OpenWISP is a network management system that enables network administrators to manage their wireless networks in a centralized way. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing OpenWISP on Arch Linux.
Before proceeding with the installation process, make sure your system meets the following requirements:
OpenWISP depends on various Python modules and other dependencies. To install these dependencies, run the following command in your terminal:
sudo pacman -S python python-pip python-virtualenv python2 python2-pip python2-virtualenv postgresql-libs libjpeg-turbo zlib
This command will install Python, pip, virtualenv, PostgreSQL, libjpeg-turbo and zlib on your system.
You need to create a user account that will be used to run OpenWISP services. To create a new user, run the following command:
sudo useradd -m -G wheel openwisp
This command creates a new user named openwisp and adds it to the wheel group, which gives it administrative privileges.
OpenWISP uses PostgreSQL as its database backend. To install PostgreSQL, run the following command in your terminal:
sudo pacman -S postgresql
After installing, start the PostgreSQL service with the following command:
sudo systemctl enable --now postgresql
And then create a new PostgreSQL user for OpenWISP:
sudo -u postgres createuser openwisp
Then create a new PostgreSQL database for OpenWISP:
sudo -u postgres createdb openwisp_db -O openwisp -E utf-8 -T template0
Now, we are ready to install and configure OpenWISP. First, switch to the openwisp user with the following command:
su - openwisp
Now, we will create a virtual environment to install OpenWISP. Run the following commands to create the virtual environment and activate it:
virtualenv -p python2 openwisp2_env
source openwisp2_env/bin/activate
Install OpenWISP with the following command:
pip2 install openwisp-controller openwisp-config
The above command installs the openwisp-controller and openwisp-config modules. Now, we need to generate the configuration files:
openwisp-config --create-config
This command will create a configuration file at /etc/openwisp/config.py.
We need to change the database settings in the configuration file. Open the file with your favorite text editor:
sudo nano /etc/openwisp/config.py
Find the DATABASES section and replace it with:
DATABASES = {
'default': {
'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql',
'NAME': 'openwisp_db',
'USER': 'openwisp',
'PASSWORD': '',
'HOST': 'localhost',
'PORT': '',
}
}
Save and close the file.
Now, we are ready to run OpenWISP. Run the following command:
openwisp-controller runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
This command will start the OpenWISP server on port 8000.
You can access the OpenWISP web interface by opening your favorite web browser and going to:
http://localhost:8000/admin/
Congratulations! You have successfully installed OpenWISP on Arch Linux. You can now manage your wireless network in a centralized way using OpenWISP!
If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!
Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!
