Kermit Setup Success with WIN10 PC Server

[Jim McGinnis]

Greetings:

I wanted to share my results installing kermit on both a Windows 10 PC and the Altairduino.

The goal was to get the two ends talking while also getting the server mode working on the Windows 10 PC side.The configuration allows much more freedom and efficiency for moving files between the PC and the Altairduino.

The path to this solution was filled with frustration and disappointment - until the right combination of files could be identified and proven to work together.

The Kermit disk image containing the kerm411.com file is found here as a floppy image that can be added to the FLASH file system:

As was kindly provided in a prior post (thanks Richard Deane), the kermit.dsk is a bootable CPM 2.2B disk with kerm411.com/

http://altairclone.com/downloads/cpm/CPM%202.2/Kermit/

I renamed the .dsk image and added it to my FLASH card file/disk system.

kerm411.com works well with and without the "far end" being in server mode.

The key to solving the Win10 PC to CPM kermit problem is dependent upon finding two versions that work together as well as operate on their respective platforms.

Aside: I have been using a Raspberry Pi (3d printed housing and attached to back of an LCD display using the VESA mount) as my terminal server for the Altairduino. I am using minicom 2.7.1 (sudo apt0get install minicom -y) as the terminal emulator and it supports VT102, which is my desired emulation. It has XMODEM and other protocols for file transfers. It supports kermit as well. These are all "one at a time" transfers using minicom. I attempted to install the Raspbian C-Kermit  program. It complains when it loads about SSL libraries being out of sync with the host. It is not perfect and trying to rebuild it for Raspberry Pi (Raspbian Buster with desktop version 4.19) was frustrating - since none of the makefile targets build cleanly for this target.

I went on a quest for the holy kermit for Windows that ACTUALLY RUNS on WIN10 and supports server mode. Finally I came across the following build (thanks to David Goodwin!):

http://ftp2.zx.net.nz/pub/Kermit95/test_builds/

The link to the latest build (2013-11-21) is also here, although it wasn't clear that this build was a "score" for running Win10 kermit in sever mode.   And It was!

The link is under the text "Project 1 (David Goodwin, New Zealand)"

http://www.kermitproject.org/k95sourcecode.html

Details:

KERM411.COM

From the http://altairclone.com/downloads/cpm/CPM%202.2/Kermit/ReadMe.pdf...

"Kermit communicates with the remote computer through the PUN and RDR devices, so each time Kermit is started, the SET PORT command must be issued to properly assign the physical I/O device to the RDR and PUN. For a typical Altair system using 2SIO port 1 as the console connection and 2SIO port 2 for the connection to the remote host, enter the following command at the Kermit command prompt (not the CP/M prompt):

SET PORT UR2    <--  This is for 2SIO port 2

Using minicom 2.7.1 on the RPi as my terminal emulator connected to the Altairduino on serial pins 18/19, 115200 N81...

I discovered that minicom options need to be set for carriage return behaviors.

In minicom, type CTL-A   Z    U   

The "U" option toggles the addition of carriage returns to the end of lines on or off. It needs to be ON for kermit REMOTE DIRECTORY requests, REMOTE HELP requests, etc. Otherwise, the data presented on the KERM411 display is distorted.

I used the following CP/M 2.2b and KERM411 settings that matched up with the Altairduino serial port on pins A6/A7 9600 N81.

(Set via "Configure host (s)erial" and the "(E) Configure serial cards" options in the Altairduino configuration menus.)

The A disk is the kermit.dsk image and is booted to support the following:

A> STAT RDR:=UR2:

A> KERM411

Kermit-80  0A: SET PORT UR2

Kermit-80  0A: SET PARITY NONE

Kermit-80  0A: SET FLOW-CONTROL OFF

Kermit-80  0A:

On the WIN 10 PC side, the download from David Goodwin contains multiple executable files. The file of interest is the K95.EXE.

Run K95.EXE on the Win10 PC. A terminal screen will appear. This is kermit.

You need to know which COM port is connected to the Altarduino A6/A7 serial port. I used a USB to Serial converter connected between the PC USB port and the Altairduino A6/A7 DB9 Serial port.

My COM port was COM13. I used WIN10 "device manager" to directly set the adapter serial port settings to 9600 N81.

After starting K95.EXE, you are presented with a command prompt.

The following commands were applied to get the server running:

K-95>  cd c:\CPMXFER                   <--- CPMXFER is where I drop files I want to transfer (GET) or where I "PUT"  files from the Altairduino.

[C:CPMXFER\] K-95>  SET PORT COM13

[C:CPMXFER\] K-95>  SET PARITY NONE

[C:CPMXFER\] K-95> SET STOP-BITS 1

[C:CPMXFER\] K-95> SET SPEED 9600

[C:CPMXFER\] K-95> SET CARRIER-WATCH OFF

[C:CPMXFER\] K-95> SET FLOW-CONTROL NONE

[C:CPMXFER\] K-95>SERVER

I was able to GET and PUT files as well as view directories and HELP fairly easily.

(the edit was due to power outage followed by UPS panic. Time for a new battery....)  :-(

I may make additional posts when I determine how robust the setup remains. I only tried the setup twice...

Cheers

Jim

[Jim McGinnis]

Here is an update regarding the source of K95 for Windows 10 that supports the kermit SERVER mode:

The directory that contains the latest build is not the zip file linked in the page
http://www.kermitproject.org/k95sourcecode.html

It is this folder: 
ckn90304/

Located here.
http://ftp2.zx.net.nz/pub/Kermit95/test_builds/

This ckn90304 version has a GUI (K95G) that works quite well and it supports the server mode, as well.

There is not a lot of difference between the K95.exe (terminal) and K95G.exe (GUI) features.

The GUI version brings out a few of the settings and behavioral controls to the GUI level.

I did read reports of KERM411 working at 38,400 baud on 4 Mhz Z80 CPM builds.

I tried to run faster than 9600 Baud using the 2SIO port 2 and was not able to get to 19200 or 38400.

YMMV. Let us know if you are able to "go faster."  KERMIT is efficient, but the need for speed never seems to disappear.

Cheers

Jim

[Jim McGinnis]

UPDATE:

Additional testing reveals that the ckn90304 version has a few bugs in both the terminal and gui versions.

If you can stand not to use the REMOTE TYPE <fn> command, this version is ok. If you request the REMOTE server to TYPE an appropriate file (ASCII human readable text) the program (terminal and gui) will crash resulting in the terminal or gui closing.

The latest_build.zip file  containing this folder, winkermit-3.0-test-21-nov-2013-vc6, is stable. The REMOTE TYPE command works as

expected.

Additionally, notice that KERM411 only supports a sub-set of the REMOTE commands. Regardless of the report by the server to the REMOTE HELP command, the KERM411 CP/M tool will not perform many of the available supported K95 commands: MKDIR will not work. There are others.

The basic commands that I value do seem to work reliably:

REMOTE CD

GET

SEND

REMOTE DIR

REMOTE TYPE

FINISH

REMOTE COPY

REMOTE RENAME

GET and PUT can use wild-cards for multi-file transfers.

Best regards.

Cheers

Jim