[9fans] Hardware and Network Config Questions

[9fans] Hardware and Network Config Questions

[forsyth]

>>The second hardware problem concerns the 3Com905BX 10/100MB card I
>>bought for BeOS. This doesn't work with either the 3Com 503 or 589
>>driver that comes with the boot disk. The distribution I have is pretty
>>old. I was wondering if there were any updates that will allow me to use
>>this card.

there are, based on jmk's brazil drivers and back-ported to plan 9 by various
people (in two different ways), but it is sufficiently painful to distribute because the variant
that makes it straightforward to drop brazil drivers in, and thus keep them
up to date, also relies on changes to the pci subsystem, small changes to the
stream subsystem and i'm not sure what else.  might be easier to wait for
the new release, but if you're eager, i can give you what i use.
i might be exaggerating the difficulties.

[9fans] Hardware and Network Config Questions

[Michael]

Thanks for the offer to share your 3Com905BX drivers from Brazil. In
spite of the difficulties I'd like you to send it to me and I'll try to
make it work. It will give me something to do while I wait for the new
Plan 9 release.


forsyth@vitanuova.com wrote:
>
> >>The second hardware problem concerns the 3Com905BX 10/100MB card I
> >>bought for BeOS. This doesn't work with either the 3Com 503 or 589
> >>driver that comes with the boot disk. The distribution I have is pretty
> >>old. I was wondering if there were any updates that will allow me to use
> >>this card.
>
> there are, based on jmk's brazil drivers and back-ported to plan 9 by various
> people (in two different ways), but it is sufficiently painful to distribute because the variant
> that makes it straightforward to drop brazil drivers in, and thus keep them
> up to date, also relies on changes to the pci subsystem, small changes to the
> stream subsystem and i'm not sure what else.  might be easier to wait for
> the new release, but if you're eager, i can give you what i use.
> i might be exaggerating the difficulties.

[9fans] Hardware and Network Config Questions

[Nigel]

3dFX Voodoo 3-2000 AGP card I had to buy for BeOS. I'd like to increase
this to 1024x768x8 if possible. However after following the method of
jmk@plan9.att.com higher resolutions  and polychrome don't display. Is
there a way to get more out of my card?

Almost any chip marked 3D should also be marked proprietary. I think some
Voodoo specs. are out there now, but in general, 3D cards are a problem.
The problem is that beyond standard VGA, every chip achieves the extensions
by a different, devious, method.

Add to this that I can't get my 800x600 laptop into full resolution, and
I _have_ got the chip manual.

[9fans] Hardware and Network Config Questions

[Michael]

I've had the Plan 9 CD set for about 2 years now and have just installed
it on my Intel box. I've got the same hardware running (by using
removable HDs) Win95, Linux, BSD, and BeOS and have had to balance the
hardware requirements of the above OSes. I've managed to get Plan9
working in 640x480x1 mode on the
3dFX Voodoo 3-2000 AGP card I had to buy for BeOS. I'd like to increase
this to 1024x768x8 if possible. However after following the method of
jmk@plan9.att.com higher resolutions  and polychrome don't display. Is
there a way to get more out of my card?

The second hardware problem concerns the 3Com905BX 10/100MB card I
bought for BeOS. This doesn't work with either the 3Com 503 or 589
driver that comes with the boot disk. The distribution I have is pretty
old. I was wondering if there were any updates that will allow me to use
this card.

I have an old 3Com509 card that does work, but only with Plan9. If I
have to I'll use an old 486 that I have laying around with this card.
But then the question is what should the correct entries for IP address,
gateway and dns server in the /lib/ndb/local file look like? Can this
file be edited by hand or does one use ifconfig?

As you can tell I'm pretty clueless. Any help would be greatly
appreciated.

Michael Carmody

P.S. There has been talk here lately about another release of Plan 9. Is
there any truth to this rumor? Would an upgrade be available (and for
what price) to purchasers of the $350.00 set from Bell Labs?