Packet Radio with Linux?
 

G'day,

a few years ago I used to run my Baycom PR modem with DOS which was
pretty easy, all I needed was tfpcr and GraphicPacket.

Now that I am a Linux convert I thought it should be nearly equally easy
to get on the air, considering AX.25 is already included in the kernel.
So what do I need? Not really being proficient with the technical
details, I figured all I need is to compile the ax25 and baycom modules,
and install a (console) terminal on my system.
The box is an old but trusty 386/25, 16MB RAM with RedHat 6.2 and a
2.2.25 kernel. Although it takes almost half a day to compile the
kernel, I still like to give the machine a useful application near the
end of it's service life :-)

After reading all the HowTos and hints I could find on the net, I
compiled the ax25-libs and linpac and tried to start the application.
This is where trouble begins. I get an error with sethdlc:
#sethdlc -p -i bc0 mode "ser12*" io 0x3f8 irq 4
sethdlc: Error No such device (19), cannot ioctl SIOCGIFFLAGS bc0

I don't really know what I am doing here, since the AX25-Howto seems to
take knowledge about the intrinsics for granted and the sethdlc man page
also didn't get me any further.
Shouldn't I find the bc[0-3] devices in /dev? There is nothing. There is
also nothing in /proc/sys/net/ax25.
Also, the compiled baycom modules are called baycom_ser_hdx and
baycom_ser_fdx, not baycom as mentioned in the AX25-HowTo. How to
diagnose the error and requirements?
This is all very confusing, and the fact that most of the documentation
I could find is outdated, some of it written for 2.0.x kernels adds to
this confusion.

I know that in times of mobile phones and the internet PR is basically
dead, but I'm still hoping to find a kind soul to lend me a hand and
explain what I need to do to get it working...

73,
Michael
DC1RN