CLI configuration

Until here we went through the installation, connection and configuration procedures using the LibreMesh web interface.

As in every Linux-based system there’s the availability of a textual console interface for advanced configuration and hardcore users.

This part of the guide should not be needed for normal LibreMesh use.

Flashing Via the Console Interface

This is possible just if you’re upgrading an existing OpenWrt or LibreMesh installation, not from stock firmware.

Copy the downloaded firmware image to the /tmp directory on your target router using the scp command.

Do not try to copy the firmware image to directories different from /tmp. They have limited memory access.

In case the router already has LibreMesh you can do this with

scp /LOCAL/PATH/TO/BUILD.bin root@thisnode.info:/tmp/

You could get an error like this:
/usr/libexec/sftp-server: not found
Connection closed
In this case, you just have to add a -O option to the ssh command, like this:
scp -O /LOCAL/PATH/TO/BUILD.bin root@thisnode.info:/tmp/

Otherwise (upgrading from OpenWrt) you will need to insert the router IP address (often 192.168.1.1) in (see above for solving the /usr/libexec/sftp-server: not found error):

scp /LOCAL/PATH/TO/BUILD.bin root@ROUTERIPADDRESS:/tmp/

Now connect to the console interface using ssh, if LibreMesh is already running with ssh root@thisnode.info or with ssh root@ROUTERIPADDRESS if OpenWrt is running.

Then enter the /tmp directory where the firmware is present with cd /tmp, check the presence of the file with ls and install it with

sysupgrade -n openwrt-ROUTERMODEL-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

The -n option for sysupgrade command is needed for discarding the previous configuration files. Omitting the -n option is never a good idea when flashing LibreMesh.

For more information on the sysupgrade process, see these OpenWrt instructions.

Configuring Via the Console Interface (optional)

Rather than using the web interface, modifying directly /etc/config/lime-node file allows to access more advanced options but increases the risk of writing broken configuration.

You can use the vim text editor (a short vim guide here) for editing /etc/config/lime-node, the settings in this file will override the community ones in /etc/config/lime-community and the default ones in /etc/config/lime-defaults.

You can find examples and documentation in the /docs/lime-example.txt file (you can find it online here) as well as in LibreMesh config file page on this website.

After saving the edits to the /etc/config/lime-node file, apply the changes to system configuration files launching the lime-config command. Next, reboot the router with reboot && exit to apply the new settings.