content is easy to export and can be later moved to use another blog engine.

15.2.3. Editing Wiki Content

The MediaWiki installation on FreedomBox ships with two kinds of editors - WikiText editor and !Visual editor.

15.2.3.1. WikiText Editor
  • This editor is for editing the wiki directly in MediaWiki's markup language. It has a toolbar for common options like Bold, Italics etc. Click on the Advanced section for more options like Headings, bullet lists etc.

mediawiki-toolbar.png

15.2.3.2. Visual Editor
  • MediaWiki's VisualEditor extension provides a WYSIWYG interface to editing wiki pages. This extension is bundled with MediaWiki from 1.35 and is enabled by default from FreedomBox 21.9.

    Since this is essentially a rich-text editor, knowledge of MediaWiki's markup language is not required. To use advanced features not available in the VisualEditor (yet), switch back to source editing.

VisualEditor.png

15.2.3.3. Other Formats
  • You don't have to necessarily learn the MediaWiki formatting language. You can write in your favorite format (Markdown, Org-mode, LaTeX etc.) and convert it to the MediaWiki format using Pandoc.

15.2.3.4. Image Uploads
  • Image uploads have been enabled since FreedomBox version 0.36.0. You can also directly use images from Wikimedia Commons using a feature called Instant Commons.

15.2.4. Customization

15.2.4.1. Skins

MediaWiki's default skin is usually Vector. The default skin set by FreedomBox is Timeless.

Vector is a skin best-suited for viewing on desktop browsers. It is not suitable for mobile screen sizes. Wikimedia sites host a separate mobile site. It is not worth hosting a separate mobile site for small MediaWiki installations like those on FreedomBox. Using a mobile-friendly skin like Timeless is a cheaper way of solving the problem.

Administrators can choose a default skin from the app configuration. Users of the site also have the choice of viewing it with a different skin.

16. Minetest (Block Sandbox)

Minetest icon

Available since: version 0.9

Minetest is a multiplayer infinite-world block sandbox. This module enables the Minetest server to be run on this FreedomBox, on the default port (30000). To connect to the server, a Minetest client is needed.

16.1. Port Forwarding

If your FreedomBox is behind a router, you will need to set up port forwarding on your router. You should forward the following ports for Minetest:

  • UDP 30000

16.2. Install and enable mods

After SSHing into your FreedomBox server, install (unzip or git clone) mods in /var/games/minetest-server/.minetest/mods (for example, for the mobs_animal mod, you'd have the new /var/games/minetest-server/.minetest/mods/mobs_animal/ directory).

To enable a mod, first restart minetest:

sudo systemctl restart minetest-server.service

This will update the world config file, located in /var/games/minetest-server/.minetest/worlds/world/world.mt, with a line related to the added mod. Set that line from false to true in order to enable the new mod in your minetest instance. For example:

load_mod_mobs_animal = true

After that, save your changes, restart minetest one more time, then you should be all set.

16.3.1. Client Apps

17. MiniDLNA / ReadyMedia (Simple Media Server)

MiniDLNA icon

Available since: version 19.23

MiniDLNA is a media server with the aim to be compliant with DLNA/UPnP clients.

Please know that the maintainers of MiniDLNA software are changing the name of this program to ReadyMedia.

Note: This service is available only on networks configured as "internal" zone. It is not available when connected via OpenVPN.

17.1. What is UPnP/DLNA?

Universal plug & play is a set of networking protocols that allow devices within a network such as PCs, TVs, printers etc. to seamlessly discover each other and establish communication for data sharing. It is zero configuration protocol and requires only a media server and a media player that are compliant with the protocol.

DLNA is derived from UPnP as a form of standardizing media interoperability. It forms a standard/certification which many consumer electronics conform to.

17.2. Setting up MiniDLNA on your FreedomBox

To install/enable the media server you need to navigate at MiniDLNA page and enable it. The application is intended to be available in the internal (home) network and therefore it requires a network interface configured for internal traffic.

After installation a web page becomes available in the internal network at http://<your-freedombox-IP-address>:8200 (note that using mDNS name like freedombox.local doesn't work here). The web page includes information for how many files the server is detecting, how many connections exist etc. This is very useful if plugging external disks with media to check if the new media files are detected properly. If that is not happening, disabling and enabling the server will fix it.

17.3. Using MiniDLNA to play media on your devices

Any DLNA compliant device or media player should be able to automatically detect, browse and play media from MiniDLNA on FreedomBox. The following devices and media players have been tested:

  • GNOME Videos: Videos is the default media player on the popular GNU/Linux desktop environment GNOME. Open Videos, switch to 'Channels'. You should see a channel named 'freedombox: minidlna'. You will be able to browse and play media from it.

  • VLC media player: VLC is a very popular media player for GNU/Linux, Android, Windows and macOS. Open VLC and click on 'View -> Playlist'. In the playlist sidebar that appears, select 'Universal Plug'n'Play'. You should see an item named 'freedombox: minidlna'. You should be able to browse and play media from it.

  • Kodi: Kodi is a popular media centre software with user interface designed for Televisions. Open Kodi, goto 'System -> Service settings -> UPnP/DLNA' and 'Enable UPnP support'. Then visit 'Home -> Videos -> Files -> Add videos... -> Browse -> UPnP devices'. You should see 'freedombox: minidlna'. Select it and choose 'OK'. Then choose 'OK in the 'Add video source' dialog. From now on, you should see 'freedombox: minidlna' in 'Videos -> Files' section. You should be able to browse and play media from it. See Kodi documentation for more information.

  • Roku: Roku is an appliance connected to a TV for playing Internet streaming services. Many TVs also have Roku built into them. In Roku interface, find a channel called 'Roku Media Player' and open it. You should see an item called 'freedombox: minidlna'. You should be able to browse and play media from it.

  • Rhythmbox: Rhythmbox is the default audio player on the popular GNU/Linux desktop environment GNOME. Open Rhythmbox and ensure that the side pane is open by clicking on 'Application menu -> View -> Side Pane'. In the side pane you should see 'freedombox:minidlna' under the 'Shared' section. You should be able to browse and play audio files from it. Video files will not show up.

17.4. Supported media formats

MiniDLNA supports a wide variety of video and audio file formats.

  • Video: Files ending with .avi, .mp4, .mkv, .mpg, .mpeg, .wmv, .m4v, .flv, .mov, .3gp, etc.

  • Audio: Files ending with .mp3, .ogg, .flac, .wav, .pcm, .wma, .fla, .aac, etc.

  • Image: Files ending with .jpg, .jpeg

  • Playlist: Files ending with .m3u, .pls

  • Captions: Files ending with .srt, .smi

Notably, it does not support the following file extensions. Renaming the file to a known extension seems to work in most cases.

  • Video: Files ending with .webm

In addition to file format support from MiniDLNA, your media player or device needs to support the audio/video codecs with which the media has been encoded. MiniDLNA does not have the ability to translate files into a codec understood by the player. If you face problems with media playback, use the VLC player to find the codecs used in the media and the check your device or media player documentation on whether the codecs are supported.

17.5. File systems for external drives

If using an external drive that is used also from a Windows system the preferred filesystem should be NTFS. NTFS will keep Linux file permissions and UTF8 encoding for file names. This is useful if file names are in your language.

18. Miniflux (News Feed Reader)

Miniflux icon

Available since: FreedomBox on Debian 13 (Trixie)

Miniflux is a minimalist and opinionated news feed reader supporting a wide variety of feed formats - RSS, ATOM, RDF and JSON. It is an alternative to Tiny Tiny RSS on FreedomBox.

18.1. Clients

The primary web interface is mobile-friendly and optimized for readability. Miniflux is a progressive web application. It can be added to the home screen on mobile and accessed like a native application.

Miniflux server provides an API for clients. It is also compatible with existing applications built for Fever or Google Reader API. There is a listing of clients for various desktop and mobile platforms on the official website.

18.2. Reader

Miniflux's reader supports several content types. In addition to the usual blog posts and comics which most feed readers support, you can also listen to podcasts and play videos from within Miniflux. YouTube videos are played using youtube-nocookie.com or (optional) a proxy like invidious.io to prevent tracking your preferences across websites. Miniflux also removes tracking pixels and all external JavaScript.

Miniflux has a content scraper that allows you to fetch and read the full article even if the site only publishes a summary in their feed. Only the relevant content is scraped, providing a reading experience similar to Firefox Reader View. This scraper is also capable of fetching the video duration from YouTube or Invidious.

18.3. Other Features

Miniflux provides some quality-of-life features like full-text search (powered by PostgreSQL database), filtering rules, keyboard shortcuts and touch events. There are integrations with several applications like read-it-later solutions, bookmarking tools (Shaarli) and messaging apps (Matrix). If you don't use Shaarli, starring an article within Miniflux is equivalent to bookmarking it.

Miniflux doesn't permit installing additional plugins or themes. You can pick one of the existing light/dark themes or install a browser extension to read in a different theme.

18.4. Miniflux on FreedomBox

18.4.1. User Management

Miniflux does not integrate with the existing single sign-on mechanisms in FreedomBox. The FreedomBox app for Miniflux provides an option to create administrator users. Once an administrator user is created, any further users (administrator or not) can be created and managed from within Miniflux settings.

The FreedomBox app also provides an option to reset any Miniflux user's password. This is especially convenient in the case where there is only one person using Miniflux. Without this option, in case the only user of Miniflux forgets their password, another administrator user must be created to reset this user's password from Miniflux settings.

Since Miniflux accounts are not tied to FreedomBox accounts, you can provide Miniflux accounts to your friends who do not have accounts on your FreedomBox.

18.4.2. Migrating from Tiny Tiny RSS

TODO

18.4.3. Integrations

  1. Adding a bookmark to Shaarli
  2. Posting feeds to a Matrix channel
  3. RSS-Bridge

19. Mumble (Voice Chat) Server

Mumble icon

Available since: version 0.5

19.1. What is Mumble?

Mumble is a voice chat software. Primarily intended for use while gaming, it is suitable for simple talking with high audio quality, noise suppression, encrypted communication, public/private-key authentication by default, and "wizards" to configure your microphone for instance. A user can be marked as a "priority speaker" within a channel.

19.2. Using Mumble

FreedomBox includes the Mumble server. Clients are available for desktop and mobile platforms. Users can download one of these clients and connect to the server.

19.3. Port Forwarding

If your FreedomBox is behind a router, you will need to set up port forwarding on your router. You should forward the following ports for Mumble:

  • TCP 64738
  • UDP 64738

19.4. Managing Permissions

A super user in Mumble has the ability to create administrator accounts who can in turn manage groups and channel permissions. This can be done after logging in with the username "SuperUser" using the super user password. See Mumble Guide for information on how to do this. The SuperUser password can be set through the FreedomBox interface.

20. OpenVPN (Virtual Private Network)

OpenVPN icon

Available since: version 0.7

20.1. What is OpenVPN?

OpenVPN provides to your FreedomBox a virtual private network service. You can use this software for remote access, site-to-site VPNs and Wi-Fi security. OpenVPN includes support for dynamic IP addresses and NAT.

20.2. Port Forwarding

If your FreedomBox is behind a router, you will need to set up port forwarding on your router. You should forward the following ports for OpenVPN:

  • UDP 1194

20.3. Setting up

  1. In FreedomBox apps menu, select Virtual Private Network (OpenVPN) and click Install.

  2. After the module is installed, there is an additional setup step that may take a long time to complete. Click "Start setup" to begin.

    OpenVPN service page

  3. Wait for the setup to finish. This could take a while.
  4. Once the setup of the OpenVPN server is complete, you can download your profile. This will download a file called <USER>.ovpn, where <USER> is the name of a FreedomBox user. Each FreedomBox user will be able to download a different profile. Users who are not administrators can download the profile from home page after login.

  5. The ovpn file contains all the information a vpn client needs to connect to the server.
  6. The downloaded profile contains the domain name of the FreedomBox that the client should connect to. This is picked up from the domain configured in 'Config' section of 'System' page. In case your domain is not configured properly, you may need to change this value after downloading the profile. If your OpenVPN client allows it, you can do this after importing the OpenVPN profile. Otherwise, you can edit the .ovpn profile file in a text editor and change the 'remote' line to contain the WAN IP address or hostname of your FreedomBox as follows.

    client
    remote mybox.freedombox.rocks 1194
    proto udp

20.4. Troubleshooting

If your network doesn't support IPv6, you might have to remove the following line from your OpenVPN client configuration. This is especially in cases where your server supports IPv6 but client does not thus confusing the OpenVPN client on which protocol to use.

proto udp6

To connect via IPv4, ensure that the following line is present.

proto udp

20.5. Browsing Internet after connecting to VPN

After connecting to the VPN, the client device will be able to browse the Internet without any further configuration. However, a pre-condition for this to work is that you need to have at least one Internet connected network interface which is part of the 'External' firewall zone. Use the networks configuration page to edit the firewall zone for the device's network interfaces.

20.6. Usage

20.6.1. On Android/LineageOS

  1. Visit FreedomBox home page. Login with your user account. From home page, download the OpenVPN profile. The file will be named username.ovpn.

    • OpenVPN Download Profile

  2. Download an OpenVPN client such as OpenVPN for Android. F-Droid repository is recommended. In the app, select import profile.

    • OpenVPN App

  3. In the select profile dialog, choose the username.opvn file you have just downloaded. Provide a name for the connection and save the profile.

    • OpenVPN import profile

  4. Newly created profile will show up. If necessary, edit the profile and set the domain name of your FreedomBox as the server address.

    • OpenVPN profile created

      OpenVPN edit domain name

  5. Connect by tapping on the profile.
    • OpenVPN connect

      OpenVPN connected

  6. When done, disconnect by tapping on the profile.
    • OpenVPN disconnect

20.6.2. On Debian

Install an OpenVPN client for your system

$ sudo apt install openvpn

Open the ovpn file with the OpenVPN client.

$ sudo openvpn --config /path/to/<USER>.ovpn

If you use Network Manager, you can create a new connection by importing the file:

$ sudo apt install network-manager-openvpn-gnome
$ sudo nmcli connection import type openvpn file /path/to/<USER>.ovpn

If you get an error such as configuration error: invalid 1th argument to “proto” (line 5) then edit the .ovpn file and remove the line proto udp6.

20.7. Checking if you are connected

20.7.1. On Debian

  1. Try to ping the FreedomBox or other devices on the local network.

  2. Running the command ip addr should show a tun0 connection.

  3. The command traceroute freedombox.org should show you the ip address of the VPN server as the first hop.

20.8. Accessing internal services

After connecting to OpenVPN, you will be able to access FreedomBox services that are only meant to be accessed on internal networks. This is in addition to being able to access external services. This can be done by using the IP address 10.91.0.1 as the host name for these services (for example, use smb://10.91.0.1 instead of smb://freedombox.local to access Samba shares).

The following services are known to work:

Some services are known not to work at this time:

21. Privoxy (Web Proxy)

Privoxy icon

Available since: version 0.1

A web proxy acts as a filter for incoming and outgoing web traffic. Thus, you can instruct any computer in your network to pass internet traffic through the proxy to remove unwanted ads and tracking mechanisms.

Privoxy is a software for security, privacy, and accurate control over the web. It provides a much more powerful web proxy (and anonymity on the web) than what your browser can offer. Privoxy "is a proxy that is primarily focused on privacy enhancement, ad and junk elimination and freeing the user from restrictions placed on his activities" (source: Privoxy FAQ).

21.1. Screencast

Watch the screencast on how to setup and use Privoxy in FreedomBox.

21.2. Setting up

  1. In FreedomBox, install Web Proxy (Privoxy)

    Privoxy Installation

  2. Adapt your browser proxy settings to your FreedomBox hostname (or IP address) with port 8118. Please note that Privoxy can only proxy HTTP and HTTPS traffic. It will not work with FTP or other protocols.

    Privoxy Browser Settings

  3. Go to page http://config.privoxy.org/ or http://p.p. If Privoxy is installed properly, you will be able to configure it in detail; if not you will see an error message.

  4. If you are using a laptop that occasionally has to connect through other routers than yours with the FreedomBox and Privoxy, you may want to install a proxy switch add-on that allows you to easily turn the proxy on or off.

21.3. Advanced Users

The default installation should provide a reasonable starting point for most. There will undoubtedly be occasions where you will want to adjust the configuration, that can be dealt with as the need arises.

  1. Plan first:
    • While using Privoxy, you can see its configuration details and documentation at http://config.privoxy.org/ or http://p.p.

    • The Quickstart is a good starting point to read on how to define own blocking and filtering rules.

    • Read carefully the manual, especially this security warning:

      • Access to the editor can not be controlled separately by "ACLs" or HTTP authentication, so that everybody who can access Privoxy can modify its configuration for all users. This option is not recommended for environments with untrusted users. Note that malicious client side code (e.g Java) is also capable of using the actions editor and you shouldn't enable this options unless you understand the consequences and are sure your browser is configured correctly.

  2. Only when you are ready, perform the changes:
    1. To enable changing these configurations, you first have to change the value of enable-edit-actions in /etc/privoxy/config to 1.

    2. Now you find an EDIT button on the configuration screen in http://config.privoxy.org/.

22. Quassel (Text Chat Client via IRC)

Quassel icon

Available since: version 0.8

Quassel is an IRC application that is split into two parts, a "core" and a "client". This allows the core to remain connected to IRC servers, and to continue receiving messages, even when the client is disconnected. FreedomBox can run the Quassel core service keeping you always online and one or more Quassel clients from a desktop or a mobile device can be used to connect and disconnect from it.

22.1. Why run Quassel?

Many discussions about FreedomBox are being done on the IRC-Channel irc://irc.debian.org/freedombox. If your FreedomBox is running Quassel, it will collect all discussions while you are away, such as responses to your questions. Remember, the FreedomBox project is a worldwide project with people from nearly every time zone. You use your client to connect to the Quassel core to read and respond whenever you have time and are available.

22.2. How to setup Quassel?

  • Within FreedomBox's web interface

    1. select Applications

    2. go to IRC Client (Quassel) and

    3. install the application and make sure it is enabled

      Quassel Installation

    4. now your Quassel core is running

22.3. Port Forwarding

If your FreedomBox is behind a router, you will need to set up port forwarding on your router. You should forward the following ports for Quassel:

  • TCP 4242
  • Example configuration in router:
    • Quassel_PortForwarding_en_v01.png

22.4. Clients

Clients to connect to Quassel from your desktop and mobile devices are available.

22.4.1. Desktop

In a Debian system, you can e.g. use quassel-client. The following steps describe how to connect Quassel Client with Quassel Core running on a FreedomBox. The first time you do this connection, Quassel Core will be initialized too.

  1. Launch Quassel Client. You will be greeted with a wizard to Connect to Core.

    • Connect to Core

  2. Click the Add button to launch Add Core Account dialog.

    • Add Core Account

  3. Fill any value in the Account Name field. Fill proper DNS hostname of your FreedomBox in Hostname filed. Port field must have the value 4242. Provide the username and password of the account you wish to create to connect to the Quassel Core in the User and Password fields. Choose Remember if don't wish to be prompted for a password every time you launch Quassel client.

  4. After pressing OK in the Add Core Account dialog, you should see the core account in the Connect to Core dialog.

    • Connect to Core

  5. Select the newly created core account and select OK to connect to it.

  6. If this is the first time you are connecting to this core. You will see an Untrusted Security Certificate warning and need to accept the server certificate.

    • Untrusted Security Certificate

  7. Select Continue. Then you will be asked if you wish to accept the certificate permanently. Select Forever.

    • Untrusted Security Certificate

  8. If this Quassel Core has not been connected to before, you will then see a Core Configuration Wizard. Select Next.

    • Core Configuration Wizard

  9. In the Create Admin User page, enter the username and password you have used earlier to create the core connection. Select Remember password to remember this password for future sessions. Click Next.

    • Create Admin User Page

  10. In the Select Storage Backend page, select SQLite and click Commit.

    • Select Storage Backend

  11. The core configuration is then complete and you will see a Quassel IRC wizard to configure your IRC connections. Click Next.

    • Welcome Wizard

  12. In Setup Identity page next, provide a name and multiple nicknames. This is how you present yourself to other users on IRC. It is not necessary to give your real world name. Multiple nicknames are useful as fallback nicknames when the first nickname can't be used for some reason. After providing the information click Next.

    • Setup Identity

  13. In Setup Network Connection page next, provide a network name of your choice. Next provide a list of servers to which Quassel Core should connect to in order to join this IRC network (such as irc.debian.org:6667).

    • Setup Network Connection

  14. Select the server in the servers list and click Edit. In the Server Info dialog, set the port 6697 (consult your network's documentation for actual list of servers and their secure ports) and click Use SSL. Click OK. This is to ensure that communication between your FreedomBox and the IRC network server is encrypted.

    • Server Info Server Info SSL

  15. Back in the Setup Network Connection dialog, provide a list of IRC channels (such as #freedombox) to join upon connecting to the network. Click Save & Connect.

    • Setup Network Connection

  16. You should connect to the network and see the list of channels you have joined on the All Chats pane on the left of the Quassel Client main window.

    • Quassel Main Window

  17. Select a channel and start seeing messages from others in the channel and send your own messages.

22.4.2. Android

For Android devices you may use e.g. Quasseldroid from F-Droid

  • enter core, username etc. as above
    • Quasseldroid.png

By the way, the German verb quasseln means talking a lot, to jabber.

23. Radicale (Calendar and Addressbook)

Radicale icon

Available since: version 0.9

With Radicale, you can synchronize your personal calendars, ToDo lists, and addressbooks with your various computers, tablets, and smartphones, and share them with friends, without letting third parties know your personal schedule or contacts.

23.1. Why should I run Radicale?

Using Radicale, you can get rid of centralized services like Google Calendar or Apple Calendar (iCloud) data mining your events and social connections.

23.2. How to setup Radicale?

First, the Radicale server needs to be activated on your box.

  • Within FreedomBox Service:

    1. select Apps

    2. go to Radicale (Calendar and Addressbook) and

    3. install the application. After the installation is complete, make sure the application is marked "enabled" in the FreedomBox interface. Enabling the application launches the Radicale CalDAV/CardDAV server.

