On 05-11-20 10:11, alterego wrote to Blue White <=-

In my use case, I use another tool tty0tty which creates a virtual null modem. On one side tcpser listens (eg: tnt0), and on the other side the serial application connects to (eg: tnt1). In my case, I pass tnt1 to dosemu - which makes it available to a DOS machine as COM1.

This combination works well, I've tested it here. Once setup, it feels like the good old days on OS/2 using SIO and Vmodem. :)


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Re: tcpser
By: Blue White to All on Sun May 10 2020 06:39 pm

commands to older software that is listening on a serial port,
am I correct in believing that tcpser "creates" a virtual
serial port and that the serial port you are trying to emulate
does not actually have to physically exist on the host
machine?

Not exactly.

tcpser is a virtual modem, and basically bridges a serial device to
a TCP socket and responds "OK" to modem AT commands.

You need to give it a device to listen on - which could be ttyS0
(if you have something physically connected to it).

If the /dev/ttyS1 exists, for example, but there is no actual physical
hardware serial port that ttyS1 points to, it won't work then?

In my use case, I use another tool tty0tty which creates a virtual
null modem. On one side tcpser listens (eg: tnt0), and on the other
side the serial application connects to (eg: tnt1). In my case, I
pass tnt1 to dosemu - which makes it available to a DOS machine as
COM1. ...????

That is what I would be hoping to do... have a dosemu machine which
would identify an emulated modem as a COM port.

#

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Re: RE: tcpser
By: Blue White to alterego on Mon May 11 2020 03:24 pm

You need to give it a device to listen on - which could be ttyS0
(if you have something physically connected to it).

If the /dev/ttyS1 exists, for example, but there is no actual physical hardware serial port that ttyS1 points to, it won't work then?

No.

When you attach tcpser to ttyS1, it will take anything that it receives on that device and respond to it (modem commands), or send it out via TCP (if there is an active TCP session).

You need to think of serial ports as a piece of string, one end is the kernel, the other end is the external port. You cannot have two applications (eg: dosemu and tcpser) attached on the kernel side - it just doesnt work. (Hence tty0tty).
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You need to think of serial ports as a piece of string, one end is
the kernel, the other end is the external port. You cannot have two applications (eg: dosemu and tcpser) attached on the kernel side -
it just doesnt work. (Hence tty0tty).
...????

So, using your string analogy, if one wants to use tcpser to communicate
with a DOS BBS running in dosemu, where does tty0tty fit onto the
string?

Thanks!
#

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On 05-11-20 15:24, Blue White wrote to alterego <=-

If the /dev/ttyS1 exists, for example, but there is no actual physical hardware serial port that ttyS1 points to, it won't work then?

More correctly, if there is no serial device (which could be a physical or virtual COM port).

In my use case, I use another tool tty0tty which creates a virtual
null modem. On one side tcpser listens (eg: tnt0), and on the other
side the serial application connects to (eg: tnt1). In my case, I
pass tnt1 to dosemu - which makes it available to a DOS machine as
COM1. ...????

That is what I would be hoping to do... have a dosemu machine which
would identify an emulated modem as a COM port.

Yep, then the combination of tcpser and tty0tty is what you need.


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Re: RE: tcpser
By: Blue White to alterego on Tue May 12 2020 12:55 pm

So, using your string analogy, if one wants to use tcpser to communicate with a DOS BBS running in dosemu, where does tty0tty fit onto the
string?

One side of the string (/dev/tnt0) is tcpser, the other side of the string (/dev/tnt1) is (in my case) DOSEMU - which is configured it as COM1.

So when a dos program opens COM1 and sends "AT", tcpser says "OK".

If you "ATDT <something>", tcpser will attempt to make a connection to whatever <something> is resolved to. If it connects, then anything between the TCP socket will be sent to COM1 and visa versa.
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One side of the string (/dev/tnt0) is tcpser, the other side of the
string (/dev/tnt1) is (in my case) DOSEMU - which is configured it
as COM1.

So when a dos program opens COM1 and sends "AT", tcpser says "OK".

