Is there a place where we can get the latest unofficial patches? Has anyone considered a fork to keep it relevant to modern kernels?
I would say it is best to remove all AX.25 code from the kernel and use one or more userspace programs to provide the functionality instead.
It is just too difficult to keep some seldomly used feature working in the kernel working without testing (as outlined by David). And once there is a problem, it is almost impossible to get it fixed and very difficult to propagate fixes to end-user systems.
Put only device drivers in the kernel, not the actual protocol code.
Rob
Hello Rob,
The challenge is that by loosing the protocol stack in the kernel, all the existing Linux packet applications break. Maybe if a new libax25 library was created that could redirect all those calls to something in userland, that would work but that doesn't exist today. By also moving out of the kernel, we loose most of the advanced routing abilities in playing around with AX25/Netrom/Rose, etc.
Btw.. I don't understand your "put only device drivers in the kernel". If we did that for say IPv4, IPv6, etc... that would dramatically reduce the functionality of Linux as it stands today. So much would need to change to accomodate a wholesale shift to Userland.
--David KI6ZHD
On 03/15/2019 10:57 AM, Rob Janssen wrote:
Is there a place where we can get the latest unofficial patches? Has anyone considered a fork to keep it relevant to modern kernels?
I would say it is best to remove all AX.25 code from the kernel and use one or more userspace programs to provide the functionality instead.
It is just too difficult to keep some seldomly used feature working in the kernel working without testing (as outlined by David). And once there is a problem, it is almost impossible to get it fixed and very difficult to propagate fixes to end-user systems.
Put only device drivers in the kernel, not the actual protocol code.
Rob
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David Ranch -
Rob Janssen