.. _using-main: ****************************** Using Reticulum on Your System ****************************** Reticulum is not installed as a driver or kernel module, as one might expect of a networking stack. Instead, Reticulum is distributed as a Python module. This means that no special privileges are required to install or use it. Any program or application that uses Reticulum will automatically load and initialise Reticulum when it starts. In many cases, this approach is sufficient. When any program needs to use Reticulum, it is loaded, initialised, interfaces are brought up, and the program can now communicate over Reticulum. If another program starts up and also wants access to the same Reticulum network, the instance is simply shared. This works for any number of programs running concurrently, and is very easy to use, but depending on your use case, there are other options. Included Utility Programs ------------------------- If you often use Reticulum from several different programs, or simply want Reticulum to stay available all the time, for example if you are hosting a transport node, you might want to run Reticulum as a separate service that other programs, applications and services can utilise. The rnsd Utility ================ To do so is very easy. Simply run the included ``rnsd`` command. When ``rnsd`` is running, it will keep all configured interfaces open, handle transport if it is enabled, and allow any other programs to immediately utilise the Reticulum network it is configured for. You can even run multiple instances of rnsd with different configurations on the same system. .. code:: text # Install Reticulum pip3 install rns # Run rnsd rnsd .. code:: text usage: rnsd [-h] [--config CONFIG] [-v] [-q] [--version] Reticulum Network Stack Daemon optional arguments: -h, --help show this help message and exit --config CONFIG path to alternative Reticulum config directory -v, --verbose -q, --quiet --version show program's version number and exit You can easily add ``rnsd`` as an always-on service by :ref:`configuring a service`. The rnstatus Utility ==================== Using the ``rnstatus`` utility, you can view the status of configured Reticulum interfaces, similar to the ``ifconfig`` program. .. code:: text # Run rnstatus rnstatus # Example output Shared Instance[37428] Status: Up Connected applications: 1 RX: 1.13 KB TX: 1.07 KB UDPInterface[Default UDP Interface/0.0.0.0:4242] Status: Up RX: 1.01 KB TX: 1.01 KB TCPInterface[RNS Testnet Frankfurt/frankfurt.rns.unsigned.io:4965] Status: Up RX: 1.37 KB TX: 9.02 KB .. code:: text usage: rnsd [-h] [--config CONFIG] [-v] [-q] [--version] Reticulum Network Stack Daemon optional arguments: -h, --help show this help message and exit --config CONFIG path to alternative Reticulum config directory -v, --verbose -q, --quiet --version show program's version number and exit The rnpath Utility ==================== With the ``rnpath`` utility, you can look up and view paths for destinations on the Reticulum network. .. code:: text # Run rnpath rnpath eca6f4e4dc26ae329e61 # Example output Path found, destination is 4 hops away via <56b115c30cd386cad69c> on TCPInterface[Testnet/frankfurt.rns.unsigned.io:4965] .. code:: text usage: rnpath.py [-h] [--config CONFIG] [--version] [-v] [destination] Reticulum Path Discovery Utility positional arguments: destination hexadecimal hash of the destination optional arguments: -h, --help show this help message and exit --config CONFIG path to alternative Reticulum config directory --version show program's version number and exit -v, --verbose The rnprobe Utility ==================== The ``rnprobe`` utility lets you probe a destination for connectivity, similar to the ``ping`` program. Please note that probes will only be answered if the specified destination is configured to send proofs for received packets. Many destinations will not have this option enabled, and will not be probable. .. code:: text # Run rnprobe python3 -m RNS.Utilities.rnprobe example_utilities.echo.request 9382f334de63217a4278 # Example output Sent 16 byte probe to <9382f334de63217a4278> Valid reply received from <9382f334de63217a4278> Round-trip time is 38.469 milliseconds over 2 hops .. code:: text usage: rnprobe.py [-h] [--config CONFIG] [--version] [-v] [full_name] [destination_hash] Reticulum Probe Utility positional arguments: full_name full destination name in dotted notation destination_hash hexadecimal hash of the destination optional arguments: -h, --help show this help message and exit --config CONFIG path to alternative Reticulum config directory --version show program's version number and exit -v, --verbose Improving System Configuration ------------------------------ If you are setting up a system for permanent use with Reticulum, there is a few system configuration changes that can make this easier to administrate. These changes will be detailed here. Fixed Serial Port Names ======================= On a Reticulum node with several serial port based interfaces, it can be beneficial to use the fixed name device nodes for the serial ports, instead of the dynamically allocated shorthands such as ``/dev/ttyUSB0``. Under most Debian-based distributions, including Ubuntu and Raspberry Pi OS, these nodes can be found under ``/dev/serial/by-id``. You can use such a device path directly in place of the numbered shorthands. Here is an example of a packet radio TNC configured as such: .. code:: text [[Packet Radio KISS Interface]] type = KISSInterface interface_enabled = True outgoing = true port = /dev/serial/by-id/usb-FTDI_FT230X_Basic_UART_43891CKM-if00-port0 speed = 115200 databits = 8 parity = none stopbits = 1 preamble = 150 txtail = 10 persistence = 200 slottime = 20 Using this methodology avoids potential naming mix-ups where physical devices might be plugged and unplugged in different orders, or when node name assignment varies from one boot to another. .. _using-systemd: Reticulum as a System Service ============================= Instead of starting Reticulum manually, you can install ``rnsd`` as a system service and have it start automatically at boot. If you installed Reticulum with ``pip``, the ``rnsd`` program will most likely be located in a user-local installation path only, which means ``systemd`` will not be able to execute it. In this case, you can simply symlink the ``rnsd`` program into a directory that is in systemd's path: .. code:: text sudo ln -s $(which rnsd) /usr/local/bin/ You can then create the service file ``/etc/systemd/system/rnsd.service`` with the following content: .. code:: text [Unit] Description=Reticulum Network Stack Daemon After=multi-user.target [Service] Type=simple Restart=always RestartSec=3 User=USERNAMEHERE ExecStart=rnsd --service # If you run Reticulum on WiFi devices, # or other devices that need some extra # time to initialise, you might want to # add a short delay before Reticulum is # started: # ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 5 [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target Be sure to replace ``USERNAMEHERE`` with the user you want to run ``rnsd`` as. To manually start ``rnsd`` run: .. code:: text sudo systemctl start rnsd If you want to automatically start ``rnsd`` at boot, run: .. code:: text sudo systemctl enable rnsd