Part I — The seed
01 · Writing it: putting the seed in the ground
Before planting, we choose the place and prepare the soil.
Choosing where to write it
- To try it out or for a short gathering: a USB stick of 4 GB or more.
- For a mucua that will stay: the disk inside the computer. You can write straight to it (taking the disk out and plugging it into a USB adapter) or, more easily, write to a USB stick and install from it (chapter 03).
- Raspberry Pi: a good-quality SD card or, better, a USB SSD.
Attention: writing the image erases everything that was on the stick or disk. Check twice which one is the right one.
Writing
Writing is the same for a stick, card, SSD or hard disk: the image goes to the whole device (not to a partition of it). There is no need to decompress it: the programs below take the .img.xz directly.
| On… | Use | How |
|---|---|---|
| Windows, Mac, Linux | balenaEtcher | Flash from file → choose the image → choose the stick → Flash |
| Windows, Mac, Linux | Raspberry Pi Imager | Choose OS → Use custom → choose the image and the stick |
| Windows | Rufus | choose the image and, if it asks, the DD mode |
| Linux, in the terminal | dd | see the box below |
In the terminal, replace /dev/sdX with the right stick (the lsblk command shows the disks; the stick is usually the one that appears and disappears as you plug and unplug it):
xzcat baobaxia-pc-20261023.img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress conv=fsyncPreparing the network before switching on
After writing, the stick shows up on the computer with a partition called BAOBAXIA (on the Raspberry, bootfs). Inside it there is a text file: baobaxia-rede.txt. It is what tells the mucua how to join the network. Open it with any text editor (Notepad, TextEdit, gedit…), change what you need and save.
The file is in Portuguese. The most important lines:
| Line | What it does |
|---|---|
MODO=auto | default. Uses the cable, if there is one. If WIFI_NOME is filled in, joins that Wi-Fi; if it can't (or if it's empty), creates its own network. |
MODO=cliente | only joins networks (cable and WIFI_NOME); never creates its own. |
MODO=ponto | always creates its own Wi-Fi network. If there is a cable with internet, it shares the internet with whoever is on the network. |
WIFI_NOME= and WIFI_SENHA= | the Wi-Fi that already exists at the place (name and password), for the mucua to join. |
PONTO_NOME=Baobaxia | the name of the network the mucua creates. |
PONTO_SENHA= | that network's password. Empty = open network (the best for a gathering). If you use one, at least 8 characters. |
PAIS=BR | the country's radio rules (BR, PT, IT, ES, AR…). |
The other lines (the domain, the portal, the redirection, the radio, the chat) are explained in the file itself and in chapter 05. The lines MUCUA_UUID and MUCUA_NOME are for recreating a mucua that already exists (chapter 04) — leave them empty for a new mucua.
No accents. The file and the boot menu are written without accents on purpose: the boot screen doesn't show ã, õ, ç properly. When editing, prefer no accents too — especially in the Wi-Fi name and password.
The file is read again on every boot: you can change it later, plugging the stick (or the disk) into another computer, or from inside the mucua itself (chapter 08). And you don't need to touch it to get started: with everything on default, the mucua uses the cable if there is one and, without a cable, creates the Baobaxia network.
Switching on
On the PC, to boot from the stick and not from the usual disk, press the boot menu key right as the computer starts — usually F12, F11, F8 or Esc, depending on the brand (the maker's screen sometimes shows which). Choose the stick in the list. On the Raspberry, just insert the card and switch on.
What appears next is the subject of the next chapter.