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13 <h2>Installing DX Spider (on Redhat 5.1)</h2>
17 <address><A HREF="mailto:ip@g8sjp.demon.co.uk">Iain Phillips G0RDI</A></address>
18 <!-- Created: Wed Dec 2 16:40:25 GMT 1998 -->
20 Last modified: Sun Aug 6 10:00:05 BST 2000
22 <P>This HOWTO describes the installation for DX Spider v1.30 on a "vanilla"
23 <A href="http://www.redhat.com">RedHat</A> 5.1 platform,
24 and assumes that you have started with a clean disk, with nothing other than the standard
25 Red Hat 5.1 distribution. I always select 'everything', and that seems to ensure that
26 nothing is missed out :-) [ more normal people may like to try with less <em>Ed</em> ].
28 <p><b><i>WARNING</i></b> The perl on the vanilla RedHat 5.2
29 (perl-5.004m4-1.i386.rpm) is <em>BROKEN</em>, please use the one
30 in the <a href="../download/index.html#perl">Download</a> section.
32 <p>The crucial ingredient for all of this is <a href="http://www.perl.org">Perl 5.004</a>. Now I know
33 Perl 5.005 is out and this will almost certainly work with it, but
34 <A Href="http://www.redhat.com">RedHat</A> 5.1 comes with 5.004.
35 <em>Be Warned</em> earlier versions of <A Href="http://www.redhat.com">RedHat</A>
36 <b>do not</b> come with 5.004 as standard, you need to
37 <a href="ftp://upgrade.redhat.com">upgrade</a>
39 <P>In addition to the standard Red Hat distribution you will require the following <A HREF="http://www.cpan.org/CPAN.html">CPAN</A> modules:
42 <a href="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/MD5/MD5-1.7.tar.gz">MD5-1.7.tar.gz</a><BR>
43 <a href="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Data/Data-Dumper-2.10.tar.gz">Data-Dumper-2.10.tar.gz</a><BR>
44 <a href="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Date/TimeDate-1.08.tar.gz">TimeDate-1.08.tar.gz</a><BR>
45 <a href="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/IO/IO-1.20.tar.gz">IO-1.20.tar.tgz</a><BR>
46 <a href="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Net/Net-Telnet-3.02.tar.gz">Net-Telnet-3.02.tar.gz</a><BR>
47 <a href="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Curses/Curses-1.05.tar.gz">Curses-1.05.tar.gz</a><BR>
48 <a href="http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Time/Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz">Time::Hires</a>
51 <p>The modules above are the current versions found at <a href="http://www.cpan.org">www.cpan.org</a> in the appropriate directories -
52 you can click on the links (above) to download them - particularly useful if you use the Lynx text HTML browser from your Linux box.
53 You may wish to check for more recent versions of these modules and use the newer ones if they are available.</p>
57 <P>You'll also need the AX25 utility package. There is much debate about what is "best", what is "better". What works for 5.1 is this: -
60 ax25-utils-2.1.42a-1.i386.rpm
63 <P>This can be found at (among other places) <A HREF="ftp://contrib.redhat.com/libc6">ftp://contrib.redhat.com</A>. Note that no attempt is made within this document to describe the steps necessary to install and commission the AX25 kernel package. It remains the responsibility of the reader to have sufficient knowledge and expertise to make this part of the system operation (and to be satisfied that it <B><I>is </B></I>operational) before attempting to install DX Spider. Read the AX25-HOWTO and ask around if you
64 still have trouble after that.
66 <P>The last "must have" is the DX Spider distribution itself, and this is available via: -
70 <A HREF="../download/index.html">The DX Spider Software</A>
77 <p><LI>Copy the CPAN modules listed above to a convenient place on your computer. For no good reason, I put mine in /usr/local/packages, and the instructions which follow will assume that that's where yours are, too.
78 <P>Log in as 'root', and make sure you're at '/root' before you continue. Here are exactly the commands you must issue next: -
80 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/MD5-1.7.tar.gz
87 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Data-Dumper-2.10.tar.gz
94 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/TimeDate-1.08.tar.gz
101 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/IO-1.20.tar.gz
105 # make install UNINST=1
108 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Net-Telnet-3.02.tar.gz
115 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Curses-1.05.tar.gz
122 # tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz
123 # cd Time-HiRes-01.20
130 <P>Do not fall into the trap of thinking they're all the same, just because they nearly are! Pay particular attention to the instructions of IO, above.
