problem installing ax25-apps

[nacross]

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UPDATE! Look at the last page of this thread for a simple solution.
The topic may be helpful as a whole, but if you look for a quick answer ...
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Hello,

I am trying to run ax25 paket protocol on my AMD Fedora 8 computer.

So far, using minicom, I can talk to the TNC.

I have tryied unsuccessfully to build a kernel with the ax25 network module following the guide at: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/CustomKernel

In the process it came to my attention that ax25 was marked already as module in the old config. So I went for it and tried "sudo /sbin/insmod ax25" which was accepted without reporting any error.I know that linux is not talkative, but in order to be sure I typed " /sbin/lsmod |grep ax25" and I have the following answer from the system: "ax25 54033 0"

So far so good, then I ran into problems

I went to install libax25 from http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/A...ckages#libax25
which I did without much problem (meaning no error warning).
At the end I typed the command: "rpm -q libax25" the system replied: "package libax25 is not installed"

The real problem begin with ax25-apps from the http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/A...ages#ax25-apps

I downloaded the file: ax25-apps-0.0.6-1.fc8.src.rpm
moved the file to the directory ~/source
then used the following commands:
sudo chmod a+x ax25-apps-0.0.6-1.fc8.src.rpm
sudo rpm -i ax25-apps-0.0.6-1.fc8.src.rpm

It creates a new path ~/rpmbuild/SOURCES/ where there are the following files:
ax25-apps-0.0.6.tar.gz

I entered the commands:
sudo chmod a+x ax25-apps-0.0.6.tar.gz

and get the following things on the current directory:
(directory) ax25-apps-0.0.6
(file) ax25-apps-0.0.6-nongenericnames.patch

The I did the following commands using http://tldp.org/HOWTO/AX25-HOWTO/x144.html as guide:
cd ax25-apps-0.0.6
sudo ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --localstatedir=/var
sudo make

And then I got some errors. I jus copy a part of the output:

gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -I. -I.. -g -O2 -Wall -c call.c
call.c:38:20: error: curses.h: No such file or directory
In file included from call.c:67:
menu.h:15: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before ‘WINDOW’
menu.h:22: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘*’ token
menu.h:24: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
menu.h:26: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘*’ token
call.c:105: error: expected specifier-qualifier-list before ‘WINDOW’
call.c:117: error: expected ‘=’, ‘,’, ‘;’, ‘asm’ or ‘__attribute__’ before ‘*’ token
call.c: In function ‘statline’:
call.c:384: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘move’
call.c:385: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘attron’
call.c:385: error: ‘A_REVERSE’ undeclared (first use in this function)

I went back to check with the command: rpm -q ncurses
and the system replied: ncurses-5.6-12.20070812.fc8


Any idea? Any Help? Thanks in advance

I will write down anything that I learn and then I will post that on the web to help others.

Neville

[leigh123linux]

Try

su
yum install ncurses-devel

[leigh123linux]

I have looked more and it looks like libax25 wasn't built and installed ( and to be honest you appear clueless to the process of rebuilding source rpms so I have written a quick guide for you )

I went to install libax25 from http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SIGs/...ackages#libax25
which I did without much problem (meaning no error warning).
At the end I typed the command: "rpm -q libax25" the system replied: "package libax25 is not installed"

Try

su
yum groupinstall "Legacy Software Development" "Development Libraries" "Development Tools"
yum install rpmdevtools

now as non-root

rpmdev-setuptree
wget http://hams.bobjensen.com/SRPMS/libax25-0.0.11-2.fc8.src.rpm
rpmbuild --rebuild libax25-0.0.11-2.fc8.src.rpm

install the packages that you just made

1. libax25-devel
2. libax


now as non-root

wget http://hams.bobjensen.com/SRPMS/ax25-apps-0.0.6-1.fc8.src.rpm
rpmbuild --rebuild ax25-apps-0.0.6-1.fc8.src.rpm

install the package that you just made

1. ax25-apps

[nacross]

There are time when I feel that I am not "that" clueless. But this thing about the ax25 has make me feel complete clueless. I really thank you for taking the time and give some directions.

I have already installed the ncurses-devel package:

[neville@localhost ~]$ rpm -q ncurses-devel
ncurses-devel-5.6-12.20070812.fc8

The I tried the group install I am in a loop. When I entered the command for yum group install, it gave me an error.

--> Running transaction check
---> Package readline-devel.i386 0:5.2-7.fc8 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: readline = 5.2-7.fc8 for package: readline-devel
---> Package perl-Test-Harness.i386 0:2.56-32.fc8 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution
Error: Missing Dependency: readline = 5.2-7.fc8 is needed by package readline-devel
[root@localhost neville]# rpm -q readline
readline-5.2-9.fc8

I can not install readline-devel 5.2-7 because needs readline 5.2-7, but the current version is readline 5.2-9

I suppose that in a couple of days it will be ready to install.