    4. define the access rights:
      • Only the owner of a calendar/addressbook can view or make changes
      • Any user can view any calendar/addressbook, but only the owner can make changes
      • Any user can view or make changes to any calendar/addressbook

Note, that only users with a FreedomBox login can access Radicale.

Radicale-Plinth.png

If you want to share a calendar with only some users, the simplest approach is to create an additional user-name for these users and to share that user-name and password with them.

Radicale provides a basic web interface, which only supports creating new calendars and addressbooks. To add events or contacts, an external supported client application is needed.

radicale_web.png

  • Creating addressbook/calendar using the web interface
    • Visit https://IP-address-or-domain-for-your-server/radicale/

    • Log in with your FreedomBox account

    • Select "Create new addressbook or calendar"
    • Provide a title and select the type
    • Optionally, provide a description or select a color
    • Click "Create"
    • The page will show the URL for your newly created addressbook or calendar

Now open your client application to create new calendar and address books that will use your FreedomBox and Radicale server. The Radicale website provides an overview of supported clients, but do not use the URLs described there; FreedomBox uses another setup, follow this manual. Below are the steps for two examples:

  • Example of setup with Evolution client:
    • Calendar
      1. Create a new calendar
      2. For "Type," select "CalDAV"
      3. When "CalDAV" is selected, additional options will appear in the dialogue window.
      4. URL: https://IP-address-or-domain-for-your-server. Items in italics need to be changed to match your settings.

      5. Enable "Use a secure connection."
      6. User: USERNAME. Your Freedombox user-name.

      7. Click on "Find Calendars"
      8. Enter your password and select a calendar

        Evolution-new-calendar.png

    • TODO/Tasks list: Adding a TODO/Tasks list is basically the same as a calendar.
    • Contacts
      • Follow the same steps described above and replace CalDAV with WebDAV.

23.3. Synchronizing over Tor

In FreedomBox, setting up a calendar with Radicale over Tor is the same as over the clear net. Here is a short summary:

  1. When logged in to FreedomBox interface over Tor, click on Radicale, and at the prompt provide your FreedomBox user name and password.

  2. In the Radicale web interface, log in using your FreedomBox user name and password.

  3. Click on "Create new address book or calendar", provide a title, select a type, and click "Create".
  4. Save the URL, e.g., https://ONION-ADDRESS-FOR-YOUR-SERVER.onion/radicale/USERNAME/CALENDAR-CODE/. Items in italics need to be changed to match your settings.

These instructions are for Thunderbird/Lightning. Note that you will need to be connected to Tor with the Tor Browser Bundle.

  1. Open Thunderbird, install the Torbirdy add-on, and restart Thunderbird. (This may not be necessary.)
  2. In the Lightning interface, under Calendar/Home in the left panel right click with the mouse and select "New calendar".
  3. Select the location of your calendar as "On the Network".
  4. Select CalDAV and for the location copy the URL, e.g., https://ONION-ADDRESS-FOR-YOUR-SERVER.onion/radicale/USERNAME/CALENDAR-CODE/. Items in italics need to be changed to match your settings.

  5. Provide a name, etc. Click "Next". Your calendar is now syncing with your FreedomBox over Tor.

  6. If you have not generated a certificate for your FreedomBox with "Let's Encrypt", you may need to select "Confirm Security Exception" when prompted.

23.4. Synchronizing with your Android phone

There are various Apps that allow integration with the Radicale server. This example uses DAVx5, which is available e.g. on F-Droid. If you intend to use ToDo-Lists as well, the compatible app OpenTasks has to be installed first.

Follow these steps for setting up your account with the Radicale server running on your FreedomBox.

  1. Install DAVx5
  2. Create a new account on DAVx5 by clicking on the floating + button.
  3. Select the second option as shown in the first figure below and enter the base url as https://<your.freedombox.address>/radicale/username/ (don't miss the / at the end). DAVx5 will be able to discover both CalDAV and WebDAV accounts for the user.

  4. Follow this video from DAVx5 FAQ to learn how to migrate your existing contacts to Radicale.

Synchronizing contacts

  1. Click on the hamburger menus of CalDAV and CardDAV and select either "Refresh ..." in case of existing accounts or "Create ..." in case of new accounts (see the second screenshot below).
  2. Check the checkboxes for the address books and calendars you want to synchronize and click on the sync button in the header. (see the third screenshot below)

DAVx5 account setup DAVx5 refresh DAVx5 account sync

23.5. Advanced Users

23.5.1. Sharing resources

Above was shown an easy way to create a resource for a group of people by creating a dedicated account for all. Here will be described an alternative method where two users User1 and User2 are granted access to a calendar. This requires SSH-access to the FreedomBox.

  1. create a file /etc/radicale/rights

    • [friends_calendar]
      user: ^(User1|User2)$
      collection: ^.*/calendar_of_my_friends.ics$
      permission: rw
      
      # Give write access to owners
      [owner-write]
      user: .+
      collection: ^%(login)s/.+$
      permission: rw
    • [friends_calendar] is just an identifier, can be any name.

    • The [owner-write] section makes sure that owners have access to their own files

  2. edit file /etc/radicale/config and make the following changes in section [rights]

    • [rights]
      type = from_file
      file = /etc/radicale/rights
  3. Restart the radicale server or the FreedomBox

23.5.2. Importing files

If you are using a contacts file exported from another service or application, it should be copied to: /var/lib/radicale/collections/user/contact file name.vcf.

24. Roundcube (Email Client)

Roundcube icon

Available since: version 0.5

24.1. What is Roundcube?

Roundcube is a browser-based multilingual email client with an application-like user interface. Roundcube is using the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) to access e-mail on a remote mail server. It supports MIME to send files, and provides particularly address book, folder management, message searching, and spell checking.

Roundcube app can be used to read and send emails in one of the two ways: using an email account you have elsewhere (other than FreedomBox), like in Riseup or in Gmail, or an account on FreedomBox. The latter is possible if an email server app, such as Postfix/Dovecot/Rspamd, is setup and enabled on FreedomBox. At present, Roundcube can only be setup for one of these two ways. This is controlled by the Use only the local mail server option in Roundcube app configuration page.

24.2. Email privacy

In the first case, you only get privacy over your drafts. Once you send the email, a copy will reside in the external services (Riseup, Gmail, etc) unless you explicitly remove it. In any case, your traffic transits through them.

In the second (self-hosted) case, your mail copies reside on your FreedomBox server. But you only keep privacy as long as the recipient also uses a private system and doesn't disclose your content.

24.3. Using Roundcube

After Roundcube is installed, it can be accessed at https://<your freedombox>/roundcube. Enter your username and password. The username for many mail services will be the full email address such as exampleuser@example.org and not just the username like exampleuser. Enter the address of your email service's IMAP server address in the Server field. You can try providing your domain name here, such as example.org for email address exampleuser@example.org and if this does not work, consult your email provider's documentation for the address of the IMAP server. Using encrypted connection to your IMAP server is strongly recommended. To do this, prepend 'imaps://' at the beginning of your IMAP server address. For example, imaps://imap.example.org.

Logging into your IMAP server

24.4. Using Gmail with Roundcube

If you wish to use Roundcube with your Gmail account, you need to first enable support for password based login in your Google account preferences. This is because Gmail won't allow applications to login with a password by default. To do this, visit Google Account preferences and enable Less Secure Apps. After this, login to Roundcube by providing your Gmail address as Username, your password and in the server field use imaps://imap.gmail.com.

Logging into Gmail

25. RSS Bridge (RSS Feed Generator)

RSS Bridge icon

Available since: version 22.16

25.1. What is RSS Bridge?

RSS-Bridge is a web application capable of generating RSS and Atom feeds for websites that don't have one. For example, with the help of RSS Bridge you can subscribe to YouTube channels without having to have a YouTube account.

25.2. Usage Example

25.2.1. Subscribing to a YouTube account

In this example, we will see one of the ways to subscribe to a given YouTube channel.

  1. Visit the YouTube channel and copy its name to the clipboard

Copy YouTube Channel Name - FreedomBox

  1. Find "YouTube Bridge" and click on show more

RSS Bridge Show More - FreedomBox

  1. Paste the previously copied channel name in the Custom name section and click on Generate Feed

RSS Bridge Paste Channel Name - FreedomBox

  1. From the available feed types select Atom. If you're using a Chromium based browser, this will open the Atom feed in a new tab, which you can easily copy into your feed Reader, such as Tiny Tiny RSS

RSS Bridge Select Atom Feed - FreedomBox

25.2.2. Subscribing to feed with Tiny Tiny RSS

  1. Copy the URL that RSS Bridge generated

RSS Bridge Copy URL - FreedomBox

  1. In Tiny Tiny RSS select Subscribe to feed from the drop-down menu on the right side.

  2. Paste the generated link from step one into the textbox and select This feed requires authentication.

  3. Submit your FreedomBox username and password and click on Subscribe

RSS Bridge Subscribe to Feed - FreedomBox

For a more detailed description of Tiny Tiny RSS, see its manual page

26. Samba (Network File Storage)

Samba icon

Available since: version 19.22

Samba lets you have shared folders over the local network that can be used from multiple computers running different operating systems. We refer to these shared folders as "shares".

You can have a personal folder shared between your own devices (Home share), a folder shared with a trusted group (Group share) or one that is shared with every device on the network (Open share).

Samba lets you to treat a share as if it's a local folder on your computer. However, shares are available only on the local network.

To learn more about Samba, please refer to the user documentation on their wiki.

26.1. Using Samba

After installation, you can choose which disks to use for sharing. Enabled shares are accessible in the file manager on your computer at location \\freedombox (on Windows) or smb://freedombox.local (on Linux and Mac). There are three types of shares you can choose from:

Open share - accessible to everyone in your local network.
Group share - accessible only to FreedomBox users who are in the freedombox-share group.
Home share - every user in the freedombox-share group can have their own private space.

26.1.1. Connecting from an Android device

To access Samba shares on an Android device, install "Android Samba Client" from F-Droid or Google Play. Enter smb://freedombox.local/<disk> as the share path in the app. Your shared folders should then be visible in the file manager app. Samba shares can also be used by VLC for Android which automatically discovers them.

26.1.2. Connecting from a macOS device

  • Open a Finder window on your Mac.
  • Use Go -> Connect to Server... from the file menu or press the shortcut Cmd+K to open the Connect To Server dialog.

  • Enter the address of your Samba share, e.g. smb://192.168.0.105/disk and click Connect.

26.2. Integration with other apps

Transmission app on FreedomBox provides a setting to allow downloads to be saved directly to a Samba share.

If you want to make available files synchronized with Syncthing through Samba you need to make sure you synchronize in a Samba share folder. Additionally in order to make Syncthing shares available in Samba Open share or Group share you will need to ensure you click "Permissions > Ignore" button under the "Advanced" tab in folder you wish in the Syncthing web UI. This will ensure that the files will be writable through Samba.

26.3. Comparison with other apps

26.3.1. Syncthing

Syncthing maintains a copy of the shared folder on each device that it is shared with. Samba maintains only one copy on your FreedomBox device.

Syncthing can synchronize your shared folders between devices over the Internet. Samba shares are only available on the local network.

Since Syncthing is primarily a synchronization solution, it has features like conflict resolution and versioning. Samba has only copy of the file, so it doesn't need such features. For example, if two people are editing a spreadsheet stored on a Samba share, the last one to save the file wins.

27. Searx (Web Search)

Searx icon

Available since: version 0.24.0

27.1. About Searx

Searx is a metasearch engine. A metasearch engine aggregates the results from various search engines and presents them in a unified interface.

Read more about Searx on their official website.

27.2. Screenshot

Searx Screenshot

27.3. Screencast

Searx installation and first steps (14 MB)

27.4. Why use Searx?

27.4.1. Personalization and Filter Bubbles

Search engines have the ability to profile users and serve results most relevant to them, putting people into filter bubbles, thus distorting people's view of the world. Search engines have a financial incentive to serve interesting advertisements to their users, increasing their chances of clicking on the advertisements.

A metasearch engine is a possible solution to this problem, as it aggregates results from multiple search engines thus bypassing personalization attempts by search engines.

Searx avoids storing cookies from search engines as a means of preventing tracking and profiling by search engines.

27.4.2. Advertisement filtering

Searx filters out advertisements from the search results before serving the results, thus increasing relevance the of your search results and saving you from distractions.

27.4.3. Privacy

Searx uses HTTP POST instead of GET by default to send your search queries to the search engines, so that anyone snooping your traffic wouldn't be able to read your queries. The search queries wouldn't stored in browser history either.

Note: Searx used from Chrome browser's omnibar would make GET requests instead of POST.

27.5. Searx on FreedomBox

  • Searx on FreedomBox uses Single Sign On. This means that you should be logged in into your FreedomBox in the browser that you're using Searx.

  • SearX is easily accessible via Tor.
  • Searx can be added as a search engine to the Firefox browser's search bar. See Firefox Help on this topic. Once Searx is added, you can also set it as your default search engine.

  • Searx also offers search results in csv, json and rss formats, which can be used with scripts to automate some tasks.

28. Shaarli (Bookmarks)

Shaarli icon

Available since: version 21.15

28.1. What is Shaarli?

Shaarli is personal (single-user) bookmarking application to install on your FreedomBox. It can also be used for micro-blogging, pastebin, online notepad and snippet archive. Shaarli is designed as a no-database delicious clone. As such, it provides very fast services, easy backup and import/export links as desktop or mobile browser bookmarks. Links stored can be public or private. Shaarli delivers ATOM and RSS feeds from its minimalist interface.

Shaarli screenshot

29. Shadowsocks (Bypass Censorship)

Shadowsocks icon

Available since: version 0.18.0

29.1. What is Shadowsocks?

Shadowsocks is a tool for securely forwarding network requests to a remote server. It consists of two parts: (1) a Shadowsocks server, and (2) a Shadowsocks client with a SOCKS5 proxy.

Shadowsocks can be used to bypass Internet filtering and censorship. This requires that the Shadowsocks server is in a location where it can freely access the Internet, without filtering.

Your FreedomBox can run a Shadowsocks client which can connect to a Shadowsocks server. It will also run a SOCKS5 proxy. Local devices can connect to this proxy, and their data will be encrypted and proxied through the Shadowsocks server.

Alternatively, your FreedomBox can run a Shadowsocks server, that allows Shadowsocks clients to connect to it. Clients' data will be encrypted and proxied through this server.

29.2. Using Shadowsocks?

Shadowsocks can be used as follows:

  • Shadowsocks Client (a FreedomBox) is in a region where some parts of the Internet are blocked or censored.

  • Shadowsocks Server (a different FreedomBox, or another server) is in a different region, which doesn't have these blocks.

  • The FreedomBox running Shadowsocks Client provides SOCKS proxy service on the local network for other devices to make use of its Shadowsocks connection to the server.

Shadowsocks connection diagram

29.3. Configuring your FreedomBox for Shadowsocks Client

To enable Shadowsocks Client, first navigate to the Shadowsocks Client (Bypass Censorship) page, and install it.

Server: the Shadowsocks server is not this FreedomBox's IP or URL; rather, it will be another server or VPS that has been configured as a Shadowsocks server. There are also some public Shadowsocks servers listed on the web, but be aware that whoever operates the server can see where requests are going, and any non-encrypted data will be visible to them.

To use Shadowsocks Client after setup, set the SOCKS5 proxy URL in your device, browser or application to http://freedombox_address:1080/

29.4. Configuring your FreedomBox for Shadowsocks Server

To enable Shadowsocks Server, first navigate to the Shadowsocks Server (Help Others Bypass Censorship) page, and install it.

Note: In general, a FreedomBox should be set up as either a Shadowsocks Server, or a Shadowsocks Client, but not both!

For Shadowsocks Clients to connect to your server, they will need to know your domain name, the password, and the encryption method.

29.4.1. Port Forwarding

If your FreedomBox is behind a router, you will need to set up port forwarding on your router. You should forward the following ports for Shadowsocks Server:

  • TCP 8388
  • UDP 8388

30. Sharing (File Publishing)

Sharing icon

Available since: version 0.25

30.1. What Is Sharing App?

Sharing app allows you to share content over the web. Shared content can be individual files or whole directories.

The content can be shared publicly or restricted to the users of listed allowed groups. Allowed users will be able to access the shared content from their web browser at https://your_freedombox/share/content_name. Users not belonging to any of the allowed groups won't see or access the content through this mechanism.

30.2. Setting Up Shares

For the users to access the content through their browser it must exist and have a share. A share is an entry in the Sharing app relating:

  • the Name (an thereby the URL) with which the users will ask for the content,
  • the Disk Path of the content to be served and
  • the sharing mode. On restricted mode, it also has the list of allowed groups.

Many shares can coexist in the same server.

Only admins can create, edit or remove shares. They'll find the Sharing app in the Apps section of FreedomBox web interface. Sharing app is an easy to use web application with an evident interface.

Each share has its own sharing mode (public or restricted) setting. Only groups recognized by FreedomBox service can be combined in the list of allowed groups. Groups created in the CLI won't be offered by the Sharing app.

30.3. Providing/Updating Content

The content can be created before or after the share is created and they can be updated independently.

The content doesn't need to be provided by an admin either. Any user with write access to the share's disk path can create or update it.

Multiple shares might point to the same content.

If you are user of FreedomBox and your admin refuses to create shares for you, and you don't need to restrict the access to your content, you still can fall back to the User Websites mechanism or the P2P networks (Deluge or Transmission for Torrent) to publish your files.

30.4. Technicalities

Sharing will share the content using the built-in Apache web server.

31. Syncthing (File Synchronization)

Syncthing icon

Available since: version 0.14

With Syncthing installed on your FreedomBox, you can synchronize content from other devices to your FreedomBox and vice-versa. For example, you can keep the photos taken on your mobile phone synchronized to your FreedomBox.

Users should keep in mind that Syncthing is a peer-to-peer synchronization solution, not a client-server one. This means that the FreedomBox isn't really the server and your other devices clients. They're all devices from Syncthing's perspective. You can use Syncthing to synchronize your files between any of your devices. The advantage that FreedomBox provides is that it is a server that's always running. Suppose you want your photos on your phone to be synchronized to your laptop, if you simply sync the photos to the FreedomBox, the laptop can get them from the FreedomBox whenever it comes online the next time. You don't have to be worried about your other devices being online for synchronization. If your FreedomBox is one of the devices set up with your Syncthing shared folder, you can rest assured that your other devices will eventually get the latest files once they come online.

After installation follow the instructions in the getting started of the Syncthing project. Syncthing allows individual folders to be selectively shared with other devices. Devices must be paired up before sharing by scanning QR codes or entering the device ids manually. Syncthing has a discovery service for easily identifying the other devices on the same network having Syncthing installed.

In order to access to the web client of the Syncthing instance running on your FreedomBox, use the path /syncthing. This web client is currently only accessible to the users of the FreedomBox that have administrator privileges, though it might be accessible to all FreedomBox users in a future release.

Syncthing web interface

Syncthing has android apps available on the F-Droid and Google Play app stores. Cross-platform desktop apps are also available.

To learn more about Syncthing, please visit their official website and documentation.

31.1. Synchronizing over Tor

Syncthing should automatically sync with your FreedomBox even if it is only accessible as a Tor Onion Service.

If you would like to proxy your Syncthing client over Tor, set the all_proxy environment variable:

$ all_proxy=socks5://localhost:9050 syncthing

For more information, see the Syncthing documentation on using proxies.

31.2. Avoiding Syncthing Relays

Syncthing uses dynamic connections by default to connect with other peers. This means that if you are synchronizing over the Internet, the data might have to go through public Syncthing relays to reach your devices. This doesn't take advantage of the fact that your FreedomBox has a public IP address.

When adding your FreedomBox as a device in other Syncthing clients, set the address like "tcp://<my.freedombox.domain>" instead of "dynamic". This allows your Syncthing peers to directly connect to your FreedomBox avoiding the need for relays. It also allows for fast on-demand syncing if you don't want to keep Syncthing running all the time on your mobile devices.

31.3. Using Syncthing with other applications

31.3.1. Password Manager

Password managers that store their databases in files are suitable for synchronization using Syncthing. The following example describes using a free password manager called KeePassXC in combination with Syncthing to serve as a replacement for proprietary password managers that store your passwords in the cloud.

KeePassXC stores usernames, passwords etc. in files have the .kdbx extension. These kdbx files can be stored in a Syncthing shared folder to keep them synchronized on multiple machines. Free software applications which can read this file format are available for both desktop and mobile. You typically have to just point the application at the .kdbx file and enter the master password to access your stored credentials. For example, the same kdbx file can be accessed by using KeePassXC on desktop and KeePassDX on Android. KeePassXC can also be used to fill credentials into login fields in the browser by installing a browser extension.

31.3.2. Note-taking and Journaling

Several note-taking applications allow the notes to be stored in text files in plaintext or Markdown format. logseq is one such application that is licensed AGPLv3. It can be used to write a daily journal or discrete pages about various topics which can be linked in the form of a knowledge graph. Please note that the text is not encrypted at rest. logseq can also be used as a note-taking software by teams, instead of hosting a wiki.

A wiki software available on Debian desktops is Zim. You can set the storage for your personal zim wiki to a Syncthing folder.

If your notes are only ever going to be personal, a simpler solution exists. It is called a "quine". A wiki implemented as a quine is a single HTML file with enough embedded CSS and JavaScript in it to make it useful for note-taking, journaling and even documentation. After editing the quine's HTML file in a web browser you can use the "Save as" feature of the browser to overwrite the existing HTML file in your Syncthing folder, each time you want to save it. Quines are the simplest note-taking/personal wiki solution that work on all operating systems with no additional software required, other than a web browser. TiddlyWiki and FeatherWiki are popular software in this category.

32. TiddlyWiki (Non-linear Notebooks)

TiddlyWiki icon

Available since: version 24.17

TiddlyWiki is an interactive, nonlinear web notebook for capturing and organizing complex information. It can serve as a knowledge management system for one person. It is portable (single HTML file), highly customizable and easy to use. Despite being a single HTML file, TiddlyWiki can embed multiple types of media - images, audio, video and PDF files (or refer to them by file paths, not as portable). It can also store data in JSON format.

