This section describes the installation of DX Spider v1.50 on a -RedHat Linux Distribution. -Wherever possible I will try to include differences for other distributions.
- -I am assuming a general knowledge of Linux and its commands. You should -know how to use tar and how to edit files using your favourite editor.
- -The crucial ingredient for all of this is -Perl. Earlier versions of -Spider required perl 5.004, however it is now STRONGLY recommended -that you use at least version 5.005_03 as this is the version being used -in the development of Spider.
- -In addition to the standard Red Hat distribution you will require the -following modules from -http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/ , please note however that with later versions of perl, some of these -modules may be included with the distribution. Get the modules anyway and try -to install as below. If they complain, they are probably already a part of your -perl distribution.
- --
Copy the CPAN modules listed above to a convenient place on your computer. One good -place would be /usr/local/packages, and the instructions which follow will assume that -that's where you have put them.
- -Log in as 'root', and make sure you're at '/root' before you continue. Here are exactly the commands you must issue next: -
--
-# tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Data-Dumper-2.101.tar.gz -# cd Data-Dumper-2.101 -# perl Makefile.PL -# make test -# make install -# cd .. -# -# tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/TimeDate-1.10.tar.gz -# cd TimeDate-1.10 -# perl Makefile.PL -# make test -# make install -# cd .. -# -# tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/IO-1.20.tar.gz -# cd IO-1.20 -# perl Makefile.PL -# make test -# make install UNINST=1 -# cd .. -# -# tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Net-Telnet-3.03.tar.gz -# cd Net-Telnet-3.02 -# perl Makefile.PL -# make test -# make install -# cd .. -# -# tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Curses-1.06.tar.gz -# cd Curses-1.06 -# perl Makefile.PL -# make test -# make install -# cd .. -# -# tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Time-HiRes-01.20.tar.gz -# cd Time-HiRes-01.20 -# perl Makefile.PL -# make test -# make install -# cd .. -# -# tar xvfz /usr/local/packages/Digest-SHA1-2.01.tar.gz -# cd Digest-SHA1-2.01 -# perl Makefile.PL -# make test -# make install -# cd .. -- - -
Do not fall into the trap of thinking they're all the same, just because they -nearly are! Pay particular attention to the instructions of IO, above.
- - -I will assume that you have already downloaded the latest tarball of -the DXSpider software and are ready to install it. I am assuming version -1.50 for this section but of course you would use the latest version.
- -Login as root and create a user to run the cluster under. UNDER -NO CIRCUMSTANCES USE ROOT AS THIS USER!. I am going to use -the name sysop. You can call it anything you wish. Depending -on your security requirements you may wish to use an existing user, -however this is your own choice.
--
-
-# adduser -m sysop
-
-For SuSE distributions, the command would be ..
--
-
-# useradd -m sysop
-
-Now set a password for the user ...
--
-
-# passwd sysop
-# New UNIX password:
-# Retype new UNIX password:
-passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully
-
-Now to unpack the DX Spider distribution, set symbolic links and group -permissions. Copy the tarball to /home/sysop and do the following.
--
-
-# cd ~sysop
-# tar xvfz spider-1.50.tar.gz
-# ln -s ~sysop/spider /spider
-# groupadd -g 251 spider (or another number)
-
-If you do not have the command groupadd available to you simply -add a line in /etc/group by hand.
--
-
-# vi /etc/group (or your favorite editor)
-
-You also need to add some others to the group, including your own callsign -(this will be used as an alias) and root. The finished line in /etc/group -should look something like this
-spider:x:251:sysop,g0vgs,root
The next step is to set the permissions on the Spider directory tree and files ....
--
-
-# chown -R sysop.spider spider
-# find . -type d -exec chmod 2775 {} \;
-# find . -type f -exec chmod 775 {} \;
-
-This last step allows various users of the group spider to have -write access to all the directories. This is not really needed just yet -but will be useful when web interfaces start to appear.
- -Finally, you need to fix the permissions on the ax25_call and netrom_call -programs. Check where they are with the locate command and alter -the permissions with the chmod command like this ..
--
-
-# chown root ax25_call netrom_call
-# chmod 4775 ax25_call netrom_call
-
-Now login to your machine as the user you created earlier. In my case that -user is called sysop. Once logged in, issue the following commands ....
--
-
-$ cd /spider
-$ mkdir local
-$ mkdir local_cmd
-$ cp perl/DXVars.pm.issue local/DXVars.pm
-$ cd local
-$ vi DXVars.pm (or your favourite editor)
-
-Using the distributed DXVars.pm as a a template, set your cluster callsign, -sysop callsign and other user info to suit your own environment.
--
-
-$mycall = "GB7DJK";
-
-This is the call sign of your cluster. If you use an SSID then include it here -also.
--
-
-$myalias = "G1TLH";
-
-This is the sysop user callsign, normally your own.
- -PLEASE USE CAPITAL LETTERS FOR CALLSIGNS
- -Note that this a perl file which will be parsed and executed as part of the -cluster. If you get it wrong then perl will complain when you start the cluster -process. It is important only to alter the text of any section. Some of the -lines look a little odd. Take this line for example ....
-$myemail = "ianmaude\@btinternet.com";
There appears to be an extra slash in there. However this has to be there -for the file to work so leave it in.
- -DON'T alter any file in /spider/perl, they are overwritten with every -release. Any files or commands you place in /spider/local or /spider/local_cmd -will automagically be used in preference to the ones in /spider/perl EVEN -while the cluster is running!
- -Save the new file and change directory to ../perl ....
--
-
-$ cd ../perl
-
-Now type the following command which creates the basic user file with you as -the sysop.
--
-
-$ ./create_sysop.pl
-
-In earlier versions of Spider, all the processes were Perl scripts. This -was fine but with a lot of users your computer memory would soon be used up. -To combat this a new client was written in "C". This client only works for -incoming connects at the moment. Before you can use it though it -has to be "made". CD to /spider/src and type make. You -should see the output on your screen and hopefully now have a small C program -called client. Leave it in this directory.
- - -We can now bring spider up for the first time and see if all is well or not! -It should look something like this ...
--
-
-$ ./cluster.pl
-DXSpider DX Cluster Version 1.50
-Copyright (c) 1998 Dirk Koopman G1TLH
-loading prefixes ...
-loading band data ...
-loading user file system ...
-starting listener ...
-reading existing message headers
-reading cron jobs
-orft we jolly well go ...
-
-If all is well then login on another term or console as sysop and -cd to /spider/src. Now issue the following command ...
--
-
-$ ./client
-
-This should log you into the cluster as the sysop under the alias callsign we -set earlier. In this case the callsign is G0VGS. The cluster callsign is set -in the DXVars.pm file in /spider/local. In this case we will assume that this -was set as GB7MBC. You should therefore see this when you login ....
--
-
-G0VGS de GB7MBC 19-Nov-1999 2150Z >
-
-If you do, congratulations! If not, look over the instructions again, you -have probably missed something out. You can shut spider down again with the -command ....
--
-
-shutdown
-
-and both the cluster and the client should return to Linux prompts.
- - -