Linux support BPQ Ethernet compatibility. This enables you to run the AX.25 protocol over your Ethernet LAN and to interwork your linux machine with other BPQ machines on the LAN.
Configuration is quite straightforward. You firstly must have configured a standard Ethernet device. This means you will have compiled your kernel to support your Ethernet card, and executed configuration commands similar to the following:
# ifconfig eth0 44.136.8.5 netmask 255.255.255.248 up
# ifconfig eth0 broadcast 44.136.8.103
# route add -net 44.136.8.96 netmask 255.255.255.248 eth0
If you don't actually want to run tcp/ip on your ethernet device then all you need to do is use the:
# ifconfig eth0 up
command to activate the interface.
To configure the BPQ support you need to associate an AX.25 callsign with your Ethernet hardware address. You should use the following:
# axparms -dev eth0 vk2ktj-9
This says that AX.25 callsign vk2ktj-9 is associated with
the eth0 device. Note you should never associate a callsign
with the root account as this can cause configuration problems in
other programs.
BPQ Ethernet normally uses a multicast address. The Linux implementation does not, and instead it uses the normal Ethernet broadcast address. The NET.CFG file for the BPQ ODI driver should therefore look similar to this:
LINK SUPPORT
MAX STACKS 1
MAX BOARDS 1
LINK DRIVER E2000 ; or other MLID to suit your card
INT 10 ;
PORT 300 ; to suit your card
FRAME ETHERNET_II
PROTOCOL BPQ 8FF ETHERNET_II ; required for BPQ - can change PID
BPQPARAMS ; optional - only needed if you want
; to override the default target addr
ETH_ADDR FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF ; Target address