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From: crj10@phx.cam.ac.uk (Clive Jones)
Subject: Reliability / amd / proxy arp / ISDN / SCSI
Message-ID: <1993May20.013914.4385@infodev.cam.ac.uk>
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Originator: crj10@grus.cus.cam.ac.uk
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Address: Christ's College, Cambridge CB2 3BU, ENGLAND.
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Organization: Cambridge University Computer Laboratory
Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 01:39:14 GMT
Lines: 72
Greetings. I have read as much of the 386bsd FAQ as I could find
(parts seemed not to have been posted in the last batch, or at least
not to have reached Cambridge, UK!), after a friend advised me that it
was more suited to my needs than Linux.
I have no 386/486-based computer yet, and if I buy one it will be
solely to run a free Unix - I have far more experience with Acorn Risc
OS machines and bigger Unix boxes.
----BACKGROUND----
What I need is a machine that can cope with:
- Ethernet
- ISDN2
- A few gigabytes of SCSI disc, plus CD-ROM and backup device (i.e.
DAT, .25" tape cartridge, CD-R, Exabyte or similar)
- Serial port driving modem
- Serial port interfacing to portable computer for file transfer
- Page printer
- One custom SCSI device (an Econet interface) for which I would be
writing my own drivers.
This machine would be driving an ISDN link to the Internet, and/or a
modem line to another cluster of machines running IP, as well as
providing IP routing between these two ports and an ethernet
containing about three machines. In addition, very low bandwidth IP
would need to be exchanged with the Econet.
The other side of the ISDN2 link might be used for Fax, voicemail, or
anything like that which turned out to be realistic - I have no plans
as yet.
I would want to run at most two X displays off the machine, as well as
some telnet sessions. It would also be my filestore, archival server,
news server, mailstore and network management facility. It would
*have* to run nntp, smtp, ppp, nfs, ftp and X, and would preferably also
run slip, amd, proxyarp, authd and rlogind, off the top of my head.
One important thing to realise is that the machine would be receiving
*no* direct access at the keyboard - it would solely be a server. I
would hope that having X run elsewhere would lighten the load on the
machine considerably!
----QUESTIONS----
So. The simple question is - will 386BSD cope with this? What sort of
hardware would I need to specify in order for it to run faster than a
snail's pace?
More specifically:
- How easy is it to attach drivers for specific unusual SCSI devices
to the system, and manage IP routing over them? I can cope with
writing the drivers provided there's a clean interface to work on.
- What ISDN cards exist for the PC, and would they be supportable
under 386BSD? The hard bit would be supporting out-of-band control for
dialling, etc.
- How secure and rugged is 386BSD? Friends who use Linux all said
that for this sort of job, 386BSD would be preferable, as the network
drivers are more stable - would you agree? (Briefly - I don't want to
star a religious war. (-8 )
- Has anyone tried porting amd and proxyarp to 386BSD? I think I
know someone who has authd running on his 386BSD configuration already...
- Can 386BSD be configured to run with the console on a serial line
rather than the keyboard and screen of the machine itself? Can one's
fixup disc be similarly configured? If I'm cunning I needn't even buy
a keyboard and monitor for the machine - I'd just need to borrow a
keyboard whilst configuring it!
Thanks for any answers - either followup or reply by e-mail. I can
summarise.
--Clive.