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Do this on a separate machine, not the SBC itself
Download the image for your SBC and extract it. If the direct download desn't work then there are some Magnet links and you can use a bittorrent client to obtain them.
You can use the unxz command to extract the image file. If your SBC is not supported then you may still be able to install Freedombone if it can run Armbian. Details of installing on Armbian can be found here.
You can also download the .asc file for your board and check it using this public key (CC2536191FA7C33F).
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-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----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=gv5G
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
wget -c https://freedombone.net/downloads/freedombone-boardname.img.xz
wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/freedombone_public_key.txt
gpg --import freedombone_public_key.txt
wget https://freedombone.net/downloads/freedombone-boardname.img.xz.asc
gpg --verify freedombone-boardname.img.xz.asc
Plug in a microSD card. You might need an external reader device for this, or many laptops have an SDcard slot via which you can connect a microSD card within an adapter.
Find its device name, which usually begins with /dev/sd or /dev/mmcblk. One way of doing this is with the command
ls /dev/sd*
Before and after attaching the microSD drive
Now copy the extracted image to the microSD drive. This may take quite a while
sudo dd bs=1M if=freedombone-[your SBC].img of=/dev/sdX conv=fdatasync,sync,noerror
If you're using one of the SATA images then copy the image both to microSD and to the SATA drive
You may want to make sure that you use the whole of the available space on the microSD drive, using a tool such as gparted to resize the partition
Remove the microSD drive and plug it into the SBC which will be your server
Plug your SBC into one of the ethernet sockets on your internet router using a USB patch cable (cat5 or cat6)
Make sure that the SBC has a mains power supply. Connect power to then SBC so that it boots
Ensure that mDNS/zeroconf is enabled on your internet router. The router settings are often accessed via 192.168.2.1 or 192.168.10.1 or 192.168.1.254
If avahi is not available on your laptop (not the Freedombone server) then make sure you install it
On Debian
apt install avahi-utils avahi-dnsconfd
On Arch/Parabola
sudo pacman -S avahi nss-mdns
sudo sed -i 's|hosts:.*|hosts: files mdns_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns myhostname|g' /etc/nsswitch.conf
Browse the local network with
avahi-browse -at
If eveything is working you should notice that a system called freedombone appears in the list, with a http service
Open a web browser which is not a Tor browser and navigate to http://freedombone/admin, or if that doesn't work then try http://freedombone.local/admin. If your new server isn't named "freedombone" on your local network then log into your internet router and see what local name it has been assigned. If all else fails then navigate to [server local IP]/admin.
Congratulations! You are now ready to begin setting up the server and installing apps. You will need (if you don't use the onion-only version) to have purchased a domain name, and have a dynamic DNS account or equivalent arrangement so that the server domain name is resolvable from the wider internet. If you use the version which only uses onion addresses, you don't need to buy a domain name or set up dynamic DNS as your freedombone sever will be reachable through the Tor network and having assigned an [address].onion url.
If you are an entrepreneur looking for a business opportunity then it would be possible to pre-install this system onto suitable ARM boxes and ship them at scale. The only requirement is that you abide by the AGPL license terms. If necessary you can change the branding and the upstream repo for updates as needed. Contact bob@freedombone.net (Email or XMPP) or #fbone:matrix.freedombone.net (Matrix) for guidance.