Re: Obsolete documentation?

Georg Potthast 2 <[email protected]> Mon, 17 Feb 2020 15:47:23 +0100 (CET)
Newsgroups org.kernel.vger.linux-8086
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hi Paul,
I recall that DOS used the BIOS to send and receive data via the serial por=
t. This resulted in a usable speed of 1200 baud max. Lower speeds were more=
 reliable. Therefore all communication programs used interrupt driven data =
input and no DOS or BIOS calls. I assume ELKS also uses the BIOS and theref=
ore you are limited to 1200 baud in case of a 8086 processor and have to ex=
pect missing data then.

Georg

> Paul Osmialowski <[email protected]> hat am 17. Februar 2020 um 00:26 ge=
schrieben:
>=20
>=20
> Hi Georg,
>=20
> I'm using null-modem cable I've made myself and been using it for years=
=20
> (it corsses-over Rx/Tx and hardware control lines). It works nicely with=
=20
> Telix running under FreeDOS on my XT and minicom on 'big' Linux, at speed=
=20
> 115200, which is the top speed for 8250 chip on the XT side.
>=20
> With ELKS it's not that nice. I've managed to configure getty in=20
> /etc/inittab to use /dev/ttyS0 at the default speed (9600bps), and it=20
> kinda worked, except it was losing bits from time to time. I'd removed=20
> getty line from /etc/inittab for other experiments, then I've tried to=20
> 'cat' some text files between ELKS and Linux (and vice versa), and=20
> although a text sent from ELKS to Linux looked good, the other way round=
=20
> it was disaster. I've tried different speeds (using 'stty' on both sides)=
.=20
> Finally, it looked almost OK at 1200bps, but still I had an impression,=
=20
> bit-banging serial port on my old ZX Spectrum +3 offered better=20
> communication stability at 4800bps than this!
>=20
> Eventually, I've managed to establish SLIP connection between ELKS and=20
> Linux, with telnetd running on ELKS, and I could open telnet connection=
=20
> that worked for a while... not too long though. I guess, serial connectio=
n=20
> support must be looked upon in ELKS before doing experiments with SLIP.
>=20
> Trying to follow your instructions, I've encountered some problems with=
=20
> the 'ifconfig' line:
>=20
> - there's no 'up' param in your example; usually I'm adding it after the=
=20
> interface name (e.g. 'ifconfig sl0 up ....'),
>=20
> - the destination address option is different in various versions of=20
> ifconfig; in your example it was 'pointtopoint', but my 'ifconfig' didn't=
=20
> like it; turned out, in my case it should be 'dstaddr' (which some google=
d=20
> pages listed as obsolete).
>=20
> Thanks,
> Paul
>=20
> On Sun, 16 Feb 2020, Georg Potthast wrote:
>=20
> > ELKS does NOT have a special version of SLIP. Therefore you can communi=
cate
> > with any Linux host provided you manage to configure this. I would reco=
mmend
> > to follow my instructions first to get an understanding how to set this=
 up.
> > Then make a serial cross over connection cable and test that using two
> > terminal programs on each side. Getting the wires linked correctly and
> > providing the hardware signals is not trivial for someone who has not d=
one
> > that before. If you can send across what you type you can start configu=
ring
> > SLIP over this line.
> >=20
> > Georg
> >=20
> > -----Urspr=C3=BCngliche Nachricht----- From: Paul Osmialowski
> > Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2020 7:37 PM
> > To: Georg Potthast
> > Cc: Paul Osmialowski ; Derek Johansen ; Marc-F. Lucca-Daniau ; ELKS
> > Subject: Re: Obsolete documentation?
> >=20
> > Hi Georg,
> >=20
> > Will it connect to SLIP/CSLIP interface as implemented in normal Linux
> > kernel (CONFIG_SLIP)?
> >=20
> > Thanksm
> > Paul
> >=20
> > On Sun, 16 Feb 2020, Georg Potthast wrote:
> >=20
> > > I wrote a SLIP documentation which shows how to setup a SLIP connecti=
on
> > > between an ELKS system running in QEMU und the host where QEMU is run=
ning.
> > > You
> > > could send data from the host to the ELKS system and vice versa. This=
 is
> > > this
> > > document:
> > > elks/Documentation/html/user/setup_slip.html
> > > To me this seemed easier to set up instead of two ELKS systems connec=
ted
> > > with
> > > a cross-over serial cable.
> > >=20
> > > Georg
> > >=20
> > > -----Urspr=C3=BCngliche Nachricht----- From: Marc-F. Lucca-Daniau
> > > Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2020 6:05 PM
> > > To: Paul Osmialowski ; Derek Johansen
> > > Cc: ELKS
> > > Subject: Re: Obsolete documentation?
> > >=20
> > > Hello Derek and Paul,
> > >=20
> > > ELKS is indeed still SLIP capable :
> > > https://github.com/elks-org/elks/issues/304
> > >=20
> > > One has just to change the command line of 'ktcp' to remove Ethernet =
and
> > > put back SLIP.
> > >=20
> > > Documentation is quite outdated. Georges made an effort to document
> > > Ethernet and some other things while debugging networking features, b=
ut
> > > there are still many legacy documents that need to be reorderer and u=
pdated.
> > >=20
> > > Thanks,
> > >=20
> > > MFLD
> > >=20
> > >=20
> > > Le 16/02/2020 ? 12:08, Paul Osmialowski a =C3=A9crit :
> > > > So what happened to SLIP support in ELKS? 8-bit ISA ethernet cards
> > > > (with RJ-45 connector) are very rare (I have only one of them, work=
 >
> > > nicely
> > > > under FreeDOS and in theory it should be supported by ELKS's ne2k >
> > > driver,
> > > > but it isn't). Within my one more XT machine to play with ELKS, ser=
ial
> > > > port is the only means of external communication. PPP/IP or SLIP is
> > > > something ELKS should definitely have IMHO.
> > > >
> > > > Cheers,
> > > > Paul
> > > >
> > > > On Sat, 15 Feb 2020, Derek Johansen wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Does elks/Documentation/text/networking_guide.txt make
> > > > > elks/Documentation/text/networking.txt obsolete?  The latter in
> > > > > Section 2 says ELKS only supports SLIP connections.  I don't thin=
k
> > > > > this is still true?
> > > > >
> > >=20
> >