Ethernet/LAN Setup by Lonny Pursell 4/16/2002 [Rev 1.10] Introduction ============ Note that this document assumes several things: 1) You have an Atari (in this example a Hades060) 2) You have a functional MiNT-Net installation 3) You have a shell (Bash) and know how to use it 4) You know how to setup the Cable/DSL modem and gateway/router 5) You know how to setup the non-Atari machines connected to your LAN! 6) You have a Milan instead of a Hades? Support ======= The ethernet driver was coded by Odd Skancke a.k.a. 'Assemsoft Productions' and I wish to thank Odd for his hard work. Without this driver I'd still be on slow dial-up and unable to network my machines. If you find this driver works for you, perhaps you could find it in your heart to send Odd a little something for his effort. :o) As for this document, I claim nothing. It would not exist if not for Odd's driver. You might find this document useless, or it might shed some light on some areas, who knows. Needless to say, don't thank me, thank Odd! Links you might find useful: Odd's site http://assemsoft.atari.org/ Lon's site http://www.q1.net/ How to install the PCI Ethernet card ==================================== First make sure you are free of static. Use a proper grounding strap or make sure you touch an exposed area of the metal case. Do not touch any components in your Hades until you are sure you are free of any static charge. First remove the case. Now remove the slot cover from PCI slot #3 on the back of the case. Remove the PCI card from it's package and place it in PCI slot #3 making sure it is properly seated. Generally speaking you should have this layout: PCI #1: Video card PCI #2: Sound card PCI #3: Ethernet card PCI #4: empty Reassemble the case on your Hades. How to configure the driver =========================== The driver is named RTL8139x.XIF, where the 'x' is a place holder for a number from 0 to 9. This number determines the default buffer address for the ethernet driver. This is very important. The options for Hades owners are currently as follows: 0 : 2mb ET6000 1 : 4mb ATI Mach64 2 : 8mb ATI Rage Pro Example: I have an ATI Mach64 in my Hades, so I renamed the driver 'RTL81391.XIF'. If you do not see your video card listed please contact the author. If you have a Milan you do not need to set the driver based on the video card as it can use host memory. Simply name the driver 'RTL8139.XIF'. How to install the PCI Ethernet driver ====================================== Copy the file RTL8139x.XIF to your C:\MINT folder. If you do not have this folder then copy it to your C:\MULTITOS folder. That's it! How to connect an Atari to a LAN (local area network) ===================================================== Now you need to wire your LAN. Below is a diagram of my setup. First I decided which IP addresses to assign to each machine. Normally this will be in the range 192.168.0.x where you decide the value for 'x' (1 to 255). My Gateway came preconfigured for 192.168.0.1 so I decided to leave it that way. As you can see by the diagram below I assigned the iMAC '192.168.0.2' and the Atari '192.168.0.3' respectively. +-------------+ +--------+ | |===| unused | | | +--------+ | | +--------+ | Cable/DSL |===| unused | | Internet | +--------+ | Gateway | +-------------------+ | 192.168.0.1 |===| Atari 192.168.0.3 | +-----------+ | | +-------------------+ +-----+ | Cable/DSL | | | +------------------+ | ISP |---| Modem |===| |===| iMac 192.168.0.2 | +-----+ +-----------+ +-------------+ +------------------+ Cat5 cables are denoted as '===' in the diagram. You will need to make sure your modem and gateway are properly configured. Configuring the Gateway ======================= This section is meant as a basic guideline, it may or may not be helpful depending on the Gateway you have. The one I have is configured via a Java enabled web browser, so CAB is not useable at all. I used the iMAC and IE to configure the Gateway, and this is done by entering the URL 'http://192.168.0.1' into IE. The protocols used to connect to the ISP and the Gateway configuration will vary. I will not go into detail here, except to say that my ISP uses a 'static IP', so this is the configuration option I selected for the Gateway. Configuring a non-Atari machine =============================== This section is meant as a basic guideline, in this case I'll describe the setup required for an iMAC. In general the settings should be very similiar on other machines. Open the TCP/IP Control Panel and set the following parmeters: Connect via: Ethernet (which port to use) Configure: Manually (static IP) IP address: 192.168.0.2 (of this machine) Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0 Router address 192.168.0.1 (or gateway address) Name server: (enter the address your ISP gave you) How to configure MiNT-Net ========================= To configure MiNT-Net open Bash and execute the following 3 commands: ifconfig rtk0 addr 192.168.0.3 netmask 255.255.255.0 up route add 192.168.0.0 route add default rtk0 gw 192.168.0.1 These commands will actually connect the Atari to the LAN. If you want your Atari connected to the LAN at all times, simply place these commands in your /etc/rc.net file. The rc.net file is launched at boot up. If you wish to connect the Atari to the LAN on the fly as needed, place these commands in a Bash script. Now just launch the script as needed. Likewise, if you wish to disconnect from the LAN on the fly enter the following command: ifconfig rtk0 down This too can be a Bash script if you like. Testing the Ethernet setup ========================== Once everything is in place and wired, power up the gateway and all the machines. If the PCI card in the Atari has a 'Link' indicator it should be on. If the gateway has 'link' indicators they should be on as well. The non-Atari machine may have such indicators as well and should be checked. If these indicators are not on, there is a wiring problem. Now open Bash and issue the commands to connect the Atari to the LAN. At the Bash prompt issue this command: ping 192.168.0.1 Press control-c to stop the ping. This will ping the gateway and the result should be something like this: PING 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1): 56 data bytes 64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=5 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=0 ms 64 bytes from 192.168.0.1: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=0 ms --- 192.168.0.1 ping statistics --- 5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0% packet loss round-trip min/avg/max = 0/1/5 ms If you get 100% packet loss, something is very wrong. Recheck all wired connections, and software configurations. If you get 0% packet loss your Atari is talking to the gateway correctly. You should be able to ping the gateway from your non-Atari machines as well. The ping test should also work from machine to machine, in both directions. If it don't then there is something configured wrong on one of the machines. Moving files via the LAN ======================== I currently use FTP to move files. I have the ftp daemon in MiNT-Net setup. Simply log into your Atari with your root password and you can send/receive files to/from any directory on the Atari. There are other ways to move files, currently I have not checked into any of them. Trouble shooting ================ In the event you cannot get the ethernet card to work at all please visit this site http://assemsoft.atari.org/ and read the information about the driver. If that doesn't help then download the PCIDUMP.PRG program and send the author the output. To dump the information to a file simply open Bash and issue this command: /o/pcidump.prg > pcidump.txt Remember Bash/Minix is case sensitive, in this example pcidump.prg is located on my Minix ramdisk. Take the file pcidump.txt and e-mail it to the author with a detailed problem report. eof