Each of the AX.25 applications read a particular configuration file to obtain
the parameters for the various AX.25 ports configured on your Linux machine.
For AX.25 ports the file that is read is the /etc/ax25/axports file.
You must have an entry in this file for each AX.25 port you want on your
system.
The network device is what is listed when you use the `ifconfig'
command. This is the object that the Linux kernel sends and receives network
data from. Nearly always the network device has a physical port associated
with it, but there are occasions where this isn't necessary. The network
device does relate directly to a device driver.
In the Linux AX.25 code there are a number of device drivers. The most common
is probably the KISS driver, but others are the SCC driver(s), the Baycom
driver and the Soundmodem driver.
Each of these device drivers will create a network device when it is started.
Kernel Compile Options:
Amateur Radio support --->
[*] Amateur Radio support
--- Packet Radio protocols
<*> Amateur Radio AX.25 Level 2 protocol
...
AX.25 network device drivers --->
--- AX.25 network device drivers
<*> Serial port KISS driver
... |
Probably the most common configuration will be for a KISS TNC on a
serial port. You will need to have the TNC preconfigured and
connected to your serial port. You can use a communications program
like minicom or seyon to
configure the TNC into kiss mode.
To create a KISS device you use the kissattach
program. In it simplest form you can use the
kissattach program as follows:
# /usr/sbin/kissattach /dev/ttyS0 radio 44.135.96.242
# kissparms -p radio -t 100 -s 100 -r 25 |
The kissattach command will create a KISS network
device. These devices are called `ax[0-9]'. The
first time you use the kissattach command it
creates `ax0', the second time it creates
`ax1' etc. Each KISS device has an associated
serial port.
The kissparms command allows you to set various
KISS parameters on a KISS device.
Specifically the example presented would create a KISS network device
using the serial device `/dev/ttyS0' and the entry
from the /etc/ax25/axports with a port name of
`radio'. It then configures it with a
txdelay and slottime of 100
milliseconds and a ppersist value of 25.
Please refer to the man pages for more information.
The mkiss utility included in the ax25-utils
distribution allows you to make use of both modems on a dual port
TNC. Configuration is fairly simple. It works by taking a single
serial device connected to a single multiport TNC and making it look
like a number of devices each connected to a single port TNC. You do
this before you do any of the AX.25
configuration. The devices that you then do the AX.25 configuration on
are pseudo-TTY interfaces, (/dev/ttyq*), and not
the actual serial device. Pseudo-TTY devices create a kind of pipe
through which programs designed to talk to tty devices can talk to
other programs designed to talk to tty devices. Each pipe has a master
and a slave end. The master end is generally called
`/dev/ptyq*' and the slave ends are called
`/dev/ttyq*'. There is a one to one relationship
between masters and slaves, so /dev/ptyq0 is the
master end of a pipe with /dev/ttyq0 as its
slave. You must open the master end of a pipe before opening the slave
end. mkiss exploits this mechanism to split a
single serial device into separate devices.
Example: if you have a dual port TNC and it is connected to your
/dev/ttyS0 serial device at 9600 bps, the command:
# /usr/sbin/mkiss -s 9600 /dev/ttyS0 /dev/ptyq0 /dev/ptyq1
# /usr/sbin/kissattach /dev/ttyq0 port1 44.135.96.242
# /usr/sbin/kissattach /dev/ttyq1 port2 44.135.96.242 |
would create two pseudo-tty devices that each look like a normal
single port TNC. You would then treat /dev/ttyq0
and /dev/ttyq1 just as you would a conventional
serial device with TNC connected. This means you'd then use the
kissattach command as described above, on each of
those, in the example for AX.25 ports called port1
and port2. You shouldn't use
kissattach on the actual serial device as the
mkiss program uses it.
The mkiss command has a number of optional
arguments that you may wish to use. They are summarized as follows:
- -c
enables the addition of a one byte checksum to each KISS frame.
This is not supported by most KISS implementations, it is supported by the
G8BPG KISS ROM.
- -s <speed>
sets the speed of the serial port.
- -h
enables hardware handshaking on the serial port, it is off by
default. Most KISS implementation do not support this, but some do.
- -l
enables logging of information to the syslog log file.