If you "ATDT <something>", tcpser will attempt to make a connection
to whatever <something> is resolved to. If it connects, then
anything between the TCP socket will be sent to COM1 and visa
versa. ...????

And tty0tty sets up the two ends of the string for tcpser and dosemu to send/listen on, right?

#

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Re: RE: tcpser
By: Blue White to alterego on Wed May 13 2020 06:54 pm

And tty0tty sets up the two ends of the string for tcpser and dosemu to send/listen on, right?

Right.

When you load it you'll get 4 (strings) pairs of devices:
/dev/tnt0 /dev/tnt1
/dev/tnt2 /dev/tnt3
...
/dev/tnt6 /dev/tnt7

You have something connect to the "odd" end, and something else connect to the "even" end and whatever is written to 1 end will appear on the other.
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Re: RE: tcpser
By: Blue White to alterego on Wed May 13 2020 06:54 pm

And tty0tty sets up the two ends of the string for tcpser and
dosemu to send/listen on, right?

Right.

When you load it you'll get 4 (strings) pairs of devices:
/dev/tnt0 /dev/tnt1
/dev/tnt2 /dev/tnt3
...
/dev/tnt6 /dev/tnt7

You have something connect to the "odd" end, and something else
connect to the "even" end and whatever is written to 1 end will
appear on the other. ...????

OK so that is just the bomb! <grin> I got tty0tty and tcpser installed
in a virtualbox devuan ascii machine. Also installed dosemu. The only
issue I am having now is that the virtual machine does not have xwindows
on it. So dosemu runs but, unlike on my host, if I fire up a dos
program all hades breaks loose as far as the display settings go. I
need to figure out how to fix that, probably in my dosemu.conf.

But, the good news is that I pointed COM2 to tnt1, with tcpser listening
on tnt0 -- I was able to telnet into the old DOS bbs and also telnet out
to my synchronet system using the DOS dialer. Of course, as I said
before, the display of what I got back when I did the telnet out was all wrong... it was like the EOL was not working on any of the DOS program
screens. I think somehow I need to figure out how to tell dosemu to use
80x24.



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Re: RE: tcpser & dosemu!
By: Blue White to alterego on Fri May 15 2020 07:39 pm

OK so that is just the bomb! <grin> I got tty0tty and tcpser installed in a virtualbox devuan ascii machine. Also installed dosemu. The only issue I am having now is that the virtual machine does not have xwindows on it. So dosemu runs but, unlike on my host, if I fire up a dos
program all hades breaks loose as far as the display settings go. I
need to figure out how to fix that, probably in my dosemu.conf.

It is pretty awesome when stuff like this works ! :)

I cant help you with the dosemu issue - but I do run dosemu in docker... :)

It is using tightvnc to provide the X environment, so I connect to it remotely (from my MAC) - and I can disconnect leaving it running...
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Re: RE: tcpser & dosemu!
By: Blue White to alterego on Fri May 15 2020 07:39 pm

OK so that is just the bomb! <grin> I got tty0tty and tcpser
installed in a virtualbox devuan ascii machine. Also
installed dosemu. The only issue I am having now is that the
virtual machine does not have xwindows on it. So dosemu runs
but, unlike on my host, if I fire up a dos program all hades
breaks loose as far as the display settings go. I need to
figure out how to fix that, probably in my dosemu.conf.

It is pretty awesome when stuff like this works ! :)

Well, I have run into an issue. I thought it might be syncterm but it
did the same in 2 other terminals. basically it is interpreting the
ENTER key twice and as best as I can tell only the ENTER key. All other
key strokes appear only once.

Makes it a real pain to logon or to open another menu from the main,
etc. :)

Any ideas there?

#

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Re: RE: tcpser & dosemu!
By: Blue White to alterego on Sun May 17 2020 02:05 pm

ENTER key twice and as best as I can tell only the ENTER key. All other key strokes appear only once.
Any ideas there?

No idea at all.. I certainly dont have that problem.

See what happens when you log into my (1990) BBS. Its the setup I've described with tcpser and tty0tty.

