Distributions
The aggregation of a Linux kernel, other system software such as a boot loader and applications are called distributions Distributions differ in their philosophy such as being for free or commercial, the targeted audience, distribution medium, added value for example in form of software for installation and system maintenance and the way that support is handled. Another differenciating factor - and the reason for the existence of this page is the degree of support for amateur radio. This page is trying to give an overview.
Live CDs for one thing are meant for trying out things for Linux beginners as they usually don't change the existing system. They also are useful for testing to what degree a computer system is supported by Linux. Live CDs are usually for the i386 architecture and are frequently based on Knoppix (http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/) which against is rooted on Debian. Live CDs are interesting because some are optimized for amateur radio.
Full distributions
Debian
Debian is supporting 11 different hardware architectures and comes with a vast collection of amateur collection. Basically there are three version of Debian available:
- oldstable (aka Woody) http://packages.debian.org/oldstable/hamradio/
for the predecessor of Sarge security updates will be available until at least May 2006. For new installations generally Sarge is recommended. - stable (aka Sarge) http://packages.debian.org/stable/hamradio/
The current and recommended Debian release. It consists of sofware which is considered stable and well tested and receives updates for usage and security critical problems. 2.4 and 2.6 kernel can be choosen during installation. - testing (aka Etch) http://packages.debian.org/testing/hamradio/
contains software which is intended for the next stable Debian distribution. Usually works very without problems but isn't automatically updated in case of usage or security critical problems. - unstable (aka Sid) http://packages.debian.org/unstable/hamradio/
contains new, not yet well tested programs and versions.
Mailing list: debian-hams
Gentoo
Novell-SuSE / openSUSE
The SuSE/openSUSE distributions all have most of the AX25 drivers built into the kernel as modules. Ham radio packages are now available through the build service repositories. All ham radio packages for SuSE and openSUSE distributions from 10.0 on are now contained in the community repository and are accessed by adding an installation source in YaST. For example, if you are using openSUSE 10.3 you would add an installation source as follows:
protocol HTTP server download.opensuse.org directory /repositories/hamradio/openSUSE_10.3/
Mailing list: For further instructions e-mail the lists' robot opensuse-ham+help@opensuse.org.
The PPC architecture is supported since openSUSE 10.0.
NOTE: mkiss is broken in SUSE 10.0.
Novell-SuSE 9.3 and 10.0 i386 amateur radio software packages can be installed through SuSE's system management tool YOU/YAST. All it takes for example for SuSE 9.3 is adding
ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/projects/ham/9.3-i386
as an installation source.
Upto SuSE 9.0 or 9.1 amateur radio applications were still shipping on all installation media. Later versions had them only on the DVD version. For SuSE Live CDs amateur radio software had to be installed from the internet.
SuSE has changed the "time base" in their kernels for SuSE 9.2 and 9.3 without fixing the timing for AX.25 under /proc/sys/net/ax25. Without change a connection attempt will timeout after 0.3s instead of 300s.
Redhat / Fedora Core
None of the Redhat Linux or Fedora Core distributions ship with amateur radio software. For packet radio even the kernel will have to be rebuilt with the necessary features since the distribution kernels don't come with AX.25 and the necessary drivers enabled.
Ubuntu
Ubuntu is debian-based and is therefore compareable to debian in respect to amateur radio support. Note that in order to install most of the amateur radio related packages, you need to edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and un-comment the lines which talk about the "universe" repository.
Live-CDs build for amateur radio support
AR-Knoppix/Afu-Knoppix
AR-Knoppix current version is V3.7 dated January 2005 (based on Knoppix 3.7 from December 2004)
Hamshack-Hack
Hamshack-Hack is based on Knoppix, too. Release:????
