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-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- NOTE: See also README.arcnet-jumpers in this directory for jumper-setting
- information if you're like most of us and didn't happen to get a manual with
- your ARCnet card.
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Since no one seems to listen to me otherwise, perhaps a poem will get your
- attention:
- This is scary software
- If it works I DO CARE.
-
- Hmm, I think I'm allowed to call that a poem, even though it's only two
- lines. Hey, I'm in Computer Science, not English. Give me a break.
-
- The point is: I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY want to hear from you if
- you test this and get it working. Or if you don't. Or anything.
-
- ARCnet 0.32 ALPHA first made it into the Linux kernel 1.1.80 - this was
- nice, but after that even FEWER people started writing to me because they
- didn't even have to install the patch. <sigh>
-
- Come on, be a sport! Send me a success report!
-
- (hey, that was even better than my original poem... this is getting bad!)
-
- Anyway, enough complaining. Let's get started:
-
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- These are the ARCnet drivers for Linux.
-
- This is the first non-ALPHA release, so please be careful, and send all
- possible success/failure reports to me. If I don't know when/if/how it
- works, I won't be able to answer people's questions. Do we want that? Of
- course not.
-
- Once again: DO send me success reports! I want to know if this is working!
- (You know, it might be argued that I'm pushing this point a little too much.
- If you think so, why not flame me in a quick little email? Please also
- include the type of card(s) you're using, software, size of network, and
- whether it's working or not.)
-
- My e-mail address is:
- apenwarr@tourism.807-city.on.ca
-
-
- Where do I discuss these drivers?
- ---------------------------------
-
- As of the 0.22 release, we have a mailing list specifically for discussion
- of the ARCnet drivers for Linux, and anything you might want to interface
- them with (ie. DOS). I'll also post new versions of the Linux-ARCnet
- distribution to the list in tar-gzip-uuencode format.
-
- To subscribe to the list, send a message to listserv@tourism.807-city.on.ca
- with the following line in the BODY (not the SUBJECT) of your message:
- subscribe linux-arcnet YOUR REAL NAME
- Remember to remove your signature, or you'll get an error back.
-
- Send all bug (or success) reports to me or to the list.
-
- You're free to use the comp.os.linux.development newsgroup too, but I can't
- guarantee I'll see it there. (Hopefully, if my news server stays sane, I
- will.)
-
- Also, SMC (one of the companies that makes ARCnet cards) has a WorldWideWeb
- site you might be interested in, which includes several drivers for various
- cards including ARCnet. Try:
- http://www.smc.com/
-
- Novell makes a networking stack for DOS which includes ARCnet drivers. Try
- ftp'ing to ftp.novell.com.
-
- You can get the Crynwr packet driver collection (including arcether.com, the
- one you'll want for arcnet cards) from oak.oakland.edu:/pub/msdos/pktdrvr.
- It won't work perfectly on a 386+ without patches, though, and also doesn't
- like several cards. Mail me if you want a fixed version.
-
-
- Last warning: This driver may be extremely dangerous, crash your computer,
- or kill your dog! (although I'm pretty sure that I've worked that one
- out...)
-
-
- Loadable Module Support
- -----------------------
-
- This is a new feature as of 0.42 ALPHA.
-
- Configure and rebuild Linux. When asked, say NO to "arcnet support" if you
- want loadable module support.
-
- make config
- make dep
- make clean
- make zImage
- make modules
-
-
- Booting into your "ARCnet" Kernel
- ---------------------------------
-
- If you're using a loadable module, you need to use insmod to load the
- module, and you need to specify various characteristics of your card on the
- command line. For example:
- cd /usr/src/linux/modules
- insmod arcnet.o io=0x300 irqnum=2 shmem=0xd0000
- You can also add a num=1, num=2 etc for additional arcnet cards that will
- use arc1, arc2 etc for their device names (instead of the default, arc0).
-
- Otherwise the driver will load and probe for your card automatically.
-
- Now go read the NET-2-HOWTO and ETHERNET-HOWTO for Linux; they should be
- available where you picked up this driver. Think of your ARCnet as a
- souped-up (or down, as the case may be) ethernet card.
-
- By the way, be sure to change all references from "eth0" to "arc0" in the
- HOWTOs. Remember that ARCnet isn't a "true" ethernet, and the device name
- is DIFFERENT.
-
-
- How do I get it to work with...?
- --------------------------------
-
- NFS: Should be fine linux->linux, just pretend you're using ethernet cards.
- oak.oakland.edu:/pub/msdos/nfs has some nice DOS clients. I can't
- get SOSS (dos-based server) to work, although someone has and can't
- figure out why it won't work for me.
-
- DOS: If you're using the freeware arcether.com, you might want to install
- the source code patch. It helps with PC/TCP, and also can get
- arcether to load if it timed out too quickly. Mail me if you need a
- precompiled version of arcether.com. (ie. you if don't have a DOS
- assembler)
-
- Windows: See DOS :)
-
- OS2: May work okay. Please e-mail me if you find a freeware TCP/IP stack
- for OS/2.
-
- LAN Manager and Windows for Workgroups: These programs use protocols that
- are incompatible with ARCnet for Linux. Rather than using the
- internet-standard ARCnet protocol, they try to pretend the cards are
- ethernet, and confuse everyone else on the network.
-
- An upcoming release of ARCnet for Linux may have workarounds for
- this stupid behaviour.
-
-
- It works: what now?
- -------------------
-
- Send mail describing your setup, preferably including driver version, kernel
- version, ARCnet card model, CPU type, number of systems on your network, and
- list of software in use to me at the following address:
- apenwarr@tourism.807-city.on.ca
-
- I do send (sometimes automated) replies to all messages I receive. My mail
- host is quite weird, so if you don't get a reply within a reasonable time,
- please resend.
-
-
- It doesn't work: what now?
- --------------------------
-
- Do the same as above, but also include the output of the ifconfig and route
- commands, as well as any pertinent log entries (ie: anything that starts
- with "arcnet:" and has shown up since the last reboot) in your mail.
-
- If you want to try fixing it yourself (I highly recommend that you mail me
- about the problem first, since it might already have been solved) you may
- want to try some of the debug levels available. For heavy testing on
- DEBUG_DURING or more, it would be a REALLY good idea to kill your klogd
- daemon first! DEBUG_DURING displays 4-5 lines for each packet sent or
- received. DEBUG_TX and RX actually DISPLAY each packet as it is sent or
- received, which is obviously quite big.
-
- You can run the arcdump shell script (available from me) as root to list the
- contents of the arcnet buffers at any time. To make any sense at all out of
- this, you should grab the pertinent RFC's. (some are listed near the top of
- arcnet.c). arcdump assumes your card is at 0xD0000. If it isn't, edit the
- script.
-
- Buffers #0 and 1 are used for receiving, and Buffers #2 and 3 are for
- sending. Ping-pong buffers are implemented both ways, just to confuse you.
-
- If your debug level is DEBUG_DURING or more, the buffers are cleared to a
- constant value of 0x42 every time the card is reset (which should only
- happen when you do an ifconfig up, or when Linux decides that the driver is
- broken). This is to make it easier to figure out which bytes are being used
- by a packet.
-
- You can change the debug level without recompiling the kernel by typing:
- ifconfig arc0 down metric 1x
- /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1
- where "x" is the debug level you want. For example, "metric 14" would put
- you at debug level 4. Debug level 3 is the default (D_EXTRA).
-
-
- I want to send money: what now?
- -------------------------------
-
- Go take a nap or something. You'll feel better in the morning.
-