MMD>  As I talked to one of the developers of Maximus 3.0x for Linux
 MMD> we were discussing a dialup lib for alpha/beta testing. I have not
 MMD> heard anything more about how its going. I now do the maximus update
 MMD> via CVS and I have not seen any type of serial port librairy in the
 MMD> cvs yet.
 MMD>  My question is. how long before this Lib will be in the CVS
 MMD> repository for others to try out? I really need that support.

The original person to get Maximus ported to Linux, Wes Garland, is
currently working on getting dialup working.  He hasn't released any code
yet for this extension in the alpha / beta round of the port of Maximus to
Linux.  So, the last I knew, it is not done yet.  No time table at this
point, but I believe that this is the main item that Wes is spending his
free time coding at this point.  And I hope that his lack of comments in
this echo are because he is trying to debug the modem / serial port code
before having to take time to respond to echomail messages.  In otherwords,
the support will be available when it is time, and not sooner.  Please
remember, the entire port of Maximus to Linux is still in Alpha (ok, maybe
some parts in Beta) testing.  There are some significant parts that work
fine.  There are other parts of the BBS code that are still completly
broken.....  It is being worked on by two to four programmers at this
point.  [I haven't had much chance to  actually dig into the code yet.  I
hope I am allowing Wes and Bo to get at more of the code while I responsd
to questions in this echo....  I've been dealing with other personal /
family / friend life issues.....]

 MMD>  Also how does the Maximus via CVS deal with Linux and its long
 MMD> file name support? 

I believe we are still running max with the limitations put in the original
code.  So, if you try something that does not conform to the old 8.3 file
names, don't be supprised if it doesn't work.  Remember, max has run for
years in an OS/2 environment, and ran fine in HPFS disk partitions.  To get
a feal for where 8.3 is required, look at what is allowed under OS/2. 
While I normally keep things to 8.3 for max under OS/2, the only area that
I think is specifically limited is (a) total path (file name with path)
character limit (which I'm not up on what the Max limit is), and (b) files
maintained in the file area of the BBS.  I *do* know that the file area
subsystem of max is set up to only deal with 8.3 file names.  If you stick
a file with a name longer than 11 or 12 characters in a file area, you will
not be able to properly access the file.  File names for display get
truncated, and you cann't enter a matching file name.

While HPFS partitions are case insensitive, they are case re-tensive.  This
has impacts to the Linux port.  Scott used an interesting mix of case on a
lot of his file names.  Wes put a "fix" in to the Linux port to
compensate for the case sensitivity of most Linux file systems.  It works
for most things, but I think there may be a bug or two in handling adding
file name extensions, especially when compared to how Max runs under
OS/2.....  So, watch out for case issues.....  Bascially, don't stick two
(or more) files that work out to the same file name in a case insensitive
enviornment in the same directory if the area is used by the Maximus BBS
software....  At least for now....

 MMD> I haven't tried to upload files yet as I cannot
 MMD> seem to get the telnet mode to work, just the local keyboard mode. I
 MMD> have tried it via the stock runbbs.sh and its instructions and I get
 MMD> nasty grams. especially with the -w (wait for caller) switch. heres
 MMD> the stock script that I got. 
 MMD> # {at}date         May 25 2003
 ...
 MMD>   bin/max -w -b38400 -n0 -p2323

I believe you have edited that line, or the version in CVS has been updated
since I last grabbed it...

 MMD> I understand some of the issues with the line:
 MMD>   bin/max -w -b38400 -n0 -p2323
 MMD> 1. Baudrate will be 38400
 MMD> 2 maximus will wait for call -w
 MMD> 3 node zero? Umm maybe this is why the crash and burn

Read the port / release info for the Linux port.  Wes is using node number
zero to activate a "next available" node number setting.  Running
node zero under DOS or OS/2 ment running max in a single instance mode --
i.e. no multi-tasking.....

 MMD> 4 Port? 2323?

Yes, That's telnet port 2323.  So once setup and running on your system, in
a telnet window you can type 'telnet  2323' and connect to
your Max BBS setup.  If running on the same system, that can be 'telnet
localhost 2323', of course without the quotes....

 MMD>  Reguardless, I did offer to test the serial port support.
 MMD> when/where will I find this?

As noded above, the serial port support is not available yet.  When it is
available, Wes will announce it here with a note about how to get it.

Take care.....

Bob Jones, 1:343/41

--- Maximus/2 3.01