Subject: [netatalk-admins] Odd nbprgstr problems with 1.4b2/FreeBSD 2.2.5

From: Peter Hjelt <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 11:38:29 +0200

Got a itchy problem with netatalk 1.4b2 straight out of the ports collection
of FreeBSD 2.2.5, using the stock appletalk drivers from the 2.2.5 kernel.

I installed the server, and brought it up on my production-network for
testing, a network full of busy macs, afp servers, routers, zones, whatnot
.. and it worked flawlessly from the start. Very smooth, in fact.

Now, once I move it to a more quiet network with just one or two macs,
possibly an old afp server .. or a network with just one idle mac (7.5.3),
starting out with a nulled atalkd.conf, I get the following error:

# nbprgstr -p 4 foo:Workstation
npb_rgstr: Operation timed out
Can't register foo:Workstation@*

nbprgstr broadcasts the name (because the mac worksations immediately see
it in their choosers), but then nbprgstr is expecting a reply it is not
getting for one reason or another.

It's timing out in the select() call at line 109 of nbp_rgstr.c when
waiting for appletalk datagrams as a response to the broadcast annoucing
the name .. 

I'm not sure if there are any packets directed to the server as I don't
have a sniffer able to analyze appletalk .. and the kernel driver for
netatalk/appletalk for FreeBSD has no debug/trace options. Still, I don't
see any reason the sock macs on the network would not respond as supposed to.

I increased the timeout to 20 seconds just to make sure, but it obviously
never receives any packets on the appletalk datagramsocket listening for
ATADDR_ANYNODE.

The only odd part about this is that the server works (!) when moved back
to my busy network, if it didn't I would be suspecting the kernel drivers,
NIC, and whatnot. The server uses a 3Com 900 XL NIC (vx device).

What am I overlooking? What response is it expecting?

---

From: Julian Elischer <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 10:03:06 -0800

> of FreeBSD 2.2.5, using the stock appletalk drivers from the 2.2.5 kernel.

without applying the patch pointed to in the 2.2.2 ERRATA.TXT
that is found on the ftp site..

---

From: Alistair Riddell <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Mar 1998 18:07:30 +0000 (GMT)

Are you sure your atalkd.conf file matches the network? If you move from a
network with routes to one without withou removing or changing atalkd.conf
then atalkd might get confused.

--
Alistair Riddell - BOFH
IT Support Department, George Watson's College, Edinburgh
Tel: +44 131 447 7931 Ext 176       Fax: +44 131 452 8594