Sideband

Sideband is an extensible LXMF messaging client, situational awareness tracker and remote control and monitoring system for Android, Linux, macOS and Windows. It allows you to communicate with other people or LXMF-compatible systems over Reticulum networks using LoRa, Packet Radio, WiFi, I2P, Encrypted QR Paper Messages, or anything else Reticulum supports.

Sideband is completely free, end-to-end encrypted, permission-less, anonymous and infrastructure-less. Sideband uses the peer-to-peer and distributed messaging system LXMF. There is no sign-up, no service providers, no "end-user license agreements", no data theft and no surveillance. You own the system.

This also means that Sideband operates differently than what you might be used to. It does not need a connection to a server on the Internet to function, and you do not have an account anywhere. Please read the Guide section included in the program, to get an understanding of how Sideband differs from other messaging systems.

Sideband provides many useful and interesting functions, such as:

• Secure and self-sovereign messaging using the LXMF protocol over Reticulum.
• Image and file transfers over all supported mediums.
• Audio messages that work even over LoRa and radio links, thanks to Codec2 and Opus encoding.
• Secure and direct P2P telemetry and location sharing. No third parties or servers ever have your data.
• Situation display on both online and locally stored offline maps.
• Geospatial awareness calculations.
• Exchanging messages through encrypted QR-codes on paper, or through messages embedded directly in lxm:// links.
• Using Android devices as impromptu Reticulum routers (Transport Instances), for setting up or extending networks easily.
• Remote command execution and response engine, with built-in commands, such as ping, signal reports and echo, and full plug-ing expandability.
• Remote telemetry querying, with strong, secure and cryptographically robust authentication and control.
• Plugin system that allows you to easily create your own commands, services and telemetry sources.

Sideband is fully compatible with other LXMF clients, such as MeshChat, and Nomad Network. The Nomad Network client also allows you to easily host Propagation Nodes for your LXMF network, and more.

Installation On Android

For your Android devices, you can install Sideband through F-Droid, by adding the Between the Borders Repo, or you can download an APK on the latest release page. Both sources are signed with the same release keys, and can be used interchangably.

After the application is installed on your Android device, it is also possible to pull updates directly through the Repository section of the application.

Installation On Linux

On all Linux-based operating systems, Sideband is available as a pip package. This installation method includes desktop integration, so that Sideband will show up in your applications menu and launchers.

Depending on your system, you may need to install the python-pyaudio or python3-pyaudio package for audio messaging support. Make sure you have Python and pip installed (default on most modern distributions), and run:

# Depending on your distribution, you may
# need to install the pyaudio, xclip and
# xsel packages via the package manager
# included in your distribution, using a
# command such one of the following:

pamac install python-pyaudio xclip xsel     # Manjaro
sudo pacman -Sy python-pyaudio xclip xsel   # Arch
sudo apt install python3-pyaudio xclip xsel # Debian and derivatives

# Install the Sideband application:
pip install sbapp

# Or, if pip is externally managed:
pip install sbapp --break-system-packages

# If you intend to run Sideband in headless
# daemon mode, you can also install it without
# any of the normal UI dependencies:
pip install sbapp --no-dependencies

# In this case, you will still need to manually
# install the minimum RNS and LXMF dependencies:
pip install rns lxmf

Please Note! If you are using an operating system that blocks normal user package installation via pip, it's easy to permanently return pip to normal behaviour by editing the ~/.config/pip/pip.conf file, and adding the following directive in the [global] section:

[global]
break-system-packages = true

You can also simply add the --break-system-packages directive on a per-installation basis. For example, on a system that blocks normal user package installation, you can install Sideband by running pip install sbapp --break-system-packages.

After installation is complete, you can either run Sideband from your launcher or applications menu, or from the command line:

# Find the Sideband application in your launcher,
# or run it directly from the command line:
sideband

# You can also run Sideband with more verbose
# log output enabled:
sideband -v

# You can also run Sideband in headless daemon
# mode, for example as a telemetry collector:
sideband --daemon

Installation On macOS

A DMG file containing a macOS app bundle is available on the latest release page.

Alternatively, you can install Sideband with pip3 on macOS:

# Install Sideband and dependencies on macOS:
pip3 install sbapp

# Run it:
python3 -m sbapp.main

# If you add your pip install location to
# the PATH environment variable, you can
# also run Sideband simply using:
sideband

If you have not already installed Python and pip3 on your macOS system, download and install the latest version first.

Installation On Windows

Even though there is currently not an automated installer, or packaged .exe file for Sideband on Windows, you can still install it through pip. If you don't already have Python installed, download and install the latest version of Python.

Important! When asked by the installer, make sure to add the Python program to your PATH environment variables. If you don't do this, you will not be able to use the pip installer, or run the sideband command.

When Python has been installed, you can open a command prompt and install sideband via pip:

pip install sbapp

The Sideband application can now be launched by running the command sideband in the command prompt. If needed, you can create a shortcut for Sideband on your desktop or in the start menu.

