danmox / adhoc-config

Scripts for configuring wireless interfaces in IBSS (adhoc) mode in linux

adhoc-config

Scripts for configuring wireless interfaces in IBSS (adhoc) mode in linux

Installation

Renaming wireless interface

The network interface names Linux automatically assigns can be rather cryptic. You can rename your adapter to something simpler (e.g. wifi2) by executing:

rename_interface.sh <old-name> <new-name>

You will need to unplug/re-plug your USB interface after executing this command or restart your system if it is PCI based.

Configuration

The config.sh script automates the steps required to configure a wireless interface in IBSS (adhoc) mode. To summarize one must:

1. Ensure that the desired interface is not being controlled by NetworkManager (the network configuration utility used in Ubuntu and most systems based on the gnome desktop environment)
2. Install a system service that automatically configures the interface in adhoc mode on system start
3. Generate a config file for systemd-networkd so that it automatically assigns the desired IP address on network creation (and optionally a forwarding address for internet passthrough)
4. Install a config file to be used with wpa_supplicant for network association and maintenance

config.sh should be executed as follows:

config.sh <wireless-interface> <node-id>

where <node-id> is a unique number that will become the last digits of the IP address assigned to the interface (i.e. 192.168.0.<node-id>). Note that the user must ensure that <node-id> is unique for each node they configure.

Special Cases

The main system service to be used on adhoc network nodes is [email protected]. config.sh is automatically configured to install this script. There are a few other system services that can be used to handle special cases:

• [email protected]: configures internet passthrough for a "host" node that is connected to the internet via a separate network interface
• [email protected]: configures internet passthrough for a "host" node that is connected to the internet via a separate network interface and is also running docker

Note that additional configuration steps must be executed on the other non-host adhoc nodes in order to take advantage of internet passthrough.

Next Steps

After executing config.sh you will have a functioning adhoc network. Each node will be able to communicate directly with any other node in the network that is within range. In other words, each node employs a direct routing approach by default. In order to perform multi-hop routing, a routing protocol such as B.A.T.M.A.N or babel must be configured on top of the existing adhoc network.