You can install Internet-in-a-Box on x86_64 PCs/laptops and Raspberry Pi 3 (or 3 B+). Example PC's include Intel NUC and Gigabyte BRIX. Partial support is also available on OLPC laptops like the XO-1.5, XO-1.75 and XO-4. A VirtualBox VM can also be used for testing purposes. Using Docker containers however is not recommended as our [Ansible](https://github.com/ansible/ansible) provisioning system requires low-level access to the operating system.
Finally, running Internet-in-a-Box on the Raspberry Pi Zero W is also possible, if you transfer a working IIAB (microSD card) that was built up inside a Raspberry Pi 3 (or 3 B+).
Internet-in-a-Box uses Ansible (acquired by Red Hat in October 2015, similar to Puppet) to install and configure all software packages. Ansible uses [playbooks](http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbooks.html) as human-readable instruction files in [YAML](http://www.yaml.org/start.html) format. Playbooks are divided into hosts, roles and tasks.
At runtime (to build up your Internet-in-a-Box server) Ansible gathers system information making it available (as 'facts') and combines this with Ansible 'variables' to guide the installation process. The execution follows a sequence of cascading steps:
1. Bash script `./iiab-install` uses Ansible to run `/opt/iiab/iiab/iiab-stages.yml`
2.`iiab-stages.yml` calls 9+ aggregate roles (AKA stages, these are the numbered directories above, in /opt/iiab/iiab/roles) and then the network role. It avoids repeating any of these 9 core install stages (in case of Internet glitches etc) by keeping a counter ("STAGE") in `/etc/iiab/iiab.env` (Aside: the network role can also later be run using `./iiab-network`)
3. Each aggregate role AKA stage has a `<role>/tasks/main.yml` (formerly `<role>/meta/main.yml`) to invoke all needed roles and tasks.
Please refer to the [IIAB Architecture](https://github.com/iiab/iiab/wiki/IIAB-Architecture) and [IIAB Variables]( https://github.com/iiab/iiab/wiki/IIAB-Variables) pages for more information.
Before you start the installation, please refer to the [hardware section of the FAQ](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/IIAB/FAQ#What_hardware_should_I_use.3F) page for memory, storage and network requirements for your platform. Also note that downloading content might take a long time on slower Internet connections.
Most implementers should use IIAB's 1-line installer at http://download.iiab.io (click on the version number, e.g. [6.6](http://download.iiab.io/6.6/)).
If you are a developer, consider [building Internet-in-a-Box from scratch](https://github.com/iiab/iiab/wiki/IIAB-Installation#do-everything-from-scratch).
( This section uses an experimental development environment for Internet-in-a-Box. It is being developed in the [iiab-dev-mode repository](https://github.com/arky/iiab-dev-mode). )
This section provides a quick setup of the Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) development environment using [Vagrant](https://www.vagrantup.com/). You will need a computer with [virtualization enabled](https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/UserManual.html) and git, Vagrant (2.0 or later) and [VirtualBox](https://www.virtualbox.org/) installed.
2. Change directory into 'iiab-dev-mode' with `cd iiab-dev-mode`. You can update all the submodules to the latest master using `git submodule foreach git pull origin master`
3. Set up a vagrant machine with `vagrant up` and provision it with `vagrant provision`. Please select the available bridge network interface (wlan0 or eth0) that connects your host machine to the Internet.
4. Connect to your vagrant machine with `vagrant ssh`. All your local development files are available through shared folders in the `/opt/iiab` directory.
5. Install IIAB itself from the Ansible playbooks by following [IIAB Installation](https://github.com/iiab/iiab/wiki/IIAB-Installation#do-everything-from-scratch) instructions:
7. You can commit your local changes to your personal forks of the Internet-in-a-Box repository and then send pull requests to the IIAB project. Once you've forked a repository, you change directory into that repository and set a default git remote push setting with the following command:
Learn more by reading the blog post [Different git Push & Pull(fetch) URLs](http://blog.yuriy.tymch.uk/2012/05/different-git-push-pullfetch-urls.html) and the [Git Basics - Working with Remotes](https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Working-with-Remotes) chapter of Scott Chacon and Ben Straub's "Git Pro" book.
* When an installation task fails, Ansible halts printing out a descriptive error message to the screen. This error information is also written to a `iiab-install.log` file within `/opt/iiab/iiab`. (Look through logs to check if any preceding line contains the error).
* Search through the Ansible playbooks using `egrep -rn <string from the failing step> /opt/iiab/iiab/roles/*>` to find the failed task.
* You can add additional [debug print statements](http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/debug_module.html) to Ansible playbooks for debugging the problem.
* Talk to us or report a bug using the information below.
Please refer to [Ansible playbook documentation](http://docs.ansible.com/ansible/latest/playbooks.html) for more information.
To maintain the quality of the Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) code, we use [Travis Continuous Integration (CI)](https://travis-ci.org) build infrastructure. Travis CI does tests to ensure the code syntax is correct and the code is formatted properly using `ansible` syntax checker, `ansible-lint` and `ansible-review` tools. The results of Travis CI Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) could be seen [here](https://travis-ci.org/iiab/iiab).
Every pull request [was] automatically tested by Travis CI. The results of these tests [were] added to the pull request. This aids Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) developers in reviewing the quality of the code in a pull request [this approach is currently on hold as of July 2018 — if it's tuned up, this or any similar CI/CD alternatives would be welcome!]
To test your forked repository of Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) code, you have to enable automatic build tests in your [Travis-ci.org](https://travis-ci.org) profile page.
* Read ["What are the best places for community support?"](http://FAQ.IIAB.IO#What_are_the_best_places_for_community_support.3F) within our Frequently Asked Questions ([FAQ.IIAB.IO](http://FAQ.IIAB.IO))
