!Portable dumb terminal: bootable LORA dongle
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agk's diary 
18 June 2026
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written on GPD MicroPC
while daughter practices writing "Z"s
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Imagine a dongle. Plug it in a USB port. Turn on the
computer. BIOS or UEFI boots (from the dongle's
storage) a single-application kiosk OS which brings
up the the LoRa radio also packaged in the dongle. 
Autoconnect to a pre-programmed BBS located about a
km away, display log-on/new user prompt. Logging off
shuts down the computer.

A series of questions for my own investigation, or
hardware hackers/electrical engineers who find this
text file...

1. Can the bitrate of mature LoRa radio technology
   support a LoRa-only BBS (message board, live
   chat, unfederated email, door games, and gopher)?

   A: Yes. BBS started over packet radio. LoRa can
      exceed 56kbps. There have been proofs-of-
      concept. (update 6/19)

2. Does specific BBS software seem particularly
   suited for LoRa access?

   A: Reticulum supports (too-basic) RetiBBS. With
      serial, ethernet, or ip over LoRa, looks like
      I should be able to run any? (update 6/19)

      Centralizing messages to a BBS with sysop
      tools, reachable only by local kids with odd
      hardware, should help me prevent/catch/control
      abuse.

3. What options does a LoRa client device have for
   connecting to a usually-on server/pub, authenti-
   cating, and exchanging packets? Is RNode a good
   choice? Is something like the Reticulum network
   stack needed?

      LoRa nodes anywhere in town should be able to
      reach the LoRa node serving the BBS if it's on
      the ridge.

4. Is there prior art of a bootable external medium
   (USB, SD, PCMCIA, express card, etc) with onboard
   networking? How would the dongle work?

   A: There is! Older USB network interfaces install-
      ed windows drivers from flash storage with a
      mode-switching trick.[^1] Instead, I should
      build a usb hub into the dongle. (update 6/20)

[^1]: openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/network/wan/wwan/usb-modeswitching

5. What is the tiniest, simplest, quickest-booting
   path from pressing the on button to logging on to
   the remote system?

   A: After autologin to the local machine, bring up
      the network interface and autoconnect to the
      remote machine, which immediately issues a 
      login prompt. Can it feel instantaneous?

      Possibly a (tiny) core linux system with a
      mini kernel, busybox ssh, telnet, or screen,
      and a single, ephemeral user could do that.
      Inspiration includes linux on single floppies
      in the early 2000s (ie tomsrtbt[^2]), and the
      QNX demo floppy.

[^2]: www.toms.net/rb/

      Possibly I could build something similar from
      FreeDOS with mTCP or Kermit. (update 6/23)

6. What's the least expensive way to do it?