132 <p><LI>Create a user to run the cluster under. <B><I><U>UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES USE ROOT
133 </B></I></U><P>Again: <B><I><U>DO NOT USE</B></I></U> root.
134 <P>In the instructions which follow, it is assumed that this user is called 'sysop'. You may call it anything you wish. Depending upon your security requirements, you may choose to use an existing user. This will be your choice, not ours!
135 <P># adduser -m sysop
136 <P>Now set a password for the user:-
141 # Retype new UNIX password:
142 passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully
144 <P># Do not fall into the trap of thinking they're all the same, just because they nearly are! Pay particular attention to the instructions of IO, above.
146 <p><LI>Now unpack the DX Spider distribution, set symbolic links and group permissions like this (assumes that the version we're interested in is 1.9. The distribution tar file may be named slightly differently in your case: -
149 # tar xvfz spider-1.9.tar.gz
150 # ln -s ~sysop/spider /spider
151 # groupadd -g 251 spider (or another number)
152 # vi /etc/group (or your favorite editor)
154 <P>add 'sysop', your own callsign (in my case 'g0rdi' - which will be used as an alias) and 'root' to the group spider. The result should look something like:-
156 spider:x:251:sysop,g0rdi,root
159 <p><LI>Next step is to set permissions on the 'spider' directory tree and files:-
161 # chown -R sysop.spider spider
162 # find . -type d -exec chmod 2775 {} \;
163 # find . -type f -exec chmod 775 {} \;
165 <P>This last step allows various users of group spider to have write access to all the directories. Not really needed for now but will be useful when web interfaces start to appear.
167 <p><LI>In later releases there is a client program written in C. You
168 must <tt>make</tt> this program before you can use it (and you must
169 remember to to remake with every new release).
171 <p>To do this you should:-
177 <p>You can continue to use the perl client (<tt>/spider/perl/client.pl</tt>, but
178 support of this will gradually whither away.
180 <p><LI><a name="connect"></a>If you want to be able to allow people or clusters
181 to login via IP then you will need to set up logins for them.
187 Retype new UNIX password:
188 passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully
191 <p>You can then either alter the default .bashrc so that it
192 contains just one line (assuming you use the default bash
196 exec /spider/perl/client.pl <callsign> telnet
199 <p>Alternatively you can alter the <tt>/etc/passwd</tt> thus:-
202 fbb:x:505:505::/home/fbb:/bin/bash
203 gb7djk:x:506:506::/home/gb7djk:/usr/bin/perl /spider/perl/client.pl gb7djk telnet
206 Don't forget to give them a real password. The <tt>telnet</tt> argument
207 does two things, it sets the EOL convention to \n rather than
208 AX25's \r and it automatically reduces the privilege of the
209 <callsign> to a 'safe[r]' level.). If the user or other cluster
210 program requires AX25 conventions to operate then you can use
211 <tt>ax25</tt> instead.
213 <p>Another thing you can do is to get <tt>inetd</tt> to listen
214 on a specific port and then start the client up directly. To
215 do this, create an entry in <tt>/etc/services</tt> with a
216 port number > 1000 that isn't used elsewhere eg:-
223 Then create some lines in <tt>/etc/inetd.conf</tt> that look
227 gb7djk stream tcp nowait sysop /usr/sbin/tcpd /spider/src/client gb7djk telnet
228 gb7tlh stream tcp nowait sysop /usr/sbin/tcpd /spider/src/client gb7tlh telnet
231 Please <b>DON'T</b> run the client as <tt>root</tt> you will only
232 come to regret it later when the next person finds a security hole
233 in DX Spider (there are bound to be some although I have tried to
234 avoid the obvious ones I could think of).
236 <p>The only reason I would use this mechanism is for Internet connections
237 to other or from other clusters. Don't use this for normal users.
239 <p>In the example I have used <tt>tcpd</tt> as the access control
240 mechanism to the port. Don't (I can't be bothered to emphasize
241 it any more) run a system like this without one, you are asking
242 for trouble. In fact I use the <a href="http://www.tis.com">TIS
243 Firewall Toolkit</a> myself, you may find this more intuitive
244 to use. The point is that <tt>gb7djk</tt> would only be coming
245 from one IP address, if it coming from another, it is an imposter!
