2001-10-22 17:33:55 +00:00
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<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO 8859-1">
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<META http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
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<META name="author" lang="en" content="Michiel Broek">
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<META name="copyright" lang="en" content="Copyright Michiel Broek">
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<META name="description" lang="en" content="MBSE BBS Manual">
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<META name="keywords" lang="en" content="MBSE BBS, MBSE, BBS, manual, fido, fidonet, gateway, tosser, mail, tic, mailer">
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<TITLE>Running a BBS under Linux.</TITLE>
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<LINK rel=stylesheet HREF="manual.css">
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</HEAD>
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<BODY>
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<BLOCKQUOTE>
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<h5>Last update 06-Jun-2001</h5>
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<P> <P>
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<H1>Running a BBS under Linux.</H1>
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<P>
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<h3>Introduction</H3>
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<P>
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Everyone who has been running a (single line) BBS under DOS until now will
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need to understand that running a BBS under Linux (or any other multitasking
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os) is completly different of what you are used to. Under DOS things were
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quite simple, from AUTOEXEC.BAT you started a new .BAT file that would run
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forever and started all needed programs after each other.
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The programs that where started
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depended on the errorlevel of the previous program. Only one program could
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run at the same time.
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<P>
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People who had previous run a BBS on another multitasking os, or were running
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a BBS on a small lan with a fileserver and workstations for each line, are
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already more used to the idea of running more programs at the same time,
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and to "signal" what to do next with semafore files.
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<P>
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The Linux aproach is more or less the same, but there are more differences.
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The main difference is that there is no mailer connected with the modem waiting
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for a call, instead there is a getty process watching your modem(s). Another
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big difference is that you don't see what's happening, there is no screen
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with the mailer or bbs picture on it. All programs run in the background. If
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you don't like that, stop now and go back to your old DOS bbs. It's just the
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way everything is done.
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<P>
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Programs that must start at specific times (events in DOS), are started from
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cron, this is the event scheduler for Linux (and other Unixes). With this
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program maintenance can be started, polls created etc. For starting programs
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when they are needed there is a taskmanager loaded at system bootup. This
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taskmanager "watches" the semafore directory of the bbs and will start what
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is needed.
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<P> <P>
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<H3>Waiting for a call .....</H3>
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<P>
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Under Linux this is done with the mgetty program, this is the
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process that is connected with each modem (or ISDN adapter) and waits for a
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call. The mgetty program (written by Gert Doering, gert@greenie.muc.de) will
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detect the call, and find out what or who did make the call. It can detect
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incoming humans who want a login prompt, PPP calls from users who want to
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make a PPP connection (browsing your BBS whith netscape for example), A fax
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machine trying to deliver a fax and finally a mailer trying to establish
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an EMSI, FSC-0006 or FSC-0001 session. The mgetty program is responsible for
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starting the right client programs. How to do this is explained in the
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installation manuals, but be sure to compile it with Fido and PPP support.
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<P> <P>
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<H3>A Human is calling.</H3>
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<P>
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This could be a bbs user. For each user to login to your bbs there must be a
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unix account. They automatic create such an account the first time they login
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with the <b>bbs</b> account. During the creation of their account the shell that is
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installed for there account is the mbsebbs binary, so that's the only thing
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that they get if they call in. When they logout the bbs, or drop carrier etc,
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the session is ended and mgetty takes over the line again.
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Note that they will never can get a Unix shell
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unless you install a <b>door</b> in the bbs that calls a shell for them.
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<P>
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There are probably more accounts on your system that can callin, <b>mbse</b> is
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such an account, this is the MBSE BBS maintenance account. This user will
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get the shell prompt. Use good passwords for shell accounts, and never change
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your setup so that the <b>root</b> user can directly login except from the console.
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If you need root access, login as <b>mbse</b> and type <b>su</b> at the prompt to become
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root. You might consider installing SSH on your system for remote maintenance.
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<P> <P>
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<H3>A PPP call is detected.</H3>
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<P>
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Installing a PPP server on your system is beyound the scope of this project.
