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Usage - meshtasticd

Configuration​

Meshtasticd Configuration​

  • The meshtasticd configuration is at /etc/meshtasticd/config.yaml by default. If a config.yaml is found in the current directory, that takes precedence. And a config file specified with the -c/--config option has the highest precedence.

To enable a LoRa radio connected to your device, first locate it's configuration in the presets, then copy to config.d.

# First, locate your radio hardware
ls /etc/meshtasticd/available.d
# Ex: display-waveshare-2.8.yaml  lora-MeshAdv-900M30S.yaml  lora-meshstick-1262.yaml

# Then, copy desired config to `config.d`
# Example:
cp /etc/meshtasticd/available.d/lora-MeshAdv-900M30S.yaml /etc/meshtasticd/config.d/
info

The config.yaml file is sensitive to spacing, so ensure that the indentation and spacing are correct.

meshtasticd CLI options​

Additional arguments can be given to the program, which are listed as follows:

  • -c CONFIG_FILE: The configuration file to use.
  • -d DIRECTORY: The directory to use as the virtual filesystem (VFS).
  • -e: Erase the virtual filesystem before use.
  • -h MAC_ADDRESS: The MAC address to assign to this virtual machine.
  • -p TCP_PORT: The local TCP port to use for running the Meshtastic API.

Web Server​

meshtasticd has web server support starting with release 2.3.0.

To enable this:

Webserver:
  Port: 9443 # Port for Webserver & Webservices
  RootPath: /usr/share/meshtasticd/web # Root Dir of WebServer

Bluetooth Support​

Bluetooth is currently unsupported and not functional on Linux Native devices. This may change in the future.

Persistence​

  • The persistent .proto db files of the portduino version of meshtasticd are stored under: /var/lib/meshtasticd/.portduino/default/prefs/.

CLI Configuration​

Interaction with Meshtastic can be conducted via the command line:

meshtastic --host localhost ...

See:

Usage with Docker​

If you do not own a Linux machine, or you just want to separate things, you might want to run the application inside a docker container.

Usage​

First, Pull the image

To run a container, type

docker run -p 4403:4403 --restart unless-stopped --name meshtasticd meshtastic/meshtasticd:beta

or, to get an interactive shell on the docker created container:

docker run -it -p 4403:4403 --restart unless-stopped --name meshtasticd meshtastic/meshtasticd:beta bash

CH341 USB​

If you want to use a CH341 USB adapter (MeshStick), you need to pass the bus device to the container with the --device flag:

First, locate the USB device with lsusb:

lsusb

You should see something like this:

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1199:9091 Sierra Wireless, Inc. EM7565-9
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 8087:0032 Intel Corp. AX210 Bluetooth
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 13d3:56b2 IMC Networks Integrated Camera
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 06cb:009a Synaptics, Inc. Metallica MIS Touch Fingerprint Reader
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 1a86:5512 QinHeng Electronics CH341 in EPP/MEM/I2C mode, EPP/I2C adapter

Locate the CH341 device and take note of the Bus and Device numbers. In this example: 001/006.

Then, run the container with the --device flag, additionally mounting a local configuration file:

docker run -it -p 4403:4403 --restart unless-stopped --name meshtasticd --device=/dev/bus/usb/001/006 -v ./config.yaml:/etc/meshtasticd/config.yaml:ro meshtastic/meshtasticd:beta

Executing the application interactively​

To use Python CLI against exposed TCP port 4403, type this in the host machine:

meshtastic --info --host localhost

You can interact with the container in the same way as a normal device using a client that supports TCP connections.

Stop the container​

If started with the --name meshtasticd arg, you can stop the container with the following command:

docker kill meshtasticd

Else, run this to get the ID:

docker ps

Then, stop the container with command:

docker kill <id>

Tip: you can just use the first few characters of the ID in docker commands

Advanced Setup and Troubleshooting​

Enabling the systemd service​

To configure the device to start and stop meshtasticd as a service using systemctl you can set up the service unit using the instructions below.

Create the systemd service (only for manual installs)

The meshtasticd systemd service is automatically installed when using the official Meshtastic packages. These instructions are only needed when installing manually.

Create the service unit file:

Create a new file in the /etc/systemd/system/ directory with a name like meshtasticd.service.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/meshtasticd.service

Add the following content to the file:

[Unit]
Description=Meshtastic Native Daemon
After=network-online.target
StartLimitInterval=200
StartLimitBurst=5

[Service]
AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
User=root
Group=root
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/meshtasticd
Restart=always
RestartSec=3

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload systemd to recognize the new service:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Enable the service to start on boot:

sudo systemctl enable meshtasticd

Starting and Stopping the Service​

Start the service:

sudo systemctl start meshtasticd

Check the status of the service:

sudo systemctl status meshtasticd

This will give you a detailed view of the service status and any potential errors.

Stop the service:

sudo systemctl stop meshtasticd

By following these steps, you set up a systemd service for meshtasticd that will start automatically at boot and restart if it crashes. You can manage it using the standard systemctl commands (start, stop, restart, status, etc.).

View Logs of Meshtastic​

To view the log output of the meshtasticd service, use the below command to read them out of the system journal.

journalctl -u meshtasticd -b

Avahi setup​

This will allow the Android client to auto-discover your Linux Native device.

  • Install avahi-daemon (debian/ubuntu)
sudo apt install avahi-daemon
  • Configure Avahi to advertise the node

Create the service file:

sudo nano /etc/avahi/services/meshtastic.service

And paste the following:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?><!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE service-group SYSTEM "avahi-service.dtd">
<service-group>
    <name>Meshtastic</name>
    <service protocol="ipv4">
        <type>_meshtastic._tcp</type>
        <port>4403</port>
    </service>
</service-group>

Then save and exit.