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-
-
- SPAR V37.2 beta
-
- A Sana-II compatible PARnet device driver
-
- by S.A. Pechler
-
-
- Warning
-
- The current status of SPAR is: experimental. It is tested with
- only a few applications and some parnet device versions. Please
- report to me any bugs you find (my address is given below). I have
- included a debug version of SPAR, called spardebug.device. When
- using this device a window will be opened in which a lot of
- debugging information is shown. Correct interpretation of this
- information requires a broad knowledge of the Sana-II device.
-
-
- Disclaimer
-
- This information is provided ``As Is'' without warranty of any
- kind, either express or implied. The entire risk as to the use of
- this information is assumed by the user. In no event will
- Commodore or its affiliated companies be liable for any damages,
- direct, indirect, incidental, special or consequential, resulting
- from any claim arising out of the information presented herein,
- even if it has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
- Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of such
- implied warranties, so the above limitations may not apply.
-
-
- General Overview
-
- SPAR is a Sana-II compatible device driver for PARnet networks. It
- allows you to make connections over a PARnet line with any network
- protocol stack. It is created as a 'front-end' device, i.e. it
- calls the parnet.device for low-level communications (PARnet is not
- integrated). The advantage of this method is that you can use any
- version of the parnet.device, even the versions that are patched
- for multi parallel boards.
- The Spar device can be used with all applications that support the
- Sana-II standard, like AS225, Envoy, AmiTCP, etc.
-
-
- System requirements
-
- To let SPAR function properly on your system, you need at least:
-
- - Kickstart V2.04 or higher.
- - parnet.device from the Software Distillery (any version will do)
- - Networking software that support SANA-II devices (like AS225)
- - For re-compiling the source code: SAS C V6+ (or Lattice C)
-
-
- Software installation
-
- Due to the experimental state of this program, I've not written an
- Installer script yet. You need to do the following things by hand:
-
- Place the device driver 'spar.device' in DEVS:Networks and
- 'parnet.device' in DEVS:
-
- Next, copy the spar0.config file to ENVARC:Sana2/spar0.config. If
- you are going to use multiple SPAR units, you will need a
- separate configuration file for each unit. The file's are named
- spar[unit number].config. So, SPAR unit 5 would have a
- configuration file named spar5.config. Currently, there is a
- limitation of eight SPAR units, 0-7.
-
- In the configuration file you can modify the following 4 arguments:
-
- PARNAME: The name of the parnet device to be used (in most cases
- parnet.device).
- PARUNIT: The unit of the parnet device (in most cases 0).
- PARADDR: The PARnet hardware address of this machine (1-254).
- Each machine on the same PARnet network must have a uniq
- address, this is done by taking the last octet in the
- machine's IP-address. e.g. When your machine has the IP
- address 131.155.12.15, then take 15 as hardware address.
- DSTADDR: The PARnet hardware address of the other machine.
- This argument is optional. When you have only 2 machines
- connected with a PARnet cable it is advisable to fill in
- this argument. It gives more compatibility with Ethernet-
- like devices (packet broadcast will be supported).
-
-
- SPAR Usage
-
- SPAR is currently only tested with Commodore's AS225 V2.5 beta and
- AmiTCP V2.2. So I can only give some notes about using SPAR with
- these two programs.
-
-
- AS225:
-
- If you are using the spar.device with AS225, you need to add a new
- entry to your inet:s/sana2_devs file. IP type and ARP type must be
- set to their Ethernet equivalent (IPType: 2048, ARPType: 2054).
-
- An example entry in inet:s/sana2_devs:
- devs:networks/spar.device 0 2048 2054 # Sana-II PARnet device
-
- Add the following line to your networking startup file (right after
- the 'config host & user' commands):
-
- inet:c/ifconfig s# $hostname netmask <yournetmask> -trailers
-
- Substitute the # with the corresponding interface entry number of
- SPAR in inet:s/sana2_devs.
-
- Substitute <yournetmask> with the correct netmask for your network.
