Ravinder.Chandhok@CS.CMU.EDU (Rob Chandhok) (02/14/89)
>From info-mac: >Date: Mon, 13 Feb 89 18:03:57 +0100 >From: Sigurd Meldal <sigurd@eik.ii.uib.no> >Subject: Virtual - some praise, some problems >Summary: Virtual does not work when you're using an ethernet card (at >least one exception applies, though). The symptoms you describe can be narrowed down to "Virtual does not work when using Ethertalk". When you use the Apple EtherTalk card with SU-MacIP or NCSA (configured properly), they access the card directly, and attach their own protocol handlers for IP. Thus, they operate completely independantly of the current AppleTalk driver. I am interested in this interaction since I have seen weird things happen with Ethertalk in general, like dropping interrupts, crashing, etc. I haven't been able to isolate it as well as you, however. Any other stories about EtherTalk oddities would be welcomed. Rob Chandhok School of Computer Science, CMU
ts@cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith) (02/17/89)
I wonder if the problem is in the '.ENET' driver, or in the alternate appletalk code? There are some experiments that would be interesting to do. First, try something like TSSNet with Virtual. TSSNet uses the '.ENET' driver to access the ethernet card. If this works, then the problem is probably with the alternate appletalk code. Another experiment would be to try a non-Apple ethernet card and driver. A Dove FastNet III card would be good for this. I wrote Dove's '.ENET' driver, and I can't think of anything in the driver that should cause problems under Virtual. On the other hand, I've MacNosy'ed Apple's driver, and didn't see anything there that would cause problems, either. I suspect that it must be something in the alternate appletalk code. I've MacNody'ed the 'atlk', and that looks OK too. Maybe the INIT 18 resource is where the problem lies ( or whatever the number is ). Anyone MacNosy'ed this one yet? Let me rephrase the above. I can't think of anything that should cause trouble under Virtual with ethernet that shouldn't also cause trouble with LocalTalk. I wonder how Virtual deals with the following: 1. Someone starts a SCSI operation. They do the SCSIGet and SCSISelect and SCSICmd. 2. LocalTalk or EtherTalk packet arrives, generates an interrupt before the SCSI operation can be completed. 3. Driver gets packet, disptaches protocol handler 4. Protocol handler gets page fault ( note that the SCSI bus is not available ) ( if you want a really pathological situation, assume that the Mac is using a SCSI ethernet adaptor :-) ) Now I am really confused. How does Virtual manage to work at all with LocalTalk? Tim Smith