ipx and ncpfs problem 1

[bateman23]

I've got another big problem with ncpfs (Version 2.2.0.1).

Whenever i run the command slist the following error-message is displayed :
slist: Server not found (0x8847) in ncp_open

Is ncp_open a file, or what ?(it doesn't exist on my system)
I think i configured ipx correctly with ipx-configure --auto_interface=on --auto_prmary=on .

I also tried to define it manually, with the following options:
Ether-Device: eth0; frame-type: EtherII; NetwareID: 70 2
so the command looked like that (perhaps that's wrong?):
ipx_interface add -p eth0 EtherII 00000002:XXXXXXXXXXXX

The last part seems to be wrong (??): I used the 00000002 (the netwareID ??)
and the last 12 digits are my HW/MAC address - Perhaps that's wrong (?)

cat /proc/net/ipx_interface says:
Network Node_Address Primary Device Frame_Type
00000002 XXXXXXXXXXXX Yes eth0 EtherII

Not to be confused: the XXXX.. is my MAC-address ;-)

..and my kernel is compiled with ipx support (I think so) - at least there are messages about ipx
when linux is booting.(Is there any way (a command or something like that) to be sure, the kernel supports ipx ??

I hope that aren't too many questions, and somebody can help me, because
i'm helpless....

Daniel

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

I can't claim to be a netware expert unfortunately - Anyway, for linux as a netware client you need two things : (i) ipx protocol compiled into kernel or loaded as module (ii) ncpfs - which provides the ncp filesystem support. If you have an off-the-shelf pre-compiled kernel then most distros would install a module if they didn't compile it in. If you do a 'lsmod' command and find ipx missing just try to load it via 'insmod ipx'. (Only relevant if not supported in the kernel). I would have thought that ncpfs would give some more obvious error if there was no ipx support.

For the network address, the ipx address is in the format of networkid:hostid (32bits:48bits) and the hostid is indeed normally the mac address. So it should work similarly to IP - as long as the target networkid matches and the traffic will pass through the target machine's nic (e.g. it's on the same hub or group of cascaded hubs, etc.) then it should find the target. If not, then routing comes in to play. Are you attached to a switch (instead of hub) - that might cause a problem if there are vlans, etc.

ncp_open, incidentally, is almost certainly just a subroutine in the ncpfs module that is called to getting the server list.

Rgds

 

[bateman23]

Hi,

thank you for all these technical infoemation, but there are still a few questions - I hope you/or somebody else
can help me...
First of all I'm pretty sure ipx-support is compiled into the kernel (I compiled a kernel with these options) - but I've no certainess - Are you able to view/find out if this option really is compiled into the kernel ?

by the way what are vlans ?

But anyway, now i think i've got another problem - we're using Novell Netware 5. And this version doesn't work with ipx, but with tcp/ip.....
Is the ipx-protocoll still needed. Does' ncpfs work with this version of Novell and with tcp/ip ??

Thanks,
Daniel

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

A vlan is a virtual lan - this is where you configure particular ports on a switch or switches to be part of a virtual lan so that broadcasts would only be made on those ports. It effectively isolates those ports into a separate broadcast domain. So, for example, if you were on a vlan and tried to ping someone outside of that vlan but patched into the same switch and on the same subnet it wouldn't connect because the other port is made 'invisible' by the vlan s/w on the switch.

Anyway, I found a couple of things that might help - a gui client for ncpfs -->

http://www.darkrock.co.uk/?content=projects/gtknw

and also a totally different netware client implemenation from Caldera that you can probably try. The documentation (quite comprehensive) is at -->

http://www.caldera.com/support/docs/netware/linuxclient/

but the download directory has been removed from ftp.caldera.com. However, it can still be found here --> ftp://ftp.debian.org/pub/mirrors/caldera/old-products/netware .

On IPX vs IP, yes from netware5 the client can run a IP only stack so IPX is not needed. Having said that, it would depend on the netware server config as to preferred protocol.

Rgds

 

[bateman23]

Thanks,

sounds good. I'll try both tools as soon as possible...
Hope, one of them will work ;-)

Cu,
Daniel