Moving my BBS from Mega 4 to Raspberry Pi/Hatari

sniperstorm · Post by **sniperstorm** » Tue Feb 19, 2019 4:15 pm

My bbs is currently running on a Mega 4 with a Cosmo Ex, and Lantronix UDS10. I want to move it to emulation and was thinking Raspberry PI. Does anyone have ideas how to set it up so I can access the internet and telnet. I have never really used Hatari before and do not know how to set it up to emulate a com port so I can just plug it into my network and not have to use a Lantronix. I hope I am explaining this correctly. Can anyone give me some ideas?

Thank you.

Stguild BBS

stguild-bbs.ddns.net

Eero Tamminen · Post by **Eero Tamminen** » Wed Feb 20, 2019 11:11 pm

Hatari doesn't emulate any network adapters, so you would need to use Atari emulation serial or parallel port for networking (not sure whether parallel port emulation is bi-directional, at least serial port is). In MiNT there's support for this, but I think there are also solutions for doing TCP/IP networking from TOS through them.

On Linux side you need something that converts the files Hatari uses for serial / parallel communication into normal TCP/IP traffic.

If you're going the MiNT route, I think Aranym would be better option unless you want something that emulations real Atari machines (Aranym emulates 040, it's DSP emulation isn't compatible with any real Atari programs and it's not cycle-exact, but it's fast, especially with JIT).

ThorstenOtto · Post by **ThorstenOtto** » Thu Feb 21, 2019 12:32 am

Eero Tamminen wrote: In MiNT there's support for this

Should be, yes. But IIRC, the slip driver (for doing tcp/ip over a serial interface) is currently broken. Maybe some older release might work.

But if you are using MiNT, you might consider using Aranym, which has a network driver that can use the hosts IP stack. For that to work, you need to set up a bridge and/or a tap driver. There are several documents available that should give you some clue.

stormy · Post by **stormy** » Thu Feb 21, 2019 8:25 am

Perhaps he could use BeePi?

jokker · Post by **jokker** » Sat Feb 23, 2019 11:01 pm

http://breakintochat.com/blog/2012/12/1 ... -emulator/

I used the information in the URL above to get Hatari to telnet to BBSes using tcpser (instead of tcper4j) and socat. So you could likely get it to work for incoming connections as well.

DarkLord · Post by **DarkLord** » Mon Feb 25, 2019 10:06 am

I'm just curious - why do this and not stick with the original hardware?

Orion_ · Post by **Orion_** » Mon Feb 25, 2019 10:16 am

DarkLord wrote:I'm just curious - why do this and not stick with the original hardware?

with Atari computers ageing, I would be afraid to let mine run all day for months/years.

DarkLord · Post by **DarkLord** » Mon Feb 25, 2019 10:38 am

Orion_ wrote:
DarkLord wrote:I'm just curious - why do this and not stick with the original hardware?
with Atari computers ageing, I would be afraid to let mine run all day for months/years.

I'm not. I might be the exception (but I don't think so), but my Mega ST4 has been running 24/7 since the early
90's with one 4-5 year break when I transitioned from dial-up to telnet.

That includes a 4 gig SCSI drive...

PS Replaced the MB once and a couple of power supplies - other than that....

stormy · Post by **stormy** » Mon Feb 25, 2019 12:34 pm

I'm always wanting to find meaningful uses for my retro machines, having a real Atari running a bbs sounds brilliant

DarkLord · Post by **DarkLord** » Fri Mar 01, 2019 10:07 am

mzry wrote:I'm always wanting to find meaningful uses for my retro machines, having a real Atari running a bbs sounds brilliant

There are a handful of us loonies who are dedicated to it. You'll find even more among the 8bit crowd.

tjam · Post by **tjam** » Fri Mar 01, 2019 10:36 am

DarkLord wrote:
mzry wrote:I'm always wanting to find meaningful uses for my retro machines, having a real Atari running a bbs sounds brilliant
There are a handful of us loonies who are dedicated to it. You'll find even more among the 8bit crowd.

That's nice

Are you aware if there's decent list of telnet based BBS systems somewhere (Atari, Amiga etc) ?

Post by **Gaiyan** » Fri Mar 01, 2019 12:14 pm

Yeah, I would encourage to keep your BBS on the Mega 4. Makes it more "authentic". Unless, of course, you have a pressing reason to do so.

DarkLord · Post by **DarkLord** » Sat Mar 02, 2019 9:17 pm

tjam wrote:
That's nice Are you aware if there's decent list of telnet based BBS systems somewhere (Atari, Amiga etc) ?

Go to AtariAge and under the 8bit section look for the permanent message base, "Atari 8bit BBS's". Doctor Clu there maintains
a list that is updated periodically although you may have to browse around a bit to find it.

HTHs.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/174831 ... ated-bbss/

jokker · Post by **jokker** » Sat Mar 02, 2019 10:23 pm

DarkLord wrote:
Orion_ wrote:
DarkLord wrote:I'm just curious - why do this and not stick with the original hardware?
with Atari computers ageing, I would be afraid to let mine run all day for months/years.
I'm not. I might be the exception (but I don't think so), but my Mega ST4 has been running 24/7 since the early
90's with one 4-5 year break when I transitioned from dial-up to telnet.

