Pat-gensio 0.6, Pat with built-in AX25, released

[Corey Minyard]

This version adds support for the Kenwood D710 TNC.  It requires some special setup to put it into KISS mode.  Instructions are at https://github.com/cminyard/pat/tree/gensio-work and scroll to near the bottom  under the "Pat with native AX.25" label.

It's available at https://github.com/cminyard/pat/releases/tag/gensio-0.6

For a review, this version of Pat is one with an AX25 packet stack built in.  This means:

* You don't have to mess around with the Linux AX25 stack for packet.  It's all configured in Pat.
* AX25 packet works on Windows and Mac.

Also, I have ported over some patches and added my own patches to fix some forms issues; it will now properly load the To field and others from a form.

-corey

[Corey Minyard]

Oh, I forgot to say...

Sorry if you get this twice, I messed up the link on the first one.

The link on the 0.5 release announcement was wrong, it went to 0.2.  Anyway, it's right on this one.

-corey

[Scott Currie]

So, just started playing with this. I'm in the Windows environment, and running UZ7HO as the software TNC. Soundmodem KISS port is enabled on TCP 8100. My config looks like this:

  "gax25": {
    "gensio": "kiss,keepopen(discard-badwrites=yes),tcp,localhost,8100",
    "beacon": {
      "every": 3600,
      "message": "Winlink P2P",
      "destination": "IDENT"
    },

When I try to connect, on Soundmodem monitor I see the following:

1:Fm NS7C To NS7C-10 <UNKN C P> [21:26:21T]
1:Fm NS7C To NS7C-10 <UNKN C P> [21:26:29T]
1:Fm NS7C To NS7C-10 <UNKN C P> [21:28:12T]
1:Fm NS7C To NS7C-10 <UNKN C P> [21:28:20T]

These should be SABM frames, not UNKN. Obviously, the gateway does not respond.

By the way, when you select a station from the RMS list, it reverts to AX.25 transport instead of the previously selected gensio AX.25 transport.

-Scott, NS7C

[Scott Currie]

Ah, I see. Using Direwolf:

[0L] NS7C>NS7C-10:(SABME cmd, p=1)
[0L] NS7C>NS7C-10:(SABME cmd, p=1)
[0L] NS7C>NS7C-10:(SABME cmd, p=1)

We are sending Extended SABM. These are not recognized by the gateway. Is there a way to turn this off?

-Scott, NS7C

[Corey Minyard]

Yes, there are two ways.  If you want to turn off extended mode for everything add (extended=0) to the beginning of the "gensio" setting, right before "kiss,". so:

  "gensio" : "(extended=0)kiss,keepopen(discard-badwrites=yes),tcp,localhost,8100",

If you want to turn it off for individual connections, you can add "parms=extended=0" to the url, like:

   gax25:///n5cor-10?parms=extended=0

or:

  gax25:///n5cor-10?freq=145050&parms=extended=0

But, assuming the remote end is receiving this, this is actually a bug in the remote system.  A system is supposed to respond to an unknown command with a FRMR response.  Some respond, incorrectly, with a DM message.  Both of these are handled, though.

-corey - AE5KM

[Scott Currie]

Yes, I agree completely, however AX.25 V2.2 has not been implemented consistently across hardware and software platforms. Many systems do not correctly respond with frame reject when they do not support extended. In the gateway I am testing, there is no response at all, so you may want to test for that as well.

-Scott, NS7C

[Scott Currie]

Thanks Corey,

Turning off extended worked great and I have tested both gateway and P2P connections using UZ7HO Soundmodem.

Next question, is there any support for connections through a network node where a connection script would be required?

-Scott, NS7C

[Cal Brabandt]

Please forgive my newbish question but will this work with a Mobilnkd "TNC", which I read supports KISS?

BTW, thanks for the arm64 Pat-gensio build. It launched just fine on my Pinebook Pro. :)

I recently compiled ardopc for my arm64 Pinebook Pro and it's working with Pat and my IC-7100. I have the Mobilnkd Nucleo board "kit" that I need to solder-up for my next challenge and I'm thinking that maybe I'll give it try it with Pat-gensio

Cal -- AD8Q.

