[nos-bbs] Ubuntu Linux

[(Skip) K8RRA]

This is a partial answer to your questions Jerry & Michele, I expect
others will chime in too.

On Thu, 2008-07-03 at 12:30 -0500, Jerry and Michele Groeneveld wrote:
> I have been running DOS JNOS 1.11f for many years. I'm 
> learning Linux and have started the ax25, netrom, and FBB 
> programs. I would like to try the Linux JNOS 2.0 so I can 
> take advantage of the many features of JNOS. I'm running 
> Ubuntu 8 and I have the config.h from my DOS JNOS.
> 
> Anyone on the list that has tried the compile with Ubuntu 8? 
> What programs must be added to Ubuntu 8? 
While I do run Ubuntu on my laptop, I have done all my jnos development
on FC-x [starting as RH-6, up to FC-8].  Unlike U, FC includes the
development series in the defaults.  There is a minimal answer to your
question that includes gcc, make, and libraries, and a gold plated
answer that adds various development environments [IDE] like Eclipse.

The good news that you probably have already found is that installation
is just a click away in the software manager.  If you don't get a
definitive answer in a few days, you should be OK in discovering your
own answer by hunt-and-peck that is quite safe [expect to end up with
more than you really need?].

> Will my DOS 
> config.h work? 
Close but no cigar.  DOS interfaces are different from Linux, so attach
works a little differently, as does the interface to Internet or LAN
thru TUN rather than directly to a NIC.  You will need to deal with two
TCP/IP stacks rather than one under DOS [I expect you might find two is
better that one as time goes by?].

The good news is that many things do not change so a large percentage of
what you already have in place is transferable.

> Do I assume correctly that I must compile 
> JNOS 2.0 with Ubuntu 8 and cannot use a binary compiled with 
> another Linux?
Perhaps, but not necessarily so.  I've not tested this answer because my
site is compiled with a custom config.h that is unlike the standard
distribution.  The fly in the ointment is a non-backward compatible
design change in 2007 for the c libraries that discontinues some memory
management calls.  I *know* the 2.0f distribution is compiled with the
new design that I *suspect* should run on top of U-8 if you want the
default configuration setup.  Try it before installing the development
support, there is no harm in it...  If I'm wrong, it will fail in load
time before beginning to execute.

> 
> If I can do the compile, is there some information on what 
> the file structure is in Linux. Where do the autoexec.nos, 
> help files, and mail files reside in relation to /etc or 
> other directories in Linux?
The directory structure is remarkably similar, but not identical.  Many
of the file contents will be functional after being copied from your DOS
platform.  One of those differences is case sensitivity, very soon seen
related to "help".  DOS distributions use upper case file names, Linus
*requires* lower case that is typical case coming from the keyboard.

If you are "married" to DOS directory structure [or a custom one] and
find it not functional on Linux, then one answer is to redefine the
directory structure of jnos to match your wants.  It's like so many
flavors of ice cream?

> 
> I hope I've asked the right questions. If not, I hope you 
> can help me get started.
If you haven't already stumbled on the jnos wiki, the above details are
covered there at jnoswiki.no-ip.org that began a year ago with the 1.10
documentation and incorporates some of the new thinking in jnos2.
Perhaps the most productive tool in the wiki is the search engine where
you can find all the text references to "help" as an example [now 174
hits, so "help" search is too broad?].

> 
> Jerry, N0MR
Best of luck!
Hope that gets you started on your new branch.  Let us know how you do?

73
de [George (Skip) VerDuin] K8RRA k