That includes a 4 gig SCSI drive...

PS Replaced the MB once and a couple of power supplies - other than that....

and i would to thank you DarkLord for your persistence!

I have a toy BBS running on DOS just since that was my platform at the time for running a BBS ( I used an ST to dial-in for years before that though Flash and FZT forever <grin> )

Hey sniperstorm, I tried telneting to STguild but I couldn't connect to it? Is it still up?

DarkLord · Post by **DarkLord** » Mon Mar 11, 2019 9:13 pm

jokker wrote:
and i would to thank you DarkLord for your persistence!

Dedicated, that's me.

Tillek · Post by **Tillek** » Fri Apr 19, 2019 12:45 am

DarkLord wrote:
tjam wrote:
That's nice Are you aware if there's decent list of telnet based BBS systems somewhere (Atari, Amiga etc) ?
Go to AtariAge and under the 8bit section look for the permanent message base, "Atari 8bit BBS's". Doctor Clu there maintains
a list that is updated periodically although you may have to browse around a bit to find it.

HTHs.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/174831 ... ated-bbss/

I also have a maintained list at http://www.sfhqbbs.org/ataribbslist.php

You don't have to dig around to find it.

It also has an option to show either domain names or IP addresses.

tjam · Post by **tjam** » Sat Apr 20, 2019 9:20 am

Tillek wrote:
DarkLord wrote:
tjam wrote:
That's nice Are you aware if there's decent list of telnet based BBS systems somewhere (Atari, Amiga etc) ?
Go to AtariAge and under the 8bit section look for the permanent message base, "Atari 8bit BBS's". Doctor Clu there maintains
a list that is updated periodically although you may have to browse around a bit to find it.

HTHs.

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/174831 ... ated-bbss/
I also have a maintained list at http://www.sfhqbbs.org/ataribbslist.php

You don't have to dig around to find it.

It also has an option to show either domain names or IP addresses.

Thanks! It's nice to see there's still active BBS scene

Bikerbob · Post by **Bikerbob** » Sun Apr 21, 2019 4:47 pm

What about this with Hatari on a PC? I have older laptop with real serial and a UDS-100 lantronix box.. so I should be able to run a BBS through that?

James

Eero Tamminen · Post by **Eero Tamminen** » Sun Apr 21, 2019 10:03 pm

DarkLord wrote:I'm just curious - why do this and not stick with the original hardware?

Hatari / raspi could act as backup and testing setup before deploying on the real HW. One can also run several Hatari setups on same PC to test BBS upgrades before deployment. If one's aiming at high availability Atari BBS, there should be a backup plan in case of temporary HW failures.

Tillek · Post by **Tillek** » Tue Apr 23, 2019 7:26 pm

Bikerbob wrote:What about this with Hatari on a PC? I have older laptop with real serial and a UDS-100 lantronix box.. so I should be able to run a BBS through that?

James

If you're going to run an emulator on a PC, why not just emulate the com port with a virtual com port and save the Lantronix box for one of your Ataris.

Tillek · Post by **Tillek** » Tue Apr 23, 2019 7:29 pm

Eero Tamminen wrote:
DarkLord wrote:I'm just curious - why do this and not stick with the original hardware?
Hatari / raspi could act as backup and testing setup before deploying on the real HW. One can also run several Hatari setups on same PC to test BBS upgrades before deployment. If one's aiming at high availability Atari BBS, there should be a backup plan in case of temporary HW failures.

I find that somewhat funny as my experience with Hatari is that it really isn't any more "reliable" than my actual hardware.

DarkLord · Post by **DarkLord** » Thu Apr 25, 2019 12:10 pm

Eero Tamminen wrote:
Hatari / raspi could act as backup and testing setup before deploying on the real HW. One can also run several Hatari setups on same PC to test BBS upgrades before deployment. If one's aiming at high availability Atari BBS, there should be a backup plan in case of temporary HW failures.

Hmm, that sounds like a lot of extra work to me.

DarkLord · Post by **DarkLord** » Thu Apr 25, 2019 12:11 pm

Tillek wrote:
I find that somewhat funny as my experience with Hatari is that it really isn't any more "reliable" than my actual hardware.

Ain't nuthin' like the real thing baby.

Eero Tamminen · Post by **Eero Tamminen** » Tue Apr 30, 2019 12:08 pm

Tillek wrote:I find that somewhat funny as my experience with Hatari is that it really isn't any more "reliable" than my actual hardware.

With Hatari one has an option of using GEMDOS HD, more RAM than real HW, and less buggy TOS version, with which one can avoid crashes related to those.

However, Hatari is supposed to be accurate emulator; if something crashes on real HW, it should crash also when run with Hatari using the same configuration.

If things don't work like on real HW, and you can reproduce it also with latest Hatari release, please report that bug in the forum Hatari section, or (preferred) on the Hatari mailing list.

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