TITLE: C-Kermit & lrzsz LFS VERSION: All versions AUTHOR: Marcos Zapata SINOPSIS: How to compile C-Kermit and lrzsz, and use them to connect your HP48/49 calculator. HINT: The first thing I tried to do when I installed my first linux, was to connect my brand new HP48 (rather old now). After a couple of hours I found C-Kermit, which I already knew from DOS. In my opinion this is the best kermit server/client application there is out there. It's free but sadly not released under the GPL. I know I could use gkermit, since I'm already using lrzsz, but if you wish to build your very own LFS, you'll choose the best, right? lrzsz is X/Y/Zmodem communication program built from the public-domain version of Chuck Forsberg's rzsz package and it's released under the GPL. I wrote this hint to help people to install the packages needed to connect their HP48/49 calculators but of course it could be use to connect two computers with a null-modem cable. Also, C-Kermit is not just a file transfer program, it's a modem program, telnet/ftp/http/X.25 client, and server, can accept incoming dialed and network connections, etc. It's a very powerfull application, by the way, I'm not from Columbia University. ;) You can get C-Kermit at ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/archives/cku201.tar.gz I'm going to use version 8.0. You can get lrzsz at: http://www.ohse.de/uwe/releases/lrzsz-0.12.20.tar.gz I tried the one in debian.org but it gave me too much trouble. lrzsz-0.12.20: tar -zxvf lrzsz-0.12.20.tar.gz cd lrzsz-0.12.20 ./configure --prefix=/usr make make install #Now, we are going to have to make some symlinks to avoid trouble with C-Kermit. #These are done to make lrzsz function like the old rzsz package. cd /usr/bin ln -s lrb rb ln -s lrx rx ln -s lrz rz ln -s lsb sb ln -s lsx sx ln -s lsz sz C-Kermit-8.0 (cku201.tar.gz): #This package doesn't create a new directory for it's files so make sure to #create one and copy the .tar.gz to it, before decompressing it. tar -zxvf cku201.tar.gz #You have to manually change the options you like in makefile, there isn't #a configure script. For example I'm going to install it in '/usr' and #don't want to use termcap, I only have ncurses. If you built LFS, you should #probably do the same. cp makefile makefile.bak sed -e "s/\/usr\/local/\/usr/g" -e "s/-ltermcap//g" makefile.bak > makefile #Now choose the option wich better reflect your system, take a look at makefile. #In my case: make linux+openssl #You could 'make install' now but I prefer to manually install this package: cp krbmit /usr/bin/kermit cp ckermit.ini /etc mkdir /usr/doc/C-Kermit-8.0 cp *.txt /usr/doc/C-Kermit-8.0 cp ckuker.nr /usr/man/man1/kermit.1 The /etc/ckermit.ini is a configuration file for kermit, should be named .kermrc, but it's very complex for the purposes of this hint. So I'll make a simple one: cat > ~/.kermrc << "EOF" ; This can be used to write comments ; set modem type direct ; change it to point to where the calc is connected set port /dev/ttyS1 set speed 9600 set carrier-watch off set flow none set parity none set block 3 set protocol kermit ; End EOF Most of the options are self explanatory so you can't have any touble. Ok. We are ready. Type 'kermit', if everything went fine you should be able to send and receive files from your HP48/49. Remember to set your calc to use the appropriate protocol. If you need to use xmodem for faster transfers, just type inside ckermit: 'set protocol xmodem'. if your wish to use kermit: 'set protocol kermit'. I advise you to read the documentation installed in /usr/doc/C-Kermit-8.0, specially ckututor.txt. Good luck. Zeta