hi guys, i am glad i purchased pioneer freedom box, neat piece - however, i find it hard to get going.
i run linuxmint, i am behind a router. goals: i want to back up and download files from/to my laptop and mobile phone. i want to add external drive for that purpose. and, on another partition share files with a small group of alikes. all of that secure and relatively fast. vpn.
problems:
with installation of freedombox i had to assign username/pw … ist this account not admin?
what then is admin and pw?
installing and running cockpit: after logging in with username/pw i get an empty page. no adblock/noscirpt etc enabled. (btw privacy badger notified me of trackers!?!? anyway badger also switched off, since i trust you guys)
further :
usb stick and/or drive not detected (are pioneer usb ports not adapted for usb3 usage?)
/home/fbx/ directory write protected (why?)
no filemanger?
i access freedombox via ssh - is that best for editing/up-/downloading files to FB?
behind router :
when trying to open ports - router advises me to use dynamic port attribution via upnp - is that not the better way?
Specifically referencing your questions about registration and access:
The pre-built FreedomBox images have a default user account called “fbx”. However the password is not set for this account, so it will not be possible to log in with this account by default.
After the initial boot self-configuration (i.e. the one-time 10-minute setup phase) and connecting to the FreedomBox via its IP address on your local network, you’ll be prompted to create an account. This is the first user account to be created on the system and is established as a privileged user. You can later create other user accounts with normal privileges.
From your list of needs, it seems like the built-in Syncthing server or perhaps a Samba share would be a good fit. (Maybe Nextcloud could eventually be an option, but that may be a long way off.) You can configure/use FreedomBox in whichever way you wish, but I believe its forte is being operated using its web interface, rather than continually using ssh to connect.
I personally block UPnP ports when possible due to security concerns regarding lack of authentication, but I’m not an expert on the topic.
Hi, lutterworth. Thanks for posting to the forum. Please see responses below:
The account you create at startup is an administrative account, with all the privileges of an admin. If you want to configure user permissions or confirm that you are indeed an admin, please go to System → Users and Groups → Click on a given user account, and examine the Permissions.
We hope to have a resolution soon. Thanks for your patience.
The ports on your Pioneer Edition LIME2 single-board computer are USB 2.0. But this is not the reason that FreedomBox is not identifying external storage.
Right, there is no file manager. Apps like Syncthing have their own file managers integrated within their interfaces, but the FreedomBox system does not currently offer a global file manager. We are currently discussing this issue, and we appreciate the feedback you have given us. You can check out our discussion here: Idea: File Manager within FreedomBox - #6 by sunil
Depending on your use case, it might be. But for most of our users who don’t have advanced or custom use cases, the UI’s within each app should be sufficient. For instance, for Syncthing, you should use the Syncthing interface to upload and download files.
Another good question for one of our developers, who are tagged above.
I am not sure why Cockpit’s interface prompt’s Privacy Badger to
warn you of trackers. Perhaps @sunil
<https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/sunil> @njoseph
<https://discuss.freedombox.org/u/njoseph> can help explain this.
I use privacy badger, disconnect, ublock origin, etc. nothing showed up
on my browser. Any more information on this is appreciated.
lutterworth:
usb stick and/or drive not detected (are pioneer usb ports not
adapted for usb3 usage?)
We hope to have a resolution soon. Thanks for your patience.
You can still manage external storage using regular command line
approach until then.
The ports on your Pioneer Edition LIME2 single-board computer are
USB 2.0. But this is not the reason that FreedomBox is not
identifying external storage.
/home/fbx is the home directory for a user ‘fbx’ (disabled by default).
We only use that account to debug hardware where web interface is not
reachable to create the initial user.
Simply ignore that directory and create a directory (or user) of your own.
lutterworth:
behind router :
when trying to open ports - router advises me to use dynamic port
attribution via upnp - is that not the better way?
We have not yet implemented UPnP for opening ports in the router (like
some games do).
@lutterworth I have an update on the issue with Cockpit.
We were able to confirm that Cockpit’s interface does not show up when you try to access it for the first time. But if you refresh the page, it should work. I can confirm that I can now access Cockpit on my Pioneer edition FreedomBox.
As one of our developers told me: “I also saw this problem on the Pioneer kit. But after reloading the page once, the issue goes away, and I’m able to log in.”