32.1. TiddlyWiki on FreedomBox

FreedomBox includes a native implementation of a Feather Wiki Nest (a server to save your wiki files). The same is used to host TiddlyWiki files. This implementation is not as efficient as the official TiddlyWiki server which can save one Tiddler at a time, instead of saving the entire HTML file.

32.1.1. Bandwidth considerations with the Autosave setting

Each empty TiddlyWiki file (2.4 MB) is 40x the size of an empty Feather Wiki file (60 KB). TiddlyWiki has autosave enabled by default. This causes the entire wiki file to be transmitted to the server, each time an individual Tiddler is saved. You might write long wiki pages in Feather Wiki, but TiddlyWiki encourages writing lots of short Tiddlers which results in more saves for the same amount of text. TiddlyWiki files tend to grow large as you add media content, with people growing their wikis to 100 MB in size over the years.

If you are editing while using mobile data or you are connected via a dial-up connection, hundreds of (2.4 MB + content) saves can add up quickly. In such cases, it is recommended to disable autosave from the settings and save manually.

TiddlyWiki Autosave Settings

32.2. Use cases

  • Personal Wiki: TiddlyWiki can be used as a personal wiki to store all kinds of information in short notes called Tiddlers. It can hold a small database of your personal knowledge that is linked in a graph and easy to search and organize.

  • Research Notes: TiddlyWiki can be used as a zettelkasten or a second brain. This can lead to new creative insights across different concepts.

  • Encrypted Journal/Diary: TiddlyWiki supports password-protection and journal entries (a Tiddler with today's date as the title). Your personal diary/journal can be one TiddlyWiki file. Engineering Daybooks is a similar use case, but for work.

  • TiddlyWiki can be used as a project management tool, e.g. for wedding planning.

  • TiddlyWiki's WikiText though declarative can be used to create interactive content such as flash cards and automatically-updating lists. There is support for templates and JavaScript macros.

  • Linkblog: A TiddlyWiki file can work as a replacement for Shaarli if you want to keep all of your bookmarks private.

  • TiddlyWiki can be used as a bug tracker for your projects on GitWeb.

32.3. Upgrades

Upgrading TiddlyWiki is a manual process.

  1. Save a local copy of the file from your browser. Right click -> Save page as...

  2. Use the web-based Upgrade Wizard from the official website.

  3. After downloading the upgraded file, load it into a browser to verify your content.
  4. Replace the older file on your FreedomBox with the upgraded file.

If you ever lose a TiddlyWiki file, you can always retrieve a slightly outdated copy from the Backups app. It is better to keep your local copy after the upgrade, in case you want to revert.

32.4. Tips

32.4.1. Setting a favicon

Unlike Feather Wiki, TiddlyWiki does not automatically use your FreedomBox's favicon. To set it, follow these steps:

  1. Create a new tiddler with the title $:/favicon.ico. Leave the content section empty

  2. In the Type dropdown, select ICO icon (image/x-icon)

  3. In the Add a new field: section, set the first field to _canonical_uri and the second field to https://<your-freedombox-url>/favicon.ico

  4. Save the new tiddler and the wiki

Reference: Setting a favicon: TiddlyWiki

You can also have a custom image as the favicon for each TiddlyWiki. Using a distinct favicon makes it easier to identify the tab in your browser. Let's say your TiddlyWiki file is your personal journal and you want to set the favicon to the image "notebook.png" which looks like a diary

  1. Open the folder the image is in, using your desktop file explorer
  2. Drag and drop the file into your TiddlyWiki's browser tab

  3. A special tiddler called $:/import will be opened

  4. In the special tiddler, you will have an option to rename the file. Set the file name to $:/favicon.ico

  5. Click the Import button and save the wiki

33. Tiny Tiny RSS (News Feed Reader)

Tiny Tiny RSS icon

Available since: version 0.9

Tiny Tiny RSS is a news feed (RSS/Atom) reader and aggregator, designed to allow reading news from any location, while feeling as close to a real desktop application as possible.

Any user created through FreedomBox web interface will be able to login and use this app. Each user has their own feeds, state and preferences.

33.1. Using the Web Interface

When enabled, Tiny Tiny RSS will be available from /tt-rss path on the web server. Any user created through FreedomBox will be able to login and use this app.

Tiny Tiny RSS

33.1.1. Adding a new feed

1. Go to the website you want the RSS feed for and copy the RSS/Atom feed link from it.

Selecting feeds

2. Select "Subscribe to feed.." from the Actions dropdown.

Subscribe to feed

3. In the dialog box that appears, paste the URL for copied in step 1 and click the Subscribe button.

Subscription dialog box

Give the application a minute to fetch the feeds after clicking Subscribe.

In some websites, the RSS feeds button isn't clearly visible. In that case, you can simply paste the website URL into the Subscribe dialog (step 3) and let TT-RSS automatically detect the RSS feeds on the page.

You can try this now with the homepage of WikiNews

As you can see in the image below, TT-RSS detected and added the Atom feed of WikiNews to our list of feeds.

WikiNews feed added

If you don't want to keep this feed, right click on the feed shown in the above image, select Edit feed and click Unsubscribe in the dialog box that appears.

Unsubscribe from a feed

33.1.2. Importing your feeds from another feed reader

In your existing feed reader, find an option to Export your feeds to a file. Prefer the OPML file format if you have to choose between multiple formats. Let's say your exported feeds file is called Subscriptions.opml

Click on the Actions menu at the top left corner and select Preferences. You will be taken to another page.

Select the second tab called Feeds in the top header. Feeds has several sections. The second one is called OPML. Select it.

OPML feeds page

To import your Subscriptions.opml file into TT-RSS,

  1. Click Browse and select the file from your file system

  2. Click Import my OPML

After importing, you'll be taken to the Feeds section that's above the OPML section in the page. You can see that the feeds from your earlier feed reader are now imported into Tiny Tiny RSS. You can now start using Tiny Tiny RSS as your primary feed reader.

In the next section, we will discuss setting up the mobile app, which can let you read your feeds on the go.

33.2. Using the Mobile App

The official Android app from the Tiny Tiny RSS project works with FreedomBox's Tiny Tiny RSS Server. The older TTRSS-Reader application is known not to work.

To configure, first install the application, then in the setting page, set URL as https://<your.freedombox.address>/tt-rss-app/. Set your user name and password in the Login details as well as HTTP Authentication details. If your FreedomBox does not have a valid HTTPS certificate, then in settings request allowing any SSL certificate and any host.

Tiny Tiny RSS Tiny Tiny RSS Tiny Tiny RSS Tiny Tiny RSS Tiny Tiny RSS

33.3. RSS Bridge

RSS Bridge can be used with Tiny Tiny RSS to generate Atom/RSS links for websites that don't provide one.

34. Tor (Anonymity Network)

Tor icon

Available since: version 0.3

34.1. What is Tor?

Tor is a network of servers operated by volunteers. It allows users of these servers to improve their privacy and security while surfing on the Internet. You and your friends are able to access to your FreedomBox via Tor network without revealing its IP address. Activating Tor application on your FreedomBox, you will be able to offer remote services (chat, wiki, file sharing, etc...) without showing your location. This application will give you a better protection than a public web server because you will be less exposed to intrusive people on the web.

To download software packages over Tor, or to run a SOCKS proxy, see the Tor Proxy app.

34.2. Using Tor to browse anonymously

Tor Browser is the recommended way to browse the web using Tor. You can download the Tor Browser from https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html and follow the instructions on that site to install and run it.

34.3. Using Tor Onion Service to access your FreedomBox

Tor Onion Service provides a way to access your FreedomBox, even if it's behind a router, firewall, or carrier-grade NAT (i.e., your Internet Service Provider does not provide a public IPv4 address for your router).

To enable Tor Onion Service, first navigate to the Anonymity Network (Tor) page. (If you don't see it, click on the FreedomBox logo at the top-left of the page, to go to the main Apps page.) On the Anonymity Network (Tor) page, under Configuration, check "Enable Tor Onion Service", then press the Update setup button. Tor will be reconfigured and restarted.

After a while, the page will refresh and under Status, you will see a table listing the Onion Service .onion address. Copy the entire address (ending in .onion) and paste it into the Tor Browser's address field, and you should be able to access your FreedomBox. (You may see a certificate warning because FreedomBox has a self-signed certificate.)

Tor Configuration - FreedomBox

Currently only HTTP (port 80), HTTPS (port 443), and SSH (port 22) are accessible through the Tor Onion Service configured on the FreedomBox.

34.4. Apps accessible via Tor

The following apps can be accessed over Tor. Note that this list is not exhaustive.

34.5. Running a Tor relay

When Tor is installed, it is configured by default to run as a bridge relay. The relay or bridge option can be disabled through the Tor configuration page in FreedomBox.

At the bottom of the Tor page in FreedomBox, there is a list of ports used by the Tor relay. If your FreedomBox is behind a router, you will need to configure port forwarding on your router so that these ports can be reached from the public Internet.

The requirements to run a relay are listed in the Tor Relay Guide. In short, it is

  • recommended that a relay has at least 16 Mbit/s (Mbps) upload and download bandwidth available for Tor. More is better.
  • required that a Tor relay be allowed to use a minimum of 100 GByte of outbound and of incoming traffic per month.
  • recommended that a <40 Mbit/s non-exit relay should have at least 512 MB of RAM available; A relay faster than 40 Mbit/s should have at least 1 GB of RAM.

35. Tor Proxy (Anonymity Network)

Tor Proxy icon

Available since: version 23.14

35.1. What is Tor Proxy?

Tor is a network of servers operated by volunteers. It allows users of these servers to improve their privacy and security while surfing on the Internet.

The Tor Proxy app provides an option to download software packages over Tor for added anonymity. It also provides a web proxy on your FreedomBox for internal networks, which can be used by various apps to access the internet via the Tor network. In case of ISP censorship, upstream bridges can be configured to circumvented the censorship.

For using Tor Onion Service, or running a Tor relay, see the Tor app instead.

35.2. Using Tor Browser to browse anonymously

Tor Browser is the recommended way to browse the web using Tor. You can download the Tor Browser from https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html and follow the instructions on that site to install and run it.

35.3. (Advanced) Using Tor Proxy as a SOCKS proxy

Tor Proxy provides a SOCKS port that other applications can connect to, in order to route their traffic over the Tor network. This port is accessible on any interfaces configured in the internal firewall zone. To configure the application, set SOCKS Host to the internal network connection's IP address, and set the SOCKS Port to 9050.

35.3.1. Example with Firefox

Your web browser can be configured to use the Tor network for all of your browsing activity. This allows for censorship circumvention and also hides your IP address from websites during regular browsing. For anonymity, using Tor Browser is recommended.

Configure your local FreedomBox IP address and port 9050 as a SOCKS v5 proxy in Firefox. There are extensions to allow for easily turning the proxy on and off.

Configuring Firefox with Tor SOCKS proxy

With the SOCKS proxy configured, you can now access any onion URL directly from Firefox. If you have also enabled the Tor app, then FreedomBox itself has an onion v3 address that you can connect to over the Tor network (bookmark this for use in emergency situations).

35.4. Circumventing Tor censorship

If your ISP is trying to block Tor traffic, you can use tor bridge relays to connect to the Tor network.

1. Get the bridge configuration from the Tor BridgeDB

Tor BridgeDB

2. Add the lines to your FreedomBox Tor Proxy configuration as show below.

Tor Configuration Page

35.5.1. Client Apps

Links to recommended client apps, where applicable, can be found in FreedomBox by select the Apps page, selecting the application tile, and clicking the > Client Apps button.

Tor Proxy may be used by configuring a proxy in your web browser. Alternately, you can use the Tor Browser.

36. Transmission (Distributed File Sharing via BitTorrent)

Transmission icon

Available since: version 0.5

36.1. What is Transmission ?

Transmission is a BitTorrent node (both, client and server at the same time).

BitTorrent is a communications protocol for peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing.

  • It is not anonymous; you should assume that others can see what files you are sharing.

  • This technology works best for big, popular files.

There are two BitTorrent web nodes available in FreedomBox: Transmission and Deluge. They have similar features, but you may prefer one over the other.

Transmission is a lightweight BitTorrent client that is well known for its simplicity and a default configuration that "Just Works".

36.2. Screenshot

Transmission Web Interface

36.3. Using Transmission

After installing Transmission, it can be accessed at https://<your freedombox>/transmission. Transmission uses single sign-on from FreedomBox, which means that if you are logged in on your FreedomBox, you can directly access Transmission without having to enter the credentials again. Otherwise, you will be prompted to login first and then redirected to the Transmission app.

36.4. Tips

36.4.1. Transferring Downloads from the FreedomBox

  1. Transmission's downloads directory can be added as a shared folder in the Sharing app. You can then access your downloads from this shared folder using a web browser.

  2. (Advanced) If you have the ssh access to your FreedomBox, you can use sftp or scp to browse the downloads directory using a suitable file manager or web browser:

36.5. Port Forwarding

If your FreedomBox is behind a router you optionally might want to set up port forwarding on your router in order to improve communication with other peers. You should forward the following ports for Transmission:

  • TCP 51413 (or your configured peer listening port)

36.6. Using Remote Apps

In addition to using the web interface to control Transmission on FreedomBox, desktop and mobile apps may also be used. List of tested clients and their platforms are listed on the app page in FreedomBox web interface. When configuring these clients the URL to connect must be /transmission-remote/rpc and the port must be 443.

37. User Websites

Available since: version 0.9.4

37.1. What is User Websites?

User websites is a standard location for webservers to allow host users to expose static files on the filesystem as a website to the local network and/or the internet according to the network and firewall setup.

The standard webserver in FreedomBox is Apache and this is implemented by means of a specific Apache module.

37.2. Screenshot

37.3. Using User Websites

The module is always enabled and offers no configuration from the FreedomBox web interface. There is no configuration or status page shown for this module in the FreedomBox web interface.

To serve documents, place the files in the designated directory in a FreedomBox user's home directory in the filesystem.

This directory is: public_html

Thus the absolute path for the directory of a user named fbx with home directory in /home/fbx will be /home/fbx/public_html. User websites will serve documents placed in this directory when requests for documents with the URI path "~fbx" are received. For the the example.org domain thus a request for the document example.org/~fbx/index.html will transfer the file in /home/fbx/public_html/index.html.

37.4. Creating public_html folder and uploading documents

37.4.1. Visually from Linux

Linux standard desktop file managers use to support remote filesystem access through SFTP out of the box. Among others, Gnome's Nautilus, KDE/Plasma's Dolphin and XFCE's Thunar do so. This standarization allows for very easy, similar and straightforward procedures:

  1. Connect with the file manager to your FreedomBox:

    • Gnome's Nautilus:
      1. To lauch Nautilus you can seek its archive icon, or search ether its name or the word "file".
      2. At the bottom of the left pane you'll find an option "+ Other locations".
      3. It leads you to a list of locations. Find "freedombox SFTP server" (english literal for all desktop languages). Click on it.

      4. The first time you'll be asked for your user and password. Enter your FreedomBox user and its password. The dialog will also offer you some options to remember it for some time.

    • Plasma file manager AKA Dolphin:
      1. Click on the location bar at the top of the window.
      2. Input ftp://freedombox.local

      3. The first time you'll be asked for your user and password. Enter your FreedomBox user and its password. The dialog will also offer you some option to remember it.

    • XFCE's Thunar:
      1. Type this into the browser bar: sftp://username@freedombox.local, replacing the 'username' placeholder with your actual FreedomBox username.

      2. I guess the first time you'll be asked for your password. Enter your FreedomBox user's password.

  2. You should be shown FreedomBox filesystem. Enter the home folder and then enter you user's subfolder.

  3. If there's no public_html folder, create it: right mouse button click, etc.

  4. Drag your file(s) and drop it/'em into the public_html folder.

  5. You should now be able to navigate your browser to the corresponding url and see the files.

37.4.2. Visually from Other Plattforms

If you want to use graphical free software clients, install:

Their usage will be similar to that described for Linux desktops.

37.4.3. With a Command Line Interface (CLI)

Usually any Unix system, including Linux in all (most) of its flavours and Mac, provide the standard utilities ssh, scp and sftp. FreeDOS provides SSH2DOS. No need to install anything. It's already there!

Examples:

Connect to FreedomBox via SSH:

  1. (replacing username with a valid FreedomBox user name and freedombox.local with your FreedomBox's domain name or IP):

    $ ssh username@freedombox.local
  2. If your data is ok and your FreedomBox reachable, the first time you'll be asked to confirm its signature.

  3. Then you'll be asked for the password of your FreedomBox user.

  4. Then you'll be shown the welcome banner with the FreedomBox's buttefly logo in ASCII art (painted with characters).

  5. The prompt changes to username@freedombox:~$.

Once connected create your website folder with:

  • username@freedombox:~$ mkdir ~/public_html

...or one for another user:

  1. use the sudo prefix like

    username@freedombox:~$ sudo mkdir /home/<the_other_user>/public_html
    , and introduce your password.
  2. When you create a folder, by default it belongs to you no matter where it is created. Thus you'll then need to set its ownership to the other user:

    username@freedombox:~$ sudo chown <the_other_user>:<the_other_user> /home/<the_other_user>/public_htm
  3. Better check it before you disconnect that `public_html' is listed among the contents of the other user's home folder.
    username@freedombox:~$ ls -l /home/<the_other_user>
    ...
    drwxr-xr-x  2 <the_other_user> <the_other_user>   4096 jan 29 17:39  public_html
    ...

    . The name of the other user must appear twice in the public_html line and its permissions should be drwxr-xr-x.

Then any user can upload their files to their respective folders with any of the graphical clients. Ask them to check it.

It is a good security practice to exit instead of to just wait for the connection to time out:

  • username@freedombox:~$ exit

If then you want to also upload the web content through the command line you can

$ scp path/to/files username@freedombox.local:public_html/

. It will ask your password in FreedomBox. You should then be able to navigate your browser to the corresponding url and see the files.

Learn more about ssh, scp and sftp with $ man ssh, $ man scp and $ man sftp.

38. WireGuard (Virtual Private Network)

alt="WireGuard icon"

38.1. About WireGuard

WireGuard is an extremely simple yet fast and modern VPN that utilizes state-of-the-art cryptography. It can be a useful replacement for IPSec or OpenVPN.

38.2. Installation

You can install wireguard from the Apps section of the FreedomBox web interface.

38.3. Usage

  • Point-to-point tunnel
  • VPN client with default route

38.4. Configuration - Debian Peers

Note: These steps are handled automatically on FreedomBox. So you only need to follow these steps on any Debian clients that will connect to FreedomBox, or Debian servers that FreedomBox will connect to.

38.5. Configuration - Mobile Clients

WireGuard has a user space implementation for mobile devices available via the WireGuard app - available for Android and iOS (a full list of supported operating systems is available here).

The client can be configured in several ways:

38.5.1. Alternative A - Create configuration manually

This is self-explanatory, you actually create the config on the mobile device then transfer the relevant keys to the server's config.

38.5.2. Alternative B - Create configuration from archive

Here you have to create a .zip archive of the client configuration file, transfer it to the device then import it into the app.

38.5.3. Alternative C - Import by reading a QR code (most secure method)

The mobile client as of version 0.0.20180724 supports QR code based input.

qrencode can be used to generate qr codes, even in a terminal/console using UTF8 characters.

The syntax is:

# qrencode -t ansiutf8 < client.conf

This will generate a QR code that is readable by the mobile client.

The advantage of this approach is that there is no need to transfer sensitive information via data channels that can potentially be compromised and there is no need for any additional software.

39. WordPress (Website and Blog)

WordPress icon

Available since: version 21.7

39.1. What is WordPress?

WordPress is a popular way to create and manage websites and blogs. It is a content management system that allows editing content using a visual web-based interface. No knowledge of HTML or other markup is needed to create websites. Complete layout and functionality of the web pages can be customized. Appearance can be chosen using themes. Administration interface and produced web pages are suitable for mobile devices.

A Simple Site

Content Editing Interface

Administration Interface

39.2. Setting up WordPress on FreedomBox

To setup WordPress, navigate to the WordPress (Website and Blog) page and install it. WordPress needs a valid domain name to be configured. Before proceeding further, setup a proper domain name. Domains are configured using System -> Configure page. Access your FreedomBox web interface using the domain you have configured. After this, visit the WordPress web interface. This will show a setup page asking for the name of the site and details for a new administrator account. After this step, WordPress is fully configured and ready. You can then return to the FreedomBox's WordPress app page and optionally make the WordPress installation available to public.

Initial Setup Page

39.3. Public Access

In the WordPress app page in FreedomBox, the app can be made publicly available. It is, by default, not publicly available. It is only available to users who login as administrators in FreedomBox interface. This is to protect the initial setup process from becoming publicly available. If the setup process is publicly available, any visitor will be able to create themselves an administrator account which is undesirable. Administrators must take care not to enable public access until WordPress' setup process has been completed.

39.4. Users

At the moment, WordPress has its own user accounts that are unrelated to FreedomBox accounts. The first account created during the setup process is an administrator account. After logging in with the administrator account, separate accounts for viewing, publishing, or administering may be created from within WordPress interface.

Changes to content and configuration of WordPress can only be done after logging into WordPress. However, by default, there is no link from the website or blog to reach the login page. Bookmark or directly type into the browser https://<mydomainname>/wordpress/wp-admin/ to reach administration interface.

39.5. WordPress as Home Page

A beautiful, well customized WordPress website can be set as the home page for your FreedomBox. This can be done in System -> Configure page of the FreedomBox web interface. For example, if your FreedomBox's domain name is myfreedombox.rocks and you set WordPress as the home page, visiting https://myfreedombox.rocks will take you to https://myfreedombox.rocks/wordpress/ instead of the FreedomBox interface.

39.6. Domain Name

When WordPress is setup for the first time, the domain name through which you access it is noted and WordPress gets configured with that domain name. Be sure to setup your domain name properly and access the WordPress setup process using the domain name and not a local IP address or domain name. Currently, FreedomBox does not provide an easy way to change the domain name once the app is installed.

By default, web addresses for newly created blog posts and pages look like /wordpress/?p=1. They can be made to look prettier like /wordpress/2021/08/06/sample-post/ instead. This can be done from the Settings -> Permalinks configuration page in WordPress interface. The necessary web server configuration changes are handled by FreedomBox during app installation.