When running Sideband for the first time, a default Reticulum configuration file will be created, if you don't already have one. If you don't have any existing Reticulum connectivity available locally, you may want to edit the file, located at C:\Users\USERNAME\.reticulum\config and manually add an interface that provides connectivity to a wider network. If you just want to connect over the Internet, you can add one of the public hubs on the Reticulum Testnet.

Installation With pipx

While I wouldn't generally recommend it, you can use the pipx tool to install Sideband, but on Linux you will have to launch Sideband from the command line, or create your own launcher links, since pipx does not support desktop integration. Unfortunately, it does not seem like pipx will be adding desktop integration in the near future, so restoring the original pip tool to its proper behaviour is recommended for now.

The pipx installer also has trouble with including distribution-installed Python packages, so you will need to install additional packages on your system that will allow pipx to build required dependencies from source. In general, it will require a working build environment and header files for PortAudio. On Debian and derivatives, this would look something like sudo apt install build-essential portaudio19-dev. On Manjaro you would want something like pamac install base-devel portaudio.

If you want to use pipx anyway, and after the necessary dependencies are installed, you can simply do:

# Install Sideband on Linux:
pipx install sbapp

# Install Sideband on macOS:
pipx install "sbapp[macos]"

# Optionally install Reticulum utilities:
pipx install rns

# Optionally install standalone LXMF utilities:
pipx install lxmf

Example Paper Message

You can try out the paper messaging functionality by using the following QR-code. It is a paper message sent to the LXMF address 6b3362bd2c1dbf87b66a85f79a8d8c75. To be able to decrypt and read the message, you will need to import the following base32-encoded Reticulum Identity into the app:

3BPTDTQCRZPKJT3TXAJCMQFMOYWIM3OCLKPWMG4HCF2T4CH3YZHVNHNRDU6QAZWV2KBHMWBNT2C62TQEVC5GLFM4MN25VLZFSK3ADRQ=

You can import the identity into Sideband in the Encryption Keys part of the program. After the you have imported the identity, you can scan the following QR-code and open it in the app, where it will be decrypted and added to your messages.

You can also find the entire message in this link:

lxm://azNivSwdv4e2aoX3mo2MdTAozuI7BlzrLlHULmnVgpz3dNT9CMPVwgywzCJP8FVogj5j_kU7j7ywuvBNcr45kRTrd19c3iHenmnSDe4VEd6FuGsAiT0Khzl7T81YZHPTDhRNp0FdhDE9AJ7uphw7zKMyqhHHxOxqrYeBeKF66gpPxDceqjsOApvsSwggjcuHBx9OxOBy05XmnJxA1unCKgvNfOFYc1T47luxoY3c0dLOJnJPwZuFRytx2TXlQNZzOJ28yTEygIfkDqEO9mZi5lgev7XZJ0DvgioQxMIyoCm7lBUzfq66zW3SQj6vHHph7bhr36dLOCFgk4fZA6yia2MlTT9KV66Tn2l8mPNDlvuSAJhwDA_xx2PN9zKadCjo9sItkAp8r-Ss1CzoUWZUAyT1oDw7ly6RrzGBG-e3eM3CL6u1juIeFiHby7_3cON-6VTUuk4xR5nwKlFTu5vsYMVXe5H3VahiDSS4Q1aqX7I

On operating systems that allow for registering custom URI-handlers, you can click the link, and it will be decoded directly in your LXMF client. This works with Sideband on Android.

Support Sideband Development

You can help support the continued development of open, free and private communications systems by donating via one of the following channels:

• Monero:

  84FpY1QbxHcgdseePYNmhTHcrgMX4nFfBYtz2GKYToqHVVhJp8Eaw1Z1EedRnKD19b3B8NiLCGVxzKV17UMmmeEsCrPyA5w
  

• Ethereum

  0xFDabC71AC4c0C78C95aDDDe3B4FA19d6273c5E73
  

• Bitcoin

  35G9uWVzrpJJibzUwpNUQGQNFzLirhrYAH
  

• Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/markqvist

Development Roadmap

• Secure and private location and telemetry sharing
• Including images in messages
• Sending file attachments
• Offline and online maps
• Paper messages
• Using Sideband as a Reticulum Transport Instance
• Encryption keys export and import
• Plugin support for commands, services and telemetry
• Adding Linux .desktop file integration
• Sending voice messages (using Codec2 and Opus)
• Implementing the Local Broadcasts feature
• LXMF sneakernet functionality
• Network visualisation and test tools
• A debug log viewer
• Better message sorting mechanism
• Fix I2P status not being displayed correctly when the I2P router disappears unexpectedly
• Adding a Nomad Net page browser

License

Unless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Permission is hereby granted to use Sideband in binary form, for any and all purposes, and to freely distribute binary copies of the program, so long as no payment or compensation is charged or received for such distribution or use.

Device screenshots generated with deviceframes. Thanks!