Using Mesh Chat is easy: simply click on a Mesh Chat service and enter you're callsign.

At the moment, we have four Mesh Chat instances that sync to each other:

• VE7TOM-HAP
• VE7TOM-HAP-1
• VE7AX-2
• VA7FI-Linux

Mesh Chat can be installed directly on the hAP, but it's not recommended because it uses resources and it offers very little storage for files:

In contrast, a server install (coming up next) frees up resources and offers more space:

To synchronize Mesh Chat instances together, simply change the name to MIMeshChat

More information can be found here.

• Install LinuxMint Xfce on a cheap laptop.

• Change Hostname to VA7FI-Linux because that'll be the node name shown on Mesh Chat:

  sudo hostnamectl set-hostname VA7FI-Linux

Following the instructions on Trevorsbench:

• Install dependencies:

  sudo aptitude install curl apache2

• Download and install Mesh Chat:

  wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/aredn/meshchat_1.02_all.deb
  sudo dpkg -i meshchat_1.02_all.deb

• Edit configuration file:

  sudo pico /usr/lib/cgi-bin/meshchatconfig.pm

  and edit the last two lines so that the zone matches the other Mesh Chat Instances, and the node is the name of your AREDN node. In my case:

  our $pi_zone                    = 'MIMeshChat';
  our $local_meshchat_node        = 'VA7FI-HAP-1';

On LinuxMint there was an issue that needs to be fixed before continuing. Essentially, the current setup uses files in the /tmp folder, which the Apache server is not allowed to edit. So the solution was to create that folder somewhere else and set the permissions properly.¹⁾

• Create these folders:

  sudo mkdir /var/www/html/meshchat/tmp/
  sudo mkdir /var/www/html/meshchat/tmp/meshchat/

• And change the ownership and permissions:

  sudo chown www-data:www-data -R /var/www/html/meshchat/tmp/
  sudo chmod 770 -R /var/www/html/meshchat/tmp/

• Edit the config file:

  sudo pico /usr/lib/cgi-bin/meshchatconfig.pm

• And replace every instance of /tmp/ by /var/www/html/meshchat/tmp/ (line 2, and 18)

• Restart services:

  sudo systemctl daemon-reload
  sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
  sudo /etc/init.d/meshchatsync restart

At this point, you should be able to run Mesh Chat from the computer where it's installed, but it won't talk to any other nodes yet: http://localhost/meshchat/

Install the meshchat-api package:

• Download it from here
• Click on Upload Package Browse... from the Adminstration page to install it.

From the Port Forwarding, DHCP, ans Services page: