Last update 28-Sep-2002
Unix Distributions.
Which distribution
Linux is available in several distributions, they all have advantages and disadvantages for bbs use. Which distribution to pick is very personal. Since late 2001 a port to FreeBSD is available, from version 0.33.19 this port is ready to use. Since januari 2002 a port to NetBSD is available, this version is not ready for use.
Slackware
I am using MBSE BBS on several Slackware distributions. You can make a very small setup for MBSE BBS like Zipslack. Not included is the mgetty package.
Redhat and Mandrake
I write this as if these are the same which isn't true of course. From MBSE BBS's point of view they are almost the same, so that's why I treat them as the same distributions. The E-Smith server and gateway based on Redhat is also supported. For people with little Linux experience these distributions are a good choice if you can spare the diskspace. I haven't found a simple dedicated setup for the bbs, so the safest way is to install allmost everything, which is quite simple. This will cost you about 1200 Megs. Maybe that someone more experienced with these distro's can give more details on how to build a small server.
SuSE
Since SuSE 7.1 the setup scripts are working and tested. Older distro's might work.
Debian
The installation works on a Debian 2.1, 2.2 and 3.0 distribution without any problems. How to build an optimized Debian system is not tested by me.
FreeBSD
I test on FreeBSD 3.2 and 4.4 stable releases. The setup is quite simple, do a small setup (average user), and add some needed packages from the ports collection such as gcc, mgetty, infozip etc. The test machine has a 500 MB harddisk, about 250 MB is still free. Note that the older precompiled mgetty packages may not always have Fidonet support compiled in. You may need to build mgetty yourself if you have an older FreeBSD distribution.
NetBSD
I use an old Sun Sparcstation 2 with NetBSD 1.5.2. This is more stable then Linux on Sparc systems. Only network connections are tested.
Famous last words...
I don't have the diskspace for all kinds of Linux distributions to install at the same time, with the current size of Linux, I only have 2 versions installed. Also, I don't buy every new distro that's available. If you have a problem with that, just send me the new distro on CD to test by snailmail.
Go Back