Kernel Compile Options:
Amateur Radio support --->
[*] Amateur Radio support
--- Packet Radio protocols
<*> Amateur Radio AX.25 Level 2 protocol
...
AX.25 network device drivers --->
--- AX.25 network device drivers
...
<*> Serial port 6PACK driver
... |
6PACK is a protocol that is supported by some TNCs as an alternative
to KISS. It is used in a similar fashion to the KISS driver, using the
slattach command instead of kissattach.
A mini HOWTO on the 6PACK driver is included in the kernel source code
as the file
/usr/src/linux/Documentation/networking/6pack.txt.
Kernel Compile Options:
Amateur Radio support --->
[*] Amateur Radio support
--- Packet Radio protocols
<*> Amateur Radio AX.25 Level 2 protocol
...
AX.25 network device drivers --->
--- AX.25 network device drivers
...
<?> BAYCOM ser12 fullduplex driver for AX.25
<?> BAYCOM ser12 halfduplex driver for AX.25
<?> BAYCOM picpar and par96 driver for AX.25
<?> BAYCOM epp driver for AX.25
... |
Thomas Sailer,
despite the popularly held belief that it would not work very well,
has developed Linux support for Baycom modems. His driver supports the
Ser12 serial port, Par96 and the
enhanced PicPar parallel port modems. Further
information about the modems themselves may be obtained from the
Baycom Web site.
Your first step should be to determine the i/o and addresses of the
serial or parallel port(s) you have Baycom modem(s) connected to.
When you have these you must configure the Baycom driver with them.
The Baycom driver creates network devices called:
bc0, bc1, bc2
etc. when it is configured.
The sethdlc utility allows you to configure the
driver with these parameters, or, if you have only one Baycom modem
installed you may specify the parameters on the
insmod command line when you load the Baycom
module.
For example, a simple configuration.
Disable the serial driver for COM1: then configure the Baycom driver for a
Ser12 serial port modem on COM1: with the software DCD option enabled:
# setserial /dev/ttyS0 uart none
# insmod hdlcdrv
# insmod baycom mode="ser12*" iobase=0x3f8 irq=4 |
Par96 parallel port type modem on LPT1: using hardware DCD detection:
# insmod hdlcdrv
# insmod baycom mode="par96" iobase=0x378 irq=7 options=0 |
This is not really the preferred way to do it. The sethdlc utility
works just as easily with one device as with many.
The sethdlc man page has the
full details, but a couple of examples will illustrate the most
important aspects of this configuration. The following examples assume
you have already loaded the Baycom module using:
# insmod hdlcdrv
# insmod baycom |
or that you compiled the kernel with the driver inbuilt.
Configure the bc0 device driver as a Parallel port Baycom modem on LPT1:
with software DCD:
# sethdlc -p -i bc0 mode par96 io 0x378 irq 7 |
Configure the bc1 device driver as a Serial port Baycom modem on COM1:
# sethdlc -p -i bc1 mode "ser12*" io 0x3f8 irq 4 |
The AX.25 channel access parameters are the equivalent of the KISS ppersist,
txdelay and slottime type parameters. Again you use the sethdlc utility
for this.
Again the sethdlc man page is the source of the most complete information
but another example of two won't hurt:
Configure the bc0 device with TxDelay of 200 mS, SlotTime of 100 mS,
PPersist of 40 and half duplex:
# sethdlc -i bc0 -a txd 200 slot 100 ppersist 40 half |
Note that the timing values are in milliseconds.
The Baycom driver creates standard network devices that the AX.25
Kernel code can use. Configuration is much the same as that for a PI
or PacketTwin card.
The first step is to configure the device with an AX.25 callsign. The
ifconfig utility may be used to perform this.
# /sbin/ifconfig bc0 hw ax25 VK2KTJ-15 up |
will assign the Baycom device bc0 the AX.25
callsign VK2KTJ-15. Alternatively you can use the
axparms command, you'll still need to use the
ifconfig command to bring the device up though:
# ifconfig bc0 up
# axparms -setcall bc0 vk2ktj-15 |
The next step is to create an entry in the /etc/ax25/axports file
as you would for any other device. The entry in the axports file is
associated with the network device you've configured by the callsign you
configure. The entry in the axports file that has the callsign that
you configured the Baycom device with is the one that will be used to
refer to it.
