Test Stuff

lemmy - Link to source

Selfhost offline software
Recently in Spain we have suffered a complete power outage, with no electricity for a long time.
Some were able to have power on their computers with generators, solar panels, etc.
And I know you can have data connectivity with SDR or HAM radio.
But my question here is, what are some good self-host/local offline software that we can have and use for when something like this happens.
I know kiwix, and some other for manuals. Please feel free to share the ones you know and love, can be for any type of thing as long as it works completely offline, just name it.
Of course for GNU/Linux (using Arch myself BTW).
Thanks in advance.
#Linux
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R

friendica (DFRN) - Link to source

Mark

Some of the LILYGO devices are great for use straight out of the box. I have a T-Echo as my portable device, the T-Deck Plus is also an option if you want something completely stand-alone rather than controlled over Bluetooth or USB. Note that the 868MHz band is more widely used due to congestion on 433MHz, (915MHz is for the Americas and isn't legal here)

Linux reshared this.

in reply to 6R1M R34P3R

lemmy - Link to source

CarrotsHaveEars

A piece of software always runs locally. It is in some cases those who needs to communicate with the server fail to deliver the usual function you expect when offline.

Please do not confuse one to another.

And perhaps you can start by complaining which services you are using heavily rely on the server side? General questions attract general answers and IMHO you are better off just search on the internet.

This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to CarrotsHaveEars

lemmy - Link to source

6R1M R34P3R

I am aware of this, but neither is English my primary language (so I wasn't able of properly stating that) neither im asking for specific type of software, as you say this is indeed a general question asking for general software, I said to share whatever you like and use, as long as it can be of any use when there is a power outage. I don't need any specifics. And I plan to share the responses to other people in fediverse of Spain that may need it here.
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to tasankovasara

lemmy - Link to source

TCB13

Yeah, some people don't like to run with full repo mirrors but keep updated copies of the Debian ISO that can be mounted as repositories at any point:

It's essentially the same, but in another format.

Debian: Notes About ISO Images and Offline Archives

A few notes about what ISO images Debian offers and how to download them. I'll also provide some useful tips on how to use Jigdo to archive the complete Debian repository into ISO images.
Tadeu Bento
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R

piefed - Link to source

adry

Spain? check guifi.net ;)

People had LAN Partys playing video games "offline" in the 90s... Setting up a network is easy, the difficulty comes from scaling up to many nodes, and spreading through the geography (e.g. if you were to use antennas for WLAN, they would need a mostly unobstructed vision) which in urban areas gets tricky.

But those "topology" issues can be flattened, e.g. you can always have a raspberry pi (or any device) acting as server in the corner of a neighborhood. A virtual bulletin board, emails, etc. all could be self-hosted locally there and then people could go grab a coffee and consume the local news just like in the middle ages, but with a screen, digital assets and some healthy amount of trolling 😛

in reply to 6R1M R34P3R

lemmy - Link to source

TCB13

This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to TCB13

lemmy - Link to source

balsoft

There are ways to deal with this. There's AppImage for GUI apps (that replicates the "just get an exe from a friend on a flash drive") and lots of bundling programs for non-GUI apps (I use nix-bundle because I use Nix, but there are other options too).

Lots of distro installers work offline too, by just bringing all the stuff you need as part of the installer.

And one major benefit of Linux is that when stuff does inevitably go wrong, it's infinitely easier to fix than proprietary garbage.

in reply to balsoft

lemmy - Link to source

TCB13

AppImage suffers from the same problem that Flatpak does, the tool do work offline aren't really good/solid and won't save you for sure. It also requires a bunch of very small details to all align and be correct for things to work out.

Imagine the post-apocalyptic scenario, if you're missing a dependency to get something running, or a driver, or something specific of your architecture that wasn't deployed by the friend alongside the AppImage / Flatpak (ie. GPU driver) you're cooked. Meanwhile on Windows it has basic GPU drivers for the entire OS bakes in, or you can probably fish around for an installer as fix the problem. It is way more likely that you'll find machines with Windows and windows drivers / installer than Linux ones with your very specific hardware configuration.

in reply to TCB13

lemmy - Link to source

balsoft

This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to TCB13

lemmy - Link to source

6R1M R34P3R

Meanwhile on Windows it has basic GPU drivers for the entire OS bakes in


this is not true,
in fact, most of the machines I have here won't work with a Windows installer .iso or Windows OS itself and some of my hw don't even have drivers for it.
So yeah no

meanwhile, most GNU/Linux .iso distro installers have drivers already on the .iso itself, including propietary ones

This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R

lemmy - Link to source

TCB13

and can even use as live environment, don’t even need to install (in Windows this is not easy to do)


Not true, Rufus creates bootable and persistent USB flash drives with one checkbox. You can do it manually also.

