
             Installation for Minicom 1.71.


Edit the Makefile to choose your C-compiler and CFLAGS. Entries
for a lot of systems are already defined, you only have to
uncomment them. Also define where your binaries go and where you want
the configuration files to be placed.

The default configuration is to compile for Linux, and to install it in
/usr/bin and /var/lib/minicom.

Now edit "config.h". Reasonable defaults for some systems are
already filled in, and changes will probably not be needed.
If everything is allright, you can type "make" and "minicom",
and "runscript" will be compiled. Ignore any warnings you might
see; I couldn't keep the source generic and at the same time
get all compilers to shut up (Linux and Coherent compilers don't
give warnings; the BSD 2.3.3 gcc does).
If you have gotten this far, it is time to install the executables.

if you trust the installation procedure (I do!) you can just type
'make install' as root. If you insist on installing manually:

1. Copy "minicom" to a bin directory (eg /usr/bin).
   chown it to root and install it set-uid. (chmod 4755 minicom)
2. Copy "runscript" to the same "bin" directory.
3. Copy "xminicom" to this directory too. It's a little shell
   script that puts up an xterm with minicom in it.
4. Copy "keyserv" to the LIB directory defined in the Makefile.
   (If you have a system with the select() system call, you won't
    have the 'keyserv' binary anymore !).
   Don't install "runscript" and/or "keyserv" setuid root!
5. Edit the "minicom.users" file (in the directory as defined in
   "Makefile") to add users who may use minicom. If you don't
   install "minicom.users" everybody may use minicom!
6  Minicom has been installed.

X/Y/Z modem.

Minicom works with zmodem version that use stdin/stdout for
communication with the modems. Newer zmodem versions don't do this,
AND they are copyrighted

Fortunately there is a free PD zmodem now, based on one of the older
(PD) zmodem sources. This one is called "lrzsz" and is included
in the directory "lrzsz0.12a" in this source package. Just go
to this directory, type "make linux" (as root) and it will be
installed in /usr/bin as lsz and lrz. Don't forget to configure
minicom to use lsz and lrz instead of sz and rz.

Configuration.

Probably most defaults are not good enough for your system.
So type (still as root) "minicom -s". This will not initialize
minicom but takes you directly into the configuration menu.
See the minicom manual page for details.

Graphics.

Some terminals, such as most consoles on Unixes that run on IBM
compatible PC's, can display special line drawing characters.
If these characters map 1-to-1 to the IBM character set, you can just
use the '-l' (literal) flag when invoking minicom. If this mapping is
not 1-to-1, you should add the 'as', 'ae' and 'ac' entries to
your termcap. An example termcap is included, in the subdirectory termcap/.
PLEASE read the file README in the termcap subdirectory.

The Linux console only maps 1-to-1 in a special mode. Therefore you need to
make a special termcap entry in /etc/termcap that initializes the
console on startup. For an example see the files in the termcap/ directory.
This defines a termcap entry called "mc".
To use this information instead of the normal 'console' information,
minicom has to be invoked with the '-t mc' option (meaning use TERM=mc
instead of the normal TERM environment variable).

And, in my /etc/profile I have added the lines:

	if [ "$TERM" = console ]
	then
		MINICOM="-l -m -con -tmc" ; export MINICOM
	fi

So when I log in on the console I can use minicom in full color full
ANSI mode to call all kinds of BBS's and the like!


Termcap.
Because of the sad state most Linux /etc/termcap files are in, I
started a rewrite of all vt-specific termcap entries. You can
find my work in the subdirectory termcap.