[Corey Minyard]

On Thursday, August 4, 2022 at 2:53:40 PM UTC-5 cal...@gmail.com wrote:

Please forgive my newbish question but will this work with a Mobilnkd "TNC", which I read supports KISS?

It should.  Looking at their documentation, they are doing serial over bluetooth.  The document at  https://github.com/cminyard/pat describes how to set up a serial port interface.  You just need to find the serial port device and the parameters.  I have only tested this on a D710, but it should work.  The only thing that might be an issue is the CRC code.

BTW, thanks for the arm64 Pat-gensio build. It launched just fine on my Pinebook Pro. :)

I recently compiled ardopc for my arm64 Pinebook Pro and it's working with Pat and my IC-7100. I have the Mobilnkd Nucleo board "kit" that I need to solder-up for my next challenge and I'm thinking that maybe I'll give it try it with Pat-gensio

Cool, thanks for checking this out.

-corey - AE5KM

[Cal Brabandt]

Thanks for checking out the details of my Mobilnkd modem,  corey!

My Mobilnkd board is the PCB and enclosure only version, which connects via USB (no Bluetooth) but, in most applications, I've found USB to be more reliable with fewer hassles than Bluetooth! The factory-built version has not been available for a long time, due to supply chain chip problems, I think. I had a very tough time finding all the parts for my PCB and ended up buying from both Digikey and Allied to find all the parts (with some substitutions even), as I recall.

Here are few more details about my Pinebook Pro running Pat and ardopc for anyone in the group who might need it. (Please contact me for additional details and associated weblinks, if needed.):

I usually run Manjaro  on my Pinebook Pro (/ mounted on my NVMe SSD) but Manjaro has some ALSA bugs. With ardopc, I can't get a softvol control to work right .asoundrc file in order to increase the ardopc level to the recommended +/20,000 level or so using alsamixer. I already have the AF output from my IC-7100 turned up all the way (for higher ardopc capture levels), but ardopc reports somewhat low levels without a softvol control (but can still often work okay without it). So the bottom line is ardopc works with Manjaro, unless a softvol control is defined in .asoundrc and then ardopc will fail to launch, due to an ALSA error.

With Manjaro, another ALSA bug requires me to run the ham application, "aldo" (a CW training ap) as sudo. I have not found that a typical and straightforward fix of just changing group memberships works either, and Mnjaro is the only Linux system (of many) I've used the exhibits this ALSA bug when running aldo.

I have been unable to find discussions of either of these ALSA bugs in any of the online forums that I've searched and I'll probably file a bug report on the ALSA project site.

On the other hand, Armbian works perfectly, with respect to both of the above ALSA bugs, when run on my Pinebook Pro from an SD card. (The PBP's micro SD card slot is in the U-boot order, but Armbian might require a different U-boot version to be installed to the SD  card or the eMMC memory.) I'm running the latest Jammy stable version of Armbian.

Unfortunately, for the last year or so, Armbian has not run reliably from anything BUT the SD card. It will not boot and run with / mounted on eMMC or NVMe memory), because initramfs fails to find the UUID for these devices. There are many posts in the Armbian forum about the problem, but no easy fix, that I've found. The PBP does run Armbian very well from an SD card though.

In summary, my experiences with the Pinebook Pro and Pat with ardopc:

ardopc works pretty well on Manjaro but you don't get a softvol control in alsamixer.

ardopc works great on Armbian but you don't get to run from anything but an SD card. (Get a good one, as prescribed on the Armbian howto.)

Hope this helps others.

Cal AD8Q

[Cal Brabandt]

Oops--I forgot to mention that I could not find an ardopc binary download for arm64/aarch64 but it's an easy compile from source code and, in my experience, once it is compiled the binary can be copied between various arm64 linux systems (no need to recompile for each one).

73

Cal -- AD8Q