Minix: running the network

Minix comes close to Linux and other (recent) Unixes, but there are some minute differences. When I find these differences I will publish them in this section on Fruttenboel.

Network: topology

In normal cases, the DHCP client will request an IP address from your DHCP server. I have told about my idea of networks before and I will do it again. Make your network such that it runs by itself. I made my network as follows:

This way, all computers see just one 'master' but they can still talk to eachother and to the internet. The router is setup to act as a DHCP server, but the majority of computers have a fixed IP address. My router has the IP address 192.168.56.99 with a DHCP range between 100 and 199.

Network: /etc/hosts

As with Linux, you can assign names to IP addresses. This machine, Lithium, is 192.168.56.3 and it is very obvious that no other number could have been assigned to this computer: 

   192.168              the Class C private network
          .56           my year of birth in the 20th century
	     .3         the ordinal number of Lithium in the periodic system of elements
which of course is very simple to remember.

Still, many people use other network names and then a lookup table can come in handy. For this, the file /etc/hosts is available. Here comes the file as present on the Minix system: 

127.0.0.1	localhost.fruttenboel

192.168.56.1	hydrogen.fruttenboel
192.168.56.2	helium.fruttenboel
192.168.56.3	lithium.fruttenboel
192.168.56.4	beryllium.fruttenboel
192.168.56.5	boron.fruttenboel
192.168.56.6	carbon.fruttenboel
192.168.56.7	nitrogen.fruttenboel
192.168.56.148	oxygen.fruttenboel
192.168.56.10	neon.fruttenