Hey Ben!   
      
    BR> holler if you need anything tested   
      
   Not really anything at the moment as our messages seem to be getting   
   through to each other.  You might wish the same from me and I am ready,   
   willing and able.   
      
    BR> Just finished doing same, now to play ;-)  I also have   
    BR> Ubuntu installed on all my boxes in a separate partition for   
    BR> emergency maintenance.   
      
   Now you're starting to make sense.  Try these commands from a terminal   
   prompt and see what it shows;   
      
     gcc --version   
     perl --version   
     bash --version   
      
   The more important ones are bash and perl wrt this particular echo   
   but if you want to build your own set of Husky Project FTN thingies   
   than you'll definetly want gcc and friends.  For instance I sometimes   
   play with pktinfo and txt2pkt in bash scripts (both are from hpt/lnx   
   1.9.0-cur) which requires;   
      
   ----- ye ol' gpm cut and paste starts   
   # ldd /usr/bin/hpt   
           linux-vdso.so.1 =>  (0x00007fffc9dff000)   
           libareafix.so.1.9 => /usr/lib/libareafix.so.1.9   
           (0x00007fbd0cad9000)   
           libfidoconfig.so.1.9 => /usr/lib/libfidoconfig.so.1.9   
           (0x00007fbd0c8b0000)   
           libsmapi.so.2.5 => /usr/lib/libsmapi.so.2.5   
           (0x00007fbd0c69c000)   
           libhusky.so.1.9 => /usr/lib/libhusky.so.1.9   
           (0x00007fbd0c48f000)   
           libc.so.6 => /lib/libc.so.6 (0x00007fbd0c0f0000)   
           /lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fbd0cced000)   
   ----- ye ol' gpm cut and paste ends   
      
   I have a build script somewhere online for the stable versions but   
   am using the current versions lately.  However if you really wish to   
   go hardcore than just bash and perl are fine.  If you REALLY want to   
   go with just bash then I recommend ascii2binary to take care of the   
   pack()-like functionality but then given the distribution you chose   
   then you already have perl installed so you may as well use that.   
      
   How adventerous do you feel you are up to at this point in time?   
      
   Life is good,   
   Maurice   
      
   --- GNU bash, version 4.2.10(2)-release (x86_64-atom-linux-gnu)   
    * Origin: Pointy Stick Society (1:261/38.9)