I will try to follow the others instructions. to see how they turn out.

Again, thanks.

Neville

[leigh123linux]

Try

su
yum --disablerepo=updates install readline-devel

[leigh123linux]

As you are having package troubles I built the packages for you ( see attachment )
You will need to untar the file and install all the rpm's as a single transaction .

i.e

yum localinstall *ax25*rpm --nogpgcheck

[nacross]

Thank you so much.
You have made my life much easy.
I will try to work my way with ax25-tools package.
I need to learn a bit to stop been so clueless. I think that with the info here I got some to experiment.
I will post my results to let you know, but it will be until tomorrow night as I have to go out.

Again thanks

Neville

[leigh123linux]

If you get stuck I built the tools as well ( it was no problem as I hadn't cleaned out the mock package cache )

[PabloTwo]

Hello nacross, and Liegh-

When nacross first put this post up it caught my attention because I had just a few days earlier recompiled my kernel to include ax25 support. I run FC6. I used a tutorial in the Guides and How-To's section on this forum (it's one of the sticky's) by alph645 with subsequent input by Sideways. It uses the rpmbuild process and despite a couple of hickups along the way I was able to successfully create brand spanking new kernel and kernel-devel rpm packages that included the ax25 support and also a handfull of supporting modules.

narcross, since you somehow got a working ax25 kernel module to use in lieu of recompiling there was no reason for you to compile a new kernel, but if in the future a need should arise, I would strongly suggest you check out that particular How-To.

I also had downloaded tarballed and compressed packages of libax25, ax25-apps and ax25-tools from another source but hadn't gotten around to doing anything with those as yet. After seeing Leighs instructions on how to build rpm packages from the src.rpm's obtained from the Fedora SIG (hamradio) site, I just had to give that a whirl today. Since only packages for F7 and F8 are available, I grabbed the F7 src.rpm packages for the three items discussed.

I installed the libax25 src.rpm package so I could get a look a the spec file for that, thinking I might have to make a change or two to make it work for FC6. But after looking, it appeared it would just conform to my system so I made no alterations. Then I deleted the whole rpmbuild tree and began anew with Leighs instructions. The libax25 package compiled and built as non-root without a hitch. But I ran into permission denied issues with both the ax25-apps and ax25-tools packages which forced me to run the build as root. Also, I hit a missing dependency in compiling ax25-tools (fltk-devel) but a quick yum install of that fixed things up.

I did all this just to learn how to do it. Same for recompiling the kernel. First time for both proceedures. And Leigh, your assistance to nacross on this I think was way beyond the call of duty (as they say) and also gave me just enough information in the process to increase my Linux geekness level several notches.

Thanks
Paul

[nacross]

Hello again.

I used the short cut provided by leigh123@linux to install the ax25-tools but it didn't work.

Running Transaction
Installing: ax25-tools ######################### [1/1]
Error unpacking rpm package ax25-tools - 0.0.8-1.fc8.i386
error: unpacking of archive failed on file /usr/share/man/man9/soundmodem.9.gz;4795ba39: cpio: read

Installed: ax25-tools.i386 0:0.0.8-1.fc8
Complete!
[neville@localhost ax25-tools]$ rpm -q ax25-tools
package ax25-tools is not installed

Then I created the tree using rpmdev-setuptree, after that I downloaded the package using wget as stated above, after that created the new rpm using rpmbuild --rebuild ax25-tools-0.0.8-1.fc8.src.rpm, then moved to the directory ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/i386 and finally input the command sudo yum localinstall *ax25*rpm --nogpgcheck

And all this worked fine.

Thanks very much, as pablo_two has said this help went beyond thew call of duty.

I have another machine that I am setting up. So I will try all this again. The I will write the stpes in order to help others in this matter.

Thanks again

Neville

[nacross]

I am back here in disappointment. Things are not workiwith ax25.
Last time I had a fresh install where I made a lot of errors, copying instructions from different sources. I remember one of then saying something about making sure of the standard paths. Any way when that install didn't run the ax25 applications wasn't much of a surprise. I planned from the beginning setting up another computer also with FC8. So I did and installed the development libraries at the setup, but anyway recheck with all other packages mentioned in this thread. (By the way readline-devel has been updated and the yum install worked fine)

As a summary what I did was:
rpmdev-setuptree
wget http://hams.bobjensen.com/SRPMS/liba...-2.fc8.src.rpm
rpmbuild --rebuild libax25-0.0.11-2..fc8.src.rpm
cd /rpmbuild/RPMS/i386
su
*password
yum localinstall libax*rpm --nogpgcheck

and the same for the packages ax25-tools and ax25-apps

So far, so good. Looks a straight forward sequence that I can post a a guide for another clueless person like me.

