Attach KISS TNC devices as network interfaces in Linux. This program allows you to attach TNCs or any KISS-compatible device as a network interface. This program does not need any kernel modules, and has no external dependencies outside the standard Linux and GNU C libraries.
If that is not possible for you, precompiled __amd64__ and __armhf__ (Raspberry Pi and similar) binaries have been provided in the releases section. You can [download the latest release here](https://github.com/markqvist/tncattach/releases).
Using __tncattach__ is simple. Run the program from the command line, specifying which serial port the TNC is connected to, and the serial port baud-rate, and __tncattach__ takes care of the rest. In most cases, depending on what you intend to do, you probably want to use some of the options, though. See the examples section below for usage examples.
The program supports attaching TNCs as point-to-point tunnel devices, or generic ethernet devices. The ethernet mode is suitable for point-to-multipoint setups, and can be enabled with the corresponding command line switch. If you only need point-to-point links, it is advisable to just use the standard point-to-point mode, since it doesn't incur the ethernet header overhead on each packet.
If you want to connect to a virtual KISS TNC over a TCP connection, you can use the -T option, along with the -H and -P options to specify the host and port.
Additionally, it is worth noting that __tncattach__ can filter out IPv6 packets from reaching the TNC. Most operating systems attempts to autoconfigure IPv6 when an interface is brought up, which results in a substantial amount of IPv6 traffic generated by router solicitations and similar, which is usually unwanted for packet radio links and similar.
If you intend to use __tncattach__ on a system with mDNS services enabled (avahi-daemon, for example), you may want to consider modifying your mDNS setup to exclude TNC interfaces, or turning it off entirely, since it will generate a lot of traffic that might be unwanted.
You can configure tncattach to automatically transmit station identification beacons according to a given interval, by using the --id and --interval options. Identification will be transmitted as raw data frames with whatever content has been specified in the --id option. Useful for amateur radio use, or other areas where station identification is necessary.
Identification beacons will be transmitted when:
- There is outgoing data to send, and the specified interval has elapsed.
- The specified interval elapses, and data has been sent since the last ID beacon.
- The program exits, if any data frames have been transmitted since the last ID beacon.
The above methodology should comply with station identification rules for amateur radio in most parts of the world, and complies with US Part 97 rules.
On some versions of Raspbian (and probably other operating systems), the DHCP client daemon _dhcpcd_ interferes with TNC interfaces, by overriding their MTU and trying to auto-configure link-local addresses. You probably don't want this, and it can be disabled by editing the __/etc/dhcpcd.conf__ file, adding a statement telling _dhcpcd_ to ignore your TNC interface:
