[nos-bbs] Help with getting minimal JNOS configuration working

Chris Maness christopher.maness at gmail.com
Sun May 7 21:11:40 EDT 2023 

There are some ANCIENT docs out there.  Disregard them, and join that
email list I shared with you.  I can also help you.  You will not need
to build in per-se AX.25 support, but you will need to load the NETROM
module with modprobe.  Go ahead and try to use the Pi software as I
have had some success with doing so on a pi, but some patches were
added to the current kernel that fixed some problems but broke others.
This is in the main kernel tree.  The raspberry Pi is a fork off of
that tree, and I cannot comment on what was ported save for some of
the patches that I personally requested myself due to a socket release
error that EVERYBODY was experiencing.  That seemed to stop and AX.25
seemed to be basically working on the Pi, but I stopped playing with
it after version 5.15.94 so YMMV.  As far as the userspace.  Use
VE7FET's stuff.  I dragged my feet on doing that and wasted a lot of
time as some of these fixes are very subtle.  You may think your stuff
is working properly (just because it sort of works), but there are a
lot of fixes applied that are important without getting into all of
that.  Uninstall the repository AX.25 userspace, and run the script in
the git tree for VE7FET.  It should build those packages for you in
.deb form.  Also note that the configuration files are in a different
place:

/usr/local/etc/ax25

Also, all the instructions that you need to get it going are IN the
configuration files.  That is pretty nice.  Let me know if you need
help.  If your stuff starts crashing or otherwise getting crusty let
me know, but you may need to find an old version of Pi OS which means
no updates.  I am not sure if you can push the current Pi OS version
back to kernel 4.4.301, and I can help you re-compile the kernel (The
raspberry Pi way which is different).

However, Slackware 14.2 still is still supported, and that is the
latest kernel version for that version.  That is what I recommend if
you want to run this stuff on something other than a Pi.

It is unfortunate that it is such a mess, but there was just a grant
put out to fix this mess for $200,000 and an outfit in Germany picked
up the grant, so help should be on the way.