Enabling Permalinks

39.8. Automatic Upgrades

Similar to all other apps, feature and security upgrades for WordPress are automatically handled by FreedomBox (when not disabled). After a minor version upgrade, changes to the database structure are automatically done by WordPress. However, after a major version upgrade, such as during major distribution upgrade every two years, database changes are not done automatically. For this, you need to login to WordPress and trigger the changes manually.

39.9. Plugins and Themes

WordPress in itself is quite powerful and sufficient to create and manage a simple website or blog. It's true power, however, lies in the thousands of plugins and themes. Plugins extend the functionality of WordPress. For example, a contact form can be added to WordPress by installing the appropriate plugin. Themes change the appearance and layout of the site. Installing a new theme will provide an extra administration option for how your site will appear to your visitors. Care must be taken to choose trustworthy plugins and themes that respect software freedom and privacy of users and visitors of the site.

From FreedomBox version 22.13, you can install plugins and themes directly from the WordPress GUI.

39.9.1. Google Fonts Privacy Issue

Please be aware that many of the third-party themes use Google Fonts which will violate your visitors' privacy.

One way to remove Google Fonts from your WordPress site is to remove the respective code lines from your theme's source code under Appearance >> Theme Editor. Please note these changes may be overwritten by the theme's next update.

39.9.2. Failing Updates

Manual update of the default theme and plugin, namely Twenty Twenty-One and Akismet Anti-Spam will fail, since these updates are managed separately by Debian. You do not have to worry about their updating.

39.9.3. Note for FreedomBox between version 21.7 and 22.12

Since there are few plugins/themes packaged for Debian, FreedomBox does not provide a simple way to install and manage them. You need to install them manually. This can be done as follows:

  1. Note the URL of the plugin or theme to download by browsing them from WordPress administration interface or the official website. Be sure to select trustworthy ones with a free software license.

  2. Log in via SSH using a FreedomBox administrator account.

  3. Download the plugin or theme and unpack into a directory using the command line.
  4. Move the directory under /var/lib/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/ or /var/lib/wordpress/wp-content/themes/ as appropriate.

  5. Watch for upgrades to these plugins from WordPress and repeat the process for installing newer versions.

40. Zoph (Photo manager)

alt="Zoph icon"

Available since: version 21.3 (and Debian 11, Bullseye)

40.1. What is Zoph?

Zoph is a web based photo manager, allowing uploads of photos to the FreedomBox server, where they can be organised into Albums, and associated with Locations, People and Categories. An individual photo can be in multiple albums, and Albums, Categories and Locations are hierarchical.

Zoph supports multiple users, and has a permissions system to control which Albums users can see, or create, whether they can see or create People etc.

For FreedomBox the username within Zoph must match the FreedomBox username so Single Sign On will work.

40.2. Using Zoph

After Zoph is installed, you'll need to click "Setup". Then you can launch the web client. It can also be accessed at https://<your freedombox>/zoph.

Only the very first time you'll be asked for user and password. The next times you'll be taken straight to a welcome screen.

Zoph Home Screen

The tab menu will be shown on top of every page. From there you can import photos from any computer, administer Zoph to add other users etc.

You can now go to the 'prefs' tab and set your preferences, for numbers of rows and columns in results displays, how much information you wish displayed about the camera used to take the photo and so on.

Zoph User Preferences Screen

You can add information about People who are in your Photos.

Zoph New Person Screen

40.2.1. Choosing a storage location for your photos

Your photos will need a lot of storage space compared to the other uses of your FreedomBox. You may want to put them onto an external disk. You can (not yet) specify in the initial install screen where your photos should be stored. The database which holds information about albums, people etc is held in your normal FreedomBox storage.

System

1. Backups

FreedomBox includes the ability to backup and restore data, preferences, configuration and secrets from most of the applications. The Backups feature is built using Borg backup software. Borg is a deduplicating and compressing backup program. It is designed for efficient and secure backups. This backups feature can be used to selectively backup and restore data on an app-by-app basis. Backed up data can be stored on the FreedomBox machine itself or on a remote server. Any remote server providing SSH access can be used as a backup storage repository for FreedomBox backups. Data stored remotely may be encrypted and in such cases remote server cannot access your decrypted data.

1.1. Notes for Specific App Backups

Unless otherwise noted here, backup of an app's data will include its configuration, secrets and other data.

App/Feature

Notes

Deluge

Does not include downloaded/seeding files

MiniDLNA

Does not include the data in the shared folders

Networks

No plans currently to implement backup

Samba

Does not include the data in the shared folders

Sharing

Does not include the data in the shared folders

Snapshot

Only configuration, does not include snapshot data

Syncthing

Does not include data in the shared folders

Transmission

Does not include downloaded/seeding files

Users

Backup of user accounts is planned

1.2. How to install and use Backups

Step 1

Backups: Step 1

Step 2

Backups: Step 2

Step 3

Backups: Step 3

Step 4

Backups: Step 4

Step 5

Backups: Step 5

Step 6

Backups: Step 6

Step 7

Backups: Step 7

2. BIND (Domain Name Server)

BIND enables you to publish your Domain Name System (DNS) information on the Internet, and to resolve DNS queries for your user devices on your network.

Currently, on FreedomBox, BIND is only used to resolve DNS queries for other machines on local network. It is also incompatible with sharing Internet connection from FreedomBox.

Note: This service is available only on networks configured as "internal" zone. It is not available when connected via OpenVPN.

2.1. Using BIND

When BIND is enabled, that does not automatically mean that anything is using it. The following can be configured:

  • FreedomBox can be configured to use the local BIND service for its own DNS lookups.

  • Clients on the Local Area Network can be configured to use the FreedomBox's BIND service for their DNS lookups.

The FreedomBox can be set to use its own BIND service for DNS lookups through Networks:

  1. Go to System page, and then select Networks.
  2. Select the "FreedomBox WAN" connection and press Edit.

  3. Under "IPv4 Addressing Method", there is a field "DNS Server". Set it to 127.0.0.1.

  4. Press "Edit Connection" at the bottom to save the changes.
  5. Restart the FreedomBox from the user drop-down menu.

3. Cockpit (Server Administration)

Cockpit is a server manager that makes it easy to administer GNU/Linux servers via a web browser. On a FreedomBox, controls are available for many advanced functions that are not usually required. A web based terminal for console operations is also available.

It can be accessed by any user on your FreedomBox belonging to the admin group. Cockpit is only usable when you have proper domain name setup for your FreedomBox and you use that domain name to access Cockpit. See the Troubleshooting section for more information.

Use cockpit only if you are an administrator of GNU/Linux systems with advanced skills. FreedomBox tries to coexist with changes to system by system administrators and system administration tools like Cockpit. However, improper changes to the system might causes failures in FreedomBox functions.

3.1. Using Cockpit

Install Cockpit like any other application on FreedomBox. Make sure that Cockpit is enabled after that.

cockpit-enable.png

Ensure that the user account on FreedomBox that will used for Cockpit is part of the administrators group.

cockpit-admin-user.png

Launch the Cockpit web interface. Login using the configured user account. Be sure to check the box to "reuse my password for privileged tasks", otherwise you will not be able to perform various tasks such as configuring raid, or editing users, once logged in.

cockpit-login.png

Start using cockpit.

cockpit-system.png

Cockpit is usable on mobile interfaces too.

cockpit-mobile.png

3.2. Features

The following features of Cockpit may be useful for advanced FreedomBox users.

3.2.1. System Dashboard

Cockpit has a system dashboard that

  • Shows detailed hardware information
  • Shows basic performance metrics of a system
  • Allows changing system time and timezone
  • Allows changing hostname. Please use FreedomBox UI to do this

  • Shows SSH server fingerprints

cockpit-system.png

3.2.2. Viewing System Logs

Cockpit allows querying system logs and examining them in full detail.

cockpit-logs.png

3.2.3. Managing Storage

Cockpit allows following advanced storage functions:

  • View full disk information
  • Editing disk partitions
  • RAID management

cockpit-storage1.png

cockpit-storage2.png

3.2.4. Networking

Cockpit and FreedomBox both rely on NetworkManager to configure the network. However, Cockpit offers some advanced configuration not available on FreedomBox:

  • Route configuration
  • Configure Bonds, Bridges, VLANs

cockpit-network1.png

cockpit-network2.png

cockpit-network3.png

3.2.5. Services

Cockpit allows management of services and periodic jobs (similar to cron).

cockpit-services1.png

cockpit-services2.png

3.2.6. Web Terminal

Cockpit offers a web based terminal that can be used perform manual system administration tasks.

cockpit-terminal.png

3.3. Troubleshooting

Cockpit requires a domain name to be properly setup on your FreedomBox and will only work when you access it using a URL with that domain name. Cockpit will not work when using IP address in the URL. Using freedombox.local as the domain name also does not work. For example, the following URLs will not work:

https://192.168.0.10/_cockpit/
https://freedombox.local/_cockpit/

Starting with FreedomBox version 19.15, using .local domain works. You can access Cockpit using the URL https://freedombox.local/_cockpit/. The .local domain is based on your hostname. If your hostname is mybox, your .local domain name will be mybox.local and the Cockpit URL will be https://mybox.local/_cockpit/.

To properly access Cockpit, use the domain name configured for your FreedomBox.Cockpit will also work well when using a Tor Onion Service. The following URLs will work:

https://mybox.freedombox.rocks/_cockpit/
https://exampletorhs.onion/_cockpit/

The reason for this behaviour is that Cockpit uses WebSockets to connect to the backend server. Cross site requests for WebSockets must be prevented for security reasons. To implement this, Cockpit maintains a list of all domains from which requests are allowed. FreedomBox automatically configures this list whenever you add or remove a domain. However, since we can't rely on IP addresses, they are not added by FreedomBox to this domain list. You can see the current list of allowed domains, as managed by FreedomBox, in /etc/cockpit/cockpit.conf. You may edit this, but do so only if you understand web security consequences of this.

4. Configure

Configure has some general configuration options:

4.1. Hostname

  • Hostname is the local name by which other devices on the local network can reach your FreedomBox. The default hostname is freedombox.

4.2. Domain Name

4.3. Webserver Home Page

Once some other app is set as the home page, you can only navigate to the FreedomBox Service by typing https://myfreedombox.rocks/plinth/ into the browser.
/freedombox can also be used as an alias to /plinth

  • You can set any web application, Ikiwiki wikis and blogs or Apache's default index.html page as the web server home page. Since release 20.20 you can also select a user's website among those users who have created their public_html directory.

  • Tip: Bookmark the URL of FreedomBox Service before setting the home page to some other app.

5. Date & Time

This network time server is a program that maintains the system time in synchronization with servers on the Internet.

You can select your time zone by picking a big city nearby (they are sorted by Continent/City) or select directly the zone with respect to GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).

DateTime.png

6. Diagnostics

The system diagnostic test will run a number of checks on your system to confirm that applications and services are working as expected.

Just click Run Diagnostics. This may take some minutes.

7. Dynamic DNS Client

7.1. What is Dynamic DNS?

In order to reach a server on the Internet, the server needs to have permanent address also known as the static IP address. Many Internet service providers don't provide home users with a static IP address or they charge more providing a static IP address. Instead they provide the home user with an IP address that changes every time the user connects to the Internet. Clients wishing to contact the server will have difficulty reaching the server.

Dynamic DNS service providers assist in working around a problem. First they provide you with a domain name, such as 'myhost.example.org'. Then they associate your IP address, whenever it changes, with this domain name. Then anyone intending to reach the server will be to contact the server using the domain name 'myhost.example.org' which always points to the latest IP address of the server.

For this to work, every time you connect to the Internet, you will have to tell your Dynamic DNS provider what your current IP address is. Hence you need special software on your server to perform this operation. The Dynamic DNS function in FreedomBox will allow users without a static public IP address to push the current public IP address to a Dynamic DNS Server. This allows you to expose services on FreedomBox, such as ownCloud, to the Internet.

7.2. GnuDIP vs. Update URL

There are two main mechanism to notify the Dynamic DNS server of your new IP address; using the GnuDIP protocol and using the Update URL mechanism.

If a service provided using update URL is not properly secured using HTTPS, your credentials may be visible to an adversary. Once an adversary gains your credentials, they will be able to replay your request your server and hijack your domain.

On the other hand, the GnuDIP protocol will only transport a salted MD5 value of your password, in a way that is secure against replay attacks.

7.3. Using the GnuDIP protocol

  1. Register an account with any Dynamic DNS service provider. A free service provided by the FreedomBox community is available at https://ddns.freedombox.org .

  2. In FreedomBox UI, enable the Dynamic DNS Service.

  3. Select GnuDIP as Service type, enter your Dynamic DNS service provider address (for example, ddns.freedombox.org) into GnuDIP Server Address field.

    Dynamic DNS Settings

  4. Fill Domain Name, Username, Password information given by your provider into the corresponding fields.

7.4. Using an Update URL

This feature is implemented because the most popular Dynamic DNS providers are using Update URLs mechanism.

  1. Register an account with a Dynamic DNS service provider providing their service using Update URL mechanism. Some example providers are listed in the configuration page itself.
  2. In FreedomBox UI, enable the Dynamic DNS service.

  3. Select other Update URL as Service type, enter the update URL given by your provider into Update URL field.

  4. If you browse the update URL with your Internet browser and a warning message about untrusted certificate appears, then enable accept all SSL certificates. WARNING: your credentials may be readable here because man-in-the-middle attacks are possible! Consider choosing a better service provider instead.

  5. If you browse the update URL with your Internet browser and the username/password box appears, enable use HTTP basic authentication checkbox and provide the Username and Password.

  6. If the update URL contains your current IP address, replace the IP address with the string <Ip>.

7.5. Checking If It Works

  1. Make sure that external services you have enabled such as /jwchat, /roundcube and /ikiwiki are available on your domain address.
  2. Go to the Status page, make sure that the NAT type is detected correctly. If your FreedomBox is behind a NAT device, this should be detected over there (Text: Behind NAT). If your FreedomBox has a public IP address assigned, the text should be "Direct connection to the Internet".

  3. Check that the last update status is not failed.

7.6. Recap: How to create a DNS name with GnuDIP

  1. Access to GnuIP login page (answer Yes to all pop ups)

  2. Click on "Self Register"
  3. Fill the registration form (Username and domain will form the public IP address [username.domain])
  4. Take note of the username/hostname and password that will be used on the FreedomBox app.

  5. Save and return to the GnuDIP login page to verify your username, domain and password (enter the datas, click login).
  6. Login output should display your new domain name along with your current public IP address (this is a unique address provided by your router for all your local devices).
  7. Leave the GnuDIP interface and open the Dynamic DNS Client app page in your FreedomBox.

  8. Click on "Set Up" in the top menu.
  9. Activate Dynamic DNS
  10. Choose GnuDIP service.
  11. Add server address (ddns.freedombox.org)
  12. Add your fresh domain name (username.domain, ie [username].freedombox.rocks)
  13. Add your fresh username (the one used in your new IP address) and password
  14. Add your GnuDIP password
  15. Fill the option with https://ddns.freedombox.org/ip/ (try this url in your browser, you will figure out immediately)

8. Firewall

Firewall is a network security system that controls the incoming and outgoing network traffic. Keeping a firewall enabled and properly configured reduces risk of security threat from the Internet.

The operation of the firewall in FreedomBox web interface is automatic. When you enable a service it is automatically permitted in the firewall and when you disable a service it is automatically disabled in the firewall. For services which are enabled by default on FreedomBox, firewall ports are also enabled by default during the first run process.

Firewall

Firewall management in FreedomBox is done using FirewallD.

8.1. Interfaces

Each interface is needs to be assigned to one (and only one) zone. If an interface is not assigned any zone, it is automatically assigned external zone. Whatever rules are in effect for a zone, those rules start to apply for that interface. For example, if HTTP traffic is allowed in a particular zone, then web requests will be accepted on all the addresses configured for all the interfaces assigned to that zone.

There are primarily two firewall zones used. The internal zone is meant for services that are provided to all machines on the local network. This may include services such as streaming media and simple file sharing. The external zone is meant for services that are provided publicly on the Internet. This may include services such as blog, website, email web client etc.

For details on how network interfaces are configured by default, see the Networks section.

8.2. Opening Custom Ports

Cockpit app provides advanced management of firewall. Both FreedomBox and Cockpit operate over firewalld and are hence compatible with each other. In particular, Cockpit can be used to open custom services or ports on FreedomBox. This is useful if you are manually running your own services in addition to the services provided by FreedomBox on the same machine.

firewalld-cockpit.png

8.3. FreedomBox Ports/Services

The following table attempts to document the ports, services and their default statuses in FreedomBox. If you find this page outdated, see the Firewall status page in FreedomBox interface.

Service

Port

External

Enabled by default

Status shown in FreedomBox

Managed by FreedomBox

Minetest

30000/udp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

XMPP Client

5222/tcp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

XMPP Server

5269/tcp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

XMPP Bosh

5280/tcp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

NTP

123/udp

{o}

(./)

(./)

(./)

FreedomBox Web Interface (Plinth)

443/tcp

{*}

(./)

(./)

{X}

Quassel

4242/tcp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

SIP

5060/tcp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

SIP

5060/udp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

SIP-TLS

5061/tcp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

SIP-TLS

5061/udp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

RTP

1024-65535/udp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

SSH

22/tcp

{*}

(./)

(./)

{X}

mDNS

5353/udp

{o}

(./)

(./)

(./)

Tor (Socks)

9050/tcp

{o}

{X}

(./)

(./)

Obfsproxy

<random>/tcp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

OpenVPN

1194/udp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

Mumble

64378/tcp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

Mumble

64378/udp

{*}

{X}

(./)

(./)

Privoxy

8118/tcp

{o}

{X}

(./)

(./)

JSXC

80/tcp

{*}

{X}

{X}

{X}

JSXC

443/tcp

{*}

{X}

{X}

{X}

DNS

53/tcp

{o}

{X}

{X}

{X}

DNS

53/udp

{o}

{X}

{X}

{X}

DHCP

67/udp

{o}

(./)

{X}

{X}

Bootp

67/tcp

{o}

{X}

{X}

{X}

Bootp

67/udp

{o}

{X}

{X}

{X}

Bootp

68/tcp

{o}

{X}

{X}

{X}

Bootp

68/udp

{o}

{X}

{X}

{X}

LDAP

389/tcp

{o}

{X}

{X}

{X}

LDAPS

636/tcp

{o}

{X}

{X}

{X}

8.4. Manual operation

See FirewallD documentation for more information on the basic concepts and comprehensive documentation.

8.4.1. Enable/disable firewall

To disable firewall

service firewalld stop

or with systemd

systemctl stop firewalld

To re-enable firewall

service firewalld start

or with systemd

systemctl start firewalld

8.4.2. Modifying services/ports

You can manually add or remove a service from a zone.

To see list of services enabled:

firewall-cmd --zone=<zone> --list-services

Example:

firewall-cmd --zone=internal --list-services

To see list of ports enabled:

firewall-cmd --zone=<zone> --list-ports

Example:

firewall-cmd --zone=internal --list-ports

To remove a service from a zone:

firewall-cmd --zone=<zone> --remove-service=<service>
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=<zone> --remove-service=<interface>

Example:

firewall-cmd --zone=internal --remove-service=xmpp-bosh
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=internal --remove-service=xmpp-bosh

To remove a port from a zone:

firewall-cmd --zone=internal --remove-port=<port>/<protocol>
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=internal --remove-port=<port>/<protocol>

Example:

firewall-cmd --zone=internal --remove-port=5353/udp
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=internal --remove-port=5353/udp

To add a service to a zone:

firewall-cmd --zone=<zone> --add-service=<service>
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=<zone> --add-service=<interface>

Example:

firewall-cmd --zone=internal --add-service=xmpp-bosh
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=internal --add-service=xmpp-bosh

To add a port to a zone:

firewall-cmd --zone=internal --add-port=<port>/<protocol>
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=internal --add-port=<port>/<protocol>

Example:

firewall-cmd --zone=internal --add-port=5353/udp
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=internal --add-port=5353/udp

8.4.3. Modifying the zone of interfaces

You can manually change the assignment of zones of each interfaces after they have been autuomatically assigned by the first boot process.

To see current assignment of interfaces to zones:

firewall-cmd --list-all-zones

To remove an interface from a zone:

firewall-cmd --zone=<zone> --remove-interface=<interface>
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=<zone> --remove-interface=<interface>

Example:

firewall-cmd --zone=external --remove-interface=eth0
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=external --remove-interface=eth0

To add an interface to a zone:

firewall-cmd --zone=<zone> --add-interface=<interface>
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=<zone> --add-interface=<interface>

Example:

firewall-cmd --zone=internal --add-interface=eth0
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=internal --add-interface=eth0

9. Let's Encrypt (Certificates)

A digital certificate allows users of a web service to verify the identity of the service and to securely communicate with it. FreedomBox can automatically obtain and setup digital certificates for each available domain. It does so by proving itself to be the owner of a domain to Let's Encrypt, a certificate authority (CA).

Let's Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority, run for the public's benefit by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG). Please read and agree with the Let's Encrypt Subscriber Agreement before using this service.

9.1. Why using Certificates

The communication with your FreedomBox can be secured so that it is not possible to intercept the content of the web pages viewed and about the content exchanged.

9.2. How to setup

  1. If your FreedomBox is behind a router, you will need to set up port forwarding on your router. You should forward the following ports:

    • TCP 80 (http)
    • TCP 443 (https)
  2. Make the domain name known:
    • In Configure insert your domain name, e.g. MyWebName.com

      Let's Encrypt

  3. Verify the domain name was accepted
  4. Go to the Certificates (Let's Encrypt) page, and complete the module install if needed. Then click the "Obtain" button for your domain name.
    • After some minutes a valid certificate is available

      Let's Encrypt

  5. Verify in your browser by checking https://MyWebName.com

    • Let's Encrypt Certificate

Screencast: Let's Encrypt

9.3. Using

The certificate is valid for 3 months. It is renewed automatically and can also be re-obtained or revoked manually.

With running diagnostics the certificate can also be verified.