-
-
- AmiTCP:
-
- Edit the AmiTCP startup script (default in AmiTCP:bin/startnet) and
- add the following entry behind the configuration of the loopback
- interface (lo):
-
- (this line is wrapped, put everything on one line in the script):
- AmiTCP:bin/ifconfig Devs:Networks/spar.device/0 inet <yourIPaddr>
- netmask <yournetmask> -trailers
-
- Substitute <yourIPaddr> with the IP adresses you want to give to this
- interface. Be sure that the hardware address of the PARnet device
- corresponds with the last octet in this IP address.
-
- Substitute <yournetmask> with the correct netmask for your network.
-
-
- Envoy:
-
- (I've taken these remarks from the Slip installation documentation. It
- has never really been tried with Spar).
-
- If you are using the spar.device with Envoy, you need to use the
- NIPC Configuration Editor to add spar.device to nipc's list of
- devices. Select 'Use defaults' for IP Type and ARP Type.
-
-
- Error Messages
-
- The SPAR device driver can give error messages when a 'fatal'
- error occures (The driver can't continue operation). Such messages
- appear in an Intiuition 'Easy-Requester' on the workbench screen.
- You can get the follwing errors:
-
- "Invalid hardware address (XXX) given."
- You've placed a wrong number in the HWADDR field of the
- ENVARC:Sana2/spar#.config file (# = SPAR Unit). This number can
- only be in the range 1-254.
-
- "Error in configuration file on line XXX."
- The configuration in ENVARC:Sana2/spar#.config is given in an
- incorrect format. It could also be possible that a comment marker
- is placed wrong.
-
- "Couldn't open XXX unit Y."
- The device with unit number given in ENV:Sana2/spar#.config could
- not be opened. Check if this device (in most cases parnet.device)
- is located in the DEVS: directory.
-
-
- Limitations of SPAR
-
- Since SPAR is running 'above' PARnet, it has the same limitations
- as the parnet.device.
-
- - SPAR does not support network broadcasting, this means that it
- normally can't handle ARP and RIP protocols.
- To solve this problem on a 2-host network the 'DSTADDR' field
- in the spar#.config file must be filled in (See 'software
- installation').
- When using more than 2 hosts the 'DSTADDR' can not be used, in
- this case an ARP request will be processed by the spar.device on
- the local host. The hardware address of the remote host will be
- resolved from the last octet in the IP address of that host.
-
- - The network is limited to max. 3 machines on the same PARnet
- cable. Additional hardware buffering is needed to allow more.
-
- - SPAR uses only 1-byte hardware addresses. But for applications
- which uses Ethernet style addressing methods, the address can
- be 'embedded'. This is done by using only the first byte of the
- ethernet address as the SPAR hardware address and clearing
- all other 5 bytes to zero.
-
-
- SPAR and NET: file system
-
- It is not possible to use both the NET: file system from The
- Software Distillery and SPAR at the same time. The NET: server
- seems to change the network hardware address of the parnet unit.
- I tried to use different units and hardware addresses, but it did
- not work together. There is an alternative for the NET: file system,
- called PARnfs. It's available on all Aminet FTP sites.
-
-
- History
-
- V37.2 931217 Bugfixes in the code, merged in some code from the
- rhslip.device from Olaf 'Rhialto' Seibert (see also
- history.txt). Added ARP support and limited packet
- broadcast.
- V37.1 930824 Experimental version, first release.
-
-
- Copyright notices
-
- The SANA-II Network Device Driver specification is (C) Copyright
- 1992 by Commodore-Amiga, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
- The parnet.device and NET: file system are Copyright (C) 1988,
- 1989, 1990 by The Software Distillery.
- Ethernet is a trademark of Xerox Corporation.
-
-
- Contacts
-
- If you have comments/bugreports/complaints/... about SPAR, please
- send them to:
-
-
- Paper mail E-mail
- ---------- -----
- S.A. Pechler BITnet : BDAASP@HEITUE51
- Diederikstraat 66 INternet: bdaasp@urc.tue.nl
- NL-5421 EX Gemert UUCP : ..!mcsun!sun4nl!rc5.urc.tue.nl!bdaasp
- The Netherlands X.400 : c=nl;admd=400net;prmd=surf;o=tue;
- ou=urc;s=bdaasp
-