Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) 8.1 was released December 31, 2023 (changelog). NOTE: Please also consider IIAB 8.2 preview releases !

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

Install Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) 8.1 using its 1-line installer to transform an old PC/laptop into a “learning palace” for a developing world school, that urgently needs this today! Learn how easy it is to DIY (Frequently Asked Questions at FAQ.IIAB.IO) an amazing digital library for any school, clinic or community on this planet:

  🍓 download.iiab.io 🍓

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 1.5, Toys from Trash electronics projects, RACHEL Content Packs, Kolibri, Nextcloud, 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?

• IIAB works with the latest 2023 OS’s like Raspberry Pi OS “Bookworm”, Debian 12 “Bookworm”, Mint 21.2, Ubuntu 23.10 — and even Ubuntu 24.04 LTS “Noble Numbat” pre-releases! _#3662
• Your IIAB’s Wi-Fi Country Code can be set in advance, using your OS settings. _{PR #3537}
• Your IIAB’s internal Wi-Fi hotspot password is now rapidly changeable. _{iiab-admin-console#546}
• Lightweight IIAB’s are increasingly possible, e.g. if you don’t need MySQL/MariaDB (for Admin Console, FreePBX, Matomo, MediaWiki, Nextcloud &/or WordPress), then it will no longer be installed. _{PR #3665}

What’s Upgraded?

• Calibre-Web 0.6.22 Beta (introduction, changelog, commit log, docs) with customizable URL’s box/books, box/libros, box/livres _{PR #3503}
• Kolibri 0.15.12+ adds Haitian Creole (Kreyòl ayisyen) and fixes peer importing of channels from “Local network or internet” (changelog, blog, docs). IIAB now installs Kolibri with the PPA method, making it easy to upgrade using apt update etc. Kolibri 0.16 is expected in January 2024. Use Kolibri with URL box/kolibri _{#3227 PR #3327 PR #3490 PR #3514}
• KA Lite (Khan Academy Lite) legacy option, even on the very latest 2023 OS’s! _{PR #3527 PR #3535 PR #3587}
• Kiwix 3.6.0 (changelog), based on libzim 9.0.0 (changelog) and libkiwix 13.0.0 (changelog), with URL box/kiwix _{PR #3600}
• Moodle 4.3.2+ (announcement, technical announcement, release notes / changelog, release calendar, FAQ, docs) with URL box/moodle (NOTE that IIAB attempts to install the latest weekly pre-release of Moodle 4.4 if a bleeding-edge OS with PHP >= 8.3 is detected.) Moodle 4.4 ETA 2024-04-22. _{PR #3656}
• Nextcloud 28.0.1+ (changelog, release schedule, docs) requires PHP 8.1+. Use Nextcloud with URL box/nextcloud _{PR #3670}
• WordPress 6.4.2+ (6.4 field guide, 6.3 field guide, 6.2 field guide, 6.1 field guide, 6.0 field guide). WordPress 6.5 is expected 2024-03-26. With URL box/wordpress _{PR #3210}
• MediaWiki 1.41.0 (release notes, summary, changelog), with URL box/wiki _{PR #3688}
• Matomo 5.0.0+ (changelog, releases) is like Google Analytics, but emphasizes privacy and data ownership. With URL box/matomo _{PR #3460}
• JupyterHub 4.0.2+ (changelog) e.g. for data science students, with URL box/jupyterhub _{PR #3476}
• Sugarizer 1.7.0 (changelog) using Sugarizer Server 1.5.0 (changelog) with URL box/sugarizer (using MongoDB 5.0 on 64-bit ARM, and MongoDB 6.0 on x86_64) _{PR #3478 PR #3515 PR #3519}
• Minetest 5.8.0+ (changelog, releases) is like Minecraft, but open source! _{PR #3426}
• Node-RED 3.1.3+ (changelog, docs) with URL box/nodered _{PR #3248}
• AzuraCast 0.19.3+ (changelog, releases, docs) for radio-style MP3 streaming, with URL box:12080 _{PR #2946 PR #3384}
• Gitea 1.21.3+ (changelog, blog) lightweight self-hosted “GitHub” version control system, to learn to code collaboratively, with URL box/gitea _{PR #3671}
• Asterisk 20 and FreePBX 16 telephony server (IIAB guide) run on Debian 11 Bullseye and the Bullseye version of 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS. Asterisk 21 and FreePBX 17 should soon allow modern OS’s with PHP 8.x (e.g. Debian 12+ and Ubuntu 22+) to work too, hopefully early in 2024. With URL box/freepbx (NGINX) and/or box:83/freepbx (Apache) _{PR #3229 PR #3523 #3556 PR #3604 #3673 PR #3674 PR #3675}
• Lokole 0.8.2 for rural/community email, with URL box/lokole _{PR ascoderu/lokole#593 PR #3276}
• Transmission 4.1.0-dev (changelog, commit log) overhauled BitTorrent infra for FAST content downloads, can be compiled live during IIAB install. _{PR #3690}
• Remote.It 4.20.1+ (desktop/mobile app download) to remotely support your IIAB — see also “How can I remotely manage my Internet-in-a-Box?” _{PR #3611}
• Node.js 20 (releases, changelog) support. _{PR #3584}
• PHP 8.2 support, for 2023 OS’s like Debian 12 Bookworm, Raspberry Pi OS 12 Bookworm and Ubuntu 23.10. PHP 8.3 (released 2023-11-23) will also work increasingly with most IIAB apps, in preparation for 2024 OS’s. _{PR #3470}
• phpMyAdmin 5.2.1 (changelog) for remote administration of MySQL _{PR #3474}
• ansible-core 2.16 (changelog, end-of-life schedule) as implemented by scripts/ansible _{PR #3679}

