[comp.protocols.nfs] CD-ROMs under Interactive

jim@crom2.uucp (James P. H. Fuller) (05/11/91)

ash@omega.UUCP (Andrew Hardie) writes:

> Not quite sure why this is in tcp-ip list, but still ...

    The thread was started by someone asking a networking question: is
it possible to have a DOS machine act as a file server and have a Unix
box as client?  Things are usually done the other way around, after all.
The need would arise if you have a peripheral like a CD-ROM that is
supported by DOS but is not supported by your flavor of Unix.  Comp.
protocols.nfs and comp.protocols.tcp-ip seem like likely places to pick
up leads on a question like this. 


> > We're trying to use a CD-ROM reader under Interactive Unix 2.2 without
> > much success.  
>
> I'm having no success at all.
>
> > ISC doesn't know how to mount ISO-9660 CD-ROMS as Unix file-systems 

    Interactive is supposedly working on a driver to support ISO-9660
filesystems and make them mountable, but this isn't even promised Real
Soon Now .... just Someday.  I need those files off that CD-ROM before
then (assuming then ever arrives at all) so I'm investigating other
ways to access the drive other than direct mounting under Unix.
    ONE possible arrangement seems to be something like this:

    ISC Unix machine                     DOS machine ---------- CD-ROM
    ethernet card ---------------------- ethernet card
    ISC NFS                              Clarkson packet driver
                                         soss NFS server for DOS

There may be more to it than that; I've seen conflicting messages about
whether soss requires the MIT PC/IP package.  Also this kind of lashup
requires a fair amount of money since ethernet cards aren't free and
neither is ISC's NFS.  You could probably work up a similar rig with ISC
TCP/IP and ka9q.
   
    In my case all I have to do is get files off the CD-ROM and onto my
hard drive, so a much cheaper method (though it won't impress Flash Gordon)
is
    Unix                                 DOS -----------CD-ROM
    serial port ------------------------ serial port
    zmodem                               zmodem

To do this at a respectably high speed all I'd need to buy is a couple of
16550 UARTS for the serial cards.  But I gather in your situation you
want your data to *stay* on the CD-ROM.  For that, barring an unexpected
deus ex machina from ISC probably some form of networking is what you'll
have to do.

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