Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

> When I first tried to set up serial networking both computers told me 
> 'network is unreachable'.  I switched to 19200 for the desktop and it 
> then started to ping itselfand the laptop, then I gradually went back up 
> to 115200 and it continued to work and I sent.  I then went online and 
> then tried again to use serial networking and since then 'network is 
> unreachable' even after rebooting, turning computer off and on, going 
> from BL3 to BL2.  Llpro worked over the serial cable after this. The 
> laptop continued to ping itself.
>
> I turned the laptop off and on and rebooted linux and now pppd won't work 
> there either with nullmodem cable.
>
> WHat stupid thing might I have done or be doing?


The cable is plugged into the laptops' only serial port (Com1). 
Sometimes it will ping the other computer but not itself.  Once it pinged 
itself and the other computer.  At that point I checked the desktop and it 
was also pinging both so I tried to send.  nc:  connection refused.
Then ppd was no longer there when I typed ps.

Most of the time the laptop won't ping even itself.  Network is 
unreachable.

Perhaps the laptop serial port is not linux compatible.  I have one mda 
card with a parallel port that simply refuses to do plip, with nc: 
connection refused.  The laptop serial port and the cable worked perfectly 
with llpro so I transferred all my files via DOS.

The port may be the reason for the very very slow transfer of one file.

The cable and the same BL3 software work perfectly every time between the
two desktop computers, but not between one of them and the laptop.

So now we have one 386 that won't boot linux, and one that has a 
usually-not-working serial port for nullmodem transfers.  I will try it 
with a real modem some time, both the builtin-in 2400 and an external 
14.4K.

Serial transfer is acceptable for files of 2MB when the port is behaving, 
and may be used to put linux on the other laptops as it is simpler to set 
up than plip.  We now have plenty of 120MB drives from recycled computers 
so can transfer the files and install via pkg but I would still like to 
try the script for sending and unpackaging at the same time.