== 2026-09-04 Friday ==

I started September setting up a system to allow me to use ham
radio for posting phlogs from "the great outdoors" to participate
in ROOPHLOCH.

I had rather a whirlwind week of tinkering.

First I set up an NFS server and mounted a shared directory using
NFS.

I learned how to use RCS to tracck my little C-code projects.

Then I finished a small C-project I was writing, using linked
lists to make a "database" of propane gas cylinders (used at work
to power emergency generators)[0]

Then on to the ROOPHLOCH packet radio project...

Initially I had trouble using an old Raspberry Pi (mark 1) to talk
to the handheld radio's internal TNC via its internal USB serial
port. So I ditched the R.Pi and got the setup working using my
newly installed Devuan Dell Laptop.

Then I discovered what was causing the issues with the R.Pi ->
ithad gpsd running which seems to claim all ttyUSB devices for
itself. Once I "apt autoremove --purge gpsd" nuked it, all was
well.

I can now use a Samsung Netbook and the TM-D710 mobile radio in my
van with its built-in TNC to connect, over 144.8MHz packet radio
and get a login shell to the R.Pi, and write and upload phlog
posts.

So far so good....

Then my "main" laptop running FreeBSD started playing up, freezing
randomly. I couldn't even boot it reliably into a live-USB AntiX
linux session. I tried installing the exact same Devuan as I'd
recently installed on an identical Dell laptop, and still it froze
randomly, after a few successful re-boots following the install.


So it's been put away in a drawer, pending further investigation.


The recently installed No-Xorg-console-mode-only Dell laptop got
promoted to my main machine - so I installed Xorg and some GUI
tools (librewolf etc) and I decided to give RATPOISON window
manager a try. I've been using DWM for a few years, after
previously using mainly I3. I've used ratpoison a few times, but
never for more than an hour or two, as I always got confused by
its behaviour. But that's just because I didn't take the time to
understand what's happening....Now I have a grasp on the mechanics
of it, and how it differs from DWM. And I like it!

The weekend approaches, and I want to try to post a ROOPHLOCH entry
from a distant hill top, packets whizzing through the aether from
my van all the way back to my house...then over t'internet to my
gopher-hole in the cloud.


[0]: gopher://g4slv.cloud:70/5/media/archive_files/fuel.tar