Packet Radio Build Part 3 – Auto Start Dire Wolf and VARA at Boot on Windows
In part two of the live packet radio series build, we set up VARA and Direwolf in such a way that they can share COM/PTT ports, as well as run multiple instances of each per radio. Before moving onto the applications, we need to make sure that our TNCs (Dire wolf and VARA) will auto start if a reboot is done on the node due to updates, or if powerless happens. We should also make sure our COM ports are split again (before those software TNCs boot) so that the correct ports are ready to go. We can accomplish this with the built in windows task scheduler.
Creating Scheduled Tasks for Dire Wolf and VARA
Start by pressing your “Start” button within windows, and search “Task Scheduler”, and click the option that comers up. Click the “Task Scheduler Library” on the left, and you will see a list of tasks on the right if they exist. Right click in the white space and click “Create New Task” I will be creating one for VARA FM, one for VARA HF, as well as Dire wolf 2M(1200) and Dire Wolf HF(300). In part two of the build, we configured these to all be ready to start. Here we are just telling them to start when our user is logged in.
In the name slot, give your startup task something specific like “Start VARA FM”. Ensure that under security options, your user is the one listed to run the task. I will be Creating one for VARA FM, one for VARA HF, as well as oen for Direwolf 2M and Direwolf HF(300)
Click on over to the “Triggers” tab, and click “New”.
For “Begin the Task”, we will go with “At log on” for a specific user (the one we’ve been using the entire time).
Under “Advanced Settings”, we will check the box to “Delay task for” and go with 1 minute. We will be doing this on all of the Software TNC’s to make sure our virtual COM port program has time to start prior. Also make sure the “Enabled” box is checked, and press “Ok”
Next, click on the “Actions” Tab, and press the “New” button once more. For the action, we want to start a new program. Under “Program/Script” click the browse button. You will now navigate to the executable (.exe) you would like to run. Again, this will be the several instances of dire wolf and VARA in my case. Under the “Start in” field, you will want to Copy+Paste the path that was filled in for you prior in the Program/Script. But here, you want to take off the last item (the executable), so that it ends with a backslash (\), and remove the quotes, like the following example, and then press “Ok”:
Navigate to the Conditions tab, and make sure the box to “Start the task only if the computer is on AC power” is not checked. You should now press “Ok” once more to save the task.
Auto Start Split/Shared Serial Port Program
Repeat this process for the Split or Shared COM Port program “HHD Virtual Serial Port Tools” if you are using that as I am. You will need the paid version of this program to preform this step (auto start at boot). Keep in mind that you want this one to start sooner than Dire Wolf and VARA so that the virtual serial ports are available. I opted to start mine with a delay of 30 seconds, and gave my software TNC’s 1 minute. The path to that program is “C:\Program Files\HHD Software\Virtual Serial Port Tools\rspcli.exe”. You will need to Specify Command Arguments for this program. If you are just using it to share a serial port as I am, you can use the following template, where 1 is the new port I’ll be creating that can be shared, and 4 is the serial port that comes up by default in device manager from my digirig:
rspcli.exe -create shared --local-port 1 --share-port 4Don’t forget to also specify the optional “Start In” folder where rspcli.exe lives: “C:\Program Files\HHD Software\Virtual Serial Port Tools\”. If this program has issues starting on reboot, you may need to check the option under the general tab of the task to “Run with highest privileges”.
In the end my windows tasks look like this:
Install LinBPQ on Debain Linux VM
If you recall, all of our services will be running in virtual machines so that we can take snapshots, and have redundancy if computer hardware fails. LinBPQ will be running in a Debian virtual machine. Although running the software TNC’s themselves in windows is a trade off I had to make, LinBPQ and most other packet related services can run comfortably within a Linux VM, and connect back to Dire Wolf and VARA over the network. I will not be touching on install Debian Linux, as there are a million guides that will do it better than me on the internet. For the installation and configuration of LinBPQ itself, I’ll be following my previous guide, which you can find here: Install and Configure LinBPQ BBS Packet Node on Debian Ubuntu and Raspbian. If all holds up, that should take us from a new install to a working configuration of LinBPQ. We only need to point the Network KISS and VARA ports back to the Windows Server IP where they are running.
Setup Winlink RMS Forwarding and Gateway on LinBPQ
For the last portion this week, I’ll be setting up Email Forwarding to RMS/Winlink on my LinBPQ node. On top of that, I’ll be using LinBPQ to provide a Winlink RMS gateway to users via HF/VHF on both packet and VARA connections. To set up linbpq for winlink rms connections, I’ll jump over and follow the guide I’ve written here. This will establish a base functionality for our node.