I was trying to illustrate a point, you may have your distro, your packages and what think you need, but if we're talking about post-apocalyptic you'll probably need other stuff and at that point you have windows computers and windows software installed or installers available pretty much everywhere starting with your next door neighbor and with Linux not so much.

in reply to 6R1M R34P3R

lemmy - Link to source

TCB13

in reply to TCB13

lemmy - Link to source

ColdWater

Imagine trying to find drivers for your windows computer while on Linux has most drivers already bulit-in to the kernel, for important dependencies it's also bundled on most main stream distros, and you can't get past windows setup screen because it require ms account and no bypass method work because ms already patched all of them, also don't get me started on some softwares require certain windows version and build to even open.
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R

lemmy - Link to source

cerement

(don’t know how amenable they are to individuals versus corporations (or just affordability in general), but a recent news article mentions Ukraine is looking at Govsatcom, Eutelsat, and Iris2)

Govsatcom, Eutelsat, Iris2: Ukraine seeks European alternatives to Starlink

The threat to cut off Kyiv's access to the Starlink satellite network could have far-reaching consequences for the war. To avoid this, Ukrainian authorities are seeking alternatives from the EU.
Gregoire Lory (Euronews.com)
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R

lemmy - Link to source

qjkxbmwvz

You mentioned ham radio --- definitely fun! It's a process to get into it though, as you need to study/pass an exam, and then you need a radio. Radios range from cheap ($25 or so) in the VHF/UHF ("walkie talkie"-style) to more expensive for an HF rig ($1000 range for 100W HF). If you want to get into low power ("QRP") it can be much cheaper. You also need a fair amount of space for a good antenna setup...

There are tons of different communication modes, some without a computer and, like you mentioned, some that use computers. wsjtx and fldigi are popular programs.

Good luck!

This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R

lemmy - Link to source

daniskarma

You can download a collection of thousands (maybe a million I don't even know) of books in Spanish in epub format, from the "secret library". It's like a 100Gb torrent, but way worth it.

Ebooks tens to have long lasting battery. I spent a few hours reading on monday.

Just now I'm on my phone, but if you are interested let me know and I'll try to find the link and will mp it to you if you want.

And just now I've been thinking that epubs being so small size maybe there's a way to transmit them over this radio mesh networks on demand, like some sort of radio library. I've have to look into that. Maybe they are too big for that as radio bandwidth for data transfer tends to be incredibly small.

in reply to daniskarma

lemmy - Link to source

signofzeta

Could you send ePub files over ham radio? Let’s forget about TCP-IP mesh networking like AREDN for now. That’s too easy. Let’s look at radio protocols. D-Star can run at 128 Kbps on the 23 cm band. That’s not too common. Drop down to HF and you’re looking at 9 Kbps via PACTOR-IV.

In comparison, landline dial-up modems topped out at around 56 Kbps.

Now, I’ve seen ePub files around 1-2 MB, but that’s with cover art, images, embedded fonts, and all that fun stuff. With enough patience, that can work. But, strip out all that, leaving behind plain text and XML, and you’ve got something much more manageable that can be sent relatively quickly.

I can’t speak for Spain, but in the U.S., the FCC recently removed most symbol rate restrictions, so we might be able to squeeze out a little more speed.

in reply to 6R1M R34P3R

lemmy - Link to source

utopiah

So... I've done that May 2023 for a holiday trip.

I left with my RPi4 and few gadgets but no Internet.

There I built git.benetou.fr/utopiah/offline… and my main take away is

  • you can build what is missing

and more importantly the meta take away is

  • you need to iterate preparations

because just like first aid you need to be actually ready when needed and knowledge change over time. You need to actually try though, test your setup and yourself genuinely otherwise it is intellectual masturbation.

Have fun!

offline-octopus

Gitea: Git with a cup of tea
This entry was edited (1 year ago)
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R

lemmy - Link to source

BastingChemina

There is the kiwix hotspot.

A WiFi hotspot that gives you access to the entire Wikipedia, medical information, homesteading books ...

Kiwix WiFi Hotspot - Access Knowledge Offline Anywhere- Kiwix

Experience seamless offline knowledge access anywhere with the Kiwix WiFi hotspot. Explore how it enables users to connect and explore information without the internet
Kiwix
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