[aprssig] APRS Digi "Live" CD?

[Dave Baxter]

Hi All...

Does anyone have anything like a bootable Digipeater program disk for PC
hardware, to control a dumb TNC?  (Pac-com or whatever, with no backup
battery, so fresh setup needed each restart)   Something that can reside
on a CD or even a floppy, and not depend on anything like a Hard Disk
based OS to run?...

We have PC hardware coming out of our ears, but so far all the APRS
software I've looked at, needs at least DOS, Windows, or Linux to run,
then manual intervention at some point to get going as a fully fledged
digi.  Yes I know all about scripts and batch files etc, but there is
always "something" you can't cater for doing it that way, and it's that
0.0001% of the time that no one will be there to kick it.

A group of us in the UK have the permission of our local repeater group
to "convert" a little used packet node to a much needed digi.  But
historically, the power supply at the site is not reliable (people
on-site unplug the kit without warning at times!) so it needs to be 110%
bomb proof power outage recovery wise.  Something the above OS's aren't
sadly.  From my own limited experiments, Linux seems more resilient than
Windows, and something like DOS even more so.  But.....

Having played a bit with some of the "Live CD" versions of Linux (My
favourite at the mo is Puppy Linux, fast, small, does the job) it would
be good if something like that was about for a fully featured APRS
Digi/I-Gate (we cant do the I-Gate, no net connection on site.)

We're looking for something that is simple to get restarted, so if
needed, other members of the group (or the on-site people) who know
squat about APRS and PC's, can if needed just go and switch it all back
on, with absolutely no need to fiddle.   The radio will be either
crystal controlled, or have a hard programmed (ROM) synthesizer.

Any recommendations?

Cheers.

Dave G0WBX.
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