You may then treat the new AX.25 device as you would any other. You can
configure it for TCP/IP, add it to ax25d and run NET/ROM or ROSE over it
as you please.
Kernel Compile Options:
Amateur Radio support --->
[*] Amateur Radio support
--- Packet Radio protocols
<*> Amateur Radio AX.25 Level 2 protocol
...
AX.25 network device drivers --->
--- AX.25 network device drivers
...
<*> Soundcard modem driver
[?] soundmodem support for Soundblaster and compatible cards
[?] soundmodem support for WSS and Crystal cards
[?] soundmodem support for 1200 baud AFSK modulation
[?] soundmodem support for 2400 baud AFSK modulation (7.3728MHz crystal)
[?] soundmodem support for 2400 baud AFSK modulation (8MHz crystal)
[?] soundmodem support for 2666 baud AFSK modulation
[?] soundmodem support for 4800 baud HAPN-1 modulation
[?] soundmodem support for 4800 baud PSK modulation
[?] soundmodem support for 9600 baud FSK G3RUH modulation
... |
Thomas Sailer has built a driver for the kernel that allows you to
use your soundcard as a modem. Connect your radio directly to your
soundcard to play packet! Thomas recommends at least a 486DX2/66 if you
want to use this software as all of the digital signal processing is done
by the main CPU.
The driver currently emulates 1200 bps AFSK, 4800 HAPN and 9600 FSK (G3RUH
compatible) modem types. The only sound cards currently supported are
SoundBlaster and Windows Sound System Compatible models. If you have a sound
card of another type, you can try the user-mode soundmodem described later
in this document.
The sound cards require some circuitry to help them drive the
Push-To-Talk circuitry, and information on this is available from
Thomas's
Soundmodem PTT circuit web page. There are quite a few
possible options, they are: detect the sound output from the
soundcard, or use output from a parallel port, serial port or MIDI
port. Circuit examples for each of these are on Thomas's site.
The Soundmodem driver creates network devices called:
sm0, sm1, sm2 etc when it is configured.
| The Soundmodem driver competes for the same resources as the Linux
sound driver, so if you wish to use the Soundmodem driver you must
ensure that the Linux sound driver is not installed. You can, of
course, compile them both as modules and insert and remove them as you
wish. |
The Soundmodem driver does not initialize the sound card. The ax25-utils
package includes a utility to do this called `setcrystal' that may
be used for sound cards based on the Crystal chip set. If you have some other
card then you will have to use some other software to initialize it.
Its syntax is fairly straightforward:
setcrystal [-w wssio] [-s sbio] [-f synthio] [-i irq] [-d dma] [-c dma2] |
So, for example, if you wished to configure a SoundBlaster card at i/o
base address 0x388, irq 10 and DMA 1 you would use:
# setcrystal -s 0x388 -i 10 -d 1 |
To configure a Window Sound System card at i/o base address 0x534, irq 5, DMA 3
you would use:
# setcrystal -w 0x534 -i 5 -d 3 |
The [-f synthio] parameter is the set the synthesizer address, and the
[-c dma2] parameter is to set the second DMA channel to allow full duplex
operation.
When you have configured the soundcard you need to configure the driver
telling it where the sound card is located and what sort of modem you wish
it to emulate.
The sethdlc utility allows you to configure the driver with these
parameters, or, if you have only one soundcard installed you may specify
the parameters on the insmod command line when you load the
Soundmodem module.
For example, a simple configuration, with one SoundBlaster soundcard
configured as described above emulating a 1200 bps modem:
# insmod hdlcdrv
# insmod soundmodem mode="sbc:afsk1200" iobase=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 |
This is not really the preferred way to do it. The sethdlc utility
works just as easily with one device as with many.
The sethdlc man page has the full details, but a couple of examples
will illustrate the most important aspects of this configuration. The
following examples assume you have already loaded the Soundmodem modules
using:
# insmod hdlcdrv
# insmod soundmodem |
or that you compiled the kernel with the driver inbuilt.
