DireWolf is a modern software replacement for the old 1980's style TNC built with special hardware.
In the early days of Amateur Packet Radio, it was necessary to use an expensive "Terminal Node Controller" (TNC) with specialized hardware. Those days are gone. You can now get better results at lower cost by connecting your radio to the "soundcard" interface of a computer and using software to decode the signals.
Dire Wolf includes FX.25 which adds Forward Error Correction (FEC) in a way that is completely compatible with existing systems. If both ends are capable of FX.25, your information will continue to get through under conditions where regular AX.25 is completely useless. This was originally developed for satellites and is now seeing widespread use on HF.
It can also be used as a virtual TNC for other applications such as APRSIS32, Xastir, APRS-TW, YAAC, PinPoint APRS, UI-View32,UISS, Linux AX25, SARTrack, Winlink Express (formerly known as RMS Express, formerly known as Winlink 2000 or WL2K), BPQ32, Outpost PM, Ham Radio of Things, Packet Compressed Sensing Imaging (PCSI), and many others.
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KISS Interface (TCP/IP, serial port, Bluetooth)
DireWolf can be used as a virtual TNC for applications such as APRSIS32, Xastir, APRS-TW, YAAC, PinPoint APRS, UI-View32,UISS, Linux AX25, SARTrack, Winlink Express (formerly known as RMS Express, formerly known as Winlink 2000 or WL2K), BPQ32, Outpost PM, Ham Radio of Things, Packet Compressed Sensing Imaging (PCSI), and many others.
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Modems:
300 bps AFSK for HF
1200 bps AFSK most common for VHF/UHF
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Compatible with Software Defined Radios such as gqrx, rtl_fm, and SDR#.
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Concurrent operation with up to 3 soundcards and 6 radios.
- Runs on Windows, Linux (PC/laptop, Raspberry Pi, etc.), Mac OSX.
Build from source. For more details see the User Guide in the doc directory.
First you will need to install some software development packages using different commands depending on your flavor of Linux. In most cases, the first few will already be there and the package installer will tell you that installation is not necessary.
On Debian / Ubuntu / Raspbian / Raspberry Pi OS:
sudo apt-get install git
sudo apt-get install gcc
sudo apt-get install g++
sudo apt-get install make
sudo apt-get install cmake
sudo apt-get install libasound2-dev
sudo apt-get install libudev-dev
Or on Red Hat / Fedora / CentOS:
sudo yum install git
sudo yum install gcc
sudo yum install gcc-c++
sudo yum install make
sudo yum install alsa-lib-devel
sudo yum install libudev-devel
CentOS 6 & 7 currently have cmake 2.8 but we need 3.1 or later. First you need to enable the EPEL repository. Add a symlink if you don't already have the older version and want to type cmake rather than cmake3.
sudo yum install epel-release
sudo rpm -e cmake
sudo yum install cmake3
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/cmake3 /usr/bin/cmake
Then on any flavor of Linux:
cd ~
git clone https://www.github.com/wb2osz/direwolf
cd direwolf
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j4
sudo make install
make install-conf
This gives you the latest development version. Leave out the "git checkout dev" to get the most recent stable release.
For more details see the User Guide in the doc directory. Special considerations for the Raspberry Pi are found in Raspberry-Pi-APRS.pdf
Read the User Guide in the doc directory. It is more complicated than Linux.
If you have problems, post them to the Dire Wolf packet TNC discussion group.
The github "issues" section is for reporting software defects and enhancement requests. It is NOT a place to ask questions or have general discussions. Please use one of the locations above.