73 de Chris KQ6UP

On Sun, May 7, 2023 at 5:41 PM David Lolling <dave.lolling at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Chris and All,
>
> Thanks for the information.  I have seen this repository before and was not sure if that was the real latest update or not.  A lot of information is floating around.  I initially started this journey trying to build everything for use on a cheap single board computer running Armbian and realized some of the packages for AX25 were bad/broken so then I started to suspect some of the software and the platform I chose.  I later moved back to Raspberry PI and again wondered if some of the packages were flakey or if my cheap test setup was causing issues.
>
> I am Ok with building from source.  I have also read in older documentation it is necessary to recompile the kernel to add AX25 support.  Is that still the case?
>
> My goal is to eventually build a reliable system for my community so I am interested in the details.
>
> Thanks again for your help and have a great week!
> 73 Dave, KD9GN
>
> On Sun, May 7, 2023 at 7:01 PM Chris Maness <christopher.maness at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> And for clarification I don't mean that it is unfortunate that the
>> code has been updated and put together with a nice script, I mean that
>> it is unfortunate that these fixes have not been applied to the
>> official repository at:
>>
>> https://linux-ax25.in-berlin.de/wiki/Main_Page
>>
>> Again, this information will save you some pain and frustration of
>> figuring all of this out the hard way.
>>
>> 73 de Chris KQ6UP
>>
>> On Sun, May 7, 2023 at 4:53 PM Chris Maness
>> <christopher.maness at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > Our pleasure (I hope I can speak for all who replied), and you may
>> > certainly run into some snags but reach out here or on:
>> >
>> > https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/v5.10/networking/ax25.html
>> >
>> > Also, the "official" AX.25 user space programs are out of date, but
>> > unfortunately the "fixed/updated" versions are found here:
>> >
>> > https://github.com/ve7fet/linuxax25
>> >
>> > The contain a script that should make .deb packages for you.  I am
>> > going to assume for now that you are familiar with git and chmod to
>> > run the script in the top level directory of this git repository.
>> >
>> > These links should save you from some "pain".
>> >
>> > -Chris
>> >
>> > On Sun, May 7, 2023 at 4:41 PM David Lolling <dave.lolling at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > >
>> > > Thanks everyone for your suggestions.  I will keep working on it!  I am running JNOS as root on the RPI.  My long term plan is to run this on a small form factor PC rather than a PI.
>> > >
>> > > On Sun, May 7, 2023 at 6:11 PM Chris Maness <christopher.maness at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > >>
>> > >> No worries at all, Maiko.  We all know that you are doing the Lords work, 😂
>> > >>
>> > >> -Chris
>> > >>
>> > >> On Sun, May 7, 2023 at 3:58 PM Maiko (Personal) <maiko at pcsinternet.ca> wrote:
>> > >>>
>> > >>> I'm having a bad day, here I was replying to James, should be Dave,
>> > >>> sorry guys. Also, I should have done some reading on the direwolf
>> > >>> user guide before posting what I did, my apologies for jumping the
>> > >>> gun. That's what happens when one spends more time programming, then
>> > >>> doing actual ham radio (for the last few years anyways), sigh ...
>> > >>>
>> > >>> Maiko / VE4KLM
>> > >>>
>> > >>> On 2023-05-07 5:50 p.m., Chris Maness wrote:
>> > >>> > Maiko, I have used direwolf with kiss using the -p option, and it works
>> > >>> > better than the AGWPE port.  I found that flakey.  I don’t remember the
>> > >>> > exact details, but switched back to the pseudo terminal version, and it
>> > >>> > works great.
>> > >>> >
>> > >>> > -Chris KQ6UP
>> > >>> >
>> > >>> > On Sun, May 7, 2023 at 3:46 PM James Smith <js.lanshark at gmail.com
>> > >>> > <mailto:js.lanshark at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> > >>> >
>> > >>> >     Thanks Maiko!
>> > >>> >
>> > >>> >     On Sun, May 7, 2023 at 6:38 PM Maiko (Personal)
>> > >>> >     <maiko at pcsinternet.ca <mailto:maiko at pcsinternet.ca>> wrote:
>> > >>> >
>> > >>> >         Direwolf is a software modem, you should be using agwpe driver.
>> > >>> >
>> > >>> >         Read this document, jump to section 5.6
>> > >>> >
>> > >>> >         https://www.langelaar.net/jnos2/documents/j2addendum.txt
>> > >>> >         <https://www.langelaar.net/jnos2/documents/j2addendum.txt>
>> > >>> >
>> > >>> >         It's a TCP/IP connection, direwolf is the one talking to the
>> > >>> >         TNC, not JNOS, so you can't use attach asy type commands.
>> > >>> >
>> > >>> >         Maiko
>> > >>> >
>> > >>> >          >     Virtual KISS TNC is available on /dev/pts/2
>> > >>> >          >     Ready to accept AGW client application 0 on port 8000 ...
>> > >>> >          >     Ready to accept KISS TCP client application 0 on port
>> > >>> >         8001 ...
>> > >>> >          >     Created symlink /tmp/kisstnc -> /dev/pts/2
>> > >>> >
>> > >>> >     _______________________________________________
>> > >>> >     nos-bbs mailing list
>> > >>> >     nos-bbs at lists.tapr.org <mailto:nos-bbs at lists.tapr.org>
>> > >>> >     http://lists.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/nos-bbs_lists.tapr.org
>> > >>> >     <http://lists.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/nos-bbs_lists.tapr.org>
>> > >>> >
>> > >>> > --
>> > >>> > Thanks,
>> > >>> > Chris Maness
>> > >>> > -Sent from my iPhone
>> > >>> >
>> > >>> > _______________________________________________
>> > >>> > nos-bbs mailing list
>> > >>> > nos-bbs at lists.tapr.org
>> > >>> > http://lists.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/nos-bbs_lists.tapr.org
>> > >>>
>> > >>> _______________________________________________
>> > >>> nos-bbs mailing list
>> > >>> nos-bbs at lists.tapr.org
>> > >>> http://lists.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/nos-bbs_lists.tapr.org
>> > >>
>> > >> --
>> > >> Thanks,
>> > >> Chris Maness
>> > >> -Sent from my iPhone
>> > >> _______________________________________________
>> > >> nos-bbs mailing list
>> > >> nos-bbs at lists.tapr.org
>> > >> http://lists.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/nos-bbs_lists.tapr.org
>> > >
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > nos-bbs mailing list
>> > > nos-bbs at lists.tapr.org
>> > > http://lists.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/nos-bbs_lists.tapr.org
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Thanks,
>> > Chris Maness
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Thanks,
>> Chris Maness
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> nos-bbs mailing list
>> nos-bbs at lists.tapr.org
>> http://lists.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/nos-bbs_lists.tapr.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> nos-bbs mailing list
> nos-bbs at lists.tapr.org
> http://lists.tapr.org/mailman/listinfo/nos-bbs_lists.tapr.org



-- 
Thanks,
Chris Maness

More information about the nos-bbs mailing list