From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Apr 14 19:02:36 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id TAA17432 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Tue, 14 Apr 1998 19:02:36 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from sasami.jurai.net (winter@sasami.jurai.net [207.153.65.3]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id CAA17388 for ; Wed, 15 Apr 1998 02:02:19 GMT (envelope-from winter@jurai.net) Received: from localhost (winter@localhost) by sasami.jurai.net (8.8.8/8.8.7) with SMTP id WAA16981 for ; Tue, 14 Apr 1998 22:02:18 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 22:02:18 -0400 (EDT) From: "Matthew N. Dodd" To: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: 802.2/802.3/802.5 (steps to token ring and others) Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG I've been more or less out of time for the last month and a half but have had a number of messages in my inbox today regarding Token Ring, one of those from gta.com (makers of GnatBox). I'm not making the kind of forward progress I'd like to be making so I'm going to attempt to at least get others involved in some of the discussion of and the planning for things that are needed for Token Ring but are not specific to it. FreeBSD needs its 'dead' 802.2 LLC code cleaned up and reintegrated into the kernel. This buys us not only token ring but 802.3 ethenet frames as well, which novell uses for their IPX protocol and Microsoft uses for NetBEUI. Working on the 802.2 code requires no special hardware; regular old ethernet will do just fine. Its obviously more helpful to have a reference implementation (I'm using Win95 and Netware 3.12) to beat on during development, but passing packets between two FreeBSD boxes should be nearly as good. I would like to see a mailing list created to give this discussion some focus and an initial 'push'. There are enough people that have expressed an intent to do work in this area that a separate mailing list for coordinating our efforts is justified. I would also be interested in talking to someone with contacts inside of BSDi; they have token ring support for a few cards. Giving this code to the FreeBSD project would allow us to begin concentrating our efforts on writing hardware support, something BSDi would glean direct benefit from. Your comments, please. /* Matthew N. Dodd | A memory retaining a love you had for life winter@jurai.net | As cruel as it seems nothing ever seems to http://www.jurai.net/~winter | go right - FLA M 3.1:53 */ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message