Mailing List Archive

i'm sorry to say that, nope, conserver isn't the right tool for that.
if you wanted to briefly interact with the serial port, you could use
things like:

(echo "AT"; sleep 5) | console -f remconsole

and you'd be able to see the response to the AT command, but it doesn't
provide a non-interactive two-way communication (although i've put some
thought into the client code required for that - unfortunately, it's
not as straightforward as you might think). i remember that livingston
(the portmaster folks) had an app that would allow pseudo-serial ports
(local devices) access to the serial ports on their terminal servers.
that kind of thing sounds like what you'd need. obviously, their
particular app won't work for you, since it's made for livingston
products, but maybe this will trigger something in someone's mind about
an app that would do what you want, in a similar way.

sorry i couldn't really help, but i've got to believe that something
like what you're looking for exists.

Bryan

On Thu, Jun 06, 2002 at 02:57:46AM -0700, gdsmarshall@hushmail.com wrote:
> I have installed conserver client and server on two separate Linux
> (x86) machines (A and B respectively), the B has a modem on /dev/modem,
> the A does not.
>
> I would like to run a program on A (say minicom) which talks to the
> modem on B, but thinks it is talking to /dev/modem on A, will conserver
> do the job? if so, what should the start up parameters be please? I
> have run conserver client and server and typed AT commands in on A, and
> the modem reacts on B. Nice program, I like it. However, I do not
> understand if or how I can talk to /dev/modem (using say minicom) on A
> and using conserver client and server be actually talking to the modem
> on B.
>
> Any help will be much appreciated.
>
> Many thanks,
>
> Spencer

[. On Thursday, June 6, 2002 at 10:33:55 (-0700), Bryan Stansell wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: remote modem with conserver?
>
> sorry i couldn't really help, but i've got to believe that something
> like what you're looking for exists.

One half of the solution is a daemon that allocate a local pty and
connects via telnet to a remote TCP server port. If the remote machine
were a terminal server which supports "reverse telnet" (most do), then
this would be what you'd run on the client host where you wanted to use
a program which would normally want to access a serial port tty.

These programs all do something like this:

ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/local-distfiles/bsd/comserv-1.4.2.tar.gz
http://rnoc.urc.ac.ru/~anton/projects/pr/PR.html
http://support.digi.com/pub/shareware/unix/rtty/rttysource.txt
http://www.stallion.com/html/download/es2-utilities.html
http://www.lantronix.com/support/utils/rtel/

The other end needs something that accepts TCP connections (preferrably
using at least some subset of the TELENT protocol), and connects them to
the real TTY port (eg. /dev/tty00). A really simple hack just listens
for a TCP connection, forks when one arrives, attaches (dups) the
accepted socket to stdin/stdout/stderr, and then execs "cu -l ttyname".
If I'm not totally mistaken The Linux Terminal Server Project offers a
more complete solution:

http://www.ltsp.org/

A hacked telnetd, running on some other port such as 2001, that starts
something like 'cu' instead of 'login' might work OK, though maybe even
setting a user up with a .profile which exec's "cu" should work too --
then you could have a password on it too. Heck you could even hack
telnetd to open a device directly "telnetd -T /dev/tty00"....

Note that unless you invent a new protocol between the client(s) and the
"reverse telnet server" that goes beyond what TELNET offers there are
several things which will never work quite the same. The major
difference between a real serial port and the pseudo-tty which provides
a reverse TELNET connection is that hardware-related characteristics
such as baud rate, number of bits per character, hardware flow control,
etc. cannot be set by the application program using the normal UNIX tty
device API (ioctl). These characteristics must be configured in
whatever you use on the machine hosting the real hardware.

--
Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098; <gwoods@acm.org>; <g.a.woods@ieee.org>; <woods@robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; VE3TCP; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>

[. On Thursday, June 6, 2002 at 17:33:15 (-0400), Greg A. Woods wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: remote modem with conserver?
>
> If I'm not totally mistaken The Linux Terminal Server Project offers a
> more complete solution:
>
> http://www.ltsp.org/

Looking deeper at that thing, I'm not sure it's what it claims to be.

However this is a real terminal server package for Unix, and it includes
"ttyd", the client side program too:

http://www.linuxlots.com/~termpkg/

--
Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098; <gwoods@acm.org>; <g.a.woods@ieee.org>; <woods@robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; VE3TCP; Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>

"This is not the terminal server you are looking for"...

LTSP is what it claims to be, but it's not a traditional "terminal server".
It's aiming to be a competitor-ish to Windows Terminal Servers (aka Citrix).
It's a way of running X based thin clients on diskless workstations, not a
way of connecting multiple serial devices to a network.

I hope that this helps,

Adam

-----Original Message-----
From: woods@weird.com [mailto:woods@weird.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 3:11 PM
To: users@conserver.com
Subject: Re: remote modem with conserver?


[. On Thursday, June 6, 2002 at 17:33:15 (-0400), Greg A. Woods wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: remote modem with conserver?
>
> If I'm not totally mistaken The Linux Terminal Server Project offers a
> more complete solution:
>
> http://www.ltsp.org/

Looking deeper at that thing, I'm not sure it's what it claims to be.

However this is a real terminal server package for Unix, and it includes
"ttyd", the client side program too:

http://www.linuxlots.com/~termpkg/

--
Greg A.
Woods

+1 416 218-0098; <gwoods@acm.org>; <g.a.woods@ieee.org>;
<woods@robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>; VE3TCP; Secrets of the Weird
<woods@weird.com>
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