[Freedombox-discuss] Wirelessly connecting two FreedomBox machines

[Sunil Mohan Adapa]

On 29/04/20 7:35 am, Marko Dimjašević via Freedombox-discuss wrote:
> Dear FreedomBoxers,
> 
> I was wondering if it was possible to set up two FreedomBox machines in
> such a way that they form a wireless network and for both of them to
> provide access to other devices. Here is a setup that I have and my
> remaining plans.
> 
> On the first machine I installed FreedomBox 20.7. It has 3 Ethernet
> interfaces and one wireless interface. Via its USB port it is connected to
> a modem that provides Internet connectivity. The WiFi interface currently
> acts as an access point for the home network. I am planning to add a
> printer via one of the Ethernet ports so it is available to other devices
> connected to the network.
> 
> Then there is the second machine with identical hardware to the first one.
> I also installed FreedomBox 20.7 on it. This machine is located at the
> opposite corner of my apartment to the first machine and it can't connect
> via Ethernet to the first machine. I want to add this second machine to the
> same WiFi home network and for it to also serve as an access point for
> other wireless devices (it does not have to be a DHCP server).
> 
> How do I achieve this wireless connection between the two FreedomBoxes? 
> 
> Would that be a mesh network? I attempted to follow instructions for
> creating and joining a mesh network available at the Debian Wiki [1], but
> to no avail: after creating a wireless connection in the ad-hoc mode in the
> 1st step, there is no bat0 interface to use for the 2nd step. Do I have to
> install Debian's batmand package first and configure it on my own?
> 
> 
> [1] https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Networks

The BATMAN mesh setup in FreedomBox is not very robust. You might be
able better off configuring manually from command line with this.

Network manager logs on why the first step failed would be very helpful
to debug.

The easiest solution would be to add a second Wi-Fi adapter to the
second FreedomBox. One adapter would connect as a client and the other
would be configured as a Wi-Fi access point.

Thanks,

-- 
Sunil

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