NAME

       mkiss - Attach a multi KISS interface

SYNOPSIS

       mkiss [-c] [-f] [-h] [-l] [-s speed] [-p pollrate] [-v] [-x n_ptmx] ttyinterface pty ..

DESCRIPTION

       Mkiss allows dual port TNCs or multiple TNCs sharing the same serial port to be used with the Linux AX.25
       kernel  software.  The AX.25 software has no support for dual port TNCs or multiple TNCs charing the same
       serial line. The different ports are addressed by encoding the port number in the control byte  of  every
       kiss  frame.  Mkiss watches a serial port, and routes kiss frames to/from the pseudo ttys. The other side
       of the pseudo ttys are then attached with kissattach as normal.

       Statistics about the operation of mkiss may be obtained by sending the  SIGUSR1  signal  to  the  running
       program.  On reception of such a signal mkiss will print a set of statistics to the system log if logging
       has been enabled.

       Although mention is made of using pseudo ttys as the last arguments, these devices may be  normal  serial
       ports. However mkiss provides no way in which to set their speed, the speed must therefore be set by some
       other method.

       If  the  pty  argument  is "/dev/ptmx", then Unix98 behaviour will automatically take effect. With Unix98
       pty's, the slave pty name could not be forseen. That's why mkiss will print the corresponding  slave  pty
       name as a separate line on stdout.

       If  the  pty  name is the special name "none", no pty is opened. This is useful if you have multiport tnc
       like the KPC-9612 on i.e. /dev/ttyUSB0 and you only like to handle packets for the second port.  The  KPC
       has  no option to configure the second tnc to listen on kiss port number 0. Thus, if you like to send all
       frames from the pty to the kiss port number 1, we need to tell mkiss to tag them for port number 1.  This
       is done by "mkiss /dev/ttyUSB0 none /dev/ptmx". Frames received with port number 0 are discarded.

OPTIONS

       -c        This  enables  a one-byte checksum on each incoming and outgoing KISS frame on the serial port.
                 This checksum is used by G8BPQ KISS roms to maintain the integrity of KISS frames.

       -f        This enables a 16-bit checksum on each incoming and outgoing KISS frame  on  the  serial  port.
                 This  checksum  is  used  by  Flexnet Node and BayCom Mailbox to maintain the integrity of KISS
                 frames.

       -h        Enables hardware handshaking on the serial line to the TNC. The KISS specification states  that
                 no  hardware flow control shall be used so the default is off. But some KISS implementations do
                 use hardware flow control.

       -l        Enables system logging, the default is off.

       -s speed  Set the speed of the serial port.

       -p pollrate
                 Enables polling. Polled mode is used by G8BPQ KISS roms to prevent contention on systems  where
                 multiple TNCs share the same serial line.  Pollrate is interval between polls (in 100ms units).

       -v        Display the version.

       -x number This  option is for Unix98 PTYs. It allocates "number" ptys; their names are written to stdout.
                 When -x is used, the pty arguments are  optional.  "mkiss  -x  3  ttyname"  is  an  comfortable
                 alternative to "mkiss ttyname /dev/ptmx /dev/ptmx /dev/ptmx".

SEE ALSO

       kissattach(8), ifconfig(8), kill(1).

AUTHORS

       Tomi Manninen OH2BNS <oh2bns@sral.fi>
       Jonathan Naylor G4KLX <g4klx@g4klx.demon.co.uk>
       Kevin Uhlir N0BEL <kevinu@flochart.com>

Linux                                             13 April 2010                                         MKISS(8)