What might future versions bring?

• “Fieldback” Community Analytics
  • 1. Friendly for village librarians, (2) Actionable for IT implementers, (3) Thorough for education/medical researchers _#1268
  • Charts showing usage hourly/daily/weekly/monthly _{PR #2511}
  • Matomo for usage analytics, alongside some careful re-thinking of how IIAB teachers and content contributors can learn from users’ needs. _#1762
• IIAB out-of-box guided discovery
  • Automatic installation of “Learning Bouquets” during IIAB installation (up to 64 GB or 128 GB typically, “I want what she has!”) so new implementers can pick a language — then hit the ground running. _#1958
  • Updating & Versioning Infra for:
    1. Learning Bouquets, Content Packs, Kolibri Channels (and Student Portfolios?). Peer catalogs, relating to torrenting/mirroring below? _{#857 #2553}
    2. IIAB Apps “Registry” (might coordinate with point releases?) _{PR #2533}
    3. IIAB software (effectively point releases like 8.2.1?)
  • Torrent-like content interchange between IIAB’s (“Maps might be enough for starters…possibly also including Satellite Photos?”) as the Sneakernet-of-Alexandria grows more real! _{PR #2572}
    
  • Better support for Raspberry Pi Imager for effortless installs of prefab IIAB images _#2338
  • Enhanced HOW-TO Videos (old view) for enterprising implementers, teachers and students, with actionable subtitles in common languages. Building upon IIAB’s YouTube channel. _#1975
  • Out-of-box experience/guidance on our most popular OS (Raspberry Pi OS With Desktop) ? _#1979
• Local Search Engine across most/all IIAB Content _#2429
• See also the Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) 8.2 Milestone

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 Ed Magara, Josué Acevedo, Mohamad Abu-ElHaggag, Carl Wivagg, Nzolantima Swasisa, Nathan Koops, Shanti Bhardwa, Mir Rodríguez Lombardo, Mitra Ardron, Kurt Maier, T.K. Kang, Eric Nitschke, César López-Natarén, Joshua Kanani, Josh Dennis, Arky R., Matt Johnson, James Heilman, Sam Zidovetzki, Reno McKenzie, Anish Mangal, Mikko Kotila, Avni Khatri, Blondel Mondésir, Evelyn Fitzgerald, Denis Lafontant, George Hunt, Tim Moody, Jerry Vonau, Adam Holt — among many other contributors !

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!

Frequently Asked Questions: FAQ.IIAB.IO

Known Issues

• Problematic lines may appear at the bottom of /library/www/html/home/menu.json in some situations when Admin Console is used intensively, disabling your IIAB’s home page: #3487 #3602
• The sudo iiab-network command doesn’t cleanly recognize Wi-Fi routers (or Access Points) that you attach to IIAB with an Ethernet cable, with recent OS’s like Ubuntu 22.04. Manual workarounds can help: #3330 #3385 (comment)
• A few residual issues may remain at: github.com/iiab/iiab/milestone/9