[Xastir] Sharing serial port with Xastir

[Tom Russo]

On Fri, Jan 01, 2016 at 09:58:04AM -0600, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <kg4wsv at gmail.com> flavor, containing:
> Your likely choices for a correct solution are, in no particular order:
> 
> - learn Linux ax.25 networking, reconfigure xastir to use ax.25, and write your script to beacon using ax.25.

There is even an ax.25 program called "beacon" that can be used to do the 
deed.  It's part of the ax.25 package.

My home system has the TNC connected to a tiny computer (a SheevaPlug, an 
early ARM toy computer in the Raspberry Pi vein) that runs an IGate (using 
javAPRSSrvr), a beacon of a local voice repeater object, and shares the TNC 
over the LAN with a program called ldsped (emulates the AGW protocol).  As a 
result, any instance of Xastir on any computer in my house can access the 
TNC independently.

ax.25 networking is the only sane path forward, and one that was designed 
*precisely* to deal with the kind of thing you're trying to do.

> -  configure xastir to igate your beacons, then write a script to talk to xastir's server port and let xastir do the work of talking to the TNC.  IMO this is your best bet. 

Honestly, I kinda disagree.  Xastir is a great APRS client, and you can do a 
lot with the server port, but it really isn't great at doing things like
gating network traffic (other than messages) to RF.  Making it gate objects 
requires having the object packet appear to use the same "FROM" call that
Xastir is using.  Making it gate anything other than objects can be a real
challenge.

ax.25 is the best bet, IMHO.

Attempting to kludge port sharing by scripting, lockfile munging, and other
things I've seen in this thread are the path to madness, as you've already
said.

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236        http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
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