Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) 6.7 was released February 21, 2019.

Use it to “steal” the Internet’s crown jewels and craft your own LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA with a $35 Raspberry Pi computer, or any old laptop.

Our HOW-TO videos show you how to customize your Internet-in-a-Box “knowledge hotspot” — for your school, your clinic, your library, your entire region — or your very own family.

Install Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) 6.7 using its 1-line installer to transform an old laptop into a “learning palace” for a developing world school, that urgently needs this today!

Then drag-and-drop the very best of the World’s Free Knowledge (Wikipedia in any language, thousands of Khan Academy videos, zoomable OpenStreetMap, E-Books, WordPress journaling, the new Sugarizer 1.1, Toys from Trash electronics projects, ETC) for those who are burning for learning — but just happen to be offline.

The crown jewels are all free, liberated — and open source too! Internet-in-a-Box is now used in schools, libraries and medical clinics in more than 20 countries. Why not DIY your own LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA with a $35 Raspberry Pi computer, starting today?

What’s New?

• Drag & Drop your favorite Content Packs into position to create the best visual menu for your school or medical clinic’s Internet-in-a-Box. HOW-TO videos are emerging alongside DIY recipes, so you can make your own Internet-in-a-Box digital library. A WordPress plugin is also emerging, to work with Dynamic Menuing’s 2019 additions, so you can integrate all your IIAB Apps and Content Packs into a larger WordPress site. _#1393
• Copy Internet-in-a-Box Content Packs to (and from) USB sticks and portable disks. Look for the Manage Content button under the Install Content tab in IIAB’s Admin Console, with URL box/admin
• Experimental Captive Portal for new users who have trouble typing in http://box, http://box.lan and http://172.18.96.1 — to help everyone get started right away — even if they’re not familiar with Latin-based keyboards. Includes dnsmasq by default, to improve DNS and DHCP, instead of named/BIND and dhcpd. Please read Known Issues and help us test this on different smartphones! _#1182
• Asterisk 16 & FreePBX 15 for Voice over IP and rural telephony. Works on Ubuntu 18.04, Debian 9 “Stretch” and experimentally supports Raspberry Pi too! _{PR #1405}
• Lokole 0.1.38 email for rural communities, students and teachers, with URL box/lokole _{PR #1305}
• Minetest is a Minecraft-inspired creative/explorational building blocks game, including multiplayer server and additional mods. _{PR #1471}
• Mosquitto 1.4+ (MQTT) & Node-RED 0.19.5 support for IoT (Internet of Things) electronics projects, with URL box/nodered _{PR #1398}
• A brand-new visual comparison table helping guide your choice of what services (IIAB Apps) to install.

What’s Upgraded?

• Internet-in-a-Box’s (IIAB) 1-line installer for Raspbian Stretch, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Debian 9 is ruggedized and more efficient (and can quickly recover if Internet is interrupted during your IIAB installation). Pick your favorite suite of IIAB apps the very moment you begin: whether you want ~6, ~12 or ~20 apps (MIN-sized, MEDIUM-sized, or BIG-sized). Implementers please read FAQ.html to get to know /etc/iiab/local_vars.yml — as well as the “./runrole” command within IIAB’s main directory (/opt/iiab/iiab).
  • IIAB’s 1-line installer encourages you to secure the passwords for ‘pi’ and ‘iiab-admin’, offers you a rapid/ selection among MIN-sized, MEDIUM-sized or BIG-sized local_vars.yml, then automatically installs apt-based OS updates. Future: auto-reboot(s) could be made even more intelligent, with better integration/automation of the torrenting+installing of KA Lite compressed videos (etc) across 7 languages. _#1028
  • Experimental support for Debian 10 “Buster” is included, in advance of Debian 10’s release in mid-2019 (install tips). _#1387 Support for Debian “Sid” (AKA Debian’s “unstable” bleeding-edge branch) and for Ubermix (allowing teachers to wipe PC/workstations clean) are also improving.
  • Ansible 2.7 for IIAB configuration management, better explaining IIAB installation steps. _#1271
• Kolibri 0.11.1 (release notes, docs) with URL box/kolibri _#1110
• Kiwix 0.9.0 with URL box/kiwix _{PR #1433}
• Calibre 3.39.1 with URL box:8080 _#1444
• Calibre-Web (docs) with URL box/books _#1213
• Sugarizer 1.1.0 with URL box/sugarizer _{PR #1430}
• WordPress 5.1 builds on the new block editor introduced by 5.0, with URL box/wordpress _#1360
• Nextcloud 15.0.4 (blog) with URL box/nextcloud _#1361
• Moodle 3.5.4 LTS building on 3.5 LTS, with URL box/moodle _#1296
• MediaWiki 1.32.0 with URL box/mediawiki _#1358
• DokuWiki 2018-04-22b with URL box/wiki _{PR #1388}
• Elgg 2.3.10 with URL box/elgg _{PR #1342}
• phpMyAdmin 4.8.5 for remote administration of MySQL _#1365
• Node.js 10.x LTS for Asterisk/FreePBX, Node-RED & Sugarizer _{PR #1405}
• MongoDB 3.0.14+ on Raspberry Pi for Sugarizer _{PR #1430}
• Extensive Fixes. See our changelog of accomplishments!

