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>