|From: wkc...@duke.usask.ca (Wing Kan Chan)
|Subject: 8088 XT SLIP,PPP,PLIP to Linux machine possibly??
|Date: 30 Jan 1995 18:20:15 GMT
|Hi fellow helpers;
|I like to get some use out of my 8088 XT, my hope is to network it to a
|Linux machine. I paid $1500 for it back in the old....old days.
|Via by Slip, PLIP, or PPP, ethernet is out the question. I do not want
|to pump more money into the XT anymore.
|Is this possible ?
|(XT's do not have a windows enviroment)
|if yes, 1 what sofware do i need for the XT with 640K RAM ?
| 2 how difficult is it ?
| 3 Would you point me in the right direction.
|I have read part of the Linux network guide, found no help on this subjuct.
|if not, please state it is not possible. Then i may rest in peace and use
|the XT for some other purpose.
|Some guy has posted that it was possible, and have sent mail to them. So
|far, no reponse. I believe them, for VT220 dummy terminals are
|able to connect via serial to unix or VAX machines.
|thanks for any help.
Hi,
I believe it's possible (I did the same thing a.o. with a 286, and
believe the software should work on an old XT as well...) At least, the
documentation to the NCSA Telnet says
....to use NCSA Telnet (see below) you must have the following hardware:
IBM PC, PC/XT, PC/AT, IBM PS/2 model 30, or "true"
compatible computer with one of the following....
OK, let's give it a try. The biggest problem I had was with the cable!
Please check whether your cable is the right one. I discussed my problem
with some people on the Internet, so to give you a hint, I enclose the
letter I sent to them at the end. In general, the preferable choice of
cable should be that in the Serial-HOWTO/Local terminal setting (i.e.,
Cable 2 in my case).
The letter follows --------------------------
Hallo!
didn't hear from me for a long time! Well, I bought a new cable in another
computer store with settings conforming the recommendations of Serial-HOWTO
(just 9-pin: 9 is connected to 25-pin: 22, in addition to them). Let's denote
it Cable 2. With it, I got the configuration work the desired way (so I
am happy now and stop on it - I just have to manage the line not to hang
when the DOS-PC is reset) but not the "other" way (it worked with cable 1).
In short, my results can be summarized as follows
Cable 1: (so called "null modem" - I had to check it galvanically :-[ !)
D9 D25
-----------
1 -
2 2
3 3
4 6
5 7
6 20
7 5
8 4
9 -
Cable 2: (so called "laplink")
D9 D25
-----------
1 20
2 2
3 3
4 6,8
5 7
6 20
7 5
8 4
9 22
In the following, "DOS" means the "slipper" or the "slip8250" (crynwr)
packet driver (both behave equally) + NCSA Telnet, "Linux" means the
precompiled 1.1.54 kernel with the SLIP support.
PC1 (25-pin) PC2 (9-pin) Cable 1 Cable 2
-------------------------------------------------------------
DOS DOS works does not work
DOS Linux works does not work
Linux DOS does not work works
Linux Linux does not work works
Weird, isn't it?
Now, I'll just have to take care of the fact the line hangs on the Linux
side when the DOS PC is reset...
Regards
Honza
End of the letter--------------------------
So, that's about the cable
Further, you should have a "packet driver" on the DOS-side (a resident
program which provides the interface for the various NCSA services. You
can use either the "slipper" or the "slip8250" (crynwr) packet driver
which you can find on Simtel, in the directory "pktdrvr"
pktd11.zip B 435420 931123 Crynwr v11.x packet drivers executables
& docs
For slipper (a bit faster, but may not work on old IBM PCs (hearsay) ),
you need
slippr15.zip B 14575 940308 TCP/IP packet drivers for serial SLIP &
CSLIP
(I can send them to you, (g)zipped and uuencoded, if you wish)
(I am happy with slipper, so in what follows I'll concentrate on it...)
Further, you'll need the NCSA software. It is on SimTel in the directory
"ncsatlnt". If this does not work, there is another well documented
package called KA9Q the C*L*I*E*N*T of which is probably even more robust
(hearsay! - no experience of my own). It is in the directory "ka9q" on
SimTel.
...and this is my configuration....
I have 2 PCs, connected by a serial cable 25-9. The information relevant
for IP connection is (the definite IP addresses will be set later)
PC Port No. Port type IP address
--- -------- --------- -----------
PC1 COM2 25 pin 192.168.134.10
PC2 COM1 9 pin 192.168.134.20
Now, PC1 runs Linux and PC2 runs DOS with the "slipper" packet driver plus
the NCSA software. The settings of "slipper" are following:
PC2: com1 (i.e., base=3f8, irq=4)
vec=60 (packet driver interrupt vector)
baud=9600 (start with this, later increase)
nohwhs (i.e., no hardware handshaking)
(of course, you have to configure the config.tel of the NCSA package
accordingly - I can send you mine if you wish...)
The settings of PC1 as a Linux IP box with permanent connection to a
PC2-DOS box are as follows. I am using a precompiled kernel from the
Slackware 2.0.2 distribution, and the relevant line of the startup kernel
message is
Jan 13 09:29:30 metro kernel: SLIP: version 0.7.5-NET3.014-NEWTTY (4
channels)
I followed the advice in various materials (NET-2-HOWTO, The Linux
Networking guide) and added the following to my /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 file
which was previously configured for a loopback-only system (the flavour of
slattach I have is different from that described in NET-2-HOWTO - you
should check with 'man slattach')):
/usr/sbin/slattach /dev/ttyS1 9600
/sbin/ifconfig sl0 192.168.134.10 pointopoint 192.168.134.20 up
/sbin/route add 192.168.134.20 sl0
I believe that when using the pointopoint option of ifconfig plus
the bare IP addresses the setting is foolproof. When running ifconfig and
route with no arguments I got the following:
pc1:~# ifconfig
lo Link encap Local Loopback
inet addr 127.0.0.1 Bcast 127.255.255.255 Mask 255.0.0.0
UP BROADCAST LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU 2000 Metric 1
RX packets 0 errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0
TX packets 0 errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0
sl0 Link encap Serial Line IP
inet addr 192.168.134.10 P-t-P 192.108.134.20 Mask 255.255.255.0
UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING MTU 296 Metric 1
RX packets 0 errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0
TX packets 0 errors 0 dropped 0 overruns 0
pc1:~# route
Kernel routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.134.20 * 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 sl0
127.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 lo
You have to start the DOS-PC before booting the linux-PC (this is what I
still have to deal with), then run slipper with the relevant option, and
then it should work... (like telnet 192.108.134.10 from the DOS-PC2)
Recently, I found that when using sliplogin on startup as a root (and or
on the terminal line) instead of slattach this problem disappeared
OK, let me in know about your progress and/or problems, and I'll do my best
to help.
Honza (=nickname)
P.S.: I'm still a newbie...
Jan Kucera
Institute of Physics
Cukrovarnicka 10
162 00 Prague
Czech Republic
e-mail: kuc...@fzu.cz
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