Subject: Re: Netatalk on FreeBSD 3.4

From: "Tom Watson" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2000 00:53:01 -0800

On Wed, 5 Jul 2000 02:17:00 -0400 (EDT), [email-masked] wrote:
> 
> I installed and tried the "netatalk-1.4b2+asun2.1.3" package on FreeBSD 3.4
> (from the 3.4-Release CD set) and did not get very far.  The atalkd fails when
> doing SIOCADDMULTI (errno 45 Operation not supported), and papd
> fails trying to locate libdes.so.3.  Quickly looking around, I found tons
> of references

Judging from the error message (I don't have an index handy) and the IOCTL
operation, I'd say that you have a "strange" ethernet adapter/software
match that DOES NOT support multicast addresses.  Appletalk relies upon
using multicast addresses when it does appletalk specific broadcasts
so as to cut down on the traffic on the wire.  Some "hacked together"
ethernet software drivers (I worked on one) do not provide this support
with the understanding that TCP/IP doesn't require it (generally true).

Some ethernet drivers when asked to recieve milticast addresses just put
the adapter in "promiscous" mode (recieve all packets) and let the
software figure it out (seen it done).  While this might work, it isn't
terribly efficient, and could bog down things "up the chain" where
packets are thrown away (instead of just being ignored by the hardware).

> to Netatalk related addmulti ioctl errors so I did not pursue this any
> further.
> 
> My question is simple.  Can someone please tell me what the best
> way of getting a working version of Netatalk is - preferably on release 3.4.
> Just to be sure, all I did to test this was build a kernel with the NETATALK
> support and then I tried to start the daemons (without any config files).
> 
> Please respond directly to me. Thanks!
> -Zdenek
> 

Your best bet is to check to see that your ethernet driver supports
recieve filtering of multicast addresses (or has a hack around).  In
addition, check to see that your kernel was configured to allow multicast.
While the variable in Linux is for IP-multicast, (not hardware multicast),
some parts of the driver there got them mixed up.  It is worth a shot.

Good luck.
-- 
Tom Watson         Generic short signature
[email-masked]     (I'm at home now)