Re: slip under debian

[bruce@pixar.com (Bruce Perens)]

> From: John Richardson <jrichard@cs.uml.edu>
> Has anyone tried slip with the debian distribution?

I'm using SLIP under Debian to maintain a 24-hour connection from my
home to Pixar. It's a free local call :-) . It's also running SLIP to
my wife's Windows system (which uses Trumpet WinSock), and acts as an
Internet gateway for that system.

Linux SLIP has its faults, but none of them can be attributed to
Debian. It doesn't know when the connection is broken, and doesn't know
how to demand-dial. I'll probably switch to PPP when I have the chance.
X runs on the connection just fine, though high-resolution images (what
I do for a living) take a long time to transfer over the modem.

I've also used Debian to gateway to KA9Q packet radio by having the
KA9Q process run SLIP to a pseudo-tty to communicate with Linux. I'd
have more experience with gatewaying packet radio to the internet, but
I have just now convinced my neighbors on packet radio to use
fully-qualified domain names for their systems! You've never seen chaos
until you've met a tcp-ip network that operates as if it were FidoNet
and uses a shared 1200 baud channel for most of its data links. I am
experimenting with Alan Cox's kernel support for packet radio now.

> Also, how will debian react to adding/removing software without going
> though the debian package install scripts?
It overwrites any file that is older than the same-named file in the
package you are extracting, and leaves newer files alone. This is probably
close to right for what you want to do. Because I am beta-testing each Debian
release, I keep all files that I modify in a tree under /var/local, and
make symbolic links from those files to their "official" locations.
Before I install a new release, I use a script to break every link,
copying the files, and then I put them back by hand afterwards. I set
this up for 0.91, so it gets its first real test when I install 0.92 .
The /var/local tree looks like this:

		root/*	- Root's home directoryh.
		etc/rc.d/* - Start-up scripts
		etc/mongo.dip - DIP script to dial mongo.
		etc/named.d/* - DNS Sources of Authority.
		etc/named.boot - DNS Configuration.
		etc/hosts - What gets used when DNS breaks.
		etc/resolv.conf - DNS Resolver configuration.
		etc/host.conf - DNS Resolver configuration.
		etc/lilo.conf - LILO configuration.
		etc/start_ax25 - Script to start packet radio.
		etc/start_slip - Script to start SLIP to mongo and my wife's system.
		home/* - Everybody's home directories.
		usr/local/* - All local stuff, mostly Packet Radio.
		usr/src/* - Source to things that I build or hack.

> How are the debian setup scripts as compared to slackware?  
I've almost forgotten Slackware. Debian is surely no worse, probably better.

> I know of at least 3 people here waiting for .92 to come out so they
> can upgrade from slackware 1.1.1 to debian.
Please convey my invitation for them to join the mailing lists.

	Thanks

	Bruce Perens