10. Name Services

Name Services provides an overview of ways the box can be reached from the public Internet: domain name, Tor Onion Service, and Pagekite. For each type of name, it is shown whether the HTTP, HTTPS, and SSH services are enabled or disabled for incoming connections through the given name. It also shows and allows configuring how FreedomBox performs domain name resolutions.

10.1. systemd-resolved

From release 24.19, FreedomBox uses systemd-resolved as caching DNS resolver and replaces resolvconf for managing DNS server configuration. This improves privacy and security. Newer installations will come with systemd-resolved and older machines will automatically switch after an upgrade to this new release.

systemd-resolved automatically acquires DNS servers from Network Manager, the default and recommended way to configure networks on FreedomBox. However, if you are manually managing network configuration by editing /etc/network/interfaces, you will need to ensure that the DNS servers acquired are passed on to systemd-resolved. Otherwise, Fallback DNS servers will be used. See below.

10.2. Support for DNS-over-TLS and DNSSEC

systemd-resolved supports DNS-over-TLS. This protocol allows encrypting DNS communication between FreedomBox and the DNS server if your DNS server (typically provided by your ISP, sometimes a separate service) has support for it. This improves both privacy and security as it makes it harder for intermediaries to see the communication or manipulate it. New settings for enabling DNS-over-TLS are available at the global level (for all network interfaces) in Name Services app and at the per-connection level in the Networks app's connection settings.

systemd-resolved supports DNSSEC. This standard allows website owners to sign their DNS records allowing clients to authenticate them. This improves security by making it harder to manipulate DNS responses. If your DNS server supports this feature, it can be turned on. New setting for enabling DNSSEC is available in the Name Services app.

You can detect whether your current DNS supports DNS-over-TLS and DNSSEC by turning them on in the settings one at a time and running the diagnostics for the Names app. There is a diagnostic check which detects whether you can successfully resolve the domain name deb.debian.org.

10.3. Setting a custom DNS server

If your current DNS server provided by your ISP does not support DNS-over-TLS or DNSSEC features, is censoring some domains names, or if you don't trust them enough, you can instead use one of the publicly available DNS servers. This can be done by editing network connections in the Networks app and adding DNS servers manually. You will need to deactivate and re-activate the network connection (or restart FreedomBox) for the settings to become active. After this, Names app will show you the currently configured DNS servers.

10.4. Fallback DNS servers

In some cases, when internet connection is available to the system by no DNS servers are known to systemd-resolved, the fallback DNS servers are used. This may happen, for example, due to misconfiguration when manually managing network configuration instead of using FreedomBox's default, the Network Manager. These fallback DNS servers, as defaulted by the upstream systemd project, include servers from Cloudflare and Google DNS servers. This has privacy implications but we felt that it was important to avoid FreedomBox from becoming unreachable due to misconfiguration. It was a difficult decision. Once you have proper DNS configuration and you know that it works, you can turn off fallback DNS servers using a new setting in the Privacy app. There is also a renewed notification in the web interface that will attract your attention towards this. You may also edit the list of Fallback DNS servers by creating a configuration file for systemd-resolved. See systemd-resolved documentation.

11. Networks

This section describes how networking is setup by default in FreedomBox and how you can customize it. See also the Firewall section for more information on how firewall works.

11.1. Default setup

In a fresh image of FreedomBox, network is not configured at all. When the image is written to an SD card and the device boots, configuration is done. During first boot, FreedomBox setup package detects the networks interfaces and tries to automatically configure them so that FreedomBox is available for further configuration via the web interface from another machine without the need to connect a monitor. Automatic configuration also tries to make FreedomBox useful, out of the box, for the most important scenarios FreedomBox is used for.

There are two scenarios it handles: when is a single ethernet interface and when there are multiple ethernet interfaces.

11.1.1. Single ethernet interface

When there is only single ethernet interface available on the hardware device, there is not much scope for it to play the role of a router. In this case, the device is assumed to be just another machine in the network. Accordingly, the only available interface is configured to be an internal interface in automatic configuration mode. This means that it connects to the Internet using the configuration provided by a router in the network and also makes all (internal and external) of its services available to all the clients on this network.

network_single.png

11.1.2. Multiple ethernet interface

When there are multiple ethernet interfaces available on the hardware device, the device can act as a router. The interfaces are then configured to perform this function.

The first network interface is configured to be an WAN or external interface in automatic configuration mode. This means that it connects to the Internet using network configuration provided by the Internet Service Provider (ISP). Only services that are meant to be provided across the entire Internet (external services) will be exposed on this interface. You must plug your Internet connection into the port of this ethernet interface. If you wish to continue to have your existing router manage the Internet connection for you, then plug a connection from your router to the port on this interface.

The remaining network interfaces are configured for the clients of a router. They are configured as LAN or internal interfaces in shared configuration mode. This means that all the services (both external and internal) services are provided to who ever connects on this interface. Further, the shared mode means that clients will be able to receive details of automatic network connection on this interface. Specifically, DHCP configuration and DNS servers are provided on this interface. The Internet connection available to the device using the first network interface will be shared with clients using this interface. This all means that you can connect your computers to this network interface and they will get automatically configured and will be able to access the Internet via the FreedomBox.

Currently, it is not very clear which interface will be come the WAN interface (and the remaining being LAN interfaces) although the assignment process is deterministic. So, it take a bit of trail and error to figure out which one is which. In future, for each device, this will be well documented.

11.1.3. Wi-Fi configuration

All Wi-Fi interfaces are configured to be LAN or internal interfaces in shared configuration mode. They are also configured to become Wi-Fi access points with following details.

  • Name of the access point will be FreedomBox plus the name of the interface (to handle the case where there are multiple of them).

  • Password for connecting to the interface will be freedombox123.

11.2. Internet Connection Sharing

Although the primary duty of FreedomBox is to provide decentralized services, it can also act like a home router. Hence, in most cases, FreedomBox connects to the Internet and provides other machines in the network the ability to use that Internet connection. FreedomBox can do this in two ways: using a shared mode connection or using an internal connection.

When an interface is set in shared mode, you may connect your machine directly to it. This is either by plugging in an ethernet cable from this interface to your machine or by connecting to a Wi-Fi access point. This case is the simplest to use, as FreedomBox automatically provides your machine with the necessary network configuration. Your machine will automatically connect to FreedomBox provided network and will be able to connect to the Internet given that FreedomBox can itself connect to the Internet.

Sometimes the above setup may not be possible because the hardware device may have only one network interface or for other reasons. Even in this case, your machine can still connect to the Internet via FreedomBox. For this to work, make sure that the network interface that your machine is connecting to is in internal mode. Then, connect your machine to network in which FreedomBox is present. After this, in your machine's network configuration, set FreedomBox's IP address as the gateway. FreedomBox will then accept your network traffic from your machine and send it over to the Internet. This works because network interfaces in internal mode are configured to masquerade packets from local machines to the Internet and receive packets from Internet and forward them back to local machines.

11.3. Customization

The above default configuration may not be fit for your setup. You can customize the configuration to suit your needs from the Networks area in the 'setup' section of the FreedomBox web interface.

11.3.1. PPPoE connections

If your ISP does not provide automatic network configuration via DHCP and requires you to connection via PPPoE. To configure PPPoE, remove any network connection existing on an interface and add a PPPoE connection. Here, optionally, provide the account username and password given by your ISP and activate the connection.

11.3.2. Connect to Internet via Wi-Fi

By default Wi-Fi devices attached during first boot will be configured as access points. They can be configured as regular Wi-Fi devices instead to connection to a local network or an existing Wi-Fi router. To do this, click on the Wi-Fi connection to edit it. Change the mode to Infrastructure instead of Access Point mode and IPv4 Addressing Method to Automatic (DHCP) instead of Shared mode. Then the SSID provided will mean the Wi-Fi network name you wish to connect to and passphrase will be the used to while making the connection.

11.3.2.1. Problems with Privacy Feature

NetworkManager used by FreedomBox to connect to the Wi-Fi networks has a privacy feature that uses a different identity when scanning for networks and when actually connecting to the Wi-Fi access point. Unfortunately, this causes problems with some routers that reject connections from such devices. Your connection won't successfully activate and disconnect after trying to activate. If you have control over the router's behaviour, you could also turn off the feature causing problem. Otherwise, the solution is to connect with a remote shell using SSH or Cockpit, editing a file /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf and adding the line wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no in the [device] section. This turns off the privacy feature.

Edit a file:

$ sudo nano /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf

Add the following:

[device]
wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no

Then reboot the machine.

11.3.3. Adding a new network device

When a new network device is added, network manager will automatically configure it. In most cases this will not work to your liking. Delete the automatic configuration created on the interface and create a new network connection. Select your newly added network interface in the add connection page.

  • Then set firewall zone to internal and external appropriately.

  • You can configure the interface to connect to a network or provide network configuration to whatever machine connects to it.
  • Similarly, if it is a Wi-Fi interface, you can configure it to become a Wi-FI access point or to connect to an existing access points in the network.

11.3.4. Configuring a mesh network

FreedomBox has rudimentary support for participating in BATMAN-Adv based mesh networks. It is possible to either join an existing network in your area or create a new mesh network and share your Internet connection with the rest of the nodes that join the network. Currently, two connections have to be created and activated manually to join or create a mesh network.

11.3.4.1. Joining a mesh network

To join an existing mesh network in your area, first consult the organizers and get information about the mesh network.

  1. Create a new connection, then select the connection type as Wi-Fi. In the following dialog, provide the following values:

    Field Name

    Example Value

    Explanation

    Connection Name

    Mesh Join - BATMAN

    The name must end with 'BATMAN' (uppercase)

    Physical Interface

    wlan0

    The Wi-Fi device you wish to use for joining the mesh network

    Firewall Zone

    External

    Since you don't wish that participants in mesh network to use internal services of FreedomBox

    SSID

    ch1.freifunk.net

    As provided to you by the operators of the mesh network. You should see this as a network in Nearby Wi-Fi Networks

    Mode

    Ad-hoc

    Because this is a peer-to-peer network

    Frequency Band

    2.4Ghz

    As provided to you by the operators of the mesh network

    Channel

    1

    As provided to you by the operators of the mesh network

    BSSID

    12:CA:FF:EE:BA:BE

    As provided to you by the operators of the mesh network

    Authentication

    Open

    Leave this as open, unless you know your mesh network needs it be otherwise

    Passphrase

    Leave empty unless you know your mesh network requires one

    IPv4 Addressing Method

    Disabled

    We don't want to request IP configuration information yet

    Save the connection. Join the mesh network by activating this newly created connection.
  2. Create a second new connection, then select the connection type as Generic. In the following dialog, provide this following values:

    Field Name

    Example Value

    Explanation

    Connection Name

    Mesh Connect

    Any name to identify this connection

    Physical Interface

    bat0

    This interface will only show up after you successfully activate the connection in first step

    Firewall Zone

    External

    Since you don't wish that participants in mesh network to use internal services of FreedomBox

    IPv4 Addressing Method

    Auto

    Mesh networks usually have a DHCP server somewhere that provide your machine with IP configuration. If not, consult the operator and configure IP address setting accordingly with Manual method

    Save the connection. Configure your machine for participation in the network by activating this connection. Currently, this connection has to be manually activated every time you need to join the network. In future, FreedomBox will do this automatically. You will now be able reach other nodes in the network. You will also be able to connect to the Internet via the mesh network if there is an Internet connection point somewhere in mesh as setup by the operators.

11.3.4.2. Creating a mesh network

To create your own mesh network and share your Internet connection with the rest of the nodes in the network:

  1. Follow the instructions as provided above in step 1 of Joining a mesh network but choose and fix upon your own valid values for SSID (a name for you mesh network), Frequency Band (usually 2.4Ghz), Channel (1 to 11 in 2.4Ghz band) and BSSID (a hex value like 12:CA:DE:AD:BE:EF). Create this connection and activate it.

  2. Follow the instructions as provided above in step 2 of Joining a mesh network but select IPv4 Addressing Method as Shared. This will provide automatic IP configuration to other nodes in the network as well as share the Internet connection on your machine (achieved using a second Wi-Fi interface, using Ethernet, etc.) with other nodes in the mesh network.

Spread the word about your mesh network to your neighbors and let them know the parameters you have provided when creating the network. When other nodes connect to this mesh network, they have to follow steps in Joining a mesh network but use the values for SSID, Frequency Band and Channel that you have chosen when you created the mesh network.

11.4. Advanced Network Operations

Cockpit provides many advanced networking features over those offered by FreedomBox. Both FreedomBox and Cockpit operate over Network Manager and are hence compatible with each other. Some of the functions provided by Cockpit include:

  • Set the maximum transmission unit (MTU) for a network connection
  • Change the hardware address (MAC address) of a network interface
  • Add more DNS servers and configure routing of a network connection
  • Creating bonded devices for highly available network interfaces
  • Creating bridge devices to join network interfaces for aggregating separate networks
  • Manage VLAN for creating virtual partitions in the physical network

networks-cockpit.png

11.5. Manual Network Operation

FreedomBox automatically configures networks by default and provides a simplified interface to customize the configuration to specific needs. In most cases, manual operation is not necessary. The following steps describe how to manually operate network configuration in the event that a user finds FreedomBox interface to insufficient for task at hand or to diagnose a problem that FreedomBox does not identify.

On the command line interface:

For text based user interface for configuring network connections:

nmtui

To see the list of available network devices:

nmcli device

To see the list of configured connections:

nmcli connection

To see the current status of a connection:

nmcli connection show '<connection_name>'

To see the current firewall zone assigned to a network interface:

nmcli connection show '<connection_name>' | grep zone

or

firewall-cmd --zone=internal --list-all
firewall-cmd --zone=external --list-all

To create a new network connection:

nmcli con add con-name "<connection_name>" ifname "<interface>" type ethernet
nmcli con modify "<connection_name>" connection.autoconnect TRUE
nmcli con modify "<connection_name>" connection.zone internal

To change the firewall zone for a connection:

nmcli con modify "<connection_name>" connection.zone "<internal|external>"

For more information on how to use nmcli command, see its man page. Also for a full list of configuration settings and type of connections accepted by Network Manager see:

https://developer.gnome.org/NetworkManager/stable/ref-settings.html

To see the current status of the firewall and manually operate it, see the Firewall section.

12. PageKite (Public Visibility)

12.1. What is PageKite?

PageKite makes local websites and services publicly accessible immediately without creating yourself a public IP address. It does this by tunneling protocols such as HTTPS or SSH through firewalls and NAT. Using PageKite requires an account on a PageKite relay service. One such service is https://pagekite.net.

A PageKite relay service will allow you to create kites. Kites are similar to domain names, but with different advantages and drawbacks. A kite can have a number of configured services. PageKite is known to work with HTTP, HTTPS, and SSH, and may work with some other services, but not all.

12.2. Using PageKite

  1. Create an account on a PageKite relay service.

  2. Add a kite to your account. Note your kite name and kite secret.
  3. In FreedomBox, go to the "Configure PageKite" tab on the Public Visibility (PageKite) page.

  4. Check the "Enable PageKite" box, then enter your kite name and kite secret. Click "Save settings".

  5. On the "Standard Services" tab, you can enable HTTP and HTTPS (recommended) and SSH (optional).
    • HTTP is needed to obtain the Let's Encrypt certificate. You can disable it later.
  6. On the Certificates (Let's Encrypt) page, you can obtain a Let's Encrypt certificate for your kite name.

13. Performance (System Monitoring)

Available since: version 20.9.7

Performance app allows you to collect, store and view information about utilization of the hardware. This can gives you basic insights into usage patterns and whether the hardware is overloaded by users and services.

Performance metrics are collected by Performance Co-Pilot and can be viewed using the Cockpit app. When this system app is installed and enabled, cockpit's graphs shows the past (up to one year at a time).

performance-one-week.png

14. Power

To restart or shut down FreedomBox, click the user dropdown menu on the top right of the page. After you select "Restart" or "Shut Down", you will be asked to confirm.

15. Secure Shell (SSH) Server

15.1. What is Secure Shell?

FreedomBox runs openssh-server server by default allowing remote logins from all interfaces. If your hardware device is connected to a monitor and a keyboard, you may login directly as well. Regular operation of FreedomBox does not require you to use the shell. However, some tasks or identifying a problem may require you to login to a shell.

15.2. Setting Up A User Account

15.2.1. FreedomBox First Log In: Admin Account

When creating an account in FreedomBox's web interface for the first time, this user will automatically have administrator capabilities. Admin users are able to log in using ssh (see Logging In below) and have superuser privileges via sudo.

15.2.2. Default User Account

  • Note: If you can access FreedomBox's web interface, then you don't need to do this. You can use the user account created in FreedomBox's web interface to connect to SSH.

The pre-built FreedomBox images have a default user account called "fbx". However the password is not set for this account, so it will not be possible to log in with this account by default.

There is a script included in the freedom-maker program, that will allow you to set the password for this account, if it is needed. To set a password for the "fbx" user:

1. Decompress the image file.

2. Get a copy of freedom-maker from https://salsa.debian.org/freedombox-team/freedom-maker/.

3. Run sudo ./bin/passwd-in-image <image-file> fbx.

4. Copy the image file to SD card and boot device as normal.

The "fbx" user also has superuser privileges via sudo.

15.3. Logging In

15.3.1. Who can log in to FreedomBox by SSH?

FreedomBox administrative users may use SSH to to log in to FreedomBox. The user 'fbx' is created by FreedomBox and is an administrative super-user. There are options which allow ordinary users to log in:

  • SSH access can be granted to specific users in the Edit User page by selecting the option, "Remotely login using Secure Shell (SSH) (freedombox-ssh)"
  • SSH access can be granted globally to all users in the SSH configuration page by selecting the, "Allow all users to login remotely," option.

With a new FreedomBox you may log in as fbx using ssh, and other ordinary users will be able to log in after adjusting the user or Secure Shell settings above in this section. The root user account will have no password set and will not be able to log in.

15.3.2. SSH Client Software

SSH client in included in many operating systems including Linux, Microsoft Windows, and Apple MacOS. SSH is included in Chromebooks, but requires some configuration by the user. In most cases you can run SSH from a terminal or command prompt as shown here, using your FreedomBox hostname or IP address:

$ ssh freedombox.local

If your client computer does not have SSH available, PuTTY is a popular free software client program which complies with the Debian Free Software Guidelines. PuTTY has a graphical interface to remember and manage your SSH connections. See External links below for more information about PuTTY.

15.3.2.1. Cockpit as an SSH Alternative

The Cockpit Server Administration Terminal app available from the Cockpit Tools menu is an alternative shell access tool to SSH. Like SSH your connection to a FreedomBox terminal is secured. Cockpit is a good choice for users who do not wish to enable the SSH server or those who prefer to connect through a web browser. With either tool you will be presented with the FreedomBox bash command line interface.

Some users prefer to run SSH instead of, or in addition to, Cockpit. Command shell users tend to like SSH because it's something that they are already using. Users with Linux or Unix system administration experience tend to rely on this connection method because it is a simpler service which is thought to be more likely to be available if problems arise.

Refer to the Let's Encrypt and Cockpit sections of this manual to configure Cockpit and SSL certificates for security.

15.3.3. SSH over Local Network

To login via SSH, to your FreedomBox:

$ ssh fbx@freedombox.local

Replace fbx with the name of the user you wish to login as. fbx and users in admin group will be able to login on the terminal directly. Other users will be denied access.

freedombox should be replaced with the hostname. Alternatively, you can substitute the hostname by its IP address as found in the Quick Start process:

$ ssh fbx@192.168.1.1

If your FreedomBox has a domain name you can also use it:

$ ssh fbx@myfreedombox.freedombox.rocks

If you repeatedly try to login as a user and fail, you will be blocked from logging in for some time. This is due to libpam-abl package that FreedomBox installs by default. To control this behavior consult libpam-abl documentation.

Here we've used a .local network name (using multicast DNS), a local network IP address, and a DNS name to connect to FreedomBox using SSH.

15.3.4. SSH over the Internet

If your router is configured accordingly or your FreedomBox is directly exposed to the internet, you can also use a public domain name or a public IP address in the same fashion we'd do for the local network. Multicast DNS won't work here, though.

Let's look at connecting by SSH to FreedomBox using other networks now.

15.3.5. SSH over Tor

If in FreedomBox you have enabled onion services via Tor, you can access your FreedomBox using ssh over Tor. On a GNU/Linux computer, install netcat-openbsd.

$ sudo apt-get install netcat-openbsd

Edit ~/.ssh/config to enable connections over Tor.

$ nano ~/.ssh/config

Add the following:

Host *.onion
  user USERNAME
  port 22
  ProxyCommand nc -X 5 -x 127.0.0.1:9050 %h %p

Replace USERNAME with, e.g., an admin username (see above).

Note that in some cases you may need to replace 9050 with 9150.

Now to connect to the FreedomBox, open a terminal and type:

$ ssh USERNAME@ADDRESS.onion

Replace USERNAME with, e.g., an admin username, and ADDRESS with the onion service address for your FreedomBox.

15.3.6. SSH Over Pagekite

If in FreedomBox you are using Pagekite to expose services to the Internet, you can access your FreedomBox using SSH over Pagekite. On a GNU/Linux computer install netcat-openbsd.

$ sudo apt-get install netcat-openbsd

Edit ~/.ssh/config to enable connections over Pagekite.

$ nano ~/.ssh/config

Add the following:

Host *.pagekite.me
  CheckHostIP no
  ProxyCommand /bin/nc -X connect -x %h:443 %h %p

Now to connect to FreedomBox, open a terminal and type:

$ ssh USERNAME@KITENAME.pagekite.me

Replace USERNAME with, e.g., an admin username, and KITENAME with your kite name provided by pagekite.net as configured in FreedomBox.

15.4. Becoming Superuser

After logging in, if you want to become the superuser for performing administrative activities:

$ sudo su

Make a habit of logging in as root only when you need to. If you aren't logged in as root, you can't accidentally break everything.

15.5. Changing Password

To change the password of a user managed by FreedomBox's web interface, use the change password page. However, the fbx default user is not managed by FreedomBox's web interface and its password cannot be changed through it.

To change password on the terminal, log in to your FreedomBox as the user whose password you want to change. Then, run the following command:

$ passwd

This will ask you for your current password before giving you the opportunity to set a new one.

