LinBPQ Installation using apt

This process is suitable for Debian-based operating systems, e.g. Debian, Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu.

This page and the package it refers to are NOT the first party documentation or packaging for LinBPQ.

This process is only fully tested for a clean installation where BPQ has not been manually installed in the past using some other means. There are some high level instructions at the bottom of this page. If you aren't sure, stop and seek help.

Do this once, only.

Our very own Hibby MM0RFN, also a Debian maintainer, has kindly packaged and is maintaining various Linux packet radio software, among them LinBPQ.

There are two ways of installing the repo: script or manually line.

The script requires dowloaded, set to executable and run and is a little simpler than the manual setup - thanks to John M5ET for writing it!

I strongly recommend you read through it before running it - it should look similar to the manual method below. General computer security advice is to not blindly run scripts you downloaded from the internet!

Download the script from: https://guide.hibbian.org/static/files/setup.sh

Lines you can run in the command line are:

cd /tmp
wget https://guide.hibbian.org/static/files/setup.sh
chmod +x /tmp/setup.sh
sudo bash /tmp/setup.sh

To manually install, you need to download the repo .deb for your OS and install it:

* Bullseye: <http://repo.hibbian.org/packetrepo/pool/main/h/hibbian-archive-keyring/hibbian-archive-keyring_20240924~packetrepo11+2_all.deb>
* Bookworm: <http://repo.hibbian.org/packetrepo/pool/main/h/hibbian-archive-keyring/hibbian-archive-keyring_20240924~packetrepo11+2_all.deb>
* Trixie: <http://repo.hibbian.org/packetrepo/pool/main/h/hibbian-archive-keyring/hibbian-archive-keyring_20240924~packetrepo~TRIXIE+2_all.deb>

it should be a case of, for example:

wget http://repo.hibbian.org/packetrepo/pool/main/h/hibbian-archive-keyring/hibbian-archive-keyring_20240924~packetrepo~TRIXIE+2_all.deb
sudo apt install ./hibbian-archive-keyring_20240924~packetrepo~TRIXIE+2_all.deb

After following the above steps, to install LinBPQ, run the below commands:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install linbpq

LinBPQ runs as a background service and requires a config file - see the next sections for details.

A default config file will be placed at /etc/bpq32.cfg before bpq will start.

We ship a backup config file suitable for a basic node with a single KISS modem with the package in `/usr/share/doc/linbpq/examples/bpq32.cfg`, so don't worry about getting it wrong!

Whenever you have updated the config, restart LinBPQ:

sudo systemctl restart linbpq

Check on its status:

sudo systemctl status linbpq

Show its logs:

journalctl -ru linbpq

(use arrows / page up/down to navigate, press q to quit)

There are various ways to access your node locally:

in a browser, e.g. http://yournode:8008

using QtTermTCP, a cross-platform GUI with some more advanced features for monitoring etc, connecting to port 8011

using Telnet (e.g. PuTTY in Telnet mode), connecting to port 8010

Username and password as per your config file.

If you get “No APPLCALL for Chat APPL” in the BPQ logs, and “Sorry, Application CHAT is not running” when you issue CHAT at the node prompt, ensure that the ApplNum in /opt/oarc/bpq/chatconfig.cfg is set to the number of the APPLICATION in /opt/oarc/bpq/bpq32.cfg. You can also do this in Chat Mgmt in the BPQ web interface.

To update LinBPQ to the latest version in Hibby's apt repo, simply:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

1. stop existing bpq running
2. back everything up!
3. make note of locations of files - we're particularly interested in bpq32.cfg and the working files. This will be the directory holding chatconfig.cfg, axipcache.cfg, BPQNODES.dat, DIRMES.SYS. If you're using the plain binary of bpq I think it just puts all that stuff beside it.
4. install from apt, then sudo systemctl stop linbpq
5. copy bpq32.cfg from wherever it is - to where it needs to be sudo cp bpq32.cfg /etc/bpq32.cfg and update owner sudo chown root:linbpq /etc/bpq32.cfg
6. copy working files and folders from where they are to /opt/oarc/bpq/ - as an example, sudo cp -rf /home/pi/bpq/ /opt/oarc/bpq/ and update owner - sudo chown -R linbpq:linbpq /opt/oarc/bpq/
7. start new install with sudo systemctl start linbpq and see if anything explodes

This document superseded linbpq_pc_installation and linbpq_pi_installation.