Installation

Requirements

The software requires the GNOME system and libcrypto (distributed as part of openssl).

Installing the software

1. Create a user account for the console concentrator. The name and user ID are not important. Please avoid running this software as root. However, this user must be able to read and write to any serial devices that are to act as console lines.

2. Log in as the console user and unpack the source. Also, create a directory called "log" in the console user's home directory. This is where log files will be stored.

3. Configure, build and install the software as follows:

   ./configure --prefix=$HOME --localstatedir=$HOME --with-password=PASSWORD --with-tooidle=DAYS make install

   The PASSWORD is used internally in the servers to encrypt traffic and requested from the user in the clients (see the section called Security>). The DAYS parameter allows the number of days before a console line is suspected dead to be set. If DAYS is set to zero then the activity display will never mark a console this way (see the section called The Main Window>).

The software includes a patched version on the zvt library. If you get corruption in the terminal windows you will need to do one of the following:

• try the patched zvt library included in this package by including the switch --enable-patched-zvt on the configure command.

• apply the patch to your copy of gnome libs and recompile. The patch is available on M. G. Berberic's web pages.

By default, the system uses rsh to start remote termservs. It is possible to use ssh as an alternative by including the switch --enable-ssh on the configure command. Ssh must be configured with public keys so that it does not request a password when started by concserv.

Getting Started

1. Run the concserv daemon, see the section called The Server: concserv>.

2. Run the conc client - entering localhost as the server and the password you configured (see the section called The Client: conc>).

3. Select Edit->Configuration… (see the section called Configuration>). Then click on New… to configure a new terminal server. Select Server is local to master and click on OK.

4. Select the Consoles tab and click on New… to configure a new console. Fill in the console's details and click OK. You should see a frame relating to that console appear in the main window. Clicking View Console will give you a terminal window on that console line.

Security

The server components (concserv and termserv) store the password in plain text, as does the source obviously. It is therefore very important that these components are only readable by the console user. The user interfaces conc and console do not store the password this way, instead requesting that the user enter it when they start.