The installation of the CLX software requires some knowledge of Linux and Unix in general. It is not an easy task.
Here's a checklist for you:
tar, zcat and gzippingsyslogdlilo boot loader/etc/rc.* or /sbin/init.dcrontab entriesld.so and shared librariesIf you can say yes to all of the above, you are prepared to install CLX. If not, you better get yourself a book about Linux/Unix and play around with your system to become familiar. This may take some time (weeks, months).
For CLX to run, the following software packages must be installed on your system.
CLX needs two new users in your /etc/passwd.
These are:
User Group Home Directory UID
---------------------------------------------------------
clx_us users /usr/local/clx 101
postgres users /usr/local/clx/postgres 102
---------------------------------------------------------
It is necessary to add them before you unpack the software, so the files will have correct ownership and permissions.
The CLX software comes in a single huge .tgz file. The file should
be installed as follows:
# cd /
# tar xvzf clx_XXX.tgz
This will unpack the CLX software in the directory /usr/local/clx.
You will need approximately 5 MB to install it.
You have now completed step one of the CLX installation! Fine!
You need a Linux kernel of version 2.0.35 with the following drivers/components:
Earlier or later kernel versions may or may not work. Earlier versions required patches (called ax25-module14f or the like). We are currently using 2.0.35 at DB0CLX. The 2.0.35 kernel sources come with the AX.25 drivers in place, but they must be activated.
Now configure and compile the new kernel with the following commands:
# cd /usr/src/linux
# make config
You must include the components stated above. Now go ahead and make the new kernel.
# make depend ; make clean ; make zImage
This will take a while. When the compilation is done, you will
want to copy the new kernel (/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/zImage) to
the root directory. You will also have to reconfigure your
boot loader (normally lilo) to use the newly created kernel.
# cp /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/zImage /zImage.new
# vi /etc/lilo.conf
# lilo
Now boot the new kernel. Watch the boot messages. It should read something like that:
...
Swansea University Computer Society NET3.035 for Linux 2.0
NET3: Unix domain sockets 0.13 for Linux NET3.035.
G4KLX/GW4PTS AX.25 for Linux. Version 0.35 for Linux NET3.035 (Linux 2.0)
G4KLX NET/ROM for Linux. Version 0.6 for AX25.035 Linux 2.0
...
AX.25 ethernet driver version 0.01
AX.25 Multikiss device enabled
SLIP: version 0.8.4-NET3.019-NEWTTY (dynamic channels, max=256).
CSLIP: code copyright 1989 Regents of the University of California.
...
Congratulations! You have now finished the second step of the CLX installation procedure.
CLX does not require you to use the AX.25 kernel driver. If you wish to do so, you should now make sure everything works. If not you may skip this section and continue with the next one.
To check whether the newly created kernel driver is working we will make some tests. First you should get the most recent AX.25 utility package. This package contains programs which will allow you to make use of the kernel drivers. Without them, the drivers are just sitting in the kernel doing nothing.
The old version ax25-utils-2.0.12c.tar.gz dated December 28, 1996
is no longer supported and should not be used any more. The
current utilities are in a file called ax25-2.1.42a.tgz available
from
ftp://ftp.pspt.fi/pub/ham/packet/linux/ax25.
Grab them, compile them and install them in the default
directories using make install.
If you are using a 2.1 kernel, you could just go and use the new utilities without patching the kernel. There is some information regarding this subject in the AX25-HOWTO document, available, for instance, from http://sunsite.unc.edu/mdw/HOWTO/AX25-HOWTO.html.
Now we must configure ax25d.
Go to the /dev directory and make a soft link from
the ttyS? where your TNC is connected to /dev/tnc:
# cd /dev
# ln -s ttyS0 tnc
Switch your TNC into KISS mode. With my TNC2 clone running WA8DED firmware, I use the following command:
# echo -e "\015\015\033@K" > /dev/tnc
The TNC should signal the transition into KISS mode by flashing the CON and STA LEDs three times. After that you should observe that the CON LED keeps flickering very hectically. This is a good sign! If it doesn't, your TNC is probably not in KISS more or it behaves differently.
Now edit the file /etc/ax25/axports.
You must specify your ``outgoing''
callsign for the different devices you have. Each TNC device gets one
line in that configuration file. I have just one TNC connected so my
file contains only a single active line:
# /etc/ax25/axports
#
# The format of this file is:
#
# name callsign speed paclen window description
#
kiss DL6RAI 9600 255 4 DB0AAB Link (438.300)
# end of /etc/ax25/axports
Now start kissattach to bind the TNC port to the kernel driver:
# /usr/sbin/kissattach /dev/tnc kiss
Note that ``kiss'' is the symbolic port name which is referred to in
the /etc/ax25/axports file. You may give it any name.
kissattach should say something
like: ``AX.25 port kiss bound to device ax0''.
