[Tlf-devel] Tlf test system with live CD operational

[Rein Couperus]

Hello Folks,

after 2 weeks of pile-up/contest fun and computer/frustration with TS7N in 
Tunisia, (http://iae.nl/users/reinc/ComputerChaos.doc) I decided that the 
only way to prevent the frustration would have been to bring  live CD's with 
Linux/tlf for all computers in the network... And so I started to look around 
for a simple solution, which is now ready for testing..... This stuff is 
really plug and play. You put the ethernet cable into its hole and you're 
practically done.
see http://sharon.esrac.ele.tue.nl/pub/linux/ham/tlf/morphixpic.png

The solution is to use a live CD for the Linux part and a USB Memory Stick 
(you can buy them for 0.5 Euro/MByte these days) for the tlf/cwdaemon part, 
including logging on the USB stick. This solution does not even mount the 
hard drive!! You can find the archive at
sharon.esrac.ele.tue.nl/pub/linux/ham/tlf/tlf-morphix.tar.gz

The README sayz:

I have been experimenting with the MORPHIX live CD, and I am extremely pleased 
with the results. It enables me to run tlf from any modern laptop or desktop, 
even if it has been trashed with Window$. It loads Linux (in fact Debian Sid) 
from the CDROM into a ramdrive; it does not touch the Window$ or DO$ 
harddisk.
I am using the MorphixCombined-KDE-0.4-1.iso, because it has a nice Linux 
console (download at www.morphix.com, all GPL).

I have made a small script "install-tlf" which does the following:
1.: It loads the usb-storage kernel module
2.: It prepares the mounting point for the USB Memory Drive (fstab+mount 
point)
3.: It mounts the USB Memory Drive under /mnt/usbstick
4.: It copies the tlf-morphix directory from the USB drive to /home/morph, 
which is the standard user under Morphix.
5.: It unloads the printer driver
6.: It loads the ppdev driver
7.: It makes a parport0 device in /dev
8.: It starts cwdaemon

As I did not have time to "morph" the iso, I run the tlf-install script from
a floppy. But if somebody has time (the "morphing" routine is arcane at best)
he can make a tlf+cwdaemon module for MORPHIX, maybe also including Xplanet...
(Just needs a bit of scripting and copying, all the hard work is done by 
Morphix-base).

With the tlf-morphix.tar.gz archive + the MorphixCombined-KDE-0.4-1.iso CDROM
+ an USB Memorystick + a floppy you have everything needed to run tlf from any
computer having USB, CDROM and Floppy. The idea if of course to use only USB
stick and CDROM in future...

This is a test release containing:
tlf-0.9.11.1-morphix (a special version at the moment, will be merged with
the tlf main stream)
cwdaemon-0.8
install-tlf
all files necessary to run a cqww contest (logcfg.dat, cty.dat and 
callmaster).

By loading the files from the USB Memory Stick they can be easily kept up
to date, so it would just be necessary to teach Morphix to run the tlf
install script...

You can download the Morphix iso from www.morphix.org.

To get a complete tlf system going the procedure is simple:

1.: Untar the tlf-morphix directory on a USB Memory Stick (8MB is enough)
2.: Put the install-tlf script on a floppy
3.: Put the Morphix ISO on a cdrom
That concludes the preparatory work............

4.: Put the USB Memory Stick into an USB slot
5.: Reboot the target computer with the Morphix Live CD
5a.: Wait until KDE is running...
6.: Start a konsole terminal
7.: Be root ('sudo bash')
8.: Mount the floppy (mount /dev/fd0 /floppy
9.: Copy the install file to the root directory
        ('cp /floppy/install-tlf install-tlf')
10.: Unmount the floppy ('umount /floppy')
11.: Run the script ('./install-tlf')
12.: Start a linux console (as user 'morph')
13.: Go into directory tlf-morphix
14.: Start tlf ('./tlf') and bash away.....
That concludes the final work. Your boss' brand new Windows laptop is now a 
Linux system with tlf, ready for the contest.... and your qso's are written 
safely to the USB Stick(after every qso).

So far the README.

If already have plenty of ideas how to handle the ip addresses for M/M etc 
etc... I am really pleased with this.

Who is going to take this further????

73,

Rein PA0R
-- 
address@hidden or address@hidden
http://www.couperus.com
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/tlf (momentarily down)