A/UX without Ethernet hardware

[Matthias Urlichs]

In comp.unix.aux, article <1991Apr11.151740.24539 at truevision.com>,
  pauls at truevision.com (Paul Scherf) writes:
< 
< I would like to have A/UX push TCP/IP (and UDP) packets through Appletalk.
< So I can run rlogin or telnet to the UNIX machines on the Ethernet.
< (I figure this will be slower than having a real Ethernet card.
< For rlogin/telnet, it might be fast enough.)

The problem is that A/UX is a very mixed-up kernel. It uses the BSD
networking stuff, AT&T Streams for Appletalk, and clist drivers for
terminals. (The latter is irrelevant in this context.)

Getting the first two to work together should be possible, but it sure isn't
easy and requires severe kernel programming. I'm doing something like that
for another project and it might be possible to implement an
TCP/IP-to-Localtalk gate on top of it, given documentation -- see below.

< What does the A/UX kernel call the Appletalk interface?
< 
"/dev/appletalk/ddp/socket" refers to the Streams driver and, on opening,
gives you a new ddp packet stream. However, its interface may or may not be
documented (I can't afford the manuals right now), it's far easier to use the
library interface, and it won't help for this specific problem anyway.

If anybody can tell me how to access the ddp interface directly, said
TCP-to-Localtalk may actually be available in a few months. (However, I'm not
promising anything.)

Meanwhile, you can try to use the non-MacTCP version of NCSA Telnet.
Assuming that the relevant part of NCSA Telnet is programmed more or less
correctly, it should work. That will at least give you a telnet window to
talk to other hosts, even if you can't use it from any other program.

-- 
Matthias Urlichs -- urlichs at smurf.sub.org -- urlichs at smurf.ira.uka.de     /(o\
Humboldtstrasse 7 - 7500 Karlsruhe 1 - FRG -- +49-721-621127(0700-2330)   \o)/