*

CoovaEWT on Open-Mesh

Here you will find a simple user interface for your Open-mesh.com routers.

Installing packages

Commands given below should be cut-and-pasted into a Terminal window that is logged into your router as root via SSH.

Cut and paste the list of packages below into your Terminal window. The following sets up a shell variable with the basic packages you need:

PKGS="\
libexpat_1.95.8-1_mips.ipk  \
capd_0.1-1_mips.ipk  \
capd-open-mesh_1.0-1_mips.ipk  \
mini-httpd_1.19-1_mips.ipk  \
mini-httpd-htpasswd_1.19-1_mips.ipk  \
"

To run things under SSL, add the following packages to the list:

PKGS="$PKGS  \
ssslutil_0.1-1_mips.ipk  \
libwrap_7.6-1_mips.ipk  \
stunnel_4.20-1_mips.ipk  \
"

Download and install the packages:

cd /tmp/
for pkg in $PKGS; do
  wget http://ap.coova.org/kamikaze/mips/$pkg
done

rm /usr/lib/ipkg/lists/*
ipkg install $PKGS

Once the above is complete, you have all the software you need. Complete the installation by initializing the CoovaEWT configuration file.

sh /etc/coova/scripts/uci-config.sh init

Web services and authentication

Setting a password for the cgi-bin (optional, but recommended):

htpasswd -c /www/cgi-bin/.htpasswd admin

Start the mini_httpd service:

/etc/init.d/mini_httpd enable
/etc/init.d/mini_httpd start

If running SSL, also start the stunnel service:

/etc/init.d/stunnel enable
/etc/init.d/stunnel start

We will also need iptables rules to allow web traffic. Below is for port 80:

iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I OUTPUT -p tcp --sport 80 -j ACCEPT

If running SSL, then the iptables rules will changed to port 443:

iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT
iptables -I OUTPUT -p tcp --sport 443 -j ACCEPT

For lack of a better way, lets put the iptables rules into an init script, the below shown for port 80 (cut and paste into your terminal window):

PORT=80
cat <<EOF > /etc/init.d/mini_httpd.firewall
#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common
START=99
start() {
 iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport $PORT -j ACCEPT
 iptables -I OUTPUT -p tcp --sport $PORT -j ACCEPT
}
stop() {
 iptables -D INPUT -p tcp --dport $PORT -j ACCEPT
 iptables -D OUTPUT -p tcp --sport $PORT -j ACCEPT
}
EOF
chmod a+rx /etc/init.d/mini_httpd.firewall
/etc/init.d/mini_httpd.firewall enable
/etc/init.d/mini_httpd.firewall start

Selecting a user interface

CoovaFX

The best user interface to use comes with the CoovaFX Firefox add-on, which you can also use to authenticate at your Hotspot. Use the CoovaEWT application to login to your router - setting the username, password, and SSL settings appropriately.

Embedded on router

If you have space to kill on your router, you can also put the web application on-board. While GWT makes very compact code, it gets large with repetitive code to achieve cross-browser support. The package is about a megabyte in size.

ipkg install http://ap.coova.org/kamikaze/mips/cap-ui_1.0-1_mips.ipk

or (though really not platform specific)

ipkg install http://ap.coova.org/kamikaze/mipsel/cap-ui_1.0-1_mipsel.ipk

Once installed, access your router using:

• http:// your-router-ip /cgi-bin/ewt-cgi/Home.html

(or it may be https, depending on your SSL preference).

Making changes

Everything needed to drive the user interface is found under the /etc/coova/ directory. The user interface is primarily driven by the XML files in the directory. The subdirectory scripts/. contains the shell scripts to collect and process data and do to interactive (wizard) screens.

License

The CoovaEWT web application and capd binary packages are licensed as freeware (for now at least).