[Xastir] non-kernel mkiss app usefulness?

[Curt, WE7U]

On Mon, 20 Nov 2006, Jason Winningham wrote:

> It wouldn't be terribly difficult or expensive to put together a
> serial "mux" using a microcontroller so that data from multiple
> devices could be multiplexed/demuxed over a single serial port to the
> computer.  The problem is on the computer end.
>
> I know there's the mkiss module for the linux kernel, but I don't do
> linux.
>
> One solution would be to add multiport KISS support to xastir, but
> I'm not ready to take that one on.

I've started down this path several times (adding MKISS) but never
managed to complete it.  I wanted it in order to support MKISS
TNC's that have more than one radio port.  In fact I borrowed a KAM
for this purpose...  I need to get that back to the owner!


> Another solution would be a standalone mkiss type utility that runs
> outside the kernel.  This type of utility should be portable to other
> systems, like Mac OS X or Solaris (maybe cygwin, but I don't know
> enough about cygwin to know for sure).  Since all the linux mkiss
> does is create some named pipes, I see no real reason why that
> couldn't be done outside the kernel just as effectively, and much
> more portably.

I thought about this as well.  Kind of like the x_spider code we
have now, only a separate utility that would hook to one MKISS
hardware serial port, then would branch out to multiple PTY's in
Linux/Unix which Xastir could connect to separately.  Xastir
wouldn't have to change as it would just connect to say two or three
PTY's.  The utility would multiplex/demultiplex those streams
to/from the MKISS port.


> I'm soliciting opinions on the potential usefulness of such an
> approach.  Since it would require non-standard external hardware I
> don't know how useful it would really be to anyone except myself.  It
> might be simpler to just hack out xastir code and be done with it.

The utility software would help support those with multiport TNC's,
which essentially have the hardware gadget that you're describing
built into their firmware.

--
Curt, WE7U.   APRS Client Comparisons: http://www.eskimo.com/~archer
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