Re: DOSEMU via inetd (for BBS games without the BBS)

Re: DOSEMU via inetd (for BBS games without the BBS)

[Stas Sergeev]

Hello.

Ryan Underwood wrote:
> First of all, I was wrong when I said that I had inetd invoke a
> wrapper script directly.  With that method, DOSEMU is unable to
> accept any input due to lack of a pty.
Thanks for following up on that - otherwise
there were a concerns about the patch that
explicitly prevented that.

> What I actually did was to install telnetd, and then hack
> /usr/lib/telnetlogin to call the dosemu wrapper as the login program.
That was expected:)

> this is convenient not only because it doesn't require the BBS, but the
> user telnets directly into the door without requiring login, etc.
> Pretty good setup for small games where everyone is trusted.
OK. Now, as the proper way exists, how about
trying it (and probably documenting)? My
expectations were (when I enabled the direct
pty support) that it will allow all the like
things, but without an ugly "no_local_video"
hack and without any problems with the redirected
stdio. But it was only tested with the "modemu"
modem emulator, which is not sufficient.

Re: DOSEMU via inetd (for BBS games without the BBS)

[Ryan Underwood]

hi,

On Sat, Oct 04, 2003 at 04:57:17AM +0400, Stas Sergeev wrote:
> 
> >this is convenient not only because it doesn't require the BBS, but the
> >user telnets directly into the door without requiring login, etc.
> >Pretty good setup for small games where everyone is trusted.
> OK. Now, as the proper way exists, how about
> trying it (and probably documenting)? My
> expectations were (when I enabled the direct
> pty support) that it will allow all the like
> things, but without an ugly "no_local_video"
> hack and without any problems with the redirected
> stdio. But it was only tested with the "modemu"
> modem emulator, which is not sufficient.

Actually, since the BBS doors are run in the local mode, no modemu is
necessary.  (In that mode, they use DOS stdio, or sometimes BIOS video.)

They could be run against vmodem (in traditional BBS mode), but
typically they need a BBS dropfile in order to do that.  We could
generate the necessary dropfile by a script, but one would probably just
want to go ahead and set up a BBS if it came to that.

Do you think it would be useful to generate some documentation for
running a local-mode-only, (not secure) game server for TW2002 or
LORD using only DOSEMU and telnetd?

Do you have a better idea to get telnetd to execute the DOSEMU wrapper
besides hacking telnetd or telnetlogin?

-- 
Ryan Underwood, <nemesis at icequake.net>, icq=10317253

Re: DOSEMU via inetd (for BBS games without the BBS)

[Stas Sergeev]

Hello.

Ryan Underwood wrote:
>> >They could be run against vmodem (in traditional BBS mode)
>  > Yes, and documenting the ability to run
>  > them remotely would be interesting.
>  Take a look at http://forge.icequake.net/syncmods for an example of how
>  to run them via my Synchronet patch.
I mean the documentation for dosemu.
Not that I myself is interested.

>> But there are many possibilities. For
>> example, the origins of that discussion
>> are coming from a question about telnetting
>> to a different COM ports of an already
>> running dosemu. This is not possible to
>> acomplish with vmodem at all, and that is
>> not documented. 
>  Oh, so your idea here, is to run a BBS software that answers the modem
>  like the traditional style, and be able to telnet to the dosemu session,
>  and dosemu "answers" the incoming telnet like it would answer a ring on
>  the telephone?
That might be too much.
I don't know what was the background of
the original question, but I can think of
the following scenario:
- you telnet and start dosemu (control connection)
- you telnet another client to another TCP
port and that telnet client gets connected
to COM1
- you telnet another client - to COM2
- Within the first telnet (where dosemu was
started) you run the program that uses the
COM1 and/or COM2 (your BBS game) and your
other telnet clients are communicating with
it.
The idea is that if you need more than one
serial port to communicate, or if you need
only one but together with the control
connection, then vmodem is not enough.

Re: DOSEMU via inetd (for BBS games without the BBS)

[Ryan Underwood]

hi,

On Sun, Oct 05, 2003 at 03:35:13AM +0400, Stas Sergeev wrote:
> >>>They could be run against vmodem (in traditional BBS mode)
> > > Yes, and documenting the ability to run
> > > them remotely would be interesting.
> > Take a look at http://forge.icequake.net/syncmods for an example of how
> > to run them via my Synchronet patch.
> I mean the documentation for dosemu.
> Not that I myself is interested.

