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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!paladin.american.edu!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!chi-news.cic.net!newsjunkie.ans.net!istar.net!news1.ottawa.istar.net!fonorola!news.ottawa.istar.net!Rezonet.net!rcogate.rco.qc.ca!server1.securenet.net!usenet From: "Jean M. Vandette" <jmvandette@securenet.net> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: FreeBSD and Cyclades multiport boards? Date: 27 Dec 1995 22:35:07 GMT Organization: SecureNet Information Services Inc. Lines: 50 Message-ID: <4bshmr$fmc@server1.securenet.net> References: <4bkfsn$rjh@osprey.unf.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: office.securenet.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.22 (Windows; I; 16bit) To: caddy@osprey.unf.edu Greetings... I just went throught the Cyclades problem myself. I ended up without ever getting the board to work properly using the driver from Brian L. I got to the point where I wondered if I might not have a defective board. The author of the driver did reply to a couple of my e-mail requests for information however one reply advised me to switch the 4 - 20 pins (which were already done and did nothing BTW) and the other message was with respect to the mgetty line to use in the ttys file. I myself gave up on the driver and also on the FreeBSD driver that came with 2.1.0-RELEASE I ended up putting in a Lynux 1.2.3 box to handle just the port functions using the driver supplied from Cyclades. Tech_support is available from Cyclades if needed for there driver. Cyclades (even thought they have little knowledge of the driver from Brian L.) even telneted in to try and could not get things going. The support tech got the "ttys" file from MediaCity and sent them to me so I could copy their setup and still no joy. I run an ISP service and could not wait for some one to debug this so hence the adding of the Lynux box to run the Cyclades 32y (16y x 2) with the factory supplied driver that worked "straight from the box" with no tinkering. Further the factory driver allows suport of up to 64 ports the max configuation of the 16y setup on one ISA bus board connection you can however add 3 additional ISA cards to control 64 ports each or max out the box at 256 ports on one box. The Lynux box with the Cyclades becomes a rather cheap "PortsMaster" answering the phone lines and rlogin users to the FreeBSD box where they continue with whatever. The spin off advantage is everything runs faster so system performance over all is up about 30% which is a very nice side affect. If putting in a second box to just handle the Cyclades box is a possible solution then I would advise you to do it unless you have the time and patience to hack this thing. If a second box is not an option you can contact the people at Cyclades tech support and ask for Marcio he was very helpful and can perhaps get things running. The FreeBSD (driver included in 2.1.0-RELEASE) driver per the author still has bugs in it you can contact him for the fix, also author has an eight port unit. I got the board to work for about 5 ports only using the original release and never had time to try the bug fix to see what would result. I hope I haven't discouraged you too much but I'd rather tell you the way it is and not what should be. John M. Vandette vandj@securenet.net