What might future versions bring?

1. OpenStreetMap: more vivid regional map packs that are easily installable? _#877
   1. Local map visualizations with Magrit for thematic layers/customizations? _#1568
   2. Local map editing integrating output from Mapeo on Windows/Mac? _#1590
2. Easily editable descriptions & logos on your community’s IIAB home page (http://box)? _#1002
   1. Sneakernet-of-Alexandria copying of Content Packs on normal FAT32/exFAT USB sticks? And also Android? _{#1538 #1541}
   2. Teachers’ own ZIM files on a USB stick might be hot-pluggable into IIAB? _#828
   3. Stronger WordPress integration with above descriptions/logos and Calibre-Web? _#1530
3. Install IIAB over Wi-Fi without confusion, whether Ethernet is also plugged in or not? _{#1520 #1536}
   1. Rapid networking & config changes that can’t wait 20-30min for Ansible, starting with iiab-hotspot-on | iiab-hotspot-off in Admin Console? _#796
   2. Raspberry Pi’s (built-in) hotspot can broadcast and (simultaneously) d/l updates? _{PR #697, PR #748}
4. Captive Portal UX improvements, that work on many more smartphones? _#1182
   1. Check your WhatsApp/similar messaging AND interact w/ IIAB at the same time? _#255

Please join us in making this major release happen, Thank You!

How do I try it?

TL;DR! Try our 1-line installer for Raspberry Pi 3 (or 3 B+), Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or Debian 9/10. IIAB’s 1-line installer lets you quickly choose how much to install: (MIN-sized, MEDIUM-sized or BIG-sized)

 curl d.iiab.io/6.7/install.txt | sudo bash

On Raspberry Pi, you’ll want the latest Raspbian Stretch OS (2018-11-13 or higher) installed onto a microSD card large enough for all your content. Installation usually completes within 1-to-3 hours, if your Internet speed is fast. An actual Ethernet cable greatly helps avoid Wi-Fi glitches! See download.iiab.io for speed and security tips to hit the ground running.

Finally if you’re adventurous, try installing onto another Linux, using our Do Everything from Scratch install instructions — getting you to the most important step — where you can add content!

Credits

Thank you e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e for building your own DIY Library of Alexandria. To serve One & All. Building on this software and designs contributed by T.K. Kang, Eric Nitschke, César López-Natarén, Joshua Kanani, Josh Dennis, Arky R., Matt Johnson, James Heilman, Sam Zidovetzki, Reno McKenzie, Anish Mangal, Avni Khatri, Blondel Mondésir, George Hunt, Tim Moody, Jerry Vonau, Adam Holt — among many others!

Not just in your own community — but by keeping in touch with our global volunteer community network (http://OFF.NETWORK) each of you are providing the lifeblood “fieldback” — that keeps us motivated enabling Internet-in-a-Box’s quality content collaborations across ALL communities!

Join our Thursday calls if you too can help: MINUTES.IIAB.IO

Frequently Asked Questions: FAQ.IIAB.IO

Known Issues

• Captive Portal currently doesn’t work if IIAB is installed on OS’s other than Raspbian. Caution: this prototype functionality might not work at all, if an Ethernet cable is not simultaneously in use at bootup especially. _{#1366 #1504}
• If installing IIAB on Debian 10 (“Buster”) pre-releases, a few manual steps may be required. _#1387
• dnsmasq may not start reliably on Ubuntu 16.04 — please use Ubuntu 18.04 instead. _#1469
• Kolibri’s systemd service sometimes times out (fails to start) during the 1st reboot of IIAB especially, on Ubuntu 18.04 and possible other OS’s too. As of 2019-02-21, the workaround appears to be to run “systemctl start kolibri” — or simply reboot. _#1489
• FreePBX (for Asterisk) fails to (re)start intermittently, on Raspberry Pi especially. _#1493
• Node.js applications like Asterisk/FreePBX, Node-RED and Sugarizer won’t work on Raspberry Pi Zero W (ARM6) if you installed Node.js while on RPi 3 or 3 B+ (ARM7). If necessary, run apt remove nodejs then cd /opt/iiab/iiab then ./runrole nodejs on the Raspberry Pi Zero W itself — before proceeding to install Asterisk/FreePBX, Node-RED and/or Sugarizer.
• IIAB’s home page (http://box) will not display in Windows 7’s Internet Explorer 11. Please install a modern browser e.g. Firefox or Chrome (js-menu requires a more recent version of JavaScript). _#1517
• Installing IIAB over Wi-Fi is complicated by a DNS/dnsmasq failure en route. Workaround: when screen output freezes or you see DNS errors like “Could not resolve ‘raspbian.raspberrypi.org’” (an hour or more after install begins) you will need to reboot, then re-run sudo iiab. Finally, after it auto-reboots (typically within an hour, indicating IIAB software install completed) don’t forget to then run iiab-hotspot-on to enable your “knowledge hotspot” — as Admin Console’s equivalent functions are not yet working. Or: avoid these issues entirely by (a) using Ethernet instead of WiFi to install IIAB 6.7, or (b) installing an IIAB 7.0 pre-release. _{#1519 #1520}