John Martins'
Amateur Radio from near Empire Michigan USA

• Home
• Blog
• Articles
• HamClass
• Repeaters
• Packet
• D-Star
• Automotive
• Ham Shack
• Scanner

Linux - Jnos Setup and Configuration HOW-TO

By John Martin KF8KK

Jnos Files and Localizations

The most common way to do this is to find a working Jnos system that somewhat resembles the environment of our system and copy their files onto ours and make the appropriate modifications for the site specific parameters (callsign, location, hosts, etc).

You can download copies of such files from my system by clicking on their names to the right.  I have also included what directory they need to reside in on your system.

See the links further down this page where I will describe the files in more detail and denote what changes you will need to make for your particular system.

[simpler autoexec.nos you might want to try]

In addition, I have prepared two zip files that contain the Jnos help system and also the Jnos-BBS help system (they are separate).  You will want to unzip these files and put the files they contain in the required directory.

hlp-jnos.zip files reside in /jnos/help
hlp-jnos-bbs.zip files reside in /jnos/spool/help

Finally, you should put something of use in the /jnos/public directory so that curious users will have something to find. 

public-jnos.zip files could go in the /jnos/public directory.

We'll start off with some easy ones.

The editor you use in Linux can be an entire learning experience in itself.  'vi' is the granddaddy editor for unix systems but has a steep learning curve.   Since I cut my teeth using the old DOS 'Wordstar' word processing software popular in the late 80's, I find that the 'joe' editor in Linux is as close to a Wordstar clone as you can get.

Sadly, if I spent the necessary time to give you instructions on the best text editors in Linux it would fill a book of it's own.  I just wish you GOOD LUCK.   (a hint if you're going to try joe... CTRL-K then H will bring up help at the top of the screen).

On the right are the filenames and by clicking on them a new browser window will appear with more details on what's in the files, what should be changed, and what the various commands do.  The easier ones are first, the hardest-- autoexec.nos-- is at the end.

It's highly advisable to do a minimum of editing initially and then continue with perfecting the configuration over time.

motd.txt [in /jnos/spool]

convmotd.txt [in /jnos/spool]

channel.dat [in /jnos/spool]

areas [in /jnos/spool]

names.dat [in /jnos/spool]

popusers [in /jnos]

alias [in /jnos]

domain.txt [in /jnos]

access.rc  [in /jnos]

encap.txt [in /jnos]

routes.lcl [in /jnos]

nos.cfg [in /jnos]

forward.bbs [in /jnos/spool]

rewrite [in /jnos/spool]

ftpusers.txt [in /jnos]

autoexec.nos   [in /jnos]

I have a small file called 'startnos' which will start jnos on my system and if you put the file in the /usr/sbin directory and set the permissions so it is executable (issue the command 'chmod +x /usr/sbin/startnos') you can start jnos by simply typing 'startnos'.  CLICK HERE to see startnos.