: After way too much experimenting, I *still* haven't gotten PLIP working
: the way I want. But I am getting closer...
: I cannot seem to make PLIP work when the other machine is running
: Crynwr's PLIP.COM driver.
: Can someone who has made a PLIP connection work between Linux 1.2.3 and
: NCSA telnet 2.3.08 help me? I would like to compare my own CONFIG.TEL
: and a working CONFIG.TEL and see where I might have slipped...
Darcy,
I've already tried to post the answer to this to at least one person
on the 'net, but my newsreader failed, and I didn't fancy retyping in
then. However, my finger isn't so sore now....
I too had the same problems of Linux<-->Linux working fine, but
Linux<-->Dos not working,* up with a 'Probable Break in Wire'
error or similar. Using NCSA Telnet I found that the Linux box was
getting the message OK, but it was failing to transmit a response and
putting an error message in the logs. It could only do this if it had
seen a message to respond to, so the implication was that
communications between DOS and Linux were working, but Linux to DOS
were not.....
In the DOS PLIP source code, it looks at the contents of the Parallel
Port status register when a rx data interrupt arrives, to see if the
interrupt is valid. The three bottom bits of the status register are
unused, but the DOS PLIP driver assumes them to be one. (Linux masks
them out.)
When the DOS PLIP driver is modified to mask out these bits, rather
than assuming their state (and the compare values are modified
accordingly) everything worked fine.... Transfer rates of about
25-30KB/sec using ftp.
The machines with the errant bottom bits were Toshiba T4400SX and T1850
laptops - both failed in exactly the same way, so I suspect this must
apply to some other machines as well.
I've sent patches to Russ Nelson, who is going to incorporate them
into the next release of the Packet Drivers. I have the source code
for the modified PLIP.COM, but I am loath to post it becuase updates
and mods are better coming from the official source - I don't know
when Rus' next release is due though, so if you drop me a line I can
always build you an executable that should work OK. I didn't bother
keeping it myself 'cos I was just solving the problem for a friend.
Hope this Helps.
DAVE
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