# MBSE BBS Basic Installation

Last update 4-Oct-1999

### Introduction.

Before you compile and install MBSE BBS you must first setup the basic environment. If you don't do this, things will fail.

### Step 1: planning the filesystems.

First of all, you have to think of how your filesystems will be used. If you have one large disk which will hold all files including download areas, you are ready for this point, if not, read the next section.

MBSE BBS can be divided in 4 parts, the executables and config files, the home directories for users, the spooldirectories for mail and files in and outbound, and the download directories.

The executables and config files are best placed on the root filesystem, the total filesize doesn't change much and you keep all important data together.

The home directories for users contains users specific settings, their OLR setup, and they have a working directory where the can store private files. The size of that last directory can be set in the setup, the default is 10 MBytes. If you asume that not all users will use their working directory it is safe to asume that the average user will use 250 Kbytes of diskspace. You can put these directories anywhere you like. In the default setup they are placed together with the basic files.

The spooldirectories for mail and incoming files. This is a bit tricky to tell how much space you will need. It depends on the number of up and downlinks, how much mail you process, howlong you store the messages, and howmany in each area and so on. Also, if you participate in files networks, a large inbound space is needed. I suggest a minimum of 100 MBytes for this.

The download directories. The performance of the disk(s) you use is not important as long as they can keep up with the download speeds of your users. For myself I use old SCSI-I disks for this. You might consider not to backup these directories as often as you make your normal backups of your main system. You can also put these directories on another system (NFS mounted), as long as the directories contain normal Unix privileges. Don't use UMSDOS or SAMBA mounts. If you intent to make your bbs also accessible by FTP and WWW you must create the directory structure under the ftp user behind the pub directory. Read the ftp server doc for details. If you don't follow these guidlines, you will run into trouble later and have to spend a lot of time in correcting this error.

The default setup will be as follows:

    /opt/mbse		binaries, config and user home directories.
    /var/spool/mbse		In/outbound, queues, download directories.

### Step 2: Running the installation script.

The installation script must be run by root. It checks if there is a previous or failed installation on your system. If that's so the script will not run. In other words, you can only run this script once. The script makes backup copies of the system files it changes, these files will get the extension .mbse To run the installation script you need the archive mbb0_33g.zip or mbb0_33g.tgz. Unpack this archive somewhere on your system:

    unzip mbb0_33g.zip
      or
    tar xfvz mbb0_33g.tgz

To start the script type:

    cd mbb0_33g
    make basic

The script does the following:

- Create the group bbs
- Create the user mbse
- Create a .profile for user mbse
- Create and set owner of directory tree under /opt/mbse

The script will then ask you for about 8 random characters. This will be the password for client/server communication. You can make this very weird, you don't have to remember or use that password, only the software will use that. Then the script continues:

- Creates /opt/mbse/etc/mbsed.conf
- Creates /opt/mbse/etc/client.conf
- Sets owner an rights of the two previous files.

Then the script will ask you to give a password for user mbse This password is for system maintenance and for you to make changes to the bbs. You will need that frequently but you should not make that password easy to guess of course. The script will then continue again:

- The user bbs is added.
- The password will be removed from user bbs This action will make changes in /etc/shadow (if you have that) otherwise in /etc/passwd.
- If they don't exist in the file /etc/services the services fido, tfido and mbse will be added.
- If they don't exist in the file /etc/inetd.conf the internet protocols for the mailer will be added. The inetd is restarted to activate the changes.
- The system startup scripts are added.

The last action is tricky. I tried to detect if the system is Slackware, RedHat, Mandrake or Debian. I have no SuSe CD available so I don't know what happens. Maybe it's recognized as one of the other systems, maybe not at all. Anyway, if you have SuSe and you don't see the script mention that startup scripts are installed, please contact me.

### Step 3: Check the basic installation

The last screen of the script is about sanity checks. Perform those checks! If something is wrong, now is the time to fix it. Don't panic and remember the backups of the system files that are changed are in /etc with the extension .mbse i.e: those were the original files.

### Step 4: Install the basic packages.

Login as user mbse. While in the home directory unpack the distribution archives:

    unzip /path/to/mbb0_33g.zip
     or
    tar xfvz /path/to/mbb0_33g.tgz

You now have the subdirectory with sources in the right place. Indeed, if you have a new installation, you also have unpacked the archive somewere else to run the installation script. That one can be removed. Next build the binaries and install them using the folowing commands:

    cd ~/mbb0_33g
    make
    su
    password: enter root password here
    make install
    exit

If you are not in fidonet zone 2, change the Zone Mail Hour fields in the file /opt/mbse/etc/mbsed.conf. Look out, put the UTC times in there, mbsed will calculate your local time for determining when it is ZMH. This also means that it is important that you have setup your timezone correctly.

Now you may start the mbsed by hand by typing /opt/mbse/bin/mbsed. Check in ~/log the file mbsed.log if there are no problems. Also check with the command ps ax | grep mbsed if mbsed is really running.

### Step 5: ready.

Now the basic environment is finished, the next thing is to install the scripts, examples and configuration.

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