15.6. SSH Keys

The next step for SSH security and convenience is to understand and use ssh keys. If you logged in to FreedomBox the first time using ssh following the instructions above you specified a username and password to log in. In this section you'll learn about Server Fingerprints and host keys, authorized keys, and reasons to use these to make connection easier and more secure.

By default SSH is configured to prefer to use keys while still allowing you to use a username and password to log in. At the end of this section you will be able to:

  • Connect to FreedomBox and know that you are connecting to the right computer.

  • Connect instantly without giving a username and password.
  • Further improve the security of your FreedomBox by disabling SSH password authentication.

15.6.1. SSH Public and Private Keys

SSH keys are generated in pairs called a key pair. There is a public key and a private key for each key pair. The public key encrypts data which can only be read using the private key, and the private key encrypts data which can only be read using the public key. This is called an asymmetric cryptography system. SSH will distribute your public keys automatically to the other connected system while keeping your private keys safe.

Using SSH keys creates a powerful set of security features:

  • You are assured that you are connected to your FreedomBox.

  • Nobody will be able to read or modify your ssh communication to FreedomBox.

  • The FreedomBox SSH server will know you are the remote user connected.

  • Nobody will be able to read or modify your ssh communication from FreedomBox.

  • Connection is automatic with no username or password.
  • Your FreedomBox can block any password guessing attack.

15.6.2. Create your personal SSH keys on your client computer using ssh-keygen

You will create an SSH key pair on your client computer. We'll use the defaults and will not specify a password. Just press the Enter key when you are prompted for an SSH key password. This is very simple using the ssh-keygen command with no arguments. Here is how to run the command and a sample of the output the ssh-keygen program will give to you:

$ ssh-keygen
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/username/.ssh/id_rsa): 
Created directory '/home/username/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase): 
Enter same passphrase again: 
Your identification has been saved in /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa
Your public key has been saved in /home/username/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
The key fingerprint is:
SHA256:nHcTP5DBKxBOgt8BFMyb2QUs//t8ge+8vw2zjOuE71U username@clientpc
The key's randomart image is:
+---[RSA 3072]----+
|     ==++o ..    |
|    . +++ . .o   |
|     . O.+  +.   |
|      =.+.. .+   |
|        S...o.o E|
|         ..o...o |
|          ....+. |
|          .+ =o+.|
|           +O+*++|
+----[SHA256]-----+

That's all you need to do. You now have a personal SSH key pair on your client computer.

15.6.3. Verify your FreedomBox Server Fingerprint

On your first time connecting to FreedomBox using ssh you may have noticed a message similar to this:

$ ssh fbx@freedombox.local
The authenticity of host 'freedombox.local (192.168.1.4)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:TwJFdepq7OaTXcycoYfYE8/lRtuOxUGCrst0K/RUh4E.
This key is not known by any other names.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? 

There are a few things to understand about this message:

  • SSH is telling you that you have never connected to this server before and SSH cannot guarantee that this server is safe for you to use.
  • You have an opportunity to tell SSH that this new server is known to you and safe to use by indicating, 'yes.'
  • SSH has received an encryption key to communicate securely with this server (even if we're not certain which with server we're communicating with).
  • SSH is giving you a piece of information that you will use to confirm that the remote SSH server is in fact your FreedomBox.

Go to FreedomBox in your web browser. Click on the System menu, and then Secure Shell. The second section of this page is, Server Fingerprints. There is an ED25519 key entry on this page:

Algorithm

Fingerprint

RSA

SHA256:ZGvgdxiDEpGKdw82Z6z0QRmDpT3Vgi07Ghba5IBJ4tQ

ECDSA

SHA256:BLMMfPxNHpHF0sqCazAwE6ONdLtMY+W2yrgjP7AeXcQ

ED25519

SHA256:TwJFdepq7OaTXcycoYfYE8/lRtuOxUGCrst0K/RUh4E

Compare the ED25519 fingerprint on the FreedomBox Secure Shell page with the ED25519 fingerprint received by the ssh client in the first-connection example above. If these fingerprints are the same then you may be confident that you are connecting to your FreedomBox.

If you'd like to walk through these steps but you have already made the first connection, you can reset that. Issue this command on your ssh client computer.

$ ssh-keygen -R freedombox.local

This removes the record of your known connection to FreedomBox. Now open your Secure Shell system configuration page on FreedomBox to the Server Fingerprints section. Next connect to FreedomBox with your ssh client and properly verify the server fingerprint before indicating yes to the host authenticity question. Having done this correctly you can be certain that when you make an SSH connection to FreedomBox you are connecting to your server.

Each time you connect to a new SSH server you will be given the opportunity to verify the server fingerprint. If you connect to FreedomBox using different names or IP address (local IP, DNS name, Pagekite name, TOR .onion address...) you will be asked once for each name or address, but the fingerprint will not change.

Your server fingerprints are not private information. The fingerprint is a summary of a public key shared by the server which is used encrypt information sent to the SSH server. Your server public key is also not private information. You could share fingerprints and public keys with the world and the security of your FreedomBox will not be diminished.

15.6.4. Share your personal SSH key with FreedomBox using ssh-copy-id

By now you have a personal key pair, and you have verified the identity of FreedomBox. FreedomBox still does not know about your identity, and will ask you for your password when you try to log in by ssh. The ssh-copy-id program will tell FreedomBox to accept your personal key as your password.

$ ssh-copy-id username@freedombox.local
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: attempting to log in with the new key(s), to filter out any that are already installed
/usr/bin/ssh-copy-id: INFO: 1 key(s) remain to be installed -- if you are prompted now it is to install the new keys
username@freedombox.local's password: 

Number of key(s) added: 1

Now try logging into the machine, with:   "ssh 'username@freedombox.local'"
and check to make sure that only the key(s) you wanted were added.

This step adds your personal public key to your user account on FreedomBox. With this step complete the FreedomBox SSH server will compare the key sent by the client computer with the key stored on FreedomBox. If these match then you will be logged in without the need to give a password. Try it now:

$ ssh freedombox.local
Linux freedombox 6.1.0-18-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.76-1 (2024-02-01) x86_64

                         .--._    _.--.
                        (     \  /     )
                         \     /\     /
                          \_   \/   _/
                           /        \
                          (    /\    )
                           `--'  `--'

                           FreedomBox

FreedomBox is a pure blend of Debian GNU/Linux. Web interface is available at
https://localhost/ . FreedomBox manual is available in /usr/share/doc/freedombox
and from the web interface.

The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
You have new mail.
Last login: Sun Mar 17 14:27:03 2024 from 192.168.144.101
username@freedombox:~$

Once you have added your client SSH key to FreedomBox you will be able to connect using that one key by every method of addressing your FreedomBox:

  • Local network name
  • Local network IP address
  • ISP Public IP address
  • DNS name if you are using Dynamic DNS
  • Pagekite name if you are using Pagekite
  • TOR .onion address if you are using TOR

15.6.5. Block SSH password guessing attempts by disabling password authentication

Once you are able to connect to FreedomBox by ssh using a key and not entering a password you can take a step to improve the security of FreedomBox. If your FreedomBox is accessible from the internet you may notice that there are repeated attempts to log in to your FreedomBox from the internet. A good password is your first line of defense, and FreedomBox has additional features which protect you from these intrusion attempts. You can stop this nonsense completely by disabling password authentication for Secure Shell.

Go to your FreedomBox System menu. Click the Secure Shell configuration link. Look under Configuration and select, "Disable password authentication"

  • [x] Disable password authentication

Click the, "Update setup," button and it's done. This will stop all password guessing intrusion attempts using ssh. You can log in using your key, and nobody else will be able to log in by guessing a password.

15.6.6. Remote Host Identification has Changed : What it means and what to do

You may eventually experience an alarming message when you try to log in to your FreedomBox with SSH. You will see a message similar to this.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@    WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!     @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that a host key has just been changed.
The fingerprint for the RSA key sent by the remote host is
SHA256:ZGvgdxiDEpGKdw82Z6z0QRmDpT3Vgi07Ghba5IBJ4tQ.
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in /home/username/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending RSA key in /home/username/.ssh/known_hosts:2
  remove with:
  ssh-keygen -f "/home/username/.ssh/known_hosts" -R "freedombox.freedombox.rocks"
Host key for freedombox.freedombox.rocks has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.

This message tells you something important. It's usually not threatening, but there is the possibility that an attack could be made on a computer or network which can also produce this. What's important is that you'll do the same thing in either case.

The nature of this message is that the trust relationship you make with the SSH server through the fingerprint verification and key exchange with ssh-copy-id has been broken. Reading this error message closely, the issue is that the key fingerprint sent by FreedomBox at connection time does not match the key stored on the SSH client at the time you did the fingerprint verification. This could mean a few different things:

  • Your .ssh/known_hosts file on the client was modified or corrupted such that the stored fingerprint was altered.
  • You generated new keys for the FreedomBox SSH server.

  • Your network has changed such that when you attempt SSH to FreedomBox your connection goes elsewhere. This could happen if you change IP addresses on FreedomBox and SSH to the old IP address, or it could happen by way of a sophisticated network attack.

Fix this by removing the FreedomBox entry from the client computer. On your laptop or desktop do the command as written exactly as in the the error message you receive (don't copy one from the message above!).

$ ssh-keygen -f /home/username/.ssh/known_hosts -R "freedombox.freedombox.rocks" 
# Host freedombox.freedombox.rocks found: line 2
# Host freedombox.freedombox.rocks found: line 3
/home/username/.ssh/known_hosts updated.
Original contents retained as /home/username/.ssh/known_hosts.old

In so doing you have removed the FreedomBox fingerprint verification step we've done. Go back to the Verify your FreedomBox Server Fingerprint section above and complete the steps again. For good measure, make an effort to see that you are connected to your own FreedomBox in case you are being attacked.

16. Security

Press the Show security report button to see a report including the following:

  • Number of security vulnerabilities in installed version of FreedomBox.

  • Number of security vulnerabilities for each installed app.
  • Whether each installed app supports security sandboxing.
  • For each enabled app, the security sandbox coverage as a percentage.

16.1. Configuration

When the Restrict console logins option is enabled, only users in the admin group will be able to log in via console, secure shell (SSH) or graphical login. When this option is disabled, any user with an account on FreedomBox will be able to log in. They may be able to access some services without further authorization. This option should only be disabled if all the users of the system are well trusted. If you wish to use your FreedomBox machine also as a desktop and allow non-admin users to login via GUI, this option must be disabled. You can define the list of users belonging to admin group in the Users section.

Security.png

17. Service Discovery

Service discovery allows other devices on the network to discover your FreedomBox and services running on it. If a client on the local network supports mDNS, it can find your FreedomBox at <hostname>.local (for example: freedombox.local).

It also allows FreedomBox to discover other devices and services running on your local network.

Service discovery is not essential and works only on internal networks. It may be disabled to improve security especially when connecting to a hostile local network.

17.1. Troubleshooting

17.1.1. Unable to reach <hostname>.local

If <hostname>.local is not able to be reached, you may simply need to disable and re-enable the Service Discovery feature in FreedomBox. To do this, go to System -> Service Discovery, slide the toggle to the left position to disable it (it turns grey), followed by sliding it back to the right to re-enable it (it turns blue).

To do this you obviously need other means to reach your FreedomBox than <hostname>.local. See the Quick Start Guide for those.

18. Storage

Storage allows you to see the storage devices attached to your FreedomBox and their disk space usage.

FreedomBox can automatically detect and mount removable media like USB flash drives. They are listed under the Removable Devices section along with an option to eject them.

If there is some free space left after the root partition, the option to expand the root partition is also available. This is typically not shown, since expanding the root partition happens automatically when the FreedomBox starts up for the first time.

Storage.png

18.1. Advanced Storage Operations

Cockpit provides many advanced storage features over those offered by FreedomBox. Both FreedomBox and Cockpit operate over Udisks2 storage daemon and are hence compatible with each other. Some of the functions provided by Cockpit include:

  • Format a disk or partition with a fresh filesystem
  • Add, remove partitions or wipe the partition table
  • Create and unlock encrypted file systems
  • Create and manage RAID devices

storage-cockpit.png

19. Storage Snapshots

Snapshots allows you to create filesystem snapshots, and rollback the system to a previous snapshot.

  • Note: This feature requires a Btrfs filesystem. All of the FreedomBox stable disk images use Btrfs.

Snapshots

There are three types of snapshots:

  • boot: Taken when the system boots up
  • Software Installation (apt): Taken when software is installed or updated
  • Timeline: Taken hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly

The Timeline and Software Installation snapshots can be turned on or off, and you can limit the number of each type of Timeline snapshot. You can also set a percentage of free disk space to be maintained.

20. Software Updates

FreedomBox can automatically install security updates. On the Update page of the System section in FreedomBox web interface you can turn on automatic updates. This feature is enabled by default and there is no manual action necessary. It is strongly recommended that you have this option enabled to keep your FreedomBox secure.

Updates are performed every day at night according to you local time zone. You can set the time zone with Date & Time. If you wish to shutdown FreedomBox every day after use, keep it running at night once a week or so to let the automatic updates happen. Alternatively, you can perform manual updates as described below.

Note that once the updates start, it may take a long time to complete. During automatic update process that runs every night or during manual update process, you will not be able to install apps from FreedomBox web interface.

update.png

20.1. When Will I Get the Latest Features?

Although updates are done every day for security reasons, latest features of FreedomBox will not propagate to all the users. The following information should help you understand how new features become available to users.

Stable Users: This category of users include users who bought the FreedomBox Pioneer Edition, installed FreedomBox on a Debian stable distribution or users who downloaded the stable images from freedombox.org. As a general rule, only security updates to various packages are provided to these users. One exception to this rule is where FreedomBox service itself is updated when a release gains high confidence from developers. This means that latest FreedomBox features may become available to these users although not as quickly or frequently as testing users. If an app is available only in testing distribution but not in stable distribution, then that app will show up in the web interface but will not be installable by stable users. Some apps are also provided an exception to the rule of "security updates only" when the app is severely broken otherwise. Every two years, a major release of Debian stable happens with the latest versions of all the software packages and FreedomBox developers will attempt to upgrade these users to the new release without requiring manual intervention.

Testing Users: This category of users include users who installed FreedomBox on a Debian testing distribution or users who downloaded the testing images from freedombox.org. Users who use Debian testing are likely to face occasional disruption in the services and may even need manual intervention to fix the issue. As a general rule, these users receive all the latest features and security updates to all the installed packages. Every two weeks, a new version of FreedomBox is released with all the latest features and fixes. These releases will reach testing users approximately 2-3 days after the release.

Unstable Users: This category of users include users who installed FreedomBox on a Debian unstable distribution or users who downloaded the unstable images from freedombox.org. Users who use Debian unstable are likely to face occasional disruption in the services and may even need manual intervention to fix the issue. As a general rule, these users receive all the latest features to all the installed packages. Every two weeks, a new version of FreedomBox is released with all the latest features and fixes. Theses releases will reach unstable users on the day of the release. Only developers, testers and other contributors to the FreedomBox project should use the unstable distribution and end users and advised against using it.

20.2. Manual Updates from Web Interface

To get updates immediately and not wait until the end of the day, you may want to trigger updates manually. You can do this by pressing the Update now button in Manual update tab for Update page in System section. Note that this step is not necessary if you have enabled Auto-updates as every night this operation is performed automatically.

When installing apps you may receive an error message such as

Error installing packages: E: dpkg was interrupted, you must manually run 'dpkg --configure -a' to correct the problem

This is typically caused by shutting down FreedomBox while it is installing apps, while performing daily updates or during some other operations. This situation can be rectified immediately by running manual update.

20.3. Manual Updates from Terminal

Some software packages may require manual interaction for updating due to questions related to configuration. In such cases, FreedomBox updates itself and brings in new knowledge necessary to update the package by answering configuration questions. After updating itself, FreedomBox acts on behalf of the user and updates the packages by answering the questions. Until FreedomBox has a chance to update the package, such packages should not be be updated manually. The manual update triggered from the web interface is already mindful of such packages and does not update them.

In some rare situations, FreedomBox itself might fail to update or the update mechanism might fall into a situation that might need manual intervention from a terminal. To perform manual upgrades on the terminal, login into FreedomBox on a terminal (if you have monitor and keyboard connected), via a web terminal (using FreedomBox/Manual/Cockpit) or using a remote secure shell (see Secure Shell section). Then run the following commands:

$ sudo su -
Password: <enter user password here>
# dpkg --configure -a
# apt update
# apt -f install
# unattended-upgrade --debug
# apt install freedombox
# apt update

If apt update asks for a confirmation to change Codename or other release information, confirm yes. If during update of freedombox package, if a question about overwriting configuration files is asked, answer to install new configuration files from the latest version of the package. This process will upgrade only packages that don't require configuration file questions (except for freedombox package). After this, let FreedomBox handle the upgrade of remaining packages. Be patient while new releases of FreedomBox are made to handle packages that require manual intervention.

If you want to go beyond the recommendation to upgrade all the packages on your FreedomBox and if you are really sure about handling the configuration changes for packages yourself, run the following command:

$ apt full-upgrade

20.4. Auto-Update to Next Stable Release

FreedomBox can automatically update itself when there is a new stable release of Debian. This update feature is recommended, and enabled by default for stable systems. Note that it also requires "Enable auto-update" to be enabled, and that there is 5 GB free space on the root partition.

In some special cases, such as advanced customization made to the system, the automatic update could fail. If you wish, you can disable it on the System -> Update page, by clearing the “Enable auto-update to next stable release” checkbox.

If you decide to stay on an older release, you should check DebianReleases#Production_Releases to see how long it will be supported by Debian security team. Note that older releases will not have new versions of FreedomBox, even through backports.

20.5. Manual Update to Next Stable Release

Auto-update is recommended for most users. However if you want to do the update manually, here are some tips:

  • Take backups of your apps' data before performing the update.
  • Create a system snapshot before you begin.
  • General instructions for upgrading Debian distribution are available.

  • Some packages are known to have prompts during upgrade, due to modified conffiles. It is recommended not to upgrade these packages manually, but rather to allow FreedomBox to handle their upgrade automatically. This applies to the following packages:

    • bind9
    • firewalld
    • janus
    • minetest-server
    • minidlna
    • mumble-server
    • radicale
    • roundcube-core
    • tt-rss

21. Users and Groups

You can grant access to your FreedomBox for other users. Provide the Username with a password and assign a group to it. Currently the groups

  • admin
  • bit-torrent
  • calibre
  • ed2k
  • feed-reader
  • freedombox-share
  • git-access
  • i2p
  • minidlna
  • syncthing
  • web-search
  • wiki

are supported.

The user will be able to log in to services that support single sign-on through LDAP, if they are in the appropriate group.

Users in the admin group will be able to log in to all services. They can also log in to the system through SSH and have administrative privileges (sudo).

A user's groups can also be changed later.

It is also possible to set an SSH public key which will allow this user to securely log in to the system without using a password. You may enter multiple keys, one on each line. Blank lines and lines starting with # will be ignored.

The interface language can be set for each user individually. By default, the language preference set in the web browser will be used.

A user's account can be deactivated, which will temporarily disable the account.

Hardware

FreedomBox is designed to be the software for a consumer electronics device that is easy to setup, maintain and use. The project does not aim to create a custom hardware device ourselves, but instead we intend to partner with hardware vendors to build FreedomBox devices and also support existing hardware. Typically, it is run on single board computers because of their small form factor, low power consumption and favourable price. Some users also run it on old/refurbished desktop or laptop computers or even on virtual machines running on their primary computers.

In addition to supporting various single board computers and other devices, any Debian machine can be turned into a FreedomBox by installing the freedombox package. Debian, the universal operating system, supports a much wider range on hardware. After installing Debian, see the manual page for installing FreedomBox on Debian.

1. Recommended Hardware

On April 22nd, 2019, the FreedomBox Foundation announced the sales of the Pioneer Edition FreedomBox Home Server Kits. This is the recommended pre-installed hardware for all users who don't wish to build their own FreedomBox by choosing the right components, downloading the image and preparing an SD card with FreedomBox.

The kit includes all the hardware needed for launching a FreedomBox home server on an Olimex A20-OLinuXino-LIME2 board. This product provides the perfect combination of open source hardware and free and open source software. By purchasing this product, you also support the FreedomBox Foundation's efforts to create and promote its free and open source server software.

Pioneer Edition FreedomBox Home Server Kits
Pioneer Edition FreedomBox Home Server Kits

2. Supported Hardware

Use these hardware if you are able to download FreedomBox images and prepare an SD card by following the manual. If you wish for simper setup process, please buy the FreedomBox kits from recommended hardware instead. Look at the list of known issues with a hardware before buying it.

A20 OLinuXino Lime2
A20 OLinuXino Lime2

A20 OLinuXino MICRO
A20 OLinuXino MICRO

PC Engines APU
PC Engines APU

Cubietruck
Cubietruck

Cubieboard 2
Cubieboard2

BeagleBone Black
BeagleBone Black

pcDuino3
pcDuino3

Debian
Debian

VirtualBox
VirtualBox

Pine A64+
Pine A64+

Banana Pro
Banana Pro

Orange Pi Zero
Orange Pi Zero

Raspberry Pi 2
Raspberry Pi 2

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

Raspberry Pi 4 B
Raspberry Pi 4 B

RockPro64
RockPro64

Rock64
Rock64

2.1. Hardware Comparison

Name

Speed (GHz)

Debian arch

Ram (GB)

disk (GB)

battery

SATA

Ethernet speed

OSHW

APU.1D

1x2

amd64

2

-

-

(./)

1000x3

{X}

APU.1D4

1x2

amd64

4

-

-

(./)

1000x3

{X}

BeagleBone Black C

1

armhf/omap

½

4

-

-

100

(./)

Cubieboard2

1x2

armhf/sunxi

1

4

(./)

(./)

100

{X}

Cubieboard2-Dual

1x2

armhf/sunxi

1

-

(./)

(./)

100

{X}

Cubieboard3/Cubietruck

1x2

armhf/sunxi

2

8

(./)

(./)

1000

{X}

OLinuXino A20 LIME

1x2

armhf/sunxi

½

-

(./)

(./)

100

(./)

OLinuXino A20 LIME2

1x2

armhf/sunxi

1

-

(./)

(./)

1000

(./)

OLinuXino A20 MICRO

1x2

armhf/sunxi

1

-

(./)

(./)

100

(./)

pcDunino3

1x2

armhf/sunxi

1

4

(./)

(./)

100

{X}

Pine A64+

1.2x4

arm64/sunxi

½,1,2

-

-

-

1000

{X}

Banana Pro

1.2x2

armhf/sunxi

1

-

-

(./)

1000

{X}

Orange Pi Zero

?x4

armhf/sunxi

¼,½

-

-

-

100

{X}

RockPro64

1.4x4+1.8x2

arm64

2,4

16,32,64,128

-

(USB3 or via PCIe card)

1000

{X}

Rock64

1.5x4

arm64

1,2,4

16,32,64,128

-

(USB3)

1000

{X}

3. Additional Hardware

3.1. Hardware Supported with Generic Images

If you already have hardware that you wish turn into a FreedomBox, don't let the limited list of supported hardware discourage you. If you are using AMD or Intel architecture machines, you can download the generic images of that specific architecture that image will work on any machine of that architecture. For ARM 32-bit or ARM 64-bit architectures, we have a similar solution.

