[FADCA] FPAC Linux test switch working.

[Bill Sinbine]

At 09:15 PM 3/7/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>Bill Sinbine wrote:
> > At 11:00 AM 3/7/2004 -0500, you wrote:
> > That depends on the install.
> >
>
>You are most correct on this one, I was not fully thinking
>
>
> > To answer your other post the floppy is made to expand into the
> > memory and no hard drive is needed. This way would make a second box
> > needed for the bbs.
> >
>
>Ideally we would have a whole system on HD, but right now I am
>concentrating on getting a floppy based switch up and running
>getting familiar with the layout of the switch.

What I was getting at Chuck was while you were looking around see what 
would have to be changed to have the floppy expand onto the small hard 
drive instead of loading into memory and writing data to the floppy. I 
assume this could be done by changing the install or unzip paths. It would 
still be the floppy install, just on the hard drive..  I belive this is 
what you were getting at in one of your messages.
The nice thing about the floppy as it is made now is that we can give it a 
try and see how it goes and then just remove it and reboot and the dos 
version would load back up and run.



> > If you were to change how the program on the floppy expands to put it
> > on
> > the hard drive then you would have to see if it had everything needed
> > to install a bbs with it. Any ideas on this Chuck?
>
>We really do not want to try to put a BBS on that floppy, I do not
>think there is anywhere near the space needed to do so. We really
>want to do this on a HD.

This is what I was talking about above. Running the demon version of a bbs. 
I think that the fpac floppy MIGHT have all the files needed on it other 
than needing a script to make the dirs etc that the bbs would need set up 
on the HD..


>This is where we can use some helping hands, some people to start
>looking at the whole thing and we try to get the different bits
>and pieces up and working one by one.

I agree!



> > There is a LOT of files zipped up on that one little floppy. It has
> > everything linux that you need to run the fpac program on it...
>
>And that is probably about all...
> >
> > If the floppy doesn't have everything that is needed to run a bbs
> > also then you would have to install linux on the HD and then install
> > both fpac and fbb on the HD.
>
>Yes this is where you are going a full (well all needed to do both
>the BBS and switch) install.

There would be much to much stuff installed if we just installed the full 
version of linux. It would need to be stripped down to only have what would 
be needed to run fpac and a bbs program on the same box. This way we might 
be able to get away with the small 100-400 meg drives that we are using now.


> >
> > Something to think about.
> > How about a CD with everything needed to run fpac and fbb in a simple
> > plug it in & install all in one ??
>
>This is what I would like to get to, I wish I knew how to do such
>installs, it would boot and ask the usual stuff, in this case we do
>not need to have it ask about language support and all that crap, just
>do the partitioning and get a name and Ip address install the needed
>packages and then ask for the addresses, callsigns and port assignments
>create the basic files and indeed you could take it one more step and
>have it ask you the neighbor switches and address, for the routing
>table, once done you pull the CD and reboot, if you have answered
>all the questions correctly a switch should come on line.
>
>You could have the same thing for a BBS, in fact you could have a
>tree that would allow you to do a one or both install. Say you do
>not need a switch, but you need a BBS so you would select that one
>only, or in the case where you just need a switch.

That would work for me. This would keep the size of the install down.


> > The fbb for a remote site can be the demon version which would be a
> > lot smaller and not need as many linux files to run...
>
>Yes indeed this would be a excellent selection for a remote unattended
>BBS. I guess I have to many hours in front of a BBS console to feel
>comfortable about a remote one, but hey whatever floats your boat...

It would be handy to have a co located bbs in the same site for the areas 
that we have switches but no local bbs's on the LAN. I belive that with 
linux we wouldn't have the problems with it running remote.

73, Bill N4XEO

E- Mail mailto: n4xeo@amsat.org
home page:        http://www.qsl.net/n4xeo
Fort Pierce arc:  http://www.qsl.net/w4akh
F.A.D.C.A.:        http://www.fadca.org
FPAC:               http://www.qsl.net/fpac
ICQ: 19219163