Alan Pearson writes:
> Hi folks,
> Got a sun3 given to me a week or so ago and got NetBSD and Xwindows working on
> it after some hassle. It is an unexpanded beast (4Mb) with no local disk (yet, I
> have the box and cables etc..).
> 
> I was wondering how NetBSD shapes upto the world of AX25, as I would like to
> use this machine as an AX25 sort of router for HAM packet radio.
> Not sure quite what yet, but silly questions here they are.

Look for JNOS and TNOS applications. At one time these compiled and ran 
under at least SunOS. I've compiled TNOS for FreeBSD and even submitted 
pactches which were folded back into the main source. However the TNOS 
author can only be described as a Linux bigot and gratuitous linuxisms 
broke the next version.

Be cautioned that JNOS and TNOS are security disasters waiting to
happen. Both are ports from an all-in-one DOS program. Have the AX25 and
TCP/IP network stacks built in, BBS, SMTP, FTP, HTTP...

I fail to see why AX.25 belongs in the kernel, as Linux has done. Timing
isn't that critical. If a connection out the other network facilities is
needed then use the kernel's SL/IP, PPP, or BPF interface. Direct 
access to the 8530 serial port would be nice as then one could use a 
BayCom-ish radio modem without bit-banging the protocol.

With that said, there used to be a suite of patches against NetBSD for 
adding AX.25 into the kernel at ftp.ucsd.edu. Have heard said that this 
layed the groundwork (or inspired) for Linux doing the same.

Unix needs a Unix-AX25 userland suite of applications. But nobody seems 
to care enough these days to spend the time doing it. Myself included.

--
David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@hiwaay.net
=====================================================================
The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its
capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system.