Starting with August 2020, we started building generic images that would work for all single board computers based on a solution involving UEFI standards and u-boot firmware. In this approach, a small board specific firmware resides on an SPI flash or an SD card. It is responsible for loading a generic FreedomBox image that is placed in an SD card, a USB drive, a SATA drive or an NVMe drive. So, for your hardware, find and get a u-boot based firmware from your board manufacturer and place it on an SPI flash or an SD card. Next, ensure that that kernel in FreedomBox has support for your board and place it on any of the other storage disks. This approach should work well for a lot of boards that are not listed as specifically supported. See firmware section for more details.

We continue to build images specific to some hardware as we used to earlier. These images have the slight advantage that they are easier to setup because of less step involved. We intend, however, to phase out these images because they can't be booted from all the storage devices and involve development overhead limiting the number of boards we support.

3.2. Adding Hardware Support

If your hardware is not listed above but you were able to get it working using the above described method of using a generic image, drop us a line and we will list it as supported. Further, take a look at the list of targeted hardware for boards to support.

3.3. Deprecated Hardware

This hardware was supported earlier but is no longer supported. If you downloaded an earlier image and are running FreedomBox on one of these hardware, you will keep getting software updates. However, no new images will be provided for these hardware. It is recommended that you migrate to newer, supported hardware using backup and restore.

  • DreamPlug

  • Raspberry Pi

Note: Supported Hardware means that FreedomBox images are built for said hardware and at least one developer has reported the basic functions to be working.

4. Common Hardware Information

The following sections document common advice related to hardware and peripherals when using them with FreedomBox.

4.1. Wi-Fi

FreedomBox can use Wi-Fi hardware for two separate purposes. It can be used to provide internet connectivity or it can be used to share internet connectivity already available to FreedomBox (via Ethernet, 3G/4G or another Wi-Fi interface) with devices on the network. See the Networks manual page for instructions on how to configure FreedomBox for these two cases.

Unfortunately, most built-in Wi-Fi adapters and add-on Wi-Fi adapters require firmware that is not free software. So, FreedomBox recommends attaching a USB Wi-Fi device that does not require non-free firmware. Supported devices automatically show up in the network interface list when configuring networks.

If you have a Wi-Fi device, either built-in or as an add-on, that requires non-free firmware and you are willing to install non-free firmware to get it working, see the Debian wiki page. Once the firmware is installed and the device shows up, it can be configured and used by FreedomBox.

4.2. Power Supply

On single board computers, one can easily encounter situations where the board and its peripherals are not provided sufficient power and malfunction in unpredictable ways. To avoid this, use a power adapter that can supply the minimum current recommended by the hardware manufacturer. When additional peripherals such as USB drives, Wi-Fi devices, SATA drives or NVMe drives are attached, the power requirements increase. A power supply that can provide higher current than needed is preferable but voltage should match the manufacturer recommendation exactly. Keep in mind that some cheap power supplies don't supply the current they promise to.

4.3. Firmware

Desktops, laptops and virtual machines have software that runs during machine start-up called UEFI/BIOS. This software, sometimes called firmware, can load and hand over control to the operating system (in our case FreedomBox), when it is present on any of the storage devices. This is not the case with most single board computers.

Single board computers ship with very small amount of software that is typically limited to booting OS from SD cards or eMMCs. They usually can't boot from USB disks, SATA disks or NVMe disks. To remedy this situation, hardware manufacturers started adding a special storage device called SPI flash which is only a few MiB in size. A special software, which we call firmware here, typically based on free and open source boot loader called u-boot is placed in this SPI flash. When the computer starts up, it starts the boot-loader from SPI flash which will in turn load the operating system. Since the firmware is much more powerful, it has the ability to load the OS from any of the storage media. Examples of single board computers with SPI flash include A20-OLinuXino-Lime2 and RockPro64.

This firmware approach can be used even when SPI flash is not available. Say, one wants to boot from a USB drive and the board does not support booting from it. Firmware can be installed on an SD card (a very tiny one is sufficient) and inserted into the board. Then USB disk will contain FreedomBox as we wish it. When the board starts, it boots the firmware from SD card which in turn boots the operating system from USB drive or any other storage.

This firmware approach also allows us to use generic download images that work for a large number of hardware boards. While increasing the effort for the user a bit more, it has the advantage of allowing us to support a lot more hardware and allow the OS to be present on any storage media.

When special firmware is needed for a single board computer, FreedomBox manual for the board discusses how to to obtain and install the firmware before proceeding with installation of FreedomBox.

4.4. Storage

FreedomBox can run from various storage media supported by your computer. Choosing the storage is about balancing reliability, capacity and speed against cost. A minimum storage capacity of 8GB is recommended for running FreedomBox.

4.4.1. Secure Digital (SD) Card

SD cards are common on single board computers. Most single board computers can boot directly from an SD card without any additional tweaks.

SD cards are typically slowest among the available storage media. Expect your FreedomBox to perform certain operations slower on these disks. Not all SD cards perform similarly and some perform much better than others. When buying an SD card, pick a card with a speed class of at least 10 (written on the card as a circle around the number 10) or UHS speed class 1 (written on the card as a number 1 inside a bucket). UHS speed class 3 (written on the card as number 3 inside a bucket) or application speed class 1 or above (written as A1 and A2) will perform much better. Finally, users of FreedomBox have reported cases where SD cards have failed. So, other storage media should be preferred for higher reliability.

4.4.2. Embedded MultiMediaCard (eMMC)

Many recently released single board computers support eMMC cards. Most single board computers can boot directly from an eMMC without any additional tweaks.

eMMC is sometimes soldered onto the board and you will need to choose the size of eMMC when buying the board. An example of this is the Olimex's A20-OLinuXino-Lime2 board. Other times, a manufacturer will provide eMMC as pluggable peripheral. With this approach, you can add eMMC after you buy the board or upgrade existing one with higher capacity. Do not detach and reattach such pluggable eMMCs too often. They have a very limited number of wear cycles (< 100).

eMMC are much faster than SD cards and spinning disk HDDs but are significantly slower than SSDs. They have much better random write speeds which are needed for many FreedomBox operations. In general, they should be preferred over SD cards.

FreedomBox image can be setup on an eMMC in two ways. For a detachable eMMC, there are eMMC to USB converters available. Detach the eMMC from the board, attach it to the USB converter and plug it into your machine and proceed with writing FreedomBox on it as one would for an SD card. In case the eMMC is not detachable, boot the computer with a media other than the eMMC such as an SD card or USB disk. It could be any operating system. After booting, the eMMC will show up as an additional disk. Download and write FreedomBox image onto it as one would for an SD card.

4.4.3. USB Disk Drive

Most computers and single board computers have USB ports. These ports accept storage media such as USB flash drives, SSDs or HDDs.

A USB flash drive can also serve as a storage medium for running FreedomBox. USB 2.0 flash drives are much slower and comparable to SD cards in their performance. USB 3.0 flash drives yield much better performance. Both USB flash drives and SD cards use similar technology so the read/write cycles and hence the reliability as similarly limited.

Apart from USB flash drives, solid state drives (SSDs) and hard disk drives (HDDs) can be inserted into USB ports. This is possible either by buying drives with USB interface or by using convertors such as USB to SATA or USB to M.2 interface. Both SSDs and HDDs have much higher reliability compared to SD cards, eMMC or USB flash drives. These should be preferred whenever possible. In addition, SSDs provide excellent performance when connected via USB 3.0 interface.

When connecting SSDs and HDDs to USB ports on single board computers, care should be taken about the power supply to the drive. If the drive has an extra power supply there is nothing to worry about. Otherwise, ensure that the single board computer is able to power the drive by checking the power requirements of the drive and what the board supports. For the board, always use a power adapter that can supply the minimum current recommended by the hardware manufacturer. Power supply that can provide higher current than needed is preferable but the voltage supplied should match the manufacturer recommendation exactly. Keep in mind that some cheap power supplies don't supply the current they promise to.

Setting up a FreedomBox image on a USB (flash, SSD or HDD) drive can be straight forward as most computers have USB ports. Plug-in the USB drive to your computer, download and write the FreedomBox image to the USB drive. While laptops, desktops and virtual machines can boot from a USB drive without intervention, many single board computers can't boot from USB drives. To address this, a separate firmware is needed. See firmware section for setting this up.

4.4.4. SATA disk drive

Some desktops, laptops and single board computers support a SATA interface to connect a solid state drive (SSD) or a hard disk drive (HDD). An example of a single board computer supporting SATA interface is the Olimex's A20-OLinuXino-Lime2. SATA protocol is also used for mSATA ports or M.2 slots (with a B-Key or an M-key). Both SSDs and HDDs have much higher reliability compared to SD cards, eMMC or USB flash drives. SATA interface provides very good data transfer rates (but not as good as NVMe drives based on PCIe). These should be preferred over SD cards, eMMCs or USB flash drives whenever possible.

When connecting SSDs and HDDs to SATA ports on single board computers, care should be taken about the power supply to the drive. If the drive has an extra power supply there is nothing to worry about. Otherwise, ensure that the single board computer is able to power the drive by checking the power requirements of the drive and what the board supports. Always use a power adapter that can supply the minimum current recommended by the hardware manufacturer. Power supply that can provide higher current than needed is preferable but voltage should match the recommendation exactly. Keep in mind that some cheap power supplies don't supply the current they promise to.

To setup FreedomBox image on a SATA disk drive, boot the computer with a media other than the SATA disk such as an SD card. It could be any operating system. After booting, the SATA disk will show up as an additional disk. Download and write FreedomBox image onto it as one would for an SD card. While laptops, desktops and virtual machines can boot from a SATA drives without additional intervention, many single board computers can't boot from SATA drives. To address this, a separate firmware disk is needed. See firmware section for setting this up.

4.4.5. NVMe disk drive

Most desktops, laptops and some single board computers support an NVMe interface to connect a solid state drive (SSD). This support is provided either with an M.2 slot (with a B-key or an M-key) or by providing a PCIe expansion slot. If a PCIe expansion slot is provided, a PCIe to M.2 convertor can be used to accommodate an NVMe drive. An example of a single board computer supporting an M.2 slot is the Radxa's Rock Pi 4 board. An example of single board computer providing PCIe slot is the Pine64's RockPro64 board. NVMe based SSD have much higher reliability compared to SD cards, eMMC or USB flash drives. NVMe drives provide the fastest data transfer rates. These should be preferred over all other types of drives whenever possible.

When connecting NVMe drives to single board computers, care should be taken about the power supply to the drive. Ensure that the single board computer is able to power the drive by checking the power requirements of the drive and what the board supports. Always use a power adapter that can supply the minimum current recommended by the hardware manufacturer. Power supply that can provide higher current than needed is preferable but voltage should match the manufacturer recommendation exactly. Keep in mind that some cheap power supplies don't supply the current they promise to.

To setup FreedomBox image on an NVMe disk drive, boot the computer with a media other than the NVMe disk such as an SD card. It could be any operating system. After booting NVMe disk will show up as an additional disk. Download and write FreedomBox image onto it as one would for an SD card. While laptops, desktops and virtual machines can boot from NVMe drives without intervention, many single board computers can't boot from NVMe drives. To address this a separate firmware disk is needed. See firmware section for setting this up.

5. Building Your Own Images

All FreedomBox disk images for different hardware is built by the project using a tool known as Freedom Maker. If for some reason, you wish to build your own images instead of downloading the provided images, use this tool. The README file in the project provides information about the list of hardware build targets available and how to build images.

5.1. Status of Software Used

  • All the software present in FreedomBox images is from Debian repositories. There are some minor tweaks done by the Freedom Maker script.

  • All images use the Linux kernel from Debian which is in turn based on the mainline Linux kernel.
  • A few images include non-free firmware from Debian's non-free-firmware component (see Firmware). Other than firmware, all software present in the images is DFSG compliant free software. The table below lists the components included in each image. (Note: this work is in progress, planned for images built after Debian 12 (bookworm) release.)

Image

Includes main?

Includes non-free-firmware?

Non-free firmware included

32-bit ARM (armhf)

(./)

32-bit x86 (i386)

(./)

(./)

amd64-microcode, intel-microcode (see Microcode)

64-bit ARM (arm64)

(./)

64-bit x86 (amd64)

(./)

(./)

amd64-microcode, intel-microcode (see Microcode)

A20 OLinuXino Lime

(./)

A20 OLinuXino Lime 2

(./)

A20 OLinuXino MICRO

(./)

Beagle Bone Black

(./)

Cubieboard 2

(./)

Cubietruck (Cubieboard 3)

(./)

Lamobo R1

(./)

LeMaker Banana Pro

(./)

LinkSprite pcDuino3S

(./)

Orange Pi Zero

(./)

PC Engines APU 1D

(./)

Pine A64 LTS

(./)

Pine A64+

(./)

Pioneer Edition FreedomBox

(./)

QEMU/KVM amd64

(./)

QEMU/KVM i386

(./)

Raspberry Pi 2

(./)

(./)

raspi-firmware

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

(./)

(./)

raspi-firmware, firmware-brcm80211

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+

(./)

(./)

raspi-firmware, firmware-brcm80211

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B

(./)

(./)

raspi-firmware, firmware-brcm80211

Rock64

(./)

RockPro64

(./)

VirtualBox for amd64

(./)

VirtualBox for i386

(./)

6. Pioneer Edition FreedomBox

Pioneer FreedomBox Home Servers are produced and sold by Olimex, a company which specializes in Open Source Hardware (OSHW). The kit includes pocket-sized server hardware, an SD card with the operating system pre-installed, and a backup battery which can power the hardware for 4-5 hours in case of outages. It sells for 69 euro. An optional storage add-on for high capacity hard disk (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD) is also available from Olimex. By purchasing this product, you also support the FreedomBox Foundation's efforts to create and promote its free and open source server software.

Pioneer Edition FreedomBox Home Server Kit

6.1. Product Features

The Pioneer Edition FreedomBox Home Server Kit includes all the hardware needed for launching a FreedomBox home server on an Olimex A20-OLinuXino-LIME2 board:

  • the A20-OlinuXino-LIME2,

  • a custom metal case with a laser-engraved FreedomBox logo,

  • a high-speed 32GB micro SD card with the FreedomBox software pre-installed,

  • a backup battery,
  • a power adapter, and
  • an Ethernet cable.
  • an optional storage add-on for hard disk (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD)

6.2. Recommended Hardware

This is the hardware recommended for all users who just want a turn-key FreedomBox, and don't want to build their own one.

(Building your own FreedomBox means some technical stuff like choosing and buying the right components, downloading the image and preparing the SD card).

6.3. Availability

The Pioneer Edition FreedomBox Home Server is the first commercially available version of FreedomBox.

6.4. Hardware Specifications

Pioneer Edition FreedomBox Home Server is based on A20-OLinuXino-LIME2.

  • Open Source Hardware (OSHW): Yes

  • CPU: Allwinner A20, ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1GHz dual-core
  • RAM: 1 GiB DDR3
  • Storage: 32GB class 10+ microSD card pre-loaded with FreedomBox

  • SATA: 1 SATA port 2.6 compliant 3Gb/s
  • USB: 2 USB 2.0 Hi-Speed host ports
  • Battery: 3.3V Li-Po, 1400mAh (4-5 hours of backup without additional devices connected via USB)
  • Ethernet: 10/100/1000, RJ45 (1 meter cable included)
  • Power adapter: 110-220 V input, 5V output, EU style (with optional UK or US sockets)
  • Power consumption: 1.5W and 5W depending on load (0.3A to 1A current)
  • Box: Custom metallic box with FreedomBox decal

Further information:

The kits run entirely on Free Software. They work with Kernel and u-boot from Debian repositories. Even the boot firmware in ROM called BROM is free software (GPLV2+).

6.5. Storage Add-on

You can order a storage add-on along with the Pioneer Edition FreedomBox Home Server. The storage add-on is a SATA disk drive enclosure case optionally with a hard disk or solid-state drive of size 128GB to 2000GB. If you have already purchased the Home Server without the add-on, you can order the add-on separately.

  • Olimex Store

  • Price: 9 EUR (without the hard disk, only for the case, you need to add your own HDD/SSD to it)
  • Price: 42 EUR (with 128GB Solid-State Drive)
  • Price: 69 EUR (with 512GB Solid-State Drive)
  • Price: 42 EUR (with 320GB Hard Disk)
  • Price: 53 EUR (with 500GB Hard Disk)
  • Price: 64 EUR (with 1000GB Hard Disk)
  • Price: 86 EUR (with 2000GB Hard Disk)

6.6. Download

The kits come with an SD card pre-loaded with FreedomBox. There's NO need to download images.

However, if you wish to reset your devices to a pristine state, then you can do so with the image provided. Follow the instructions on the download page to create a FreedomBox SD card and boot the device. Make sure to download the Pioneer Edition images. These SD card images are meant for use with the on-board SD card slot and won't work when used with a separate SD card reader connected via USB.

An alternative to downloading these images is to install Debian on the device and then install FreedomBox on it.

6.7. Build Image

FreedomBox images for this hardware can be built using Freedom Maker.

6.8. Known Issues

  • The image that shipped with the kits uses a slightly modified u-boot from Debian and not stock Debian like the rest of FreedomBox. So, if you wish to get the source code, please use the FreedomBox team's u-boot repository.

6.9. Obtaining Source Code

After you purchase and receive your Pioneer Edition FreedomBox, you may want to obtain the source code of the software running in it. Continue reading this section for instructions.

FreedomBox is fully free software and you can obtain the source code to study, modify and distribute improvements.

6.9.1. From within FreedomBox

FreedomBox is made up of several software programs and you can obtain the source code to any of them. These instructions are similar to obtaining and building source code for Debian since FreedomBox is a pure blend of Debian. Using this process you can obtain the source code to the exact version of the package you are currently using in FreedomBox.

  1. To see the list of software packages installed on your FreedomBox, run the following in a terminal:

    dpkg -l
  2. To obtain the source code for any of those programs, then run:
    apt source <package_name>

    This requires that the file /etc/apt/sources.list file contains the information about the source code repositories. These are present by default on all FreedomBox images. If you have installed FreedomBox using a package from Debian, you need to ensure that source repositories are added in the file.

  3. To build the package from source code, first install its dependencies
    apt build-dep <package_name>

    Switch to the source directory created by the apt source command:

    cd <source_directory>
    Then build the package
     dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc
  4. Install the package:
     dpkg -i ../<built_package>.deb

6.9.2. Other Ways to Obtain Source Code

  1. Source code for any of the packages can be browsed and searched using the web interface at sources.debian.org. For example, see the plinth package.

  2. Source code and pre-built binary package for any version of a package including historic versions can be obtained from snapshot.debian.org. For example, see the plinth package.

  3. You can also obtain the links to upstream project homepage, upstream version control, Debian's version control, changelog, etc. from the Debian tracker page for a project at tracker.debian.org. For example, see the tracker page for plinth package.

  4. You can build and install a package from its Debian's version control repository. For example,
     git clone https://salsa.debian.org/freedombox-team/freedombox.git
     cd freedombox
     apt build-dep .
     dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -uc
     dpkg -i ../freedombox*.deb

6.9.3. Building Disk Images

You can also build FreedomBox disk images for various hardware platforms using the freedom-maker tool. This is also available as a Debian package and source code for it may be obtained using the above methods. Build instructions for creating disk images are available as part of the source code for freedom-maker package.

FreedomBox disk images are built and uploaded to official servers using automated Continuous Integration infrastructure. This infrastructure is available as source code too and provides accurate information on how FreedomBox images are built.

6.9.4. U-boot on Pioneer Edition Images

There is one minor exception to the u-boot package present on the hardware sold as FreedomBox Home Server Kits Pioneer Edition. It contains an small but important fix that is not part of Debian sources. The fork of the Debian u-boot source repository along with the minor change done by the FreedomBox is available as a separate repository. We expect this change to be available in upstream u-boot eventually and this repository will not be needed. This package can be built on a Debian armhf machine as follows (cross compiling is also possible, simply follow instructions for cross compiling Debian packages):

apt install git git-buildpackage
git clone https://salsa.debian.org/freedombox-team/u-boot.git
cd u-boot
pbuilder create --distribution=buster
gbp buildpackage --git-pbuilder

The u-boot Debian package will be available in u-boot-sunxi*.deb. This package will contain

mkdir temp
dpkg -x u-boot-suxi*.deb temp
unxz <lime2_image_built_with_freedom_maker>
dd if=temp/usr/lib/u-boot/A20-OLinuXino-Lime2/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=<lime2.img> seek=8 bs=1k conv=notrunc

The resulting image will have the modified u-boot in it.

6.10. Power and reset buttons

The Pioneer Edition Kit has 3 undocumented buttons for RESET, BOOT, and POWER. They are legacy features originally designed to be used with Android operating system but are useful in particular cases.

Pioneer Edition Undocumented buttons

Warning: Excessive force will break the buttons. The three buttons are not intended to be pushed regularly, which is why they are fragile and not easily to push.

More details in our Forum.