Well, I wanted you to take a look and see if this is the type of thing
that would be useful.  Examine the script in this tarball:
http://forge.icequake.net/syncmods/rungame.tgz

-- 
Ryan Underwood, <nemesis at icequake.net>, icq=10317253

Re: DOSEMU via inetd (for BBS games without the BBS)

[Stas Sergeev]

Hello.

Ryan Underwood wrote:
> Actually, since the BBS doors are run in the local mode, no modemu is
> necessary.
I don't know where modemu is necessary
at all:) It is a funny program, but I
can't think about any real use for it
(except for testing dosemu's recent
ability to use the pty's).

> They could be run against vmodem (in traditional BBS mode)
Yes, and documenting the ability to run
them remotely would be interesting.

> Do you think it would be useful to generate some documentation for
> running a local-mode-only
local-mode-only? That doesn't sound like
it will use the serial port by whatever
means.
But there are many possibilities. For
example, the origins of that discussion
are coming from a question about telnetting
to a different COM ports of an already
running dosemu. This is not possible to
acomplish with vmodem at all, and that is
not documented.

> Do you have a better idea to get telnetd to execute the DOSEMU wrapper
> besides hacking telnetd or telnetlogin?
Surely. I always have an ideas:)
Seriously though, what just comes in a
mind first: how about adding a special
user with the login shell being a dosemu
wrapper?

Re: DOSEMU via inetd (for BBS games without the BBS)

[Ryan Underwood]

Hi,

On Sun, Oct 05, 2003 at 12:33:47AM +0400, Stas Sergeev wrote:
> 
> >They could be run against vmodem (in traditional BBS mode)
> Yes, and documenting the ability to run
> them remotely would be interesting.

Take a look at http://forge.icequake.net/syncmods for an example of how
to run them via my Synchronet patch.  There is also a tarball with
scripts at the bottom to launch them without any special support from
the BBS.

> >Do you think it would be useful to generate some documentation for
> >running a local-mode-only
> local-mode-only? That doesn't sound like
> it will use the serial port by whatever
> means.

No, not at all.

> But there are many possibilities. For
> example, the origins of that discussion
> are coming from a question about telnetting
> to a different COM ports of an already
> running dosemu. This is not possible to
> acomplish with vmodem at all, and that is
> not documented.

Oh, so your idea here, is to run a BBS software that answers the modem
like the traditional style, and be able to telnet to the dosemu session,
and dosemu "answers" the incoming telnet like it would answer a ring on
the telephone?

> >Do you have a better idea to get telnetd to execute the DOSEMU wrapper
> >besides hacking telnetd or telnetlogin?
> Surely. I always have an ideas:)
> Seriously though, what just comes in a
> mind first: how about adding a special
> user with the login shell being a dosemu
> wrapper?

I did that, but then I also had confusion from people because they
couldn't remember the login, etc.  telnetd seems to have an option to
use something else as a telnet login program (besides telnetlogin), but
I didn't seem to get it to work.  I guess running it like you say is
better because the dosemu session is not running as root though. (I su
-c the door, but most people would probably forget to do that)

-- 
Ryan Underwood, <nemesis at icequake.net>, icq=10317253

DOSEMU via inetd (for BBS games without the BBS)

[Ryan Underwood]

Ok, I dug up the old stuff I did to connect DOSEMU via inetd.

First of all, I was wrong when I said that I had inetd invoke a wrapper
script directly.  With that method, DOSEMU is unable to accept any input
due to lack of a pty.

What I actually did was to install telnetd, and then hack
/usr/lib/telnetlogin to call the dosemu wrapper as the login program.
(instead of /bin/login)

Then the wrapper executed DOSEMU with parameters to launch a batch file
which started LORD, Exitilus, etc. in local mode only.
Thus not requiring a BBS for people to play the game.  (Though they
could cheat by logging in as wrong person, etc)

this is convenient not only because it doesn't require the BBS, but the
user telnets directly into the door without requiring login, etc.
Pretty good setup for small games where everyone is trusted.

Hope that clears it up...

-- 
Ryan Underwood, <nemesis at icequake.net>, icq=10317253