Re: settrans

[Michael Bacarella <mbac@nyct.net>]

> > then ping another machine, then the gateway, before I can get a live
> > network connection going.
> 
> Can you try to diagnose this a bit more precisely?

I can try.

This might be a drag, but I haven't used the Hurd in a few weeks because
the new Mach package didn't detect my network card outright, and I haven't
gotten around to reinstalling the old one or compiling a custom version
for my system...

I'll diagnose it soon.

> Note that it is normal for a Hurd machine not to respond to pings right on
> boot before anything on the machine has accessed the pfinet server (just
> like a Linux/Unix machine before `ifconfig' has been run to set up the
> network).  The pfinet server, which is what listens to the Ethernet for IP
> packets, is a translator set on /servers/socket/2, so it starts up (and
> will should respond to pings) as soon as anything accesses that node.  In a
> multiuser boot this normally happens the first time when inetd starts up
> and begins creating AF_INET sockets.  Any other program run locally that
> makes an AF_INET socket will start it up too (i.e. ping or anything else
> that uses thet network).

This is certainly not right after startup.

> Can you give us a precise characterization of the situation when you see
> this network nonresponsiveness?  Is this just after boot?  Singleuser or
> multiuser?  What else is running or has run?  Does the period of
> nonresponsiveness continue until you do something specifically
> network-related (the pings you mentioned), or does the situation change
> just given the passage of time?  During a period of nonresponsiveness, what
> does `ps -A' show?

I have to perform more extensive testing to be of any use. This will take
a couple of days, since I'm really busy lately.

--Michael Bacarella