How does freebsd supports ipx?

[illoai at gmail.com]

On 15 October 2012 02:23, YC Wang <wangyc0307 at gmail.com> wrote:
...
>
> I rebuilt the kernel with "option IPX", but it didn't seem to work.
> Below was what I did:
>
> 1) create a new configure file IPXKERNEL enabling "option IPX"
> freebsd-yc# cat /sys/i386/conf/IPXKERNEL
> include GENERIC
> ident IPXKERNEL
> options IPX
>
> 2) make buildkerel KERNCONF=IPXKERNEL. When finised, I found that the
> ipx source code did get compiled, but hadn't been linked into a kernel
> module.
> freebsd-yc# find /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/ | grep  ipx
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/modules/usr/src/sys/modules/arcnet/opt_ipx.h
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/modules/usr/src/sys/modules/if_ef/opt_ipx.h
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/modules/usr/src/sys/modules/if_tun/opt_ipx.h
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/modules/usr/src/sys/modules/netgraph/iface/opt_ipx.h
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/modules/usr/src/sys/modules/smbfs/opt_ipx.h
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/modules/usr/src/sys/modules/sppp/opt_ipx.h
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/modules/usr/src/sys/modules/wlan/opt_ipx.h
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/opt_ipx.h
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/ipx.o
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/ipx_cksum.o
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/ipx_input.o
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/ipx_outputfl.o
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/ipx_pcb.o
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/ipx_proto.o
> /usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL/ipx_usrreq.o
>
> 3) Still I installed the new kernel with "make installkernel
> KERNCONF=IPXKERNEL", and as expected, it was exactly the same to the
> old one.
> freebsd-yc# ls /boot/kernel > kernel.txt
> freebsd-yc# ls /boot/kernel.old/ > kernelold.txt
> freebsd-yc# diff kernel.txt kernelold.txt
>
> So do you have any idea about this? The information of my system is:
> freebsd-yc# uname -a
> FreeBSD freebsd-yc.vm 8.3-RELEASE FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE #0: Mon Oct 15
> 11:20:49 CST 2012
> root at freebsd-yc.vm:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/IPXKERNEL  i386
>

% kldstat -v | grep ipx
might be enlightening.

I don't know if you're trying to connect to a netware
server, but . . .

Back in the old-old days of FreeBSD 4.6 or so, I
connected to a netware (4-something, IIRC) server
using ipx/spx & ncp (options IPX, options NCP,
options NWFS) & it seemed to work pretty well.
But I haven't used it since 6.x, & I no longer
connect to any netware machines, so I have
no idea if it sill works.  I believe at the time it
may have also required "options LIBMCHAIN" &
"options FLOWTABLE", but that might have
been a local issue.

In the local network, I also had to have ethernet
frames compiled in with at a minimum 8023 &
SNAP support (& I think ETHER_II for sap/rip):
device ef
options ETHER_II
options ETHER_8023
options ETHER_8022
options ETHER_SNAP
(the ifconfig lines get ridiculous after a while)

I also believe that nwfs.ko & libmchain.ko could be
loaded as modules, but that ncp didn't play nicely
when loaded as a module & ipx/spx had to be
compiled into the kenel.

Good luck.

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