I am new to this and to the raspberrypi400…
originally i downloaded and set up several variations of the rasp pi images to different usb sticks with the goal to create a own cloudserver…so on one of my installation usb sticks i got it all running the nextcloud but it did not satisfy me so i stumbled upon the freedom box.
so usually when i download some of the other pi images I end up with a user interface ( I use a old laptop as a screen )…
today I put the fredombox image to a new stick and installed it…when it was finished there was no interface only plenty of text that ask me to login via a browser but there is no browser here to be found…
I am on a wifi with all my machines ( on our router I opened all the portforwarding for the other installations port 80 and port 443 opening the ip address of the pi …)
BUT the other installations asked me prior to installation ( on the pi imager ) about the wifi passwords user name etc…
the freedombox did not…so I figure the thing installed but is not hooked to our wifi ( like all the other images did automatically )…
so I conclude and believe to understand why any browser connection to given addresses did fail
a u tube showed the guy plugged his pi ( this was a pi2 ) to his router directly and it hooked to the internet …i dont know if our router will do this ( I have a pi 400 includes a keyboard ) and our router sits under the house …in a rather hard to get to location…
so the question is how do I proceed ?
is there a image that hooks itself to the wifi by itself and if it does will I be able to have a Browser on the screen where I can create a user account ?
or the browser part has to be done on a windows machine ? ( something I really long to get rid off and seemed to he possible with the other pi installations )
my goal here is to be solely on the pi itself when handling the apps and setting up the cloud…in the end it should be through a own monitor which I will buy ( now as I said earlier I use an older computer screen )
There is no interface on the machine running freedombox, it is normally useless to connect any keyboard and screen to that machine.
The freedombox interface is to be accessed with a web browser running on another machine connected to the same network. The OS of that machine does not matter.
I have never used wifi, I assume you cannot have this working from the beginning, you first need a wired connection to access the web interface, complete the basic installation steps, then in the network settings, you should be able to setup wifi (and after that disconnect the wire).
EDIT: by “network settings”, I mean, in the web interface, there is “System->Network”, this is where to do this.
So is it finally possible to logon from everywhere with an internetconnection and a browser? Or do you need to be physically in the sane wifi with the freedombox ?
Yes, but how easy it is to make it work depends on how your ISP handles your network. The “name services” page in “System” should help you with the different options. You normally also have to do some setup on your ISP’s router (this is explained).
The best case is that you have a fixed public IPv4 address and can setup your ISP’s router so that it directs any incoming request to your machine running freedombox (option often called “DMZ”).
The very worst case is that you have no public IPv4 address and your ISP won’t let you do anything with their router. In that very worst case, you can still configure access over Tor (then you need to use Tor browser). In that very worst case, some services won’t be available on internet.
EDIT: I am in the best case, so I am not so familiar with a number of options for other cases.
now Its physically connected to the router and I was able to connect via browser…but through the local ip address not through the given domains…anyway…I activated cockpit and wanted to join a domain…( access from outside is crucial ) .for this purpose I created a new class A domain with no-ip that points to the routers IP4 address (this IP4 seems to be kind of permanent / if I am on the right track i will set up a DDNS for this domain ) …at the router port443 /80 forward to the freedombox local tip…
but after I tried to join the domain name and entered the right access credentials it repeatedly told me that domain cannot be contacted…
I tried other domains that I hold with the same result…( these other domains do not point to router ) same result…
what did I do wrong ?
right now I am stuck…
any idea???..please everybody keep in mind i am a bloody amateur in this field
Are you referring to entering credentials in the dynamic DNS client page of the freedombox web interface?
EDIT: I just created an account to noip.com to try this, I created a domain name and then, in the freedombox web interface, I entered the following fields:
Service type : noip.com
Domain name: the name I just created
Password: the noip account password
Then I clicked on “Update setup” and waited, after a while, I had:
So it seems to have accepted the credentials. I tried, I can now access my freedombox with this new name. However, I had put the IP address in the web interface of noip, so I am not 100% sure this would work if I had not.
I can access the Box with my noio domain name through a ddns that I set up with no ip…all good here …
But what seems impossible at the cockpit configuration there is one section “join a domain” in german " einer domäne beitreten " and there I get the result domain could not be contacted ( even I off the firewall ( from freedombox ) and opened all ports for forwarding on the router…
also I dont understand what this point is good for ?
All Freedombox settings are accessible through the “System” menu from the home page, this is what you should use.
Cockpit is an advanced management interface independent of freedombox. In my understanding, the purpose of having cockpit in freedombox is only for monitoring, to help diagnose problems, but not to change any setting. Changing settings with cockpit is risky, unless you are sure about what you are doing exactly. This might do things that conflict with freedombox.
I never use cockpit because it looks complicated and if I need any diagnostic, I can log in via ssh and use diagnostics command that exist in most GNU/Linux systems, like journalctl or “systemctl status”.
Thank you for clarification…I also want to thank you for taking your time answering my questions… I also will leave cockpit where it is…
unfortunately
there is another problem unfolding right now…
I created a new no ip domain w. forwarding and wanted to get the lets encrypt through the freedombox…it failed many times…logs point out a firewall issue but again here I opened all ports on the router and disabled firewall in freedombox …
When looking at the Let’s encrypt page in plinth (this is the name of that interface) on the freedombox on which I added a noip domain yesterday, I see that a Let’s encrypt certificate was also obtained for that noip domain, even though I did not do anything. What do you see there?
If you log via ssh as the admin user and run “sudo journalctl” (journalctl works without sudo but hides many things), you may find something starting with “Obtaining certificate for” and your domain. However, if the status in plinth says success, there is no use to look at that.
Note that by default, freedombox configures the system to only keep logs in memory, so logs are lost at reboot. This is because frequent writing to microSD card may make them degrade faster. If needed for diagnostic, this can be changed in System->Configure, last setting on the page.
EDIT: for some reason, even though I can access that freedombox with the noip domain, even from another network, and the web browser says the certification is valid, in the diagnostics page, the diagnostic for Let’s encrypt certificate for that domain name is failed. Strange.
EDIT2: If the firewall you mentioned is the one of the machine running freedombox, I’d suggest to not change anything to it.
I decide to leave freedombox for now…Loads of network issues / wanted to install nextcloud = failed several times…ejabber could not connect…matrix same …my ssl website would show as unencrypted…lets encrypt would not give certificates to several other websites that I tried…etc etc etc.
I guess it might have to do with the fact that we dont have a permanent ip4 ?
a little too much to deal with…
anyway thanks again that u took ur time to help me along…
