[FADCA] FPAC Linux test switch working.

Mon, 8 Mar 2004 00:26:39 -0500

Now you're talking.

I small, rack mountable computer that runs on DC, has as many ports (USB)
that you need, with a self extracting and instaling, guided installation CD
that does not require the istaller to be a computer geek, talks to the sysop
in "english" that asks questions, like, who are you, what is my address,
where am I located, how many ports do you want, to where, who are your
neighbors, what are they, what area codes and addresses do you want to go to
which port, what quick connects do you want and where do they go, and, not
to forget, where is the bbs, the 411 and (I think you used 511) lookup for
users that will tell it where they were last heard (last three is a good
number) and routes the connect to where they are most likely to be based on
thier last three responses to a query.

And, not to leave it out, build into the system a user query poll that would
supplement the heard lists (a kind of "who's there" on the lan that would
not reqire that stations beacon but their mobile units (laptops, cars
(planes, boats, and bikes), PDA, etc. would respond by saying "I'm here."

(A vhf/uhf link type system that would support direct connects and, like,
winlink, route  your mail to where you are.)

And........where there are no RF links or as a back up, IP connections to
the rest of the "world" as we know it.

Russ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 12:01 AM
Subject: RE: [FADCA] FPAC Linux test switch working.

> Bill Sinbine wrote:
> > At 09:15 PM 3/7/2004 -0500, you wrote:
> >
> > 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.
>
>
> I have already spent the better part of last week poking around
> trying to do exactly that. I think I have a idea of how to do it,
> but I have not had the time to set up a machine to do so. You need
> basicly a machine that has two HD's though I may be able to pull
> it off with a HD and a CD with one of the bootable systems that
> will allow me to build the HD from the CD.
>
> I will have to go in and modify a lot of paths which presently
> point to /dev/fd0... But that is probably a nice evening.
>
> Indeed that is what I am trying to get to is a floppy that has
> enough ports to make most people happy, and all they will have
> to do is go in and change the things that are locally different.
> I.e. addresses, callsigns, routing.
> By way this version of FPAC allows you to have a address on each
> port, so you could have a address for say a 2m port and a 70cm
> port. Still has the coverage as in the old fpac and rose.
>
>
> >
> > 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..
>
> There may be space, but I am not sure, the bad part is if the power
> goes down all your BBS msg and other data files are lost, the system
> puts all of that into ramdisk, we would have to figure out how to
> stuff it back on the floppy as a backup. I think again that space
> is a premium here. HD is a better solution for this I think
>
> >
>
> > I agree!
>
> We need to get them helping...
>
>
>
> > 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.
>
> LINUX allows you to go in and select only that you need when you
> do the install if you select "custom" I also have one that gives you
> a "small install selection for firewalls and routers" I think that
> was on the RH CD or the Knoppix CD.
>
> What we usually do is set back and let it do a desktop, laptop or
> server install and those are big, but if you take the time to tell
> it WHAT you want then you will get it down to a minimal install, in
> fact now that I remember, one of the CD's used that very term
> "minimal install"
>
>
> > 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.
>
> With a hd I know that we can do this one, should not be that big of
> a deal. I guess I should remember that the last few years I ran a BBs
> here it ran with almost no attention (TNOS box that ran the 411 and
> 511 servers amoung other things) in fact that thing ran for over a
> year over in a corner without me looking at it, so it can be done,
> and indeed it was a LINUX box, it ran for 1 year and 3 months without
> me even going in and cleaning up anything. I pulled it down to change
> some stuff on it so that stopped the nice up time clock run!!
>
> The more I think about this whole thing the more the idea of a laptop
> with USB serial ports becomes more and more attractive. You can get
> older laptops now that have USB, you put LINUX on it with the USB
> drivers, add the USB serial ports to it you need and you have a small
> multi-port switch. If you use say a Toshiba portable you can run the
> thing off of a 13.8v system. It takes up little rack space and uses
> little power.
>
> I am going to try that one once I get to where I can get a system
> on HD.
>
>
> Chuck Hast
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To paraphrase my flight instructor;
> "the only dumb question is the one you DID NOT ask resulting in my going
> out and having to identify your bits and pieces in the midst of torn
> and twisted metal."
>
>
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