Installation

Automated Installation (Linux / Raspberry Pi / Debian)

Paste the command generated by the Setup Wizard into your terminal. The installer (run_meshdash.sh + install.sh) will:

1. Install system packages: python3, python3-pip, python3-venv, git
2. Clone the MeshDash repository to /opt/meshdash
3. Create a Python virtual environment at mesh-dash_venv/
4. Install all Python packages from requirements.txt
5. Download and place your .mesh-dash_config
6. Create and enable the mesh-dash.service systemd unit
7. Start the service

curl -sL 'https://meshdash.co.uk/install/YOUR_KEY/install.sh' | bash

Windows (WSL2)

Open PowerShell as Administrator and install WSL2:

wsl --install

Reboot, open Ubuntu from the Start Menu, then run the same Linux installer command above. See Radio Connection for attaching USB devices to WSL.

Docker

Linux / macOS:

docker run -d \
  --name meshdash \
  --restart always \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  --privileged \
  --log-opt max-size=10m --log-opt max-file=3 \
  -v /dev:/dev \
  -v meshdash_data:/app/data \
  -e PYTHONPATH="/app/data" \
  -e MD_SETUP_KEY="YOUR_KEY" \
  -e MD_SETUP_URL="https://meshdash.co.uk/user_setup_core.php" \
  rusjpmd/meshdash-runner:latest

Windows CMD:

docker run -d ^
  --name meshdash ^
  --restart always ^
  -p 8000:8000 ^
  --privileged ^
  --log-opt max-size=10m --log-opt max-file=3 ^
  -v meshdash_data:/app/data ^
  -e PYTHONPATH="/app/data" ^
  -e MD_SETUP_KEY="YOUR_KEY" ^
  -e MD_SETUP_URL="https://meshdash.co.uk/user_setup_core.php" ^
  rusjpmd/meshdash-runner:latest

Manual Installation

# 1. System dependencies
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y python3 python3-pip python3-venv git

# 2. Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/your-org/meshdash.git /opt/meshdash
cd /opt/meshdash

# 3. Virtual environment
python3 -m venv mesh-dash_venv
source mesh-dash_venv/bin/activate

# 4. Python packages
pip install -r requirements.txt

# 5. Place config file
cp /path/to/.mesh-dash_config /opt/meshdash/.mesh-dash_config

# 6. Run
python3 meshtastic_dashboard.py

Post-Installation

Open your browser and navigate to:

http://<your-device-ip>:8000

On first visit, the Setup page (/setup) guides you through creating the admin account. Once the admin user is created, the setup endpoint is permanently disabled (the static/.new file is deleted).

Service Management

The installer creates and enables mesh-dash.service. The restart.sh helper script is also included for programmatic restarts.

Updating

Trigger via the dashboard at Settings → System → Check for Updates, or via the API:

POST /api/system/check-update   # Check without applying
POST /api/system/start-update   # Download and apply (triggers restart)

On restart, MeshDash checks for a .update_ready flag and update.zip. If both are present it extracts the update, skipping protected files (.mesh-dash_config, databases, backup/), then hot-swaps the process via os.execv().

mesh_dash_tools.sh

An interactive management toolkit is included at mesh_dash_tools.sh. Run it from the install directory:

bash mesh_dash_tools.sh

Provides four sub-menus: Service Control, Database Backup/Restore, Configuration Edit/Backup, and Admin/Maintenance (permissions, update flags, disk usage).