The problems begin with the set up. There is no axports file. As SU did a "find -name axports", so I get to think that I have to write my own file, but there is no /etc/ax25 directory wich it is supposed to be the route. There is /proc/net/ax25 directory that it is empty. As I did a lot of errors and tried differet things the previous machine had the /etc/ax25 directory and the axports file.

Both machines give problems with some commands. If I use commands like call or listen I got "bash: call: command not found" instead of saying something like that I forgot to specify ports and call sing.

I am back at my clueless state. At least I have learn how to use "wget" "yum localinstall" "rpmbuild"

Any idea? Should I do all this again, but take the time to copy or capture what the computer is saying at the time of the rpmbuild?

Thanks in advance for any help!
Neville

[leigh123linux]

Did you load the module ?


su -
modprobe ax25

[nacross]

hello leigh123@linux, thanks for coming back on my rescue.

As a mater of fact I did before starting to install the packages.
then, just to make sure it was loaded I typen
/sbin/lsmod | grep ax25

I didn't check that again after installation, but I don't think the ax25 module will be unloaded by the intallation process.

I sorry that I neglect to said that I loaded the module. Seems relevant.

Any other idea?

Neville

[PabloTwo]

Hi nacross-

I wish I could be of more assistance to you on this matter, but I'm still learning this stuff myself. I have only compiled the ax25 support into my kernel and installed the libax25 and libax25-devel packages. I have made the ax25-apps and ax25-tools packages but have not installed them. Checking for anything ax25 related in /proc, I find, on my system:

/proc/net/ax25 <empty
/proc/net/ax25_calls <empty
/proc/net/ax25_route <contains: callsign dev mode digipeaters

I am assuming those items got there from the ax25 support built into the kernel. If your ax25 kernel module is a proper one, you should have at least those same entries in your /proc/net/ diretory. Since I did not install the ax25-apps and ax25-tools packages, there is not a /etc/ax25 directory on my system, but if and when I do install them, that is where I expect to find most of the files to be placed, as that is the standard location for them.

Do you find a /etc directory in your HOME directory? If so, look there. Also, from a terminal, do:

su
updatedb
locate ax25

The updatedb may take a few minutes to complete and your terminal backscroll buffer may or may not be large enough to contain all the entries listed. At least this should show you where all those files got put when you installed all the ax25 packages. If they are in non-standard places, then you could just move them to where they should be.

I'm sure you've already searched and looked, but here are a few ax25 reference how-to's I dug up, which may or may not be of any help to youl

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/AX25-HOWTO/
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/AX25-HOWTO/x2329.html
http://www.linux-ax25.org/wiki/AX.25

I do my packet from an older Win98SE box (AT format with lots of ISA slots for my pair of DRSI dual-port packet cards, etc) and mostly use DOS apps for that so I have no real need to put packet on my Linux machine. But I am part of a group that installs and maintains a network of Rose protocol based packet sites here in Florida, most of which have converted to running on Linux computers (various Debian distros with all the ax25 stuff built in) and running FPAC. K4GBB and F6BVP are our principle Linux guru's in these matters, but I'm picking up on as much of this as I can without making it into a real work project.

Good luck,
Paul

[nacross]

Thaks Paul,

I have a old PII 400Mhz 128Mb RAM laptop running a FBB over win98SE. It is holding, but I am not sure when it will come apart. That's why I am setting up a new machine, and I had have enough problems with crashes that I was looking for something more stable.

I looked into the /proc/net directory ... there is no ax25 directory

I looked to the command "locate ax25" and I have a lot of ax25 stuff underneth /usr/src/debug
Part of my problem is that I do not know what to look for as ax25 structure or files. The list of the commands is very useful but I am not sure that there is a file for each command.

I have looked to the links of the ax25-howto, and my problem was that they didn't work for me.
I skiped the part of compiling the kernel, as I can load the ax25 network protocol as a module.
When I tried to install the packages I obtained a lot of errors following those instructions.

Some weeks ago I tried ubuntu, I managed to make work the ax25 using the synaptic package adminitrator (o something that's called very similar), but I get lost with the fbb. So I started from scratch with fedora, that I know more (but probably is not much). I am not sure if it will be better for me to star over from scratch using another distro, maybe debian itself and not a debian-ish distro.

So far I understood that there is no call command under fedora, it is ax25_call
I created /etc/ax25 directory and a axports file inside.
But still not working due conflicts between values in the axport and the kissattach command.

Any help to make sense of this chaos will be appreciated.

Neville YN1V