[aprssig] Re: [Xastir] DIGI_NED 0.3.6

[Henk de Groot]

Hello Han,

Han Sytsma schreef:
> Hi Henk,
> 
> Is it possible to use both ax25 and /dev/tty at the same time and even
> better can I use a /dev/ptya0 /dev/ttya0 combination to make an internal
> linux pipe with it (I use it with an ax25 pipe to aprsd, aprsd is used to
> connect Xastir on every computer in the house)

Of course you can! But you don't need this new KISS stuff for that. Why on 
earth would anybody want KISS when you have AX.25 support in the kernel? 
What you want has been possible since the very first version of DIGI_NED.

If you want the AX.25 version of DIGI_NED talk to a KISS port then just 
use "kissattach" to create an AX.25 interface for the KISS port...

Example how I connect to a KISS TNC (sort of, its my TH-D7..):

setserial /dev/ttyS3 uart 16550A # in case I may have switched it off)
thd7tokiss /dev/ttys3            # this throws my THD7 in KISS...
modprobe mkiss                   # loads the mkiss module
/usr/sbin/kissattach /dev/ttyS3 -l 1k2 # creates AX.25 port 1k2
/sbin/ifconfig ax2 10.0.0.3 netmask 255.255.255.255 \
		mtu 256 hw ax25 PE1DNN-10 up # brings the interface up
kissparms -p 1k2 -t 250 -s 100 -r 128

Now DIGI_NED can talk to port 1k2 which will speak KISS to /dev/ttyS3

Note: in this case kissattach created network port ax2, this is because I
have a loopback construction that uses ax0 and ax1. Ok, what the heck, 
here is my loopback construction.

modprobe mkiss
/usr/sbin/kissnetd /dev/ptyq1 /dev/ptyq2 &
sleep 4
/usr/sbin/kissattach /dev/ttyq1 -l lfbb
/usr/sbin/kissattach /dev/ttyq2 -l lapp

/sbin/ifconfig ax0 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.255 \
		mtu 256 hw ax25 PE1DNN-7 up
/sbin/ifconfig ax1 10.0.0.2 netmask 255.255.255.255 \
		mtu 256 hw ax25 PE1DNN-8 up

Now you have AX.25 ports lfbb and lapp. lfbb talks KISS to /dev/ttyq1 and 
and lapp talks kiss to /dev/ttyq2. The program kissnetd copies the data 
from the first set of pty's to the second set and vice versa.

Of course you can leave one side "open" and for example have some KISS 
application talk to /dev/ttyq2 instead of "kissattach".

Oh, for the complete picture my axports file. The callsigns must match 
those in ipconfig, its used as "hardware address". The callsign is also 
the default for the interface if the application does not set a callsign 
explicitly:

# name  callsign    speed  packlen  window  description
1k2     PE1DNN-10    9600  250      4       Baycom or THD7
9k6     PE1DNN-9     9600  250      4       YAM
lapp    PE1DNN-8        0  250      4       Entry for application
lfbb    PE1DNN-7        0  250      4       Entry for fbb
linp    PE1DNN-6        0  250      4       Test loop input
lout    PE1DNN-5        0  250      4       Test loop output

I have two loopbacks, I use these for example for testing DIGI_NED. I put 
DIGI_NED at one end and inject test packets on the other end.

So DIGI_NED with AX.25 always has been capable to talk to KISS devices 
this way. No need to compile it for KISS, this is only interesting if you 
don't have AX.25 support in your Unix system. For example you could run it 
now on a LynkSys WRT54GS Wireless Lan router or maybe run DIGI_NED on a MAC?

By the way, the loopback construction is also described in the DIGI_NED 
manual. So just hook up APRSD, JavAPRSsrv, Xastir and you name it together 
with DIGI_NED. The AX.25 support in the Linux kernel is powerfull, that 
was the reason why DIGI_NED never had to support anything else (for Linux).

Kind regards,

Henk.