The XO-1.5 software plan.

[Peter Robinson]

>> We think we'll need to use our own kernel and initrd, but the other
>> base packages we expect to need are present in Fedora already,
>
> One area we'll also need help with is the "under a tree" networking scenario.
>
> If you've used an XO, you know what it works like: by default the OS
> automatically forms an ad-hoc network between the machines present
> using wifi but not relying on an AP. People refer to this as 'mesh'
> colloquially but it doesn't actually require 802.11s (as long as all
> the XOs are nearby).
>
> In theory at least. In practice, the ad-hoc network facility is tied
> to our use of a patched NM and our 'msh0' devices.
>
> The current plans don't include using 802.11s, and there are hopes to
> ship a more vanilla NM. This means that the 'under a tree' scenario
> needs help in NM integration and a bit of elbow grease.
>
> Ad-hoc networks can work pretty well for small numbers of nodes -- I
> suspect that that Fedora users (specially laptop users) would benefit
> from an easy way to run an ad-hoc network amongst machines, without
> the need of a 'hostap'-able driver.

NetworkManager 0.7 supports Ad-hoc wifi networks quite well. I've used
it on a number of occasions to share my 3G dongle between a number of
users. In that regard I suspect all that's needed is to be able to
have some form of gui for it.

> Cerebro has interesting code in this area -- a more ambitious goal
> would be to integrate it into our stack, as it can mimic some of the
> 802.11s mesh behaviour. But even without magic routing and path
> discovery, small ad hoc networks can and do work.

Do you have a link for Cerebro?

Peter