(There isnt much there yet, and mail probably doesnt work either (yet)).

alterant.leenooks.net port 10023
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On 05-18-20 08:34, alterego wrote to Blue White <=-

See what happens when you log into my (1990) BBS. Its the setup I've described with tcpser and tty0tty.

I'm slowly working on getting my 1990s vintage system up. Got it basically working, but have to take a close look and make sure the message maintenance routines aren't activated - the old echomail is now historic, it's an exampe of what nets were around back in the day. :)

Currently running the original DOS setup under Qemu on Windows. Using com0com and Internet Modem for connectivity (untested as uet). Eventually will port it to Qemu on Linux with tty0tty and tcpser.


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No idea at all.. I certainly dont have that problem.

Where did you pull your code from? I pulled mine from:

https://github.com/lcgamboa/tty0tty

https://github.com/FozzTexx/tcpser

There appear to be multiple tty0tty projects on github, but the one I
have linked seemed to have been maintained much more recently than the
2-4 others I found.

Maybe I should try a different version, if you are using a different
one.

#

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Re: RE: tcpser & dosemu!
By: Blue White to alterego on Mon May 18 2020 02:40 pm

Where did you pull your code from? I pulled mine from:

Oh, I wasnt aware that there may be multiple sources.

OK, it looks like my tty0tty is from here: https://github.com/freemed/tty0tty.git

And tcpser is the same as yours:
https://github.com/FozzTexx/tcpser.git

I'm wondering now if there were changes in any of the forks...
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Re: RE: tcpser & dosemu!
By: Blue White to alterego on Mon May 18 2020 02:40 pm

Where did you pull your code from? I pulled mine from:

Oh, I wasnt aware that there may be multiple sources.

OK, it looks like my tty0tty is from here: https://github.com/freemed/tty0tty.git

And tcpser is the same as yours:
https://github.com/FozzTexx/tcpser.git

I'm wondering now if there were changes in any of the forks...
...????

Could be. However, one thing I noticed is that I have the double-CR
issue with syncterm and with the linux telnet client, but I don't have
the issue with apam's magiterm, or with qterm (although it does not
render the ANSI exactly right).

In past, I have had a similar issue with syncterm and my DOS BBS, but
only after I had downloaded a file. Otherwise, one CR = one CR.

I should probably test some other terminal software before throwing this tty0tty version out for another.

#

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Could be. However, one thing I noticed is that I have the
double-CR issue with syncterm and with the linux telnet client, but
I don't have the issue with apam's magiterm, or with qterm
(although it does not render the ANSI exactly right).

In past, I have had a similar issue with syncterm and my DOS BBS,
but only after I had downloaded a file. Otherwise, one CR = one
CR.

It may be because telnet specifies a line ending to end with CR+LF,
where as magiterm just sends CR I think. It probably should send CR+LF
but I found dropping the LF made it more "compatible".

Some things like BRE etc used to do double line feeds, which I narrowed
down to CR+LF as dos tends to just expect CR.

Andrew



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It may be because telnet specifies a line ending to end with CR+LF,
where as magiterm just sends CR I think. It probably should send
CR+LF but I found dropping the LF made it more "compatible".

Some things like BRE etc used to do double line feeds, which I
narrowed down to CR+LF as dos tends to just expect CR.

Well magiterm seems to work better when telneting to a DOS bbs than some
other clients so I think that is a good thing. :) OTOH, I have not
noticed any lack of functionality on non-DOS BBSes.

#

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Re: RE: tcpser & dosemu!
By: apam to Blue White on Tue May 19 2020 04:15 pm


Hello apam

Can you throw a link up again, I missed it the first time and would like
to do something for parents that have had a rough way to go in life.

Also I hope you don't mind I sucked up your old domain name and am going
to use it being I a little bit prev!

Thanks



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Join Survivalnet Message Network = fluph.araknet.xyz












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Can you throw a link up again, I missed it the first time and
would like to do something for parents that have had a rough way
to go in life.

https://tinyurl.com/ycw6xz8k

Also I hope you don't mind I sucked up your old domain name and am
going to use it being I a little bit prev!

Oh? Which one? I've let a few go over the years :P

Andrew

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