Installing SpyGuard

Installing Spyguard

This page shows you how to install Spyguard on a Linux computer in few steps. But before installing SpyGuard, read the common issues at the bottom of this page and please verify that you are running a Linux system (Preferably Debian or any fork with Advanced Packaging Tool (apt) installed) and that you have a WiFi interface available to create the access point (so two interfaces if you are already using WiFi for Internet)

If you meet these two requirements, you can go on and clone the repository by opening a terminal (CTRL + ALT + T) and then, execute these commands:

cd /tmp/ && git clone https://github.com/spyguard/spyguard
cd spyguard && sudo bash install.sh

Then, follow the instructions displayed in your terminal.

Choosing the right network interfaces

To choose the network interfaces, you need to go in the backend (accessible from https://localhost:8443) and then, click on Manage device > Network config. Two interfaces need to be specified, the first one Wireless AP interface is the one used by the system to create the WiFi ephemeral access point. The second one, Internet link interface, is the interface connected to the Internet (Ethernet, wwlan, WiFi etc.). If you are installing it on a Raspberry Pi, please look at the common issues at the bottom of this page.

If you have two WiFi interfaces and want to use one for the access point and the other for the internet link, we strongly encourage you to choose the physical one (eg. wlan0 or wlp***0) for the access point. This will avoid some problems related to access point creation when the dongle don't have the right drivers installed.

Here is a short video showing how to do that and then, accessing to the frontend by clicking on the spyguard logo (http://localhost:8000):

Kiosk mode

We will not cover the installation of SpyGuard in kiosk mode here. However, if you want to create a kiosk, we encourage you to use LXDE as your desktop environment and follow the steps described in this blogpost with this configuration of autostart:

@xset s off
@xset -dpms
@xset s noblank
@sed -i 's/"exited_cleanly": false/"exited_cleanly": true/' ~/.config/chromium-browser Default/Preferences
@chromium-browser --noerrdialogs --kiosk http://localhost:8000 --incognito --disable-translateautostart
@pcmanfm -d

This works like a charm with SpyGuard.

Common issues

1. NetworkManager not activated by default on Raspberry Pi OS based on Debian 11 (bullseye)

You need to have NetworkManager as your default network manager. This is not the case with Raspberry Pi OS based on Debian version 11 (bullseye). If you use an Raspberry Pi OS based on Debian 11, you need to activate it by going to raspi-config then 6. Advanced options, AA Network config and finally select 2. NetworkManager. Beware, it will lose your connection config. Therefore, do it via Ethernet or via the Graphic environment.

At Debian 12 (bookworm) based Raspberry Pi OS the NetworkManager is already your default network manager.

With lsb_release -a you can check which version of Debian is installed on your system.