7. A20 OLinuXino Lime2

A20 OLinuXino Lime2

Olimex's A20 OLinuXino Lime2 is a fully Open Source Hardware (OSHW) single board computer. This means that the designer is actively helping people using the platform for their own designs, and supports them in adding hardware functionality and production advice. This is a part of freedom that is often overlooked, but very much aligned with the FreedomBox goals. It uses the Allwinner A20 Dual Core ARM processor.

Important: Read general advice about hardware before building a FreedomBox with this single board computer.

7.1. Similar Hardware

The following similar hardware will also work well with FreedomBox.

7.2. Download

FreedomBox SD card images are available for this device. Follow the instructions on the download page to create a FreedomBox SD card and boot the device. These SD card images are meant for use with the on-board SD card slot and won't work when used with a separate SD card reader connected via USB.

An alternative to downloading these images is to install Debian on the device and then install FreedomBox on it.

7.3. Availability

  • Price: 45 EUR (A20 OLinuXino Lime2)
  • Price: 55 EUR (A20 OLinuXino Lime2 4GB)
  • Olimex Store

7.4. Hardware

  • Open Source Hardware (OSHW): Yes

  • CPU: Allwinner A20, ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1GHz dual-core
  • RAM: 1 GiB DDR3
  • Storage: 4 GB NAND flash built-in (only on 4GB model), 1x microSD slot
  • Architecture: armhf
  • Ethernet: 10/100/1000, RJ45
  • WiFi: None, use a USB WiFi device

  • SATA: 1x port

7.5. Non-Free Status

  • Non-free blobs required: No
  • WiFi: Not available

  • Boot Firmware: BROM (GPLV2+)

7.6. Known Issues

8. A20 OLinuXino MICRO

A20 OLinuXino MICRO

Olimex's A20 OLinuXino MICRO is a fully Open Source Hardware (OSHW) single board computer. This means that the designer is actively helping people using the platform for their own designs, and supports them in adding hardware functionality and production advice. This is a part of freedom that is often overlooked, but very much aligned with the FreedomBox goals. It uses the Allwinner A20 Dual Core ARM processor.

Important: Read general advice about hardware before building a FreedomBox with this single board computer.

8.1. Similar Hardware

The following similar hardware will also work well with FreedomBox.

8.2. Download

FreedomBox MicroSD card images are available for this device. Follow the instructions on the download page to create a FreedomBox MicroSD card and boot the device. These MicroSD card images are meant for use with the on-board MicroSD card slot and won't work on the SD card slot or when using a separate MicroSD card reader connected via USB.

An alternative to downloading these images is to install Debian on the device and then install FreedomBox on it.

8.3. Availability

  • Price: 50 EUR (A20 OLinuXino MICRO)
  • Price: 63 EUR (A20 OLinuXino MICRO 4GB)
  • Olimex Store

8.4. Hardware

  • Open Source Hardware (OSHW): Yes

  • CPU: Allwinner A20, ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1GHz dual-core
  • RAM: 1 GiB DDR3
  • Storage: 4 GB NAND flash built-in (only on 4GB model), 1x microSD slot
  • Architecture: armhf
  • Ethernet: 10/100, RJ45
  • WiFi: None, use a USB WiFi device

  • SATA: 1x port

8.5. Non-Free Status

  • Non-free blobs required: No
  • WiFi: Not available

  • Boot Firmware: BROM (GPLV2+)

8.6. Known Issues

  • Not visible on local network
  • When booting the 'stable' image (made on 2017-06-18) the board does not automatically get an IP address from the router's DHCP server over ethernet. Booting the 'testing' image (2018-06) the board does get an IP address. Tested on MICRO hardware revision J. see also: https://www.olimex.com/forum/index.php?topic=5839.msg24167#msg24167

9. APU

PC Engines APU 1D

PC Engines APU 1D is a single board computer with 3 Gigabit ethernet ports, a powerful AMD APU and Coreboot firmware. FreedomBox images built for AMD64 machines are tested to work well for it.

Important: Read general advice about hardware before building a FreedomBox with this single board computer.

9.1. Similar Hardware

Although untested, the following similar hardware is also likely to work well with FreedomBox.

9.2. Download

FreedomBox disk images for this hardware are available. Follow the instructions on the download page to create a FreedomBox SD card, USB disk, SSD or hard drive and boot into FreedomBox. Pick the image meant for all amd64 machines.

An alternative to downloading these images is to install Debian on the APU and then install FreedomBox on it.

9.3. Networking

The first network port, the left most one in the above picture, is configured by FreedomBox to be an upstream Internet link and the remaining 2 ports are configured for local computers to connect to.

9.4. Availability

9.5. Hardware

  • Open Hardware: No
  • CPU: AMD G series T40E

  • RAM: 2 GB DDR3-1066 DRAM
  • Storage: SD card, External USB
  • Architecture: amd64
  • Ethernet: 3 Gigabit Ethernet ports
  • WiFi: None, use a USB WiFi device

  • SATA: 1 m-SATA and 1 SATA

9.6. Non-Free Status

  • Non-free blobs required: No
  • WiFi: Not available

  • Boot firmware: Coreboot

10. Cubietruck

10.1. FreedomBox Danube Edition

FreedomBox Danube Edition

FreedomBox Danube Edition is a custom casing around Cubietruck and an SSD-hard drive.

10.2. Cubietruck / Cubieboard3

Cubietruck (Cubieboard3) is a single board computer with very good performance compared to many other boards. FreedomBox images are built for this device.

Important: Read general advice about hardware before building a FreedomBox with this single board computer.

10.3. Download

FreedomBox SD card images are provided for this hardware. These SD card images are meant for use with the on-board SD card slot and do not work when used with a separate SD card reader connected via USB.

An alternative to downloading these images is to install Debian on the Cubietruck and then install FreedomBox on it.

10.4. Availability

Cubietruck / Cubieboard3

10.5. Hardware

  • Open Hardware: No
  • CPU: Allwinner A20, ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1GHz dual-core
  • RAM: 2 GiB DDR3 @ 480 MHz
  • Storage: 8 GB NAND flash built-in, 1x microSD slot
  • Architecture: armhf
  • Ethernet: 10/100/1000, RJ45
  • WiFi: Broadcom BCM4329/BCM40181 (no free WiFi drivers + firmware available)

  • SATA: 1x 2.0 port

10.6. Non-Free Status

  • Non-free blobs required: ?
  • WiFi: no free WiFi drivers + firmware available

10.7. Known Issues

  • The on-board WiFi does not work with free software. A separate USB WiFi device is recommended.

11. Cubieboard 2

Cubieboard 2

The Cubieboard 2 is a single board computer based on the Allwinner A20 processor. It doesn't require any non-free firmware to run FreedomBox, and Wifi capability can be added via a USB adaptor if needed. This board is available in two versions, one with on-board flash and a microSD slot, and a version with two microSD card slots.

Important: Read general advice about hardware before building a FreedomBox with this single board computer.

11.1. Download

FreedomBox SD card images are available for this device. Follow the instructions on the download page to create a FreedomBox SD card and boot the device.

11.2. Availability

11.3. Hardware

  • CPU: ARM Cortex A7 Dual-Core
  • RAM: 1GB DDR3 @960M
  • Storage: 4GB internal NAND flash, up to 64GB on uSD slot
  • Architecture: armhf
  • Ethernet: 10/100, RJ45
  • WiFi: None, use a USB WiFi device

  • SATA: Yes

11.4. Non-Free Status

  • Non-free blobs required: No
  • WiFi: Not available

12. Beagle Bone Black

Beagle Bone Black

Beagle Bone Black (Revision C.1) is an Open Source Hardware (OSHW) single board computer. This means that the designer is actively helping people using the platform for their own designs, and supports them in adding hardware functionality and production advice. This is a part of freedom that is often overlooked, but very much aligned with the FreedomBox goals. FreedomBox images are built and tested for this device.

Important: Read general advice about hardware before building a FreedomBox with this single board computer.

12.1. Download

FreedomBox SD card images are available for this device. Follow the instructions on the download page to create a FreedomBox SD card and boot the device.

Note: This image is for BeagleBone Black (Revision C.1) only. It will not work on the BeagleBone Green, and also not on the Revisions A & B.

An alternative to downloading these images is to install Debian on the BeagleBone and then install FreedomBox on it.

12.2. Availability

12.3. Hardware

  • Open Source Hardware (OSHW): Yes

  • CPU: AM335x 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8

  • RAM: 512MB DDR3L 800 Mhz
  • Storage: Onboard 4GB, 8bit Embedded MMC and microSD
  • Architecture: armhf
  • Ethernet: 10/100, RJ45
  • WiFi: None, use a USB WiFi device

  • SATA: None

12.4. Non-Free Status

  • Non-free blobs required: No
  • WiFi: Not available

13. pcDuino3

LinkSprite pcDuino3S

LinkSprite pcDuino3S is a single board computer running on Allwinner A20 and sold with a good case. FreedomBox images are built and tested for this device.

Note: The FreedomBox logo is simply a sticker on top of device brought from store.

Important: Read general advice about hardware before building a FreedomBox with this single board computer.

13.1. Similar Hardware

Although untested, the following similar hardware is also likely to work well with FreedomBox.

13.2. Download

FreedomBox disk images for this hardware are available. Follow the instructions on the download page to create a FreedomBox SD card, USB disk, SSD or hard drive and boot into FreedomBox. Pick the image meant for pcduino3.

An alternative to downloading these images is to install Debian on the APU and then install FreedomBox on it.

13.3. Availability

13.4. Hardware

  • Open Hardware: No
  • CPU: AllWinner A20 SoC, 1GHz ARM Cortex A7 Dual Core

  • RAM: 1 GB
  • Storage: SD card, 4 GB onboard flash
  • Architecture: armhf
  • Ethernet: 10/100 Mbps
  • WiFi: Built-in WiFi requires non-free firmware, use a USB WiFi device instead

  • SATA: 1 SATA host socket

13.5. Non-Free Status

  • Non-free blobs required: No
  • WiFi: Requires non-free firmware

  • Boot Firmware: BROM (GPLV2+)

14. Debian

FreedomBox is a pure blend of Debian. This means that all the work on FreedomBox is available in Debian as packages. It also means that any machine running Debian can be turned into a FreedomBox.

This page describes the process of installing FreedomBox on a Debian system. Currently, FreedomBox works in Debian Stable (bookworm), Testing (trixie), and Unstable (sid).

Important: Read general advice about hardware before building a FreedomBox with this approach.

Use a fresh Debian installation

Installing FreedomBox changes your Debian system in many important ways. This includes installing a firewall and regenerating server certificates. It is hence recommended that you install FreedomBox on a fresh Debian installation instead of an existing setup.

14.1. Installing on Debian 12 (bookworm) or newer

Check the Troubleshooting section below, for any tips or workarounds that might help during the install.

  1. Install Debian 12 (bookworm), or Unstable (sid) on your hardware.

  2. Update your package list.
    $ sudo apt-get update
  3. Install freedombox package.

    $ sudo DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install freedombox
    • The "DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive" will avoid several configuration prompts that would otherwise appear during the install.
  4. During the installation, you will be provided a secret key that needs to be entered during the initial configuration process. Note this down. The secret can also be read at a later time from the file /var/lib/plinth/firstboot-wizard-secret.

  5. You can start using FreedomBox. During initial wizard, you will need to enter the secret noted above.

14.2. Tips and Troubleshooting

  1. FreedomBox uses NetworkManager to manage network configuration. If you have configured your network interfaces using Debian installer or by editing /etc/network/interfaces, FreedomBox will not manage those interfaces. (See bug #797614.) To let FreedomBox/NetworkManager manage your network interfaces, edit the /etc/network/interfaces manually and ensure that it contains only the following:

    auto lo
    iface lo inet loopback

    If you have already completed the setup process without doing this step, you will need to clear out the /etc/network/interfaces file keeping only the above lines. Then perform a reboot. Network interfaces will then be in the internal or external firewall zone. This is essential for the FreedomBox's web interface to be reachable from other machines in the network. You can tweak network manager connections with the nmtui command if you wish.

  2. FreedomBox will use an automatically configured IP address by default. You can assign a static IP address if necessary. Network configuration changes can be done using FreedomBox web interface or by using the nmtui or nmcli commands. nmcli can be used as follows:

      nmcli con mod "Ethernet connection 1"  \
      ipv4.addresses A.A.A.A/X  \
      ipv4.gateway G.G.G.G  \
      ipv4.dns N.N.N.N  \
      ipv4.dns-search somedomain.com  \
      ipv4.method "manual"  \
      ipv4.ignore-auto-dns yes  \
      ipv6.method ignore
  3. ..with the block capitals and somedomain.com replaced with your actual address, mask description, gateway and dns server details.

15. VirtualBox

VirtualBox

This page will help you get started with using FreedomBox on a virtual machine using VirtualBox. While VirtualBox images are primarily used for testing and development, they can also be used for regular use if you have spare resources on one of your machines. This setup is useful if:

  • You don't own one of the supported hardware devices.

  • You don't use Debian GNU/Linux as your operating system.
  • You don't want to disturb your Debian installation to try out FreedomBox.

Prebuilt FreedomBox images for VirtualBox are routinely made available in VirtualBox's own VDI image file format. They contain a Debian GNU/Linux operating system and an installation of FreedomBox with all dependencies ready to run on any OS supported by VirtualBox (Windows, Linux, Macintosh, and Solaris).

A more adventurous alternative to downloading one of these images is to install Debian on VirtualBox and then install FreedomBox on it.

VirtualBox itself is available from https://www.virtualbox.org/ (or your distribution's package manager).

15.1. Download

Follow the instructions on the download page to download and verify a VirtualBox image. The latest images are available on freedombox.org.

15.2. Creating a Virtual Machine

  1. Decompress the downloaded VDI image (tool for Windows, Mac).

  2. Create a new VM in the VirtualBox UI with OS type Linux and Version Debian (32/64-bit according to the downloaded image).

VirtualBox Name and OS dialog

  1. In the Hard disk dialog choose Use an existing virtual hard disk file and select the .vdi file you extracted in step 1.

VirtualBox Hard disk dialog

  1. When created, go to the virtual machine's Settings -> [Network] -> [Adapter 1]->[Attached to:] and choose the network type your want the machine to use according to the explanation in Network Configuration below. The recommended type is the Bridged adapter option, but be aware that this exposes the FreedomBox's services to your entire local network.

VirtualBox recommended network setting

Note: It is important to make sure that you have provided the correct network interface in the above step. For example, if the virtual machine is running on a laptop connected to a Wi-Fi network, then the wireless interface (starts with wlp) must be chosen as shown in the screenshot.

15.3. First Boot

When satisfied with the VM settings click the start button in the VirtualBox UI and your new FreedomBox will boot.

The console of the VM will show the textual screen below when finished booting, from here most interaction with FreedomBox will be through the web interface in a browser.

FreedomBox console after booting successfully

If everything went well so far, you should be able to access the web interface of FreedomBox by pointing a browser on the host machine to https://freedombox.local.

In case freedombox.local cannot be resolved, you need to find out your FreedomBox's IP address as described in Finding out the IP address of the virtual machine. Then access this IP from a web browser which is on the same network as the VM (for example, the host). If all is well, you are now presented with a welcome message and invited to complete the first boot process.

FreedomBox welcomes you to the first boot

This mainly consist of creating an administrative user for the system.

15.4. Using

See the FreedomBox usage page for more details.

You can log in to the Debian GNU/Linux system as the user created during FreedomBox first boot on the VirtualBox console or remotely via ssh.

After logging in, you can become root with the command sudo su.

15.5. Build Image

If you wish to build your own images instead of downloading available images, it can be done using Freedom Maker.

15.6. Tips & Troubleshooting

15.6.1. Network Configuration

VirtualBox provides many types of networking options. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. For more information about how various networking types work in VirtualBox, see VirtualBox's networking documentation. https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch06.html

For a simple setup, it is recommended that you use a single network interface in your guest machine. This will make the first boot script automatically configure that interface as an internal network with automatic network configuration. Inside the guest machine, the networking is configured automatically and all the services are made available on this network interface. For more information on how networks are configured by default in FreedomBox, see Networks section.

What remains is to make those services available to the host machine or to other machines in the network. You must then choose one of the following types of networking for the network interface on your guest machine. To set a particular type of network for the guest's network adapter, go to the guest VM's settings then the network options and then select the adapter you wish to configure. There, set the network type from the available list of networks.

  1. First and the recommended option is to use the Bridged type of network. This option exposes the guest machine to the same network that host network is connected to. The guest obtains network configuration information from a router or DHCP server on the network. The guest will appear as just another machine in the network. A major advantage of this of setup is that the host and all other machines in the network will be able to access the services provided by guest without requiring any further setup. The only drawback of this approach is that if the host is not connected to any network, the guest's network will remain unconfigured making it inaccessible even from the host.

  2. Second method is Host only type of networking. With a guest's network interface configured in this manner, it will only be accessible from the host machine. The guest will not able access any other machine but the host, so you do not have internet access on the guest. All services on the guest are available to the host machine without any configuration such as port forwarding.

  3. The third option is to use the NAT type of network. This the networking type that VirtualBox assigns to a freshly created virtual machine. This option works even when host is not connected to any network. The guest is automatically configured and is able to access the internet and local networks that host is able to connect to. However, the services provided by the guest require port forwarding configuration setup to be available outside.

    To configure this go to VM settings -> [Network] -> [Adapter] -> [Port Forwarding]. Map a port such as 2222 from host to guest port 22 and you will be able to ssh into FreedomBox from host machine as follows:

     ssh -p 2222 fbx@localhost

    Map 4443 on host to 443 on the guest. This make FreedomBox HTTPS service available on host using the URL https://localhost:4443/ You will need to add a mapping for each such services from host to guest.

  4. The final option is to create two network interfaces, one host only and one NAT type. This way you can access the guest without any additional configuration, and you have internet access on the guest. The guest will be invisible to any other machines on the network.

Summary of various network types:

-

Guest accessible from other machines

Guest accessible from host

Works without port forwarding

Works without host connected to network

Guest has internet access

Bridged

(./)

(./)

(./)

{X}

(./)

Host only

{X}

(./)

(./)

(./)

{X}

NAT

(./)

(./)

{X}

(./)

(./)

NAT and Host

{X}

(./)

(./)

(./)

(./)

15.6.2. Finding out the IP address of the virtual machine

This depends on the network configuration you chose. With a bridged adapter, your virtual machine gets its IP address from the DHCP server of your network, most likely of your Router. You can try the first couple of IP addresses or check your router web interface for a list of connected devices.

If you chose host-only adapter, the IP address is assigned by the DHCP server of your VirtualBox network. In the VirtualBox Manager, go to File -> Preferences -> Network -> Host-only Networks. You can see and edit the DHCP address range there, typically you get assigned addresses close to the Lower Address Bound.

Another possibility of finding the IP address is to login via the VirtualBox Manager (or similar software). The FreedomBox images do not have any default user accounts, so you need to set an initial user and password using the passwd-in-image script.

See also QuickStart for instructions on how to scan your network to discover the IP of the VM.

15.6.3. Networking Problems with macchanger

The package macchanger can cause network problems with VirtualBox. If you have a valid IP address on your guest's host network adapter (like 192.168.56.101) but are not able to ping or access the host (like 192.168.56.1), try uninstalling macchanger:

$ dpkg --ignore-depends=freedombox-setup --remove macchanger 

You might have to manually remove the script /etc/network/if-prep-up/macchanger. If Debian complains about unmet dependencies when you use a package manager (apt-get, aptitude, dpkg), try to remove 'macchanger' from the dependencies of 'freedombox-setup' in the file /var/lib/dpkg/status.

15.6.4. Mounting Images Locally

If you want to mount images locally, use the following to copy built images off the VirtualBox:

$ mkdir /tmp/vbox-img1 /tmp/vbox-root1
$ vdfuse -f freedombox-unstable_2013.0519_virtualbox-i386-hdd.vdi /tmp/vbox-img1/
$ sudo mount -o loop /tmp/vbox-img1/Partition1 /tmp/vbox-root1
$ cp /tmp/vbox-root1/home/fbx/freedom-maker/build/freedom*vdi ~/
$ sudo umount /tmp/vbox-root1
# $ sudo umount /tmp/vbox-img1 # corruption here.

15.6.5. Fixing the time after suspend and resume

The virtual machine loses the correct time/date after suspending and resuming. One way to fix this is to create a cron-job that restarts the time service ntp. You can add a crontab entry as root to restart ntp every 15 minutes by typing 'crontab -e' and adding this line:

*/15 * *   *   *     /etc/init.d/ntp restart

Do not restart this service too often as this increases the load of publicly and freely available NTP servers.

15.6.6. UUID collision in VB

Whenever this happens VirtualBox shows following error message: Cannot register the hard disk A with UUID ... because a hard disk B with UUID ... already exists in the media registry

Creating several VMs from the same image causes collisions due to ID's (hostname, IP, UUID, etc) that are expected to be universally unique. Most can be handeled operating the running VM. But VirtualBox complains before that (at the very creation of the VM) about the hard disk's UUID. This is usual stuff when you develop/test e.g. FreedomBox.

You can change a clone's UUID in the terminal as follows:

$ VBoxManage internalcommands sethduuid path/to/the/hd/vdi/file

16. Pine A64+

Pine 64+

Pine A64+ is an affordable single board computer with good performance.

Important: Read general advice about hardware before building a FreedomBox with this single board computer.

16.1. Similar Hardware

  • Both 1GB and 2GB versions of Pine A64+ are supported with the same FreedomBox image.

  • There is a separate Pine A64-LTS image.

16.2. Download

FreedomBox SD card images for this hardware are available. Follow the instructions on the download page to create a FreedomBox SD card and boot into FreedomBox. Pick the image meant for Pine A64+.

An alternative to downloading these images is to install Debian on the device and then install FreedomBox on it.

16.3. Availability

16.4. Hardware

  • Open Source Hardware (OSHW): No
  • CPU: Allwinner A64, Quad-core ARM Cortex A53 64-bit processor
  • RAM: 3 variants - 512 MB (not recommended), 1 GB and 2 GB (recommended)
  • Storage: SD card, eMMC (module sold separately but not tested wit