[FADCA] Re: Work on telpac for Linux

Mon Nov 1 23:52:33 EST 2004

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 03:44:51 -0000, highlandfl <oderr at bellsouth.net> wrote:
> 
> --- In telpac-paclink at yahoogroups.com, "Rick Muething"
> <rmuething at c...> wrote:
> All,
> 
> We have a bright young user that is helping to translate telpac to
> Linux.
> He is Kit Haskins KA0WUC. Kit is in the early stages of testing the
> initial
> prototypes and will be looking for some alpha testers in the next
> few weeks.
> I think his initial version will be supporting only Kantronics TNCs.
> Anyone
> with Linux experience or access to a Linux machine that might be
> interested
> in testing please contact me.   I will get more details later.
> 

Russ,
he does not need to do ANY KISS implementation it is already done
and in the Linux kernel!! And there are headers to handle all forms of
it. It is used with TNC-2 type machines, AEA boxes, Kantronics boxes,
If he wants specifics he sets it up for CRC kiss, I have a set up file for
BPQKISS which is what Kanronics is using.

Tell him to go and get the following CD and install it, as this is the quickest
way to get the AX25 stuff up and running.

http://www.afu-knoppix.de/

Also he needs to read the AX25 How To.

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/AX25-HOWTO/

There is ABSOLUTLY no reason for him to wast his time doing KISS.
What distro is he using? All he needs to do is install the AX25 stuff and
the rest of it is all there, he just needs to add his application as one of
the apps that can be accessed from the stack. In the Ax25 docs and other
docs there are descriptions of how to do that. 

I am sure that there is a lot of other work that needs to be done rather than
re-doing the AX25 piece. It is very stable and can talk to anything in the
Linux machine if you set up your connections to the apps correctly.

He should get on Linux Hams if he is not already on there.
linux-hams at vger.kernel.org
There is also a german fellow that has been doing the same thing, they
ought to exchange information as the german fellow already has his
talking to the AX25 stack, it just is not "pretty" As you have noticed I have
not said anything about the Ip side, that is a given as everything in Linux
talks to the Ip side of the house.

Here is a copy of his message. He also is asking for help, looks like he
has the radio piece working, he needs it "gussied up" and all of the
user interface stuff put in it. I think it would be best to join forces and get
the whole thing done right rather than have two of them being worked on.

Remember, unlike Windows, AX25 is integrated into the OS, all you do
is add what you need i.e. apps (BBS, APRS, Info Servers, file servers
and other services) Network (IP, FPAC, NetRom, roll your own) so you
do not need to write anything but the app, and link it to the AX25 and
IP parts. The AX25 part will be used to link it to the FPAC/Nr/FLEX network
stuff. So you can concentrate on building the toys and not have to worrry
so much about the pipes, of course you do want to keep in mind that
these AX25 pipes are more like 1/4 inch hose so you do not want apps
that are too bulky, hold on to that for a bit, and give us time to give you
bigger pipes.

Here is Hans message, I am hoping that they are already working
together on this as it is a shame to have two people going down the
same road and not sharing the load. 

 >
 >Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004
 >From: "Hans-Juergen Barthen" <dl5di at gmx.de>
 >Subject: TelPac Node/LinuX
>
>I have written a small "TelPac-node" which runs on my LinuX server and uses
>it's ax25-kernel and ax25d capabilities.
>
>This small and simple piece of software can not be compared to the nice
>TelPac-Node for windows from Rick KN6KB.  It is just a small tool and not a
>real application with a GUI.
 >
 >It is based on the standard ax25-tool "tcp_call" which most
> LinuX-users may
 >know who have ax25 installed.
 >
 >I made this tool binary transparent and included the server-logon,
 >client-connect text, some logging, error handling and statistics.
 >
 >The node is started like ax25_call, tcp_call and all other tools of the
 >package from ax25d.
 >
 >The TelPac-node has no user interface and only a very small config file
 >with just the node call and the connect text.
 >
 >It is running for test with the nodecall db0lj-2, attached via
 >ethernet/axip to the digipeater db0lj which you can reach from the German
 >flexnet network as well as in the worldwide TNN network.
 >
 >The node connects to Rick's Winlink2000 server kn6kb.
 >
 >Our tests during last weeks were very positiv, we had no problems caused by
 >this TelPac node. The telnet port of the Winlink2000 server is an easy
 >interface.  With the latest Airmail2000 beta release 3.1.952 TelPac works
 >absolute fine, with  .351 we had some errors mainly caused by
 >missconfiguration of our PTC2s causing "proposal errors".
 >
 >The logfile of the telpac node can be accessed at our webpage and shows the
 >callsigns, login- and logout-time, transmitted and received bytes and the
 >average transferrates (this is for test users, some nicer design will follow).
 >
 >The telpac node is tested on SuSE LinuX 9.1 using it's ax25libs and
 >ax25-tools-0.0.8.  I did not have the time yet to write any nice
 >documentation, automatic installscripts, autoconfig and automake, so at the
 >moment it has to be installed manually and probably needs some adjustments.
 >
 >Easiest way is to just unpack the archiv as a new directory into the source
 >tree of the ax25-tools parallel to 'user_call'.
 >
 >The tgz includes a README.1st with the installation instructions and a
 >sample configfile.
 >
 >I will provide a better documented and more comfortable version as soon as
 >I have some more time and have tested everything.
 >
 >Maybe somebody can help with the makefile/configure/automake to get it
 >installed easier and also on different platforms and LinuX distributions, I
 >am no specialist on that tools.
 >
 >You can download the current prelimenary version at
 >http://db0lj.dyndns.org/pub/dl5di-soft/telpac-node.08a.tgz
 >
 >Please let me know any experiences when running the node or when using it.
 >
 >73 de Hans, DL5DI
 >
 >SysOp @DB0LJ, DB0QT, DA5UDI
 >
 >AX-BBS: dl5di at db0lj.deu.eu
 >Amprnet/Internet: dl5di at db0lj.ampr.org
 >Internet: dl5di at darc.de
 >
 >Homepage der Packet-Radio-Group-Mittelrhein e.V.
 >HamWeb: http://db0lj.ampr.org
 >Internet: http://www.db0lj.de
 >

-- 
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."