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However if you did install it, users can login your bbs with their favourite
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browser and use your bbs. Note that the necessary tools to automatic create
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newsgroups don't exist at this time. With the proper setup you can automatic
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create and maintain html pages for the file areas.
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<P> <P>
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<H3>A mailer call is detected.</h3>
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<P>
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If a mailer is detected by mgetty, the <b>mbcico</b> program is started and will
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take over from mgetty. It will establish a mail session with the caller and
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the mail and or files will be exchanged just like any DOS mailer would do.
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After the call, mbcico will hangup and mgetty will take control of your modem
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again. If there is any mail received, mbcico will place the semafore <b>mailin</b>
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so that another process can take care of the received mail. Mbcico will also
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detect some IEMSI terminal programs (Frontdoor), and will start the bbs.
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<P> <P>
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<h3>There is mail in the inbound</h3>
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<P>
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As I said before, if the <b>mailin</b> semafore is present, the task manager will
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then start the <b>mbfido</b> program that will toss the mail, process any files
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received and if necessary it will create other semafore's for example to link
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the message bases, start the nodelist compiler etc. Note that this can be done
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while there may be a new mailsession going on, a bbs user is online, it doesn't
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matter. Processing mail and files can be done real multitasking without any
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damage to other processes.
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<P> <P>
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<H3>It's time to poll a node</h3>
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<P>
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At the time that you whish to poll a node, let cron create "poll" requests.
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When a poll is created, the semafore <b>scanout</b> is also created.
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The taskmanager will then start mbcico at regular intervals so that mail will
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get out. If there is no more mail to send, the <b>scanout</b> semafore is removed.
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If a timeslot ends, you can just remove the "poll" requests that didn't succeed.
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<P> <P>
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<H3>It's Zone Mail Hour, so now what</h3>
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<P>
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Relax, if you have netmail ready for nodes the
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mailer script will try to send these mails to those nodes. If it was crash
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mail, and the destination was a non CM node, the mailer will try to send those
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mails too. Note that other crashmails are send anytime. Also note that packed
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mail and files are not send during ZMH. If a node calls you during ZMH he will
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get everything that's waiting, including packed mail and files. The task manager
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(more on that later) calculates the Zone Mail Hour from UTC time, you don't
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have to change anything for summer- and wintertime.
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<P> <P>
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<H3>Daily maintenane</h3>
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<P>
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This is started by cron jobs. There is no need to take
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your bbs lines down during maintenance, you can do it any time of the day.
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I have made several scripts for this, daily, weekly and monthly.
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<P> <P>
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<h3>How about system load</h3>
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<P>
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Because Linux is a 32 bit os, not bothered with a graphical user interface
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(unless you install it), it has all the time in the world to serve your
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bbs programs. Background programs are build to release time to the Linux os,
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they don't need to run fast because it's background processing. The bbs and
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the mailer, have a low server load although there is no timerelease build
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in. Only the bbs has some short moments when it needs a lot of your system,
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for example when a user logs in and scans for new mail. The bbs I run is a
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486-DX4 100 MHz, 20 MB ram, with 2 analogue lines, this seems to work fine.
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When this system's MOBO died, I used a 386DX33 for several months with
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20 MB ram, and the only thing users ever noticed was that scanning for new
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mail was slower. I think this is the slowest harware that will work.
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However, you must always use 16550A uarts for the COM ports. For best
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performance use SCSI disks. I noticed that old 5"FH SCSI disks perform better
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for bbs usage then modern EIDE disks. This is probably caused by the fact that
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the kernel needs more time for the cheap IDE bus.
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If you want to use X11 on your bbs, you need more ram and a faster CPU or a
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separate machine via a lan and export the display to that machine.
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<P> <P>
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<A HREF="index.htm"><IMG SRC="images/b_arrow.gif" ALT="Back" Border="0" width="33" height="35"> Go Back</A>
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</BLOCKQUOTE>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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