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.
# Install Reticulum
pip3 install rns
# Run rnsd
rnsd
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 configuring a service.
The rnstatus Utility¶
Using the rnstatus
utility, you can view the status of configured Reticulum
interfaces, similar to the ifconfig
program.
# 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
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.
# Run rnpath
rnpath eca6f4e4dc26ae329e61
# Example output
Path found, destination <eca6f4e4dc26ae329e61> is 4 hops away via <56b115c30cd386cad69c> on TCPInterface[Testnet/frankfurt.rns.unsigned.io:4965]
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.
# 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
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:
[[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.
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:
sudo ln -s $(which rnsd) /usr/local/bin/
You can then create the service file /etc/systemd/system/rnsd.service
with the
following content:
[Unit]
Description=Reticulum Network Stack Daemon
After=network.target
StartLimitIntervalSec=0
[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=3
User=USERNAMEHERE
ExecStart=rnsd --service
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Be sure to replace USERNAMEHERE
with the user you want to run rnsd
as.
To manually start rnsd
run:
sudo systemctl start rnsd
If you want to automatically start rnsd
at boot, run:
sudo systemctl enable rnsd