Configure the driver to support the Windows Sound System card we configured
above to emulate a G3RUH 9600 compatible modem as device sm0 using a
parallel port at 0x378 to key the Push-To-Talk:
# sethdlc -p -i sm0 mode wss:fsk9600 io 0x534 irq 5 dma 3 pario 0x378 |
Configure the driver to support the SoundBlaster card we configured above
to emulate a 4800 bps HAPN modem as device sm1 using the serial port
located at 0x2f8 to key the Push-To-Talk:
# sethdlc -p -i sm1 mode sbc:hapn4800 io 0x388 irq 10 dma 1 serio 0x2f8 |
Configure the driver to support the SoundBlaster card we configured above
to emulate a 1200 bps AFSK modem as device sm1 using the serial port
located at 0x2f8 to key the Push-To-Talk:
# sethdlc -p -i sm1 mode sbc:afsk1200 io 0x388 irq 10 dma 1 serio 0x2f8 |
The AX.25 channel access parameters are the equivalent of the KISS ppersist,
txdelay and slottime type parameters. You use the sethdlc utility for
this as well.
Again the sethdlc man page is the source of the most complete information
but another example of two won't hurt:
Configure the sm0 device with TxDelay of 100 mS, SlotTime of 50mS,
PPersist of 128 and full duplex:
# sethdlc -i sm0 -a txd 100 slot 50 ppersist 128 full |
Note that the timing values are in milliseconds.
It is very important that the audio levels be set correctly for any radio
based modem to work. This is equally true of the Soundmodem.
Thomas has developed some utility programs that make this task easier.
They are called smdiag and smmixer.
- smdiag
provides two types of display, either an oscilloscope
type display or an eye pattern type display.
- smmixer
allows you to actually adjust the transmit and
receive audio levels.
To start the
smdiag utility in 'eye' mode for the Soundmodem device
sm0 you would use:
To start the smmixer utility for the Soundmodem
device sm0 you would use:
The Soundmodem driver creates standard network devices that the AX.25
Kernel code can use. Configuration is much the same as that for a PI
or PacketTwin card.
The first step is to configure the device with an AX.25 callsign.
The ifconfig utility may be used to perform this.
# /sbin/ifconfig sm0 hw ax25 VK2KTJ-15 up |
will assign the Soundmodem device sm0 the AX.25
callsign VK2KTJ-15. Alternatively you can use the
axparms command, but you still need the
ifconfig utility to bring the device up:
# ifconfig sm0 up
# axparms -setcall sm0 vk2ktj-15 |
The next step is to create an entry in the /etc/ax25/axports file
as you would for any other device. The entry in the axports file is
associated with the network device you've configured by the callsign you
configure. The entry in the axports file that has the callsign that
you configured the Soundmodem device with is the one that will be used to
refer to it.
You may then treat the new AX.25 device as you would any other. You can
configure it for TCP/IP, add it to ax25d and run NET/ROM or ROSE over it
as you please.
Kernel Compile Options: not applicable
Thomas Sailer has written a sound modem driver that runs in user-mode
using the kernel sound drivers, so it should work with any sound card
supported under Linux.
The driver is implemented as the user-mode program
soundmodem. The graphical
soundmodemconfig program allows configuring and
testing the soundmodem driver. As well as kernel sound support you
need the kernel AX.25 mkiss driver.
The software and documentation can be downloaded from
http://www.baycom.org/~tom/ham/soundmodem.
Kernel Compile Options:
Amateur Radio support --->
[*] Amateur Radio support
--- Packet Radio protocols
<*> Amateur Radio AX.25 Level 2 protocol
...
AX.25 network device drivers --->
--- AX.25 network device drivers
...
<?> YAM driver for AX.25
... |
YAM is Yet Another Modem, a 9600 baud modem designed by Nico Palermo.
Information on the Linux driver can be found at
http://www.teaser.fr/~frible/yam.html
while general information on the modem can be found at
http://www.microlet.com/yam/
Kernel Compile Options:
General setup --->
[*] Networking support
Network device support --->
[*] Network device support
...
[*] Radio network interfaces
[*] Ottawa PI and PI/2 support for AX.25 |
The PI card device driver creates devices named
`pi[0-9][ab]'. The first PI card detected will be
allocated `pi0', the second
`pi1' etc. The `a' and
`b' refer to the first and second physical
interface on the PI card. If you have built your kernel to include the
PI card driver, and the card has been properly detected then you can
use the following command to configure the network device:
# /sbin/ifconfig pi0a hw ax25 VK2KTJ-15 up |
This command would configure the first port on the first PI card
detected with the callsign VK2KTJ-15 and make it
active. To use the device all you now need to do is to configure an
entry into your /etc/ax25/axports file with a
matching callsign/ssid and you will be ready to continue on.