247 <p><b>You are responsible for arranging and looking after your
248 security - not me.</b>
250 <p><LI>As mentioned earlier, for AX25 connections <B><I>you</B></I> are expected to have the AX25 utilities installed, setup, tested and working. See the AX25-HOWTO for more info on this - it really is beyond the scope of this document DX Spider uses ax25d for incoming connections. You need to have entries like this:-
254 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
257 default * * * * * * - sysop /spider/src/client client %u ax25
259 <P>where 'ether' and 'bbs' are appropriate <B><I>KNOWN WORKING</B></I> axport and nrport names respectively. Obviously you can use different names, callsigns or whatever for your purposes, but it is up to you to get it to work. Note I use BPQ over ethernet which why I have the port names I have.
261 <p><LI>Find your <TT>netrom_call</TT> and <TT>ax25_call</TT> programs (which on my system live in <TT>/usr/sbin)</TT> and chmod them so that they are SUID <TT>root</TT>
263 # chown root ax25_call netrom_call
264 # chmod 4775 ax25_call netrom_call
266 <P>This has to be done to allow you to specify the correct callsigns on outgoing connects
268 <p><LI><a name="dxvar"></a>Login to your computer as sysop, and create the initial DX Spider parameters necessary to start the cluster for the first time.
270 $ startx			(much easier to use X)
274 $ cp perl/DXVars.pm local
276 $ vi DXVars.pm			(or 'joe DXVars.pm' if you're a WordStar fan ;-)
278 <P>Using the distributed DXVars.pm as a a template, set your cluster callsign, sysop callsign and other user info to suit your own environment. Note that this a perl file which will be parsed and executed as part of the cluster. If you get it wrong then perl will complain when you start the cluster process.
279 <P><b>PLEASE USE CAPITAL LETTERS FOR CALLSIGNS</B>
280 <P>DON'T alter the DXVars.pm (or any other file) in /spider/perl, they are overwritten with every release. Any files or commands you place in /spider/local or /spider/local_cmd will automagically be used in preference to the ones in /spider/perl EVEN whilst the cluster is running!
286 <P>Next, run the following script, which will create the basic user file with you as the sysop.
290 <P>Now attempt to startup the cluster program and see whether all the various rivets are flying in approximate formation...
293 DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.9
294 Copyright (c) 1998 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
296 loading band data ...
297 loading user file system ...
298 starting listener ...
299 reading existing message headers
301 orft we jolly well go ...
304 <p><LI>now log in again (as 'sysop') or start another rxvt or xterm
309 <P>at the cluster prompt (which will look something like):-
311 G1JIM de GB7JIM 12-Dec-98 1718Z >
317 <p>(where 'GB7XXX' is a DX cluster which you expect to connect to or from).
318 <P>Now shut the cluster down by simply typing 'shutdown' at the prompt.
319 <P>The cluster and the client should both go back to prompts
320 <p>The callsigns should be the sysop callsign and the cluster callsign
321 as per your modified DXVars.pm. You can check that the cluster
322 connections will work by:-
324 $ client.pl gb7xxx (doesn't have to be uppercase).
325 PC38^GB7JIM^~ <- the cluster thinks this is a cluster
333 <p>This is the normal way (as of version 1.30) of running the cluster system
334 as a sysop. It is a simple program client program that allows you to
335 press <up-arrow> <down-arrow> and use all the usual line editting
336 keystrokes that you can use on the unix shell under linux or bash.
337 <p>In addition, it will highlight certain type of lines in particular
338 colours and allow you to scroll the top window up and down with the
339 <page-up> and <page-down> keys.
342 <p>You should now have a basic working system. Best of luck! Can I now draw your attention to
343 the <a href="http://www.dxcluster.org/spider">Bug Reporting</a> System.
345 <p>Can I commend to you the Announcements mailing list to which you may
346 <a href="mailto:majordomo@dxcluster.org?subject=Subscribe&body=subscribe%20dxspider-announce%0D%0A--%0D%0A">subscribe</a>.
347 This is a low volume mailing list which will send you announcements of new patches and
348 such like things as they arise.
350 <p>If you like what you see and want to be a part of the ongoing development then
351 <a href="mailto:majordomo@dxcluster.org?subject=Subscribe&body=subscribe%20dxspider-support%0D%0A--%0D%0A">subscribe</a>
352 to the support mailing list which will be the focus of any discussion/bug fixing etc.
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359 Copyright © 1998 by Dirk Koopman G1TLH and Iain Phillips G0RDI. All Rights Reserved<br>
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