xOTA

xOTA is a platform to host temporary amateur radio activies that have similar mechanics as Islands on the Air (IOTA) or Parks on the Air (POTA). It has been used the first time at 37C3 in Hamburg in December 2023 as Toilets on the Air (TOTA).

Setup Server on Uberspace

This section describes the setup that was used for TOTA at 37C3. We used uberspace.de as a hoster and the instructions are geared towards hosting it on uberspace.

Create an uberspace account and follow the manual to SSH in.

Install Swift

wget https://download.swift.org/swift-5.9.2-release/centos7/swift-5.9.2-RELEASE/swift-5.9.2-RELEASE-centos7.tar.gz
mkdir Swift
cd Swift/
tar xzf ../swift-5.9.2-RELEASE-centos7.tar.gz
ln -s ~/Swift/swift-5.9.2-RELEASE-centos7/usr/bin/swift ~/bin/swift

Create a file at ~/Swift/fixincludes/unistd.h with the following contents:

#define HAS_PROBLEMATIC_UNISTD_H 1
// Below code is from https://github.com/nickhutchinson/libdispatch/blob/e1778632982b32e5156de888e54920d7ac848178/fixincludes/unistd.h

#ifndef DISPATCH_FIXINCLUDES_UNISTD_H_
#define DISPATCH_FIXINCLUDES_UNISTD_H_
/* The use of __block in some unistd.h files causes Clang to report an error.
 * We work around the issue by forcibly undefining __block. See
 * https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1009623 */

#if HAS_PROBLEMATIC_UNISTD_H
#pragma push_macro("__block")
#undef __block
#define __block my__block
#include_next <unistd.h>
#pragma pop_macro("__block")
#else
#include_next <unistd.h>
#endif

#endif // DISPATCH_FIXINCLUDES_UNISTD_H_

Build the project

Clone xOTA to your host, cd into the path and run:

swift build --configuration release -Xcc -I../Swift/fixincludes/

Migrate DB

.build/release/App --env configure  migrate

Configure supervisord

Create ~/etc/services.d/tota-prod.ini with entried adjusted for your setup:

[program:tota-prod]
command=/home/tota2023/xOTA-prod/.build/release/App serve --env production -p 8081 -H 0.0.0.0
directory=/home/tota2023/xOTA-prod/
startsecs=10
environment=CCCHUB_DOMAIN="events.ccc.de/congress/2023/hub/sso/",CCCHUB_CLIENT_ID="<redacted>",CCCHUB_CLIENT_SECRET="<redacted>",CCCHUB_AUTH_CALLBACK="https://2023.totawatch.de/ccc-hub-auth-complete",
stdout_logfile=/home/tota2023/logs/tota-prod/stdout.log
stderr_logfile=/home/tota2023/logs/tota-prod/stderr.log

Load and launcht the service:

supervisorctl reread
supervisorctl update
supervisorctl start tota-prod

Read the uberspace manual for more instructions.

Configure domain

Read the uberspace manuals on adding domains and configuring web backends to run point to the Swift server port.

Configure xOTA for your Activity Program

The naming theme of programs can be changed in configure.swift. The Leaf templates are in Resources/Views/ and need to be adjusted for your needs.

There is an admin interface available at /admin to create and update references and reset user passwords. To make a user admin use .build/release/App --env configure admin -c <CALLSIGN>, then user can then access the admin interface.

Authentification option

There is CCC Hub SSO authentification as well as username + password authentification available as options.

Which authentification options are enabled can be configured in configure.swift.

Authentification is tied to the hub SSO endpoint that was reachable at events.ccc.de/congress/2023/hub/sso/. For future CCC events, the SSO endpoint needs to be adjusted in the environment and CCCHubAuthController.swift.