Q. Since I'll have to wait for a Raspberry Pi are there alternatives?

A. G4KLX's software such as ircDDBGateway and the various repeater controllers are pretty agnostic when it comes to Linux distribution, most installs are on either Red Hat or Debian derivatives. They are well proven on x86 platforms.  I was not the first to put them on an ARM processor and if you are using an EABI Armel build, it should run on a variety of ARM platforms such as Sheeva Plug, Beaglebone, etc. the main considerations are interfaces (USB and Ethernet) and processor performance / memory.  You don't get the full 256MB of RAM on the Pi, but it seems to be fine, the footprint is pretty small but I wouldn't recommend going with less memory or fewer MIPS.  On the Pi, I am not running the GUI, though it is available, it puts more demand on the processor, and I'm content with a command line. (Been doing Linux/Unix command line for 30 years.)

Q. That's beyond my skill or seems like a lot of work, are there binaries that can just be installed?

A. Yes and No.  If someone has built binaries you might get them to send them to you.  A tar of all of the binaries in the gateway package and the pcrepeatercontroller package total roughly 100MB without compression.

The right way to do this is to build a .deb install package.  It doesn't look hard, but I haven't done it before and it would be really good to have someone that knows what they are doing create and maintain such a package (including updates).  I could provide the needed information if there's a volunteer?  (crickets chirping in the background)

If there were such a package, binary installs would take the form of:

aptitude install ircDDBGateway 

aptitude install Repeater

John D. Hays

K7VE