1. COMPILING and INSTALLING

To compile and run LinuxNode you will need to have libax25-0.0.4 or newer
installed on your system. LinuxNode is currently only tested on RedHat 6.0
with Linux kernel 2.2.9. It should work on any platform where libax25 can
be compiled and installed but there is no guarantee on that (well, there
isn't any guarantee on anything with a GPL licence...). Note however that
it will NOT work with 2.0.x kernels.

To install you should first run:

  ./configure

and answer to the questions it makes. If `configure´ complains about
missing Zlib headers, it means that neither incoming nor outgoing
compression support will be built into the binary, that is the "-c"
command line argument won't work and "zconnect" and "ztelnet" node
commands will be left out. Otherwise everything should work. Next you run:

  make depend
  make
  make install

Optionally you may want to run also:

  make installconf

to install the default configuration files. Note however that this WILL
overwrite any existing files you might have.

After that you need to edit the files /etc/ax25/node.conf and
/etc/ax25/node.perms to suit your system. The manual pages for
node.conf(5) and node.perms(5) should give an idea of what to put into
these files. The AX25-HOWTO is a must read also.

2. RUNNING

Node is intended to be called from ax25d or inetd. It doesn't need
any command line arguments but there is one to support incoming
compressed connects. See the node(8) manual page.

To run LinuxNode from ax25d, /etc/ax25/ax25d.conf should have something
like this in it:

  # AX.25
  [OH2BNS VIA 144]
  default  * * * * * *  -    root  /usr/bin/node  node

  # NETROM
  <netrom>
  default  * * * * * *  -    root  /usr/bin/node  node

/etc/inetd.conf could have something like this in it:

  # Set up LinuxNode to listen at telnet port
  telnet  stream  tcp     nowait  root    /usr/bin/node     node

Note that LinuxNode should always be run as root. Otherwise outgoing
connects won't work. Also ping needs a raw socket which requires root
priviledges.

LinuxNode can also be called from command line. It then uses kernel
axassociation table to find a call associated to the user. Again
for outgoing connects (and ping) to work LinuxNode needs to be
installed setuid root (make install does that by default).

3. LOGGING

LinuxNode uses the LOG_LOCAL7 syslog facility to log its messages to
the system log. In my RedHat distribution almost all syslog messages
are by default forwarded to /var/log/messages file. If LinuxNode is
used in a busy multiport environment and with LogLevel set to log
everything, it can produce quite a lot of output to the system logs.
I therefore forward all messages from LinuxNode to a separate file.
This can be done in /etc/syslog.conf with something like this:

# Log anything (except mail) of level info or higher.
# Don't log private authentication messages!
# Don't log LinuxNode messages either.
*.info;mail.none;authpriv.none;local7.none	/var/log/messages

# LinuxNode messages
local7.*					/var/log/node

Remember to create the logfile and to send a SIGHUP to syslogd after
you make the changes (killall -HUP syslogd).

-- 
Tomi Manninen OH2BNS, <tomi.manninen@hut.fi>
