I have a small project, which will allow diskless old laptops/PCs to boot via PXE and will share a common file server.
Currently, I have successfully booted the clients via network, and was able to share file via samba.
but the problem is, TCP/IP occupies more than 150kb of conventional memory, which makes some of my programs to fail to load with error “not enough conventional memory”. by the way i will only use DOS for the clients.
I am considering using nwlink (IPX/SPX), since it was stated that IPX/SPX use smaller memory than TCP/IP. source
but i can’t find a good reference in implementing marsnwe. some reference says that kernel must be compiled, some doesn’t and I even found some packages like ipxutils,etc.
i’m lost and don’t know where to start. i’m using openSUSE 12.3
Why not show us more about your openSUSE server hardware, where you are running out of memory. Obviously we can not help with DOS only PC’s, but I am not sure I understand the actual setup. The terminal free command can be helpful in openSUSE to see what you have and swap space should always be configured, to prevent running out of memory.
So you have a 64 bit server with 8 GB of memory and you have install the 32 bit version of openSUSE? Why would you do that? You are limited to less than 4 GB of memory for everything then. In a 64 bit setup, you can still run 32 bit software if needed. I think you need to reconsider your installation. Next, were is this DOS running? On the server or where?
i use 32bit because everytime I search the net for marsnwe in 64bit all i find bug reports.
the DOS will run on the client, it will be a resident on the client’s ram, the pxe will only give the DOS bootup, but everything else will run on the client.
but thanks for your advice, i’ll try to reconsider 64bit, but for now i’ll test under 32bit…
On Sun 11 Aug 2013 01:36:02 AM CDT, mpdevilleres wrote:
i use 32bit because everytime I search the net for marsnwe in 64bit all
i find bug reports.
the DOS will run on the client, it will be a resident on the client’s
ram, the pxe will only give the DOS bootup, but everything else will run
on the client.
but thanks for your advice, i’ll try to reconsider 64bit, but for now
i’ll test under 32bit…
The ncpfs kernel module is present in the current kernel.
You will probably have fun with the mars-nwe package since it’s old and
openSUSE 12.3 now uses systemd rather than sysvinit.
I’m guessing your booting the dos machines and setting himem.sys etc?
You might also check out the Netware forums at forums.novell.com (same
login as here) for further snippets. I would even suggest posting your
issue there as there may be additional help.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) Kernel 3.7.10-1.16-desktop
up 16:33, 3 users, load average: 0.36, 0.36, 0.28
CPU AMD E2-1800@1.70GHz | GPU Radeon HD 7340
On Sun 11 Aug 2013 04:36:01 AM CDT, mpdevilleres wrote:
malcolmlewis;2578410 Wrote:
> Hi
> The ncpfs program from the network repository contains all the
> ipxutils packages and more…
> ‘software.opensuse.org:’ (openSUSE Software)
>
> The ncpfs kernel module is present in the current kernel.
>
> You will probably have fun with the mars-nwe package since it’s old
> and openSUSE 12.3 now uses systemd rather than sysvinit.
>
> I’m guessing your booting the dos machines and setting himem.sys etc?
>
> You might also check out the Netware forums at forums.novell.com (same
> login as here) for further snippets. I would even suggest posting your
> issue there as there may be additional help.
>
> –
> Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
> openSUSE 12.3 (x86_64) Kernel 3.7.10-1.16-desktop
> up 16:33, 3 users, load average: 0.36, 0.36, 0.28
> CPU AMD E2-1800@1.70GHz | GPU Radeon HD 7340
Hi, Thank you for the reply.
yes you are right i’m setting with himem.sys.
are you telling me that i don’t need to compile a kernel for ipx? and
that ncpfs have everything that i need?
and also i didn’t get what you mean that i’ll have fun with mars_nwe…
thanks
Hi
Yes, the ipx and ncpfs kernel modules are present.
Looking at the src rpm, it may/maynot work since it’s for redhat, you
might need to convert the init script to a systemd version.
One last word is you can install the 32 bit version of any program if you feel the 64 bit has a problem when your base system is 64 bit. You will need to load the 32 bit library, but that is OK when it is required and good luck.