Building a Linux Ubuntu package of TheLinkBox
Here's my download page for the TheLinkBox Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon package. In the moment I have not tested it with live hardware. So this is still simething that needs to be done. Some MAN pages are not very well cooked either. But at least, the lintian package verification tool says the package has no flaws and does not violate the Debian packaging policy.
Currently this is just the first step. In future versions, there will be the following modifications to the package:
- better documentation
- have it run as a user different from root
And since TheLinkBox is pretty cool software, I intend to port it to OpenWRT linux and make it run on my Cisco Linksys WRTSL54GS. But let's do one step after another :-)
Some tips: Install the package as root user in a shell with the command
dpkg -i thelinkbox_<VERSION>_i386.deb
De-install it with
dpkg -r thelinkbox
After installation, the daemon terminates because very obviously, your config file is not functional. Edit your config files in the directory
/etc/thelinkbox
and restart the daemon manually:
/usr/sbin/tlb -d
The -d option causes the program to produce diagnostic messages and to stay in the foreground. You will now see which settings in cour config files don't work. Go and get your config files right!! You can always interrupt the program while in foreground with the key combination CTRL-c. Once everything is set, start your daemon finally with
/etc/init.d/thelinkbox start
and your daemon will go into background operation. Now your node should appear in the EchoLink network and should be connectible from other nodes.
Please consider this:
- If your node is behind a firewall or behind an access router, make sure it is reachable from the internet on both ports 5198/UDP and 5199/UDP
- If you don't know what ports are, please go to The Linux Documentation Project and read the networking howtos very, very thoroughly. The Net3-4-Howto is kindof the best networking introduction I have ever read.
And let's not forget this: Big THANKS to SUMNER M HANSEN (aka Skip, Callsign WB6YMH) who is the author of TheLinkBox!
- Gutsy Gibbon:
- Debian (from OH2GVE)
