On a Mac? See Install on macOS.

What you need

  • A Linux computer with a desktop (Arch, Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora families are the targets), and a normal user account. Do not use sudo or the root account to run the installer.
  • Python 3.8 or newer. Most systems have it already. If a piece of it is missing, the installer offers to install it for you and shows the exact command first.
  • An internet connection for the install only (it downloads the software once). Using the network afterwards does not need one.

Steps

  1. Open a terminal. It is usually in your app menu under the name “Terminal”.

  2. Copy this whole line, paste it into the terminal, and press Enter:

    curl -fsSL https://codeberg.org/permanet/rns-installer/releases/download/v0.1.8/rns-installer-linux.sh | bash

    This downloads the installer, checks that the download is complete and unchanged, and starts it. If it says curl is not found, see Troubleshooting.

  3. Answer the questions. Press Enter to accept the answer shown in brackets.

    QuestionWhat to answer
    Carry traffic for other people’s devices?No for a laptop or a computer that is not always on. Yes only for a computer that stays on, which helps the network.
    Go online now?No is fine. You can switch later: see Going online.

  4. The installer shows a plan of everything it will do. Read it. Type y and press Enter to go ahead, or n to stop.

  5. It finishes by checking that Reticulum runs and prints its status. You should see a line with Status : Up and, after a few minutes, other devices listed under your local network.

If you stop at the plan, nothing is set up, but the downloaded installer stays in ~/.local/share/permanet-rns-installer. You can delete that folder.

Download it yourself instead

If you prefer to look at the files before anything runs:

  1. Download the release and its checksum into one folder.

  2. Open a terminal in that folder and check the download. It should say OK:

    sha256sum -c rns-installer-0.1.8.tar.gz.sha256

  3. Unpack it and see the plan. This changes nothing:

    tar xf rns-installer-0.1.8.tar.gz
cd rns-installer-0.1.8/installers/linux
./install.sh --dry-run

  4. Run ./install.sh to install. Keep the folder, because permanet-rns runs the installer from it.

The source code is at codeberg.org/permanet.

What it changes

Everything lives in your own account. The installer only asks for your password when it needs to change something outside it, and it shows the exact command in the plan first:

  • installing a missing piece of Python,
  • installing the I2P router (i2pd) when you go online,
  • letting Reticulum keep running after you log out, if you chose to carry traffic and your system asks for it.
WhereWhat
~/.local/share/permanet-rns/The software, MeshChatX, and your answers
~/.local/share/permanet-rns-installer/The installer, used by permanet-rns
~/.local/bin/Commands such as meshchat, rnstatus, nomadnet and permanet-rns
~/.reticulum/Your Reticulum settings and identity
~/.meshchat/Your MeshChatX identity (kept here, where earlier MeshChat installs put it)
~/.meshchatx/MeshChatX’s messages and settings
A background servicernsd, the Reticulum program, starts when you log in

If you already have a Reticulum setup, the installer keeps a copy of the old settings next to the new ones (a file named config.backup- followed by the date). It will not run while another program, such as MeshChatX or Sideband, is already running Reticulum: close it first, then run the installer again.

If a command is not found afterwards

Open a new terminal window. The installer may have added one line to your shell settings so the commands are found, and that only takes effect in new windows.

Next

First run.