Skip to content

fbb

The classic packet radio BBS and mailbox

What it does

Runs a packet radio bulletin board: user accounts, message areas, bulletins, file libraries, and automatic forwarding of mail to and from other BBS systems on a schedule. It answers connections over AX.25, NET/ROM and telnet, and it is the system most of the surviving packet BBS network speaks.

Why you would want it

If you want to run a BBS rather than use one, this is the software the rest of the network expects to forward with. The forwarding protocols are FBB's, and interoperating with them is what makes a new BBS part of the network rather than an island.

Before it will work

A configured AX.25 stack and a callsign for the BBS. Forwarding partners, which is an arrangement with their operators rather than a setting. Somewhere for it to run continuously. FBB configures itself: when /etc/ax25/fbb/fbb.conf is absent, its start script (fbb) asks for the BBS callsign, SSID, hierarchical address, locator, city, sysop name and callsign and the offset from GMT, writes fbb.conf from them and then asks for the ports. Hammunition does not template fbb.conf (Q-022 #1, measured 2026-09-29 from the 7.011-3 package's script and samples): its mandatory lines include the hierarchical address, the SSID, the city and the sysop's first name, none of them station values, and a file with only the callsign and locator filled in is the partial file D-035 never writes.

How it installs

  • apt: fbb
  • Only Ubuntu 26.04 and Linux Mint 22.3 carry this, both at 7.011-3. No candidate on Debian 13, Kali or Parrot (measured 2026-08-28). The direction is unusual -- Debian's line lacks something Ubuntu's has -- and it matters because ax25mail-utils, which this catalog carries and which exists to forward mail with an FBB system, is present on every target. On the primary target you get the client side of a BBS you cannot run. The why, from the Debian tracker (2026-09-04): removed from testing on 2025-01-23 over RC bug #1091298, a build failure on armhf (satupdat.c:664, an incompatible pointer type the current GCC rejects), and unstable's 7.011-3 has not migrated since. Ubuntu's archive carries the same 7.011-3 regardless. It is a packaging bug in Debian's queue, not something this engine can route around.

Known problems

Needs the kernel AX.25 stack, which Linux 7.1 removed (merge 64edfa65, 2026-04-24); on a 7.1 or newer kernel -- Kali rolling and Pop!_OS 24.04 on 7.1.5, measured 2026-09-04 -- the plan refuses or defers this unit by name. See ax25-tools and docs/reference/kernel-ax25.md. Not available on Debian 13, Kali or Parrot -- see the install note. It is old software with a configuration model to match: several files, a forwarding schedule in its own syntax, and unforgiving behaviour when they disagree. Running a BBS means carrying other people's traffic under your callsign, which in most jurisdictions makes its content your responsibility.

Keeping it current

  • probe: apt policy
  • strategy: apt_upgrade

Where to get help with the software itself

The linfbb project on SourceForge. Long-stable rather than actively developed.

Source: catalog/packages/fbb.yaml