[Samba] Samba over IPX

Wed Apr 27 09:19:06 MDT 2011

Hi,

Tecnically there should be no problem implementing IPX support in Samba like it worked with DOS Lan Manager and Windows for Workgroups. It has nothing to do with NCP and Netware. NCP is akin to SMB, not TCP. IPX has SPX which is the connection-oriented protocol, while IPX would be used directly for datagram messages (like UDP). I guess the same kernel syscalls and glibc sockets API would support the IPX stack instead of TCP/IP, so it would not be so big a change in code. If someone wants to try, just grab the sources and start hacking (I won't). But I heard IPX support is no longer mantained in current linux kernels, and thus porting Samba to IPX could be a dead-end.

In the short run, Chris could try mars_nwe which is an open source Netware 3.x compatible file server. I have used it extensively to support clipper apps. You'd need the Netware client for DOS instead of the MS Network Client for DOS, and would save a few extra KB from the 640KB range.

Another thing to check is FreeDOS instead of MS-DOS. It's said it uses less real memory.

[]s, Fernando Lozano

>---- Original Message ----
>From: Daniel Müller <mueller at tropenklinik.de>
>To: "'Chris Weiss'" <cweiss at gmail.com>, "'samba'" <samba at lists.samba.org>
>Sent: Qua, Abr 27, 2011, 3:47 AM
>Subject: Re: [Samba] Samba over IPX
>
>Who wants the old days come back again!?
>Who needs this ???
>We are in 2011 and samba is the first time heading towards a full
>substitution of ms ads.
>This should be the main effort.
>
>-----------------------------------------------
>EDV Daniel Müller
>
>Leitung EDV
>Tropenklinik Paul-Lechler-Krankenhaus
>Paul-Lechler-Str. 24
>72076 Tübingen
>
>Tel.: 07071/206-463, Fax: 07071/206-499
>eMail: mueller at tropenklinik.de
>Internet: www.tropenklinik.de
>-----------------------------------------------
>
>-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>Von: samba-bounces at lists.samba.org [mailto:samba-bounces at lists.samba.org] Im
>Auftrag von Chris Weiss
>Gesendet: Dienstag, 26. April 2011 16:54
>An: samba
>Betreff: Re: [Samba] Samba over IPX
>
>Since I use TCP/IP on 3 different DOS system running completely
>different CNC systems with no issues at all, I have to ask: what
>issues are you seeing when running TCP/IP?  Just that you have more
>extended memory used?  or are you not using himem.sys?
>
>
>On Tue, Apr 26, 2011 at 9:32 AM, Maurizio Manfredini <mx2927 at gmail.com>
>wrote:
>> Hi Chris,
>>
>> Just to add some info. I tried with NCP over IPX (mars_nwe) but I found
>that
>> the MS-DOS Network Client doesn't connect to it. Appearently this is
>because
>> MS Network Client for DOS uses SMB over IPX, and not NCP over IPX. NCP
>under
>> DOS would need the Novel client to be installed.
>> SMB over IPX sounds like addressing again to Samba over IPX...
>>
>> Thanks anyway,
>> Maurizio
>>
>> On 4/11/2011 8:57 PM, Chris Weiss wrote:
>>>
>>> I have TCP/IP on DOS on several systems, 2 of which are CNC, slowest
>>> is a 386 with 2MB ram, and I have no issues with it.  yes IP uses more
>>> ram than IPX, but it's still not significant enough to cause problems
>>> with most programs.
>>>
>>> But back to your question: IPX isn't just a network layer, it's got
>>> it's own completely different file sharing protocols and NCP server
>>> software to go with it.  I'd suggest plugging "linux IPX" into a
>>> search engine.  you can share out the same folder structure using both
>>> SMB and NCP protocols, and also NFS and AFP if you like.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 1:32 PM, Maurizio Manfredini<mx2927 at gmail.com>
>>>  wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I would like to add my case for a wish of IPX support in Samba:
>>>>
>>>> We use a number of CNC tool machines whose host is pure DOS based.
>>>> Don't be surprised that DOS is stilll running somewhere. It is fairly OK
>>>> when we get to the field of HW and real-time control, unlike Windows and
>>>> the
>>>> like...
>>>>
>>>> These hosts use IPX to access LAN shares. IPX is here preferable to
>>>> TCP/IP
>>>> because of its lower memory consumption.
>>>>
>>>> Anyone knows how to make Samba work over IPX, or is there any plan for
>>>> IPX
>>>> support in Samba ?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks in advance,
>>>> Maurizio Manfredini
>>>>
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