HowTo:AX25 Fedora
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[edit] Fedora AX.25
This is a work in progress
I don't have it working on my systems yet - but I've started!
I'm hoping some gurus will jump in and fill in the missing parts.
[edit] AX.25 But, doesn't that mean "recompile the kernel"?
Nope - it doesn't. The ax.25 kernel module is included in the distribution! Find it in: /lib/modules/<version>/kernel/net/ax25/ax25.ko
Get it installed into your kernel with:
modprobe -a ax25
If you follow that up with an
lsmod | grep ax25
You'll see it there. You now have Linux Kernel AX.25 support!
To make this happen at bootup will require a modification of /etc/modprobe.d - working on those details.
[edit] OK, now to make AX.25 available to Xastir
With many thanks for the efforts of the folks over at the Fedora Amateur Radio Special Interest Group, not only is Xastir now included as an RPM within the Fedora Distribution, they've also included the AX.25 apps, libraries, tools and development headers for kernel level AX.25 support!
Start by getting all the requisites installed.
See the Fedora CVS Xastir HowTo for details on use of yum, use of su - and configuration and use of sudo etc
yum install ax25-apps ax25-tools libax25 libax25-devel
[edit] Compile Xastir from Source
The Fedora Xastir RPM - I believe - is not compiled with AX.25 support. So, you'll have to compile Xastir yourself. See the Fedora HowTo.
Once that's done, you'll need to set the xastir binary itself as SUID.
Be sure to read the warnings about running Xastir SUID first!
Section 14 of the INSTALL file. I suggest you read the whole section. Only part of it is shown here.
Starting at line 1164 of INSTALL
LINUX-SPECIFIC SECURITY WARNING: If you're using Linux AX.25 kernel
networking, you'll need to either make Xastir SUID-root, or use a shim
(which itself is set to SUID-root) between Xastir and the AX.25 ports.
See Option #2 below for the (possibly safer) shim method. If you're the
paranoid type (and you should be if you're running a system with multiple
users), you may wish to skip SUID-root mode/kernel AX.25 interfaces and
use standard serial port TNC interfaces instead. Any program is safer if
run as a normal user (not safe, but safer). It is currently impossible
to use kernel-mode AX.25 interfaces without the program running with
root privileges.
You can set the xatir binary as SUID with the command:
chmod 4555 /usr/local/bin/xastir
[edit] The 'In Progress' Part
[edit] Configure your AX.25 Ports
The Linux Documentation Project's (TLDP) AX25 How To is very much out of date. Last updated in September of 2001. It's written for the older, 2.4 kernel. But - it is still the recommended source for information(??) from what I've found so far.
In the TLDP's AX25 HowTo, you're told to create an /etc/ax25/axports file. Fedora's man page for axports supports this.
Mine looks like:
radio <callsign>-6 9600 256 2 KCP3+ in KISS mode
I believe you'll also need to use:
- axparms
- kissattach
as well as create some files and modify a few others.
Now, this is where I start reading again, as I've not yet sorted this all out - yet.
I've tried the following - error may well be result of not having anything connected to ttyS0 - yet.
[root@firefly ~]# kissattach /dev/ttyS0 radio 192.168.11.21 tty_speed: tcgetattr: Input/output error