However, if you get the error message
``TIOCSETD: Invalid argument'', you forgot to
add the Serial Port KISS driver for AX.25 to the kernel.
Now start listen and you should be
able to monitor some traffic on
the channel:
# /usr/bin/listen
Port kiss: AX25: DC1SLM->DB0AAB v DK1KMR* <RR R R3>
Port kiss: AX25: DB0AAB->DC1SLM v DK1KMR <I C S3 R6> pid=Text
0000 The quick brown fox
Port kiss: AX25: DB6MK-1->DG7DAH-1 v DB0AAB <RR C P R6>
Port kiss: AX25: DG7DAH-1->DB6MK-1 v DB0AAB* <RR R F R6>
Port kiss: AX25: DB6MK-1->DG7DAH-1 v DB0AAB <I C P S7 R6> pid=IP
IP: len 44 44.130.56.134->44.130.56.21 ihl 20 ttl 64 prot TCP
TCP: 1489->119 Seq xe86f491d SYN Wnd 31744 Data 4
0000 ....
Port kiss: AX25: DG7DAH-1->DB6MK-1 v DB0AAB* <REJ R F R6>
^C
Interrupt it with ctrl-C.
We can now try to make a connect with the call program.
my TX delay parameter slightly to make the program work. At DB0AAB only
very short TXDs are accepted, otherwise one will receive a message
saying: ``TX Delay too long''. Adjusting the TX delay is done with
the kissparms program.
# /usr/sbin/kissparms -p kiss -t 150
Then give it a try:
# /usr/bin/call -r kiss db0aab
GW4PTS AX.25 Connect v1.11
Trying...
You should see your PTT LED go on and off and after a while you should succeed to connect:
*** Connected to db0aab
Rawmode
PC/FlexNet V3.3e - Muenchen/Fachhochschule - PR56/RS36 - 9600Bd FSK
=>
Congratulations! You have now mastered step three of the CLX
installation! After having disconnected, you may kill the kissattach
program still running. We don't need it at this time.
CLX needs TCP/IP to communicate. Theoretically, it would be possible to have several modules of CLX running on different machines as they are all using the same mechanism.
All what it needed now is that you can reach yourself by TCP/IP. This is probably working already. Try the following command:
# ping localhost
If you receive the following, everything is in order and you can continue with the next step. Use ctrl-C to abort ping.
PING localhost (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=255 time=1 ms
64 bytes from 127.0.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=255 time=1 ms
^C
--- localhost ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 1/1/1 ms
However, if you get the following answer, something is not yet set up correctly.
PING localhost (127.0.0.1): 56 data bytes
ping: sendto: Network is unreachable
ping: wrote localhost 64 chars, ret=-1
^C
In one of the rc files in /etc or /etc/rc.d (depends on your
Linux installation) you must activate networking with the following
commands:
ifconfig lo 127.0.0.1
route add localhost
See your Linux documentation for details. Having mastered this, you have now completed step four of the CLX installation.
With version 3.00 of the CLX software, we have introduced a shared
library image in the ~/lib directory. For shared libraries
to work in general, it is necessary to enable the dynamic linker ld.so
to find these images at runtime.
Generally under Linux there are several ways to get around the problem:
$LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable/lib or /usr/lib/etc/ld.so.confOption 3 is the recommended way because this gives flexibility and
should not be a problem. As root, edit the file /etc/ld.so.conf
# vi /etc/ld.so.conf
and add the two lines
/usr/local/clx/lib
/usr/local/clx/postgres/lib
to the bottom of the list. Then save the file and inform ld.so
to update its cache:
# ldconfig -v
It should now list the two new directories. You have now completed step five of the CLX installation.
By the way, you might remember that running this command after
every update of the libc.so or libclxccl.so is essential to
make the programs see the new library.
Login as postgres and start postmaster.
$ su - postgres
$ postmaster -i &
$ ^D
Now, again as clx_us, go to the tools directory.
There is a shell script
called check, which will check your
installation. If the script fails,
it usually tells you why it fails and what to do.
$ cd ~/tools
$ ./check
If the script finishes with the message
Congratulations - CLX should run on your system.
... you are ready to run CLX on your system.
We are now ready to start CLX for the first time. You might want
to edit the default config file in ~/config/clx_par
but if
you've followed the instructions so far, you should not need to
make any changes. Leave the callsign string as it is now, the callsign
will be XX0XX.
Now as clx_us, start CLX with the following command:
$ clx -u
You should now see CLX coming up for the first time.