The PI card driver was written by
David Perry.
Kernel Compile Options:
General setup --->
[*] Networking support
Network device support --->
[*] Network device support
...
[*] Radio network interfaces
[*] Gracilis PackeTwin support for AX.25 |
The PacketTwin card device driver creates devices named
`pt[0-9][ab]'. The first PacketTwin card detected
will be allocated `pt0', the second
`pt1' etc. The `a' and
`b' refer to the first and second physical
interface on the PacketTwin card. If you have built your kernel to
include the PacketTwin card driver, and the card has been properly
detected then you can use the following command to configure the
network device:
# /sbin/ifconfig pt0a hw ax25 VK2KTJ-15 up |
This command would configure the first port on the first PacketTwin
card detected with the callsign VK2KTJ-15 and make
it active. To use the device all you now need to do is to configure an
entry into your /etc/ax25/axports file with a
matching callsign/ssid and you will be ready to continue on.
The PacketTwin card driver was written by
Craig Small, VK2XLZ.
Kernel Compile Options:
General setup --->
[*] Networking support
Network device support --->
[*] Network device support
...
[*] Radio network interfaces
[*] Z8530 SCC KISS emulation driver for AX.25 |
Joerg Reuter, DL1BKE,
has developed generic support for Z8530 SCC based cards. His driver is
configurable to support a range of different types of cards and
present an interface that looks like a KISS TNC so you can treat it as
though it were a KISS TNC.
While the kernel driver is included in the standard kernel distribution,
Joerg distributes more recent versions of his driver with the suite of
configuration tools that you will need to obtain as well.
You can obtain the configuration tools package from:
Joerg's web page,
ftp://db0bm.automation.fh-aachen.de/incoming/dl1bke,
ftp://insl1.etec.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/hamradio/linux/z8530,
ftp://ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/packet/tcpip/linux, or
ftp://ftp.ucsd.edu/hamradio/packet/tcpip/incoming.
You will find multiple versions, choose the one that best suits the
kernel you intend to use:
z8530drv-2.4a.dl1bke.tar.gz for 2.0.* kernels and
z8530drv-utils-3.0.tar.gz for 2.1.6 or later kernels.
The following commands were what I used to compile and install the package
for kernel version 2.0.30:
# cd /usr/src
# gzip -dc z8530drv-2.4a.dl1bke.tar.gz | tar xvpofz -
# cd z8530drv
# make clean
# make dep
# make module # If you want to build the driver as a module
# make for_kernel # If you want the driver to built into your kernel
# make install |
After the above is complete you should have three new programs
installed in your /sbin directory:
gencfg, sccinit and
sccstat. It is these programs that you will use
to configure the driver for your card.
You will also have a group of new special device files created in your
/dev called
scc0-scc7. These will be used
later and will be the `KISS' devices you will end up using.
If you chose to 'make for_kernel' then you will need to recompile your
kernel. To ensure that you include support for the z8530 driver you must be
sure to answer `Y' to:
`Z8530 SCC kiss emulation driver for AX.25' when asked during a
kernel `make config'.
If you chose to 'make module' then the new scc.o will have been
installed in the appropriate /lib/modules directory and you do
not need to recompile your kernel. Remember to use the insmod command
to load the module before your try and configure it.
The z8530 SCC driver has been designed to be as flexible as possible so as
to support as many different types of cards as possible. With this flexibility
has come some cost in configuration.
There is more comprehensive documentation in the package and you should
read this if you have any problems. You should particularly look at
doc/scc_eng.doc or doc/scc_ger.doc for more detailed
information. I've paraphrased the important details, but as a result there
is a lot of lower level detail that I have not included.
The main configuration file is read by the sccinit program and is
called /etc/z8530drv.conf. This file is broken into two main stages:
Configuration of the hardware parameters and channel configuration. After
you have configured this file you need only add:
into the rc file that configures your network and the driver will
be initialized according to the contents of the configuration file. You must
do this before you attempt to use the driver.
