Date: Thu, 22 Jan 1998 15:19:36 -0500 (EST) From: "Larry S. Lile" <lile@stdio.com> To: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Token-ring driver proposal Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.980122145032.7500A-100000@heathers2.stdio.com>
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On the subject of apathy, inertia
and token rings
Once again token ring has come back up on the hackers list
and is about to fade out again. I think it is time to get
this driver written, I have made an attempt at it but I
have had trouble understanding how to interface with the
kernel network code. Several people have contacted me
about the driver and unfortunately I have made little
progress. The best possible solution that I can come
up with is to gather a team of interested people together
and get this thing written.
The driver that I had started is no more, I had made
several basic errors in its design and it has been
flushed. It did provide some insight to how the cards
operate. I have found on the net the source to the
MACH token ring driver and think that it would be a
good model to follow, less some of the more obfuscated
structures they used. Also I have what would appear to
be all of the neccesary documentation for the cards to
do the implementation.
On to hardware, I have several token ring cards, cables,
a mau, and several non-FreeBSD machines that I can build
a working ring with and be able to test on. This should
be sufficient to get the driver working.
What I do not have, unfortunately the skill required to
interface the driver to the kernel and undoubtedly some
other aspects of driver writing. This is where YOU can
help, with several people working together we should be
able to get a driver up and running in short order, also
we should be able to document most aspects of writing network
device drivers for FreeBSD.
I will provide my development machine as a repository for
the driver where it can be compiled and tested. It will
be on a private ring with a Win95 box, AIX 4.1.5 (rs6k) and
possibly a IBM Model 25 with a Token-Ring Tap tool for
network monitoring. Also I will provide all the documentation
that I have to the team members, including access to the MACH
driver source that I found on the net.
Please e-mail me if you are interested and I will give
you more details. When you reply put "tr-driver" in the
subject line so that I will know to read it immediately.
Documentation that will be available:
MACH tr source code listing
IBM Token-Ring Network Architecture Reference
IBM LAN Technical Reference: Token-Ring Network
Shared-RAM Adapters
*IBM LAN Technical Reference: Token-Ring Network 16/4
Busmaster Server Adapter/A interface
*IBM LAN Technical Reference: Token-Ring Network LANStreamer
Adapters
*IBM LAN Credit Card Adapter Technical Reference
(* On order from IBM should arrive next week)
Regards
Larry Lile
lile@stdio.com
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