Reading /usr/local/clx/config/clx_par.
Decoding callsign.
*** CLX System Parameters ***
callsign: xx0xx
database: clx_db
interface: AX25
Checking directories and file permissions
Clearing shared memories.
Clx coming up...
clx_ctl Shared Memory manager ....up
int_com Internal Communications Manager .. up
snd_ctl Transmit Spooler .. up
usr_ctl User Administration .. up
iu_com Inter-User communication .. up
icl_com Inter-Node communication .. up
usr_req User Database Interface .. up
mb_ctl Mailbox Controller .. up
udt_mng User Data Table Manager .. up
usc_mng User Commands Manager .. up
usr_dlg User Dialog manager .. up
bbs_if BBS interface .. up
rm_disp Received messages Dispatcher .. up
rcv_ctl Received messages Spooler .. up
con_ctl AX.25 interface .. up
Clx is up.
$
When CLX is running, you will be returned to the $ prompt.
You can now log into CLX with the
term_usr program. CLX should greet you with a message and
then display the clx > prompt.
$ term_usr
Hi om, here is "clx"! Experimental cluster-software on linux.
xx0xx-16 de xx0xx 31-Mar-1997 1745Z clx >
Now you can try a few commands, like
SH/US, DX, SH/DX, SET/NAME etc.
Logout with ``BYE''.
Shutdown CLX with the following commmand:
$ clx -s
Congratulations! You have successfully installed CLX on your system. If you are now willing to run CLX on the air, continue with section Configuration further down below!
If you are migrating from an older CLX installation you will probably be interested in preserving some of the data you have acquired and some of the configuration work you have made up to that point. Here is a step-by-step description how you can save your previous work.
Basically the migration is easy as all user data is contained in
either the database tables or the ~/box directory.
Additionally, your configuration is stored in
~/config/clx_par and probably in
~/config/cluster_par. So these are the things to backup.
$ cd
$ clx -s
$ bup_db -s
bup_db script will dump
all database tables
from a previous version and additionally store the mailbox messages
in a .tgz file. Now you should kill the postmaster process:
$ ps aux | grep postmaster
clx_us 2984 0.0 1.0 904 320 p4 S 16:39 0:00 grep postmaster
postgres 2976 9.0 1.8 2540 584 p4 S 16:39 0:00 postmaster -i
$ su - postgres
$ kill 2976
clx.old. We
will need to read some files from there later.
Now unpack the CLX distribution
from the archive.
# cd /usr/local
# mv clx clx.old
# cd /
# tar xvzf clx_XXX.tgz
$ postmaster -i &
clx_us and goto the backup directory.
Copy the data files from clx.old/backup there.
Just to be sure, nothing was inadvertantly left in the database
by DL6RAI, re-create all the database structures:
$ clx_db
$ cd backup
$ cp ../../clx.old/backup/* .
$ bup_db -r
/usr/local/clx.old/postgres/data/base/clx_db and
the current one /usr/local/clx/postgres/data/base/clx_db.
$ clx_idx
~/config directory and
copy the old configuration files
there. Edit the old one and add anything which you feel is necessary.
$ cd ~/config
$ mv clx_par clx_par.sample
$ cp ../../clx.old/config/cluster_par .
$ cp ../../clx.old/config/clx_par .
$ diff clx_par clx_par.sample
Also, you might be interested to copy the old ~/.profile
from the ~/../clx.old directory, but watch out for any
changes before you overwrite the default ~/.profile.
This completes the migration steps. Easy, no?
The original Pavillion PacketCluster software and CLX have very little in common when it comes to programs. None of the original programs is working with CLX, database structures are quite different so generally installing CLX means starting from 0.
However, to make your and your users' lives a little easier we provide a migration tool for data.
read_ak1a program to import the files DX.DAT,
OPERNAM.DAT and WWV.DAT into CLX tables. The DX.DAT
at DB0BCC, for example, contains over 300,000 records of DX spots
ranging back into the year 1992. This is quite a lot of useful
DX information worth saving. The same is true for the WWV.DAT
file, which holds records of solar activity over a number of years.
OPERNAM.DAT contains names and location data of your users. Save
them to save your users
having to re-enter this information.
Also read_ak1a is used to read QSL information data
into the qsl_mng table and also general database files
from Pavillion. In CLX, data in the QSL database
table is special in
such as way as the information is searchable in two ways, which
makes it different from other .ful tables.
Firstly, you can search by DX call but secondly, you can also search
by QSL manager. This allows you to retrieve a list of DX stations
for which a QSL manager is responsible.
Details for using the read_ak1a utility are described in
read-ak1a.