Baycom modem and simple text ui

I just put together a simple modem that functions the same as the classic "dumb" baycom modem. It just turns RS-232 data into tones and vice-versa. I got the Baycom software to run off a DOS bootdisk, and the modem works just great. But what I would really like to do is do the same stuff under linux so I can do it over SSH. :)

The only software package I could find that provides similar functionality to the original baycom software is tfkiss, but I have been unsuccessful in getting it to compile. The tarball looks antiquated, and it fails compilation on my modern linux system (I'm not much of a software guy; I'm learning). Does anyone know of an application that pretends to be a TNC and makes all the nicely formatted packets with just the simple text interface? Perhaps someone knows how I can compile tfkiss properly? Any and all comments appreciated.

Cheers,
Jonathan Lassoff (KG6THI, now /AG; got my general class!)

Baycom modems are supported in Linux. Try either the baycom_ser_fdx or baycom_ser_hdx drivers (you may need to configure/compile your kernel, although they in some packaged kernels, e.g., Debian and some others). See Documentation/networking/baycom.txt in the Linux source tarball for more details.

Bob, N7XY

Well, I can get the driver loaded just fine, but what I am interested in doing is just a text connection. I want to just get some software running that gives the classic "cmd:" or ":" prompt. For example, I'd like to just get and send text to my local DX cluster. Any ideas?

Cheers,
Jonathan, kg6thi

In the usual Unix/Linux metaphor, these sorts of things are usually done via individual stand-alone programs, invoked from the shell, rather than from a monolithic program such as a "TNC command interpreter emulator."

If the driver is loaded, and the AX.25 interface has been configured with a portname, then you'd probably want to try running commands such as:

beacon -s myport -d HEADSUP "Santa Claus on 14.020 QRO"

or

call myport W9ZZZ

or something like that.

You can run "listen -a" in another window to monitor the packet traffic in both directions.

Well, I think that that steers me in the general direction, but that sill doesn't really work. I wonder why there isn't a piece of software that just pretends to be like a TNC so that I can can fit everything neatly into one terminal window.

I've been following the AX25-HOWTO to get everything going. Here's what I did:

# setserial /dev/ttyS0 uart none
# insmod hdlcdrv
# insmod baycom mode="ser12*" iobase=0x3f8 irq=4
# sethdlc -p -i bcsh0 mode "ser12*" io 0x3f8 irq 4
#ifconfig bcsh0 hw ax25 KG6THI-2 up

Then I added this line to /etc/ax25/axports:

1 KG6THI-2 1200 255 2 (1200 bps)

Then running something like "listen -a" yields:

axconfig: port 1 not active
listen: no AX.25 port data configured

I'm not really clear on the difference between a "port" and the "interface" bcsh0; but that is probably an 'RTFM' issue. I want to think that somehow I need to associate the bcsh0 interface to the ax.25 "port", "1".

Cheers,
joanthan - kg6thi

Since the driver will make the modem look like any other network interface, you should be able to do this with the telnet command if the cluster supports that type of connection. Using the 'call' command (included in ax25-apps) should also work. There are also several terminal emulators available--for a pretty comprehensive list, see
<http://radio.linux.org.au>. Additionally, Xdx is a specialized X client for use with DX clusters.

You mentioned using SSH in your original message. That may violate rules against using encryption which exist in many countries.

73, Bob N7XY

Well, I'll still take a look around and see what I can't do. I would really like to run tfkiss because it sounds like exactly what I want to do, but just can't get it to compile. Essentially I want to have my computer be at least a minimal tnc console with my "dumb" modem. I just want the software to send and receive the proper AX.25 frames with the text body attached in the packet.
As for the SSH, I just wanted to control the packet station over my home network over SSH so that I don't have to be at the radio. I don't want to encapsulate SSH over AX.25 links. That would be illegal in my jurisdiction.

Cheers,
jonathan - kg6thi

I'm not sure if tfkiss will do what you want, but possibly it will. I suspect the compilation problems may relate to it being written for an earlier version of gcc. You could probably do something with several xterms, one running call, another running listen, etc. Screen may work if you don't want to use X.

That is how I access the packet computer in my shack from inside my house and should work fine.

Good luck.

Bob

Bob Nielsen, N7XY                          n7xy (at) n7xy.net
Bainbridge Island, WA                      http://www.n7xy.net

Do you have any idea as to why it failed to open the port when I tried to run call or listen?

Not really (I use a KISS TNC, not a Baycom modem). Do you have AX.25 networking set up and does the interface show up with ifconfig? Section 6.1.4 of the AX25-HOWTO (which may not be completely up-to-date for 2.6 kernels) should be helpful, as well as 'man sethdlc'.

Bob, N7XY

Well, now listen seems to be displaying RX packets, but call still wont work. Here is what ifconfig shows:

bcsh0 Link encap:AMPR AX.25 HWaddr KG6THI-2
UP RUNNING MTU:256 Metric:1
RX packets:9 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0 TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0 collisions:0 txqueuelen:16
RX bytes:0 (0.0 b) TX bytes:0 (0.0 b) Interrupt:4 Base address:0x3f8

Cheers,
jonathan - kg6thi

As it turns out, I just needed to set a dummy IP address for the interface. It connected just fine, and call is the perfect program for the job.