ASUS ExpertBooks are popular enterprise laptops with a well-priced combination of hardware and solid build quality. However, installing Ubuntu on these laptops can be challenging due to UEFI issues. In this blog post, I am documenting the challenges and the steps to overcome these issues and successfully install Ubuntu on ASUS ExpertBooks.

Whilst UEFI is arguably useful, the choices made by ASUS in their BIOS settings are problematic. Whilst I have no knowledge of the exact reasons for these choices, they seem to be overly restrictive and limiting for advanced users. Enforcing the device to boot only from the UEFI firmware can be problematic for advanced users who want to dual-boot or install other operating systems.

After years of experimenting with various LPWAN mesh networking technologies, I’ve unequivocally settled on Reticulum for my serious deployments. It emerged as the clear frontrunner not because it’s simpler than the rudimentary Meshtastic (it isn’t), nor because it’s overtly more feature-rich than the robust MeshCore (though debatable), but because its extremely well-thought-through design philosophy fundamentally aligns with what I’ve come to believe matters most: privacy, resilience, and true decentralisation in the face of an increasingly “enshittified” internet. It strongly supports multiple bearer protocols, making it an ideal candidate for a future decentralised internet.

While MeshTastic might serve as a basic introduction to LPWAN mesh networking, MeshCore represents a significant leap forward, particularly when the limitations of hobbyist solutions become apparent. It effectively addresses many of the fundamental issues encountered with earlier, simpler protocols, offering a far more robust option for scenarios where “it mostly works” is simply not good enough. MeshCore is designed for industrial deployments, large-scale sensor networks, and applications where reliability and flexibility are paramount.

For many new to LPWAN mesh networking, MeshTastic often appears as a starting point due to its affordability and active community. It can get you from zero to sending a basic mesh message relatively quickly. For some, it may seem like a convenient entry into mesh networking.

In this post, I’ll dive into what makes MeshTastic tick, where it excels, and where it falls short based on my own experience using it across various scenarios.

Long-range Sub-GHz wireless mesh networks have become essential for modern communication, particularly in remote areas where traditional infrastructure is impractical or impossible. By utilising lower frequencies (typically below 1 GHz), Sub-GHz networks can achieve remarkable range, low power consumption, and the ability to penetrate obstacles such as buildings and dense forests.

These characteristics make Sub-GHz mesh networks ideal for applications in IoT, outdoor communication, emergency response, and industrial networks. But with numerous technologies now available, choosing the right one for your needs can be challenging.

In the first two parts of this series, we explored why community telecoms matter and how resilient mesh networks can save lives during emergencies. Now comes the question I’m asked most often: “That sounds great, but how do I actually build one?”

This is the knowledge I wish I’d had when I started.

If my journey from those early Austrian tele-working centres to deploying mesh networks across remote Australian properties has taught me anything: the hardest part isn’t the technology—it’s overcoming the psychological barrier between “consumer” and “creator.” We’ve been conditioned to believe telecommunications infrastructure is something large corporations build, not something communities can create themselves.

As the convener for the Adelaide community of The Things Network, I am frequently setting up Multitech Conduit Gateways. Depending on your PC or notebook hardware you might have some problems with the Exar USB-UART driver on Linux.

Here are the steps to getting this unit setup from an Ubuntu (should work for any other Linux distro) machine.

lsusb

Should show something like this:

Bus 002 Device 006: ID 04e2:1410 Exar Corp. XR21V1410 USB-UART IC

Installing VirtualBox is getting increasingly painful on Ubuntu due to the problems with UEFI Secure Boot and the VirtualBox kernel modules. Another reason for an alternative is that running VirtualBox VM’s completely in the background is not as straightforward as it could be.

From the available alternatives I looked into (VMWare, Xen & KVM) it was KVM that fitted my needs (casual VM usage with mostly headless VM’s for testing purposes). Main reasons:

Having just wasted a few hours on getting this Java software running on Linux I am documenting this for future reference and hopefully saving other LoRa / TTN folks some time.

Prerequisites

Install a Java JDK + JavaFX. This should work with the default OpenJDK 8 or 9 which comes as part of the Ubuntu repositories. I ended up installing Oracle JDK 8 as well as I thought the error might be related to OpenJDK.

Install XScreenSaver and remove Gnome default

sudo apt remove gnome-screensaver
sudo apt install xscreensaver xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra

Run the Screensaver UI and configure

In the “Advanced” section enter your Flickr RSS URL in “Choose Random Image”

https://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_faves.gne?id=YOURFLICKRUSERID #replace with your Flickr User ID

Create a systemd user service to autostart

mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user/
vim ~/.config/systemd/user/xscreensaver.service

[Unit]
Description=XScreenSaver
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/xscreensaver -nosplash
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Start and enable systemd user service

systemctl --user enable xscreensaver
systemctl --user start xscreensaver

To copy the settings (including RSS URL) onto other PC’s or re-install it might be a good idea to backup or copy the contents of ~/.xscreensaver

If you are using the GUI (Raspian full download) and want to connect your RPi Zero to a keyboard and monitor there are probably easier ways to do this. These notes are for people that want to use a headless (no monitor and GUI) setup ready to connect to your RPi after first boot via SSH from another terminal.

“Raspberry Pi Zero W” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by lespounder

EDIT [2018-06-05]: I have updated the code with the Firmware 1.18.+ releases. The code is available at our Growing Data Foundation Github.

These notes are to assist Australian IoT enthusiasts to get started in connecting a LoPy to The Things Network as it is unfortunately (not yet) straight forward to make them work with the current AU-915 TTN Channel plans. As the initiator of the local Adelaide Community of The Things Network I have been experimenting with a number of devices to connect sensors to #TTNADL. One of my personal favourites is the Pycom LoPy as a nice middle-ground between capabilities and technical complexity.