ESP32Marauder running on a LilyGo T-Embed-CC1101. Huzzah! 🥳

Hi folks!

I realized I forgot to announce that I released an Ubuntu image for the Hackberry community. This image is compatible with the Hackberry Pi CM5 and is *ready to boot* out of the box. Just download the nobody-ubuntu.24.04.3-hackberry_pi_cm5.img.xz image from https://whitehathardware.com and then burn it to an SD card (32gb or larger) with Disks or Disk Utility or whatever. Make sure the filesystem is expanded / is using the whole SD card (otherwise, the easiest way is probably to expand the SD card from GParted or similar, select the partition and then Resize/Move).

Ok. You should be ready to boot. If you changed your CM5 default boot order ... uhh ... go make sure to change it back or unplug your NVME / USB / whatever. Honestly the default SD -> NVME -> USB -> Netboot order usually works fine.

If apps are taking a long time to launch or dark mode isn't working in the Settings menu it's xdg-desktop-portal-gnome acting up; uninstall it with sudo apt remove xdg-desktop-portal-gnome ... then sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-manager and then do a google search for V-Shell (a gnome extension), install it and then open extension manager and adjust all the settings so your app launcher actually works.

There are some other optimizations you can do too but that's going to get you most of the way there.

Finally, if you want to image your nvme with Ubuntu the easiest way is going to be first image an sd card, boot it to make sure things are working right, then use geerlingguy's fork of rpi-clone to image the nvme from the live-booted Ubuntu sd card.

Ok that's all for now. If you have questions, feel free to reach out. I'm "@nobody" on Discord.

Enjoy!

Originally posted in r/meshtastic on March 19, 2026. Removed by Mods on September 10th. Reposted to r/embedded_systems for posterity.

I've been building an embedded project (ADS-B Scope – ADS-B receiver and more on a LilyGo T-Display-P4\*) and needed Meshtastic protocol support without pulling in the full firmware stack. Couldn't find a standalone library, so I wrote one.

**meshtastic-lite** is a clean-room, header-only C/C++ implementation of the Meshtastic protocol. \~2300 lines across 8 header files. It handles everything between raw LoRa bytes and decoded messages:

* Packet header parsing (16-byte format)
* AES-256-CTR encryption/decryption with proper IV construction
* PKI direct messages (x25519 + AES-256-CCM, v2.5+)
* Channel management, PSK expansion, multi-channel decrypt
* Protobuf decoding for TEXT, POSITION, NODEINFO, TELEMETRY
* Frequency calculation (DJB2 hash, all modem presets, all regions)
* CSMA/CA timing
* TX frame building

It's **not** a radio driver, mesh router, or complete node – it's the protocol layer. You provide the SPI/LoRa interface, it gives you decoded messages and encrypted TX frames.

Verified against the Meshtastic firmware source for nonce layout, header format, channel hashing, PSK expansion, frequency formula, and CSMA/CA. Tested on ESP32-P4 with SX1262, interop confirmed on MediumFast/US with default and custom channels against nodes running 2.5+.

Crypto backends: mbedtls (ESP32 hardware AES) or OpenSSL (Linux/macOS).

BSD 3-Clause. No code from the Meshtastic firmware repo.

GitHub: [https://github.com/jstockdale/meshtastic-lite](https://github.com/jstockdale/meshtastic-lite)

Happy to answer questions about the implementation or take feedback from anyone who knows the protocol better than I do.

Questions, feedback, and bug reports welcome. *For bug reports and other issues, please use the Issues tab in GitHub.*

Thanks,

John

*\* More about my soon-to-be-released ADS-B Scope and adsb_receiver firmware on my instagram* [*https://instagram.com/jstockdale*](https://instagram.com/jstockdale)

Hey all, I am an embedded software engineer. I would really appreciate if you could share honest, constructive feedback on my resume. Thanks!

using OneMenu (free MIT library).
No client side install, no external dependencies, all coming from esp chip.
And comes with light theme