1MKISS(8) Linux System Managers Manual MKISS(8)
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6 mkiss - Attach a multi KISS interface
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9 mkiss [-c] [-f] [-h] [-l] [-s speed] [-p pollrate] [-v] [-x n_ptmx]
10 ttyinterface pty ..
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13 Mkiss allows dual port TNCs or multiple TNCs sharing the same serial
14 port to be used with the Linux AX.25 kernel software. The AX.25 soft‐
15 ware has no support for dual port TNCs or multiple TNCs charing the
16 same serial line. The different ports are addressed by encoding the
17 port number in the control byte of every kiss frame. Mkiss watches a
18 serial port, and routes kiss frames to/from the pseudo ttys. The other
19 side of the pseudo ttys are then attached with kissattach as normal.
20 Statistics about the operation of mkiss may be obtained by sending the
22 SIGUSR1 signal to the running program. On reception of such a signal
23 mkiss will print a set of statistics to the system log if logging has
24 been enabled.
25 Although mention is made of using pseudo ttys as the last arguments,
27 these devices may be normal serial ports. However mkiss provides no way
28 in which to set their speed, the speed must therefore be set by some
29 other method.
30 If the pty argument is "/dev/ptmx", then Unix98 behaviour will automat‐
32 icaly take effekt. With Unix98 pty's, the slave pty name could not be
33 forseen. That's why mkiss will print the corresponding slave pty name
34 as a separate line on stdout.
35 If the pty name is the special name "none", no pty is opened. This is
37 useful if you have multiport tnc like the KPC-9612 on i.e. /dev/ttyUSB0
38 and you only like to handle packets for the second port. The KPC has no
39 option to configure the second tnc to listen on kiss port number 0.
40 Thus, if you like to send all frames from the pty to the kiss port num‐
41 ber 1, we need to tell mkiss to tag them for port number 1. This is
42 done by "mkiss /dev/ttyUSB0 none /dev/ptmx". Frames received with port
43 number 0 are discarded.
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46 -c This enables a one-byte checksum on each incoming and outgo‐
47 ing KISS frame on the serial port. This checksum is used by
48 G8BPQ KISS roms to maintain the integrity of KISS frames.
49 -f This enables a 16-bit checksum on each incoming and outgoing
51 KISS frame on the serial port. This checksum is used by
52 Flexnet Node and BayCom Mailbox to maintain the integrity of
53 KISS frames.
54 -h Enables hardware handshaking on the serial line to the TNC.
56 The KISS specification states that no hardware flow control
57 shall be used so the default is off. But some KISS implemen‐
58 tations do use hardware flow control.
59 -l Enables system logging, the default is off.
61 -s speed Set the speed of the serial port.
63 -p pollrate
65 Enables polling. Polled mode is used by G8BPQ KISS roms to
66 prevent contention on systems where multiple TNCs share the
67 same serial line. Pollrate is interval between polls (in
68 100ms units).
69 -v Display the version.
71 -x number This option is for Unix98 PTYs. It allocates "number" ptys;
73 their names are written to stdout. When -x is used, the pty
74 arguments are optional. "mkiss -x 3 ttyname" is an comfort‐
75 able alternative to "mkiss ttyname /dev/ptmx /dev/ptmx
76 /dev/ptmx".
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79 kissattach(8), ifconfig(8), kill(1).
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82 Tomi Manninen OH2BNS <oh2bns@sral.fi>
83 Jonathan Naylor G4KLX <g4klx@g4klx.demon.co.uk>
84 Kevin Uhlir N0BEL <kevinu@flochart.com>
85Linux 4 July 1999 MKISS(8)