Setting Up a Freifunk Offloader on Hyper-V

For x86-generic systems, there are firmware images available that need to be installed. The version used in this setup is:

2020.2.3.3-1264 / gluon-v2020.2.3-14-g2ea83c44+

After reading through various forum posts and trying different configurations, I finally managed to set up a Freifunk Offloader on a Hyper-V virtual machine. My goal was to present Freifunk to a municipality in the Steinburg district and explore potential funding for hardware support. To demonstrate its functionality, I decided to install the first outdoor Freifunk access point (TP-Link CPE210) on my roof and use a virtualized Offloader on my existing Hyper-V setup.

Architectural overview

The Challenge

Despite my IT background, I encountered issues when trying to get the CPE210 to work properly through the Offloader. Standalone, the CPE210 functioned correctly, but it failed when routed via the Offloader.

I followed a guide from @citronalco on setting up WAN, Mesh, and Client networks across three virtual network interfaces on the VM:

1. Configure the VM with three network interfaces.
2. Enable Mesh on LAN on eth0:
   uci set network.mesh_lan.disabled=0
uci set network.mesh_lan.ifname=eth0
3. Assign WAN to eth1:
   uci set network.wan.ifname=eth1
4. Assign the Client network to eth2
   :uci add_list network.client.ifname=eth2
5. Verify interface names using MAC addresses.

However, after multiple attempts, the CPE210 still did not connect properly.

The Solution

After extensive troubleshooting, I decided to reset everything and start from scratch. Here’s what worked:

1. Reset all devices to factory settings (firstboot).
2. CPE210 Configuration:
   • Enable Mesh on WAN.
   • No additional settings except for basic configurations (name, location, and password).
3. Hyper-V VM Configuration:
   • Reset and set up using only the GUI for basic configurations.
   • Reapply the commands via SSH:
     uci set network.mesh_lan.disabled=0
uci set network.mesh_lan.ifname=eth0
uci set network.wan.ifname=eth1
uci add_list network.client.ifname=eth2

Final Result

After this fresh setup, everything worked perfectly! The CPE210 is now connected via the Offloader, and Freifunk is fully operational.

A big thanks to everyone who contributed advice and guidance!

This setup has been stable for 3 years, and I hope it helps others facing similar issues. If you’re considering implementing Freifunk with a virtualized Offloader on Hyper-V, these steps should give you a good starting point.

For more details and discussion, check out the forum thread: Freifunk Forum – CPE210 via Offloader on Hyper-V