The first section is broken into stanzas, each stanza representing an 8530
chip. Each stanza is a list of keywords with arguments. You may specify up
to four SCC chips in this file by default. The #define MAXSCC 4 in
scc.c can be increased if you require support for more.
The allowable keywords and arguments are:
- chip
the chip keyword is used to separate stanzas. It will
take anything as an argument. The arguments are not used.
- data_a
this keyword is used to specify the address of the data
port for the z8530 channel `A'. The argument is a hexadecimal number
e.g. 0x300
- ctrl_a
this keyword is used to specify the address of the control
port for the z8530 channel `A'. The arguments is a hexadecimal number
e.g. 0x304
- data_b
this keyword is used to specify the address of the data
port for the z8530 channel `B'. The argument is a hexadecimal number
e.g. 0x301
- ctrl_b
this keyword is used to specify the address of the control
port for the z8530 channel `B'. The arguments is a hexadecimal number
e.g. 0x305
- irq
this keyword is used to specify the IRQ used by the 8530 SCC
described in this stanza. The argument is an integer e.g. 5
- pclock
this keyword is used to specify the frequency of the clock
at the PCLK pin of the 8530. The argument is an integer frequency in Hz which
defaults to 4915200 if the keyword is not supplied.
- board
the type of board supporting this 8530 SCC. The argument is
a character string. The allowed values are:
- PA0HZP
the PA0HZP SCC Card
- EAGLE
the Eagle card
- PC100
the DRSI PC100 SCC card
- PRIMUS
the PRIMUS-PC (DG9BL) card
- BAYCOM
BayCom (U)SCC card
- escc
this keyword is optional and is used to enable support for the
Extended SCC chips (ESCC) such as the 8580, 85180, or the 85280. The argument
is a character string with allowed values of `yes' or `no'. The default is
`no'.
- vector
this keyword is optional and specifies the address of the
vector latch (also known as "intack port") for PA0HZP cards. There can be only
one vector latch for all chips. The default is 0.
- special
this keyword is optional and specifies the address of the
special function register on several cards. The default is 0.
- option
this keyword is optional and defaults to 0.
Some example configurations for the more popular cards are as follows:
- BayCom USCC
chip 1
data_a 0x300
ctrl_a 0x304
data_b 0x301
ctrl_b 0x305
irq 5
board BAYCOM
#
# SCC chip 2
#
chip 2
data_a 0x302
ctrl_a 0x306
data_b 0x303
ctrl_b 0x307
board BAYCOM |
- PA0HZP SCC card
chip 1
data_a 0x153
data_b 0x151
ctrl_a 0x152
ctrl_b 0x150
irq 9
pclock 4915200
board PA0HZP
vector 0x168
escc no
#
#
#
chip 2
data_a 0x157
data_b 0x155
ctrl_a 0x156
ctrl_b 0x154
irq 9
pclock 4915200
board PA0HZP
vector 0x168
escc no |
- DRSI SCC card
chip 1
data_a 0x303
data_b 0x301
ctrl_a 0x302
ctrl_b 0x300
irq 7
pclock 4915200
board DRSI
escc no |
If you already have a working configuration for your card under NOS, then
you can use the gencfg command to convert the PE1CHL NOS driver
commands into a form suitable for use in the z8530 driver configuration
file.
To use gencfg you simply invoke it with the same parameters as you
used for the PE1CHL driver in NET/NOS. For example:
# gencfg 2 0x150 4 2 0 1 0x168 9 4915200 |
will generate a skeleton configuration for the OptoSCC card.
The Channel Configuration section is where you specify all of the other
parameters associated with the port you are configuring. Again this
section is broken into stanzas. One stanza represents one logical port, and
therefore there would be two of these for each one of the hardware parameters
stanzas as each 8530 SCC supports two ports.
These keywords and arguments are also written to the /etc/z8530drv.conf
file and must appear after the hardware parameters section.
Sequence is very important in this section, but if you stick with the suggested
sequence it should work okay. The keywords and arguments are:
- device
this keyword must be the first line of a port definition and
specifies the name of the special device file that the rest of the
configuration applies to. e.g. /dev/scc0
- speed
this keyword specifies the speed in bits per second of the
interface. The argument is an integer: e.g. 1200
- clock
this keyword specifies where the clock for the data will
be sourced. Allowable values are:
- dpll
normal halfduplex operation
- external
MODEM supplies its own Rx/Tx clock
- divider
use fullduplex divider if installed.
