Initial Node Setup
Our goals
Welcome Node Steward. We’re going to walk through setting up your first node. Our goal is to keep this fairly simple, so this node will use simple hardware that can be expanded later. This first LoRes Node won’t have any applications installed, but when we get it working, we can install our first application in the next section, Kiwix Library.
To do this we want to:
- Setup a linux server on a Raspberry Pi (or other compatible computer)
- Ensure that we have secure access
- Get setup to install web apps
- Install and setup the lores-node app that we’ll use to manage our node
- Connect to a region of other nodes
Non goals
To keep things quick for this initial setup, we are not going to:
- Power your node with a battery, so initially it will only work if the internet is down, not if you’ve lost power.
- Connect using LoRa or other radio technology, that comes later
What you’ll need
This is an opinionated tutorial, so while most of these requirements have alternatives, for this documentation we’re going to assume you have the following.
- A computer that you’ll work from, which we’ll call your Dev Computer
- A Raspberry Pi 5 with case and power supply.
- A MicroSD card, at least 64GB. Empty is best, no need to buy one advertised as specifically for the Pi.
- A MicroSD card reader, sometimes found built into laptops or cheaply available as a USB accessory
- A local wifi network, presumably with password to access it
- Internet access available on your wifi, at least during this setup phase
We’re also going to assume for the moment that your dev computer is running Linux. In practice this probably isn’t strictly necessary, but it makes our instructions a bit simpler.
What you’re learn
Setting up this node will touch on a range of skills, which are also useful outside of this project. You’ll learn about:
- Ubuntu Linux - a common and beginner-friendly flavour of Linux
- Co-op Cloud - a software stack for hosting web apps built by a federation of tech co-ops
Sound good? Let’s get started.