John Martins'
Amateur Radio from near Empire Michigan USA

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Linux - Jnos Setup and Configuration HOW-TO

By John Martin KF8KK

Base Jnos Installation

The most convenient method I have found involves creating a CDrom on another machine that contains the Jnos files as downloaded from the internet.

Maiko, VE4KLM (the father of our Linux Jnos2) has created a VERY handy installation program that takes much of the drudgery out of getting Jnos onto your Linux machine. 

The plan I use is to install basic Jnos using Maiko's installer and then download the most recent Jnos source code files and then compile our own copy of the most recent Jnos release and use that.

While you may not think that compiling your own Jnos is something you want to do, it is highly recommended in the long run as updates to the program are available first as source code which needs to be compiled.   

Additionally, by compiling yourself you can enable and disable various functions of Jnos to suit your particular needs.  In my case I need both the conference server and the NetRom modes, it's nearly impossible to find both of these enabled in a pre-compiled Jnos distribution.  

Compiling isn't as hard as it sounds-- Maiko has made the process mostly painless.

We find the files with the 'cd /mnt/cdrom' command.

Following the instructions that accompany the installer, I copy the 'installer.tar.tar' file to the /tmp directory using 
'cp installer.tar.tar /tmp'.

At the time this was written, the filename 'installer.tar.tar' that is downloaded is named incorrectly.  You need to change it to be a '.gz' file.  Do this with the following: 
'mv installer.tar.tar installer.tar.gz' when you're in the /tmp directory.   With this correction made, you can continue along as Maiko instructs.

Unzip the file by issuing the command:
'gunzip installer.tar.gz' 

This will leave you with the 'installer.tar' file in the /tmp directory.  At this point, issue the following command:
'tar xvf installer.tar'

The TAR command will unpack the installer and create it's direcory.  Change to the /tmp/installer directory and run the command './jnosinstaller' to start actually adding Jnos to your machine (don't forget the leading period!).

Q: Jnos directory is:  Answer: /jnos

Q: Enter your callsign:   Answer: whatevermycalis

Q: The dns server is:  Answer: 192.168.1.1

Q: The serial port for the main TNC:  Answ: ttyS0
(ttyS0 = com port 1; ttyS1 = com port 2; ttyS3 = com port 3)

Q: Baud rate for serial port:  Answer: 9600

Please make sure to read that and make note of as much of it as you can (written notes that is).

To test it out, type 'telnet 192.168.2.2' at the 'jnos>' prompt and hit enter.  

If all is well, you should get the BBS prompt as shown at the right.

As a double-check,  hit ALT-F2 to switch to another console screen in Linux and log in there as user root.

Once logged in on the second Linux console, type the following command: 'telnet 192.168.2.2' and if all goes well, you'll get the mailbox login to your new jnos from the linux side of the machine as well..

Before we move further along, you need to make a backup copy of the basic installed 'autoexec.nos' file.  from the /jnos directory, issue the following command:
'cp autoexec.nos autoexec.nos.bak'

You always want to keep backup copies of the 'autoexec.nos' file.  This is the main configuration file for Jnos and is long and complicated.  

Because there are so many different ways Jnos can be setup, and so many different environments Jnos is used in, it's impossible to simply copy someone elses autoexec.nos file and run without making quite a few changes.