[Dxspider-support] DRSI + DXSpider + Linux kernel 2.4.20 works

[Simo Pätäri]

Hi,

Someone asked sometime ago if DRSI works under Linux. I got it working with
the following setup and decided to send my setup to let anyone interested to
know that DRSI works at least with the following versions. I know this is
not really DXSpider issue, but as many cluster nodes still run DRSI you guys
are the right audience for this information. We run old DOS-based
PacketCluster for ages with DRSIs and now I have replaced the old system
with DXSpider on Linux. I must say I am impressed about the performance,
stability and the possibility to tailor the system extensively!

The setup of OH2RBG:

- The first distribution was Red Hat 7.3, which I upgraded to 8.0.
- Fluxbox, quick Window manager
- Kernel is 2.4.20, I compiled it to support ax25-stuff
- ax25-apps-0.0.6.tar.gz
- ax25-tools-0.0.8.tar.gz
- libax25-0.0.11.tar.gz
- One DRSI PCPAT2 for 2m and 70cm
- One DRSI PCPAT1 fro 23cm
- z8530drv-utils-3.0-357.i586.rpm (for Suse, but I managed to install it:
rpm
  -i -f --nosignature --ignoreos, so to say dirty forcing)
- last but not least: DXspider!
- Pentium II 267MHz, 2 GB hard drive, 256 MB memory.

The z8530.conf file is the default. The cluster has been up for weeks
without any crashes or problems.

The 2.4.20 kernel documents say that you need 3.0.3 version of the z8530
utils, but I could not find the sources anywhere in the Net, so I tried
forced installing of the SuSe rpm, which obviously is based on the 3.0.3
sources, and it seems to work.

Soon we get WLAN and can connect the cluster around the world. Also, net
login will be switched on.

73 de Simo OH2LRE
SYSOP of OH2RBG
oh2lre at sral dot fi