Installing Ring in Fedora 26

Many communication platforms promise to link people together by video, voice, and data. But almost none of them promise or respect user privacy and freedom to a useful extent.

Ring is a universal communication system for any platform. But it is also a fully distributed system that protects users’ confidentiality. One protective feature is that it doesn’t store users personal data in a centralized location. Instead, it decentralizes this data through a combination of OpenDHT and Ethereum blockchain technology. In addition to being distributed, it has other unique features for communication:

  • Cross platform (works on Linux, Windows, MacOS, and Android)
  • Uses only free and open source software
  • Uses standard security protocols and end-to-end encryption
  • Works with desktop applications (like GNOME Contacts)

In July the Savoir-faire Linux team released the stable 1.0 version of Ring. Although it isn’t included in Fedora due to some of its requirements, the Savoir-faire team graciously provides a package for the Fedora community.

How to install Ring

To install, open a terminal and run the following commands:

sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo https://dl.ring.cx/ring-nightly/fedora_26/ring-nightly.repo
sudo dnf install ring

If you’re using an older version of Fedora, or an entirely different platform, check out the download page.

How to setup a RingID

Now that it’s installed, you’re ready to create an account (or link pre-existing one). The RingID allows other users to locate and contact you while still protecting your privacy. To create one:

  1. First, click on Create Ring Account.
  2. Next, add the required information.
  3. Finally, click Next.

The tutorial page offers more information on setting up this useful app. For example, you can learn how to secure your account and add devices which all notify you on a call. To learn more, check out the tutorial page.

 

Using Software

20 Comments

  1. As much as this looks wonderful, there is a glaringly obvious omission in platform support (iOS). I almost thought this would be a great alternative to what we are currently using…but I know for a fact that a few iOS users will grumble heavily about the lack of support.

    Another niggle is the lack of a web platform – it seems like that is also a near default/standard fallback for many messaging platforms at this point…

  2. Moll

    Is possible , using ssh or tor over the ting?

    • Gabriel

      I think the real question should be: Is it possible to use Ring over ssh or tor? I would think that it would work, assuming a standard tcp connection. Anybody tried this yet?

  3. @fedyes

    Which requirements block its inclusion to Fedora?

  4. There is a 404 page to download repo 🙁

    Status code: 404 for https://dl.ring.cx/ring-nightly/fedora_26/ring-nightly.repo

  5. jd

    I’m not able to download ring either. Same 404 error.

    Error: Configuration of repo failed.

    • This was an error in the instructions — you must download the repo with HTTP rather than HTTPS. Now fixed, thanks for catching it.

  6. Luis Duran

    sudo dnf config-manager –add-repo http://dl.ring.cx/ring-nightly/fedora_26/ring-nightly.repo

    Adicionando repositório de: http://dl.ring.cx/ring-nightly/fedora_26/ring-nightly.repo
    Curl error (6): Couldn’t resolve host name for https://dl.ring.cxring-nightly/fedora_26/ring-nightly.repo [Could not resolve host: dl.ring.cxring-nightly]
    Erro: Configuration of repo failed

    • @Luis: Hilarious! Apparently the Ring.cx guys changed their repo to use HTTPS in the last couple hours. I’ve changed the instructions back now to use HTTPS. 😉

  7. jd

    I’m getting this message when trying HTTP:

    Adding repo from: http://dl.ring.cx/ring-nightly/fedora_26/ring-nightly.repo
    Curl error (6): Couldn’t resolve host name for https://dl.ring.cxring-nightly/fedora_26/ring-nightly.repo [Could not resolve host: dl.ring.cxring-nightly]
    Error: Configuration of repo failed

    What am I doing wrong?

  8. Luis Duran

    🙂

  9. Looks wonderful enough to try. Obvious problem is to find someone to talk to. =)

  10. eee

    Is possible using this for ssh?
    Is any public API?

  11. warmcat

    What’s Ring’s problem such that it’s incompatible with being in Fedora directly?

  12. GR

    The main Ring account(1) (what we clever called “Ring account”) uses a mesh network based on a DHT [1] technology.
    This network uses UDP sockets to connect peers, Tor is TCP based, giving us an incompatibility at very low level.
    Moreover, the anonymity technologies behind Tor require to add various randomization and jitter in conveyed packets.
    This means another incompatibility with realtime communications, who is the main goal of Ring.
    Even if Ring has also instant messaging support, a non-realtime exchange, even if we can imaging
    to connect peers using Tor (2) and use Ring IM engine to convey messages, it looks like more using two software
    in a way that they are not designed to be used and not as powerful as they could be.
    This will takes an amount of time and energy that we prefer to spend in bugs correction or adding better front-end user experience (as examples).

    But… it’s worth to remind Ring is free-software and we only talk about the original team time here.
    Contribution are welcome 😉

    About iOS support: we working on it and a client is coming [2], but with very restricted resource availability, we also face to some challenges on this platforms (technicals and ethicals), giving us extra delays. But it’s on good progress [3].

    Guillaume R.,
    Ring – Savoir-faire Linux

    Notes:
    (1) Ring also supports a common VoIP protocol named SIP through the more clever caller “SIP account”.
    (2) This also apply to SSH, HTTP, … well … all TCP based protocols.

    Refs:
    [1] https://github.com/savoirfairelinux/opendht
    [2] https://gitlab.savoirfairelinux.com/ring/ring-client-ios/tree/master
    [3] https://gerrit-ring.savoirfairelinux.com/#/q/project:ring-client-ios

  13. Claude

    Wire is a better alternative to Skype. Open source. Encrypted. It works on ALL platforms. Linux Android Web Mac iOS Windows. The only “problem” is that it’s an electron App. There’s a COPR for Fedora, or you can use the AppImage.

    https://wire.com/en/

    https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/conoria/wire-desktop/

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