- mode
this keyword specifies the data coding to be used. Allowable
arguments are: nrzi or nrz
- rxbuffers
this keyword specifies the number of receive buffers to
allocate memory for. The argument is an integer, e.g. 8.
- txbuffers
this keyword specifies the number of transmit buffers to
allocate memory for. The argument is an integer, e.g. 8.
- bufsize
this keyword specifies the size of the receive and transmit
buffers. The arguments is in bytes and represents the total length of the
frame, so it must also take into account the AX.25 headers and not just the
length of the data field. This keyword is optional and default to 384
- txdelay
the KISS transmit delay value, the argument is an integer in mS.
- persist
the KISS persist value, the argument is an integer.
- slot
the KISS slot time value, the argument is an integer in mS.
- tail
the KISS transmit tail value, the argument is an integer in mS.
- fulldup
the KISS full duplex flag, the argument is an integer.
1==Full Duplex, 0==Half Duplex.
- wait
the KISS wait value, the argument is an integer in mS.
- min
the KISS min value, the argument is an integer in S.
- maxkey
the KISS maximum keyup time, the argument is an integer in S.
- idle
the KISS idle timer value, the argument is an integer in S.
- maxdef
the KISS maxdef value, the argument is an integer.
- group
the KISS group value, the argument is an integer.
- txoff
the KISS txoff value, the argument is an integer in mS.
- softdcd
the KISS softdcd value, the argument is an integer.
- slip
the KISS slip flag, the argument is an integer.
To use the driver you simply treat the /dev/scc* devices just as
you would a serial tty device with a KISS TNC connected to it. For example,
to configure Linux Kernel networking to use your SCC card you could use
something like:
# kissattach -s 4800 /dev/scc0 VK2KTJ |
You can also use NOS to attach to it in precisely the same way. From JNOS
for example you would use something like:
attach asy scc0 0 ax25 scc0 256 256 4800 |
To assist in the diagnosis of problems you can use the sccstat
program to display the current configuration of an SCC device. To use it
try:
you will displayed a very large amount of information relating to the
configuration and health of the /dev/scc0 SCC port.
The sccparam command allows you to change or modify a configuration
after you have booted. Its syntax is very similar to the NOS param
command, so to set the txtail setting of a device to 100mS you
would use:
# sccparam /dev/scc0 txtail 0x8 |
Kernel Compile Options:
General setup --->
[*] Networking support
Network device support --->
[*] Network device support
...
[*] Radio network interfaces
[*] BPQ Ethernet driver for AX.25 |
Linux supports BPQ Ethernet compatibility. This enables you to run the AX.25
protocol over your Ethernet LAN and to interwork your linux machine with
other BPQ machines on the LAN.
The BPQ network devices are named `bpq[0-9]'. The
`bpq0' device is associated with the
`eth0' device, the `bpq1' device
with the `eth1' device etc.
Configuration is quite straightforward. You firstly must have configured
a standard Ethernet device. This means you will have compiled your kernel
to support your Ethernet card and tested that this works. Refer to the
Ethernet-HOWTO
for more information on how to do this.
To configure the BPQ support you need to configure the Ethernet device with
an AX.25 callsign. The following command will do this for you:
# /sbin/ifconfig bpq0 hw ax25 vk2ktj-14 up |
Again, remember that the callsign you specify should match the entry in the
/etc/ax25/axports file that you wish to use for this port.
BPQ Ethernet normally uses a multicast address. The Linux implementation does
not, and instead it uses the normal Ethernet broadcast address. The NET.CFG
file for the BPQ ODI driver should therefore be modified to look similar to
this:
LINK SUPPORT
MAX STACKS 1
MAX BOARDS 1
LINK DRIVER E2000 ; or other MLID to suit your card
INT 10 ;
PORT 300 ; to suit your card
FRAME ETHERNET_II
PROTOCOL BPQ 8FF ETHERNET_II ; required for BPQ - can change PID
BPQPARAMS ; optional - only needed if you want
; to override the default target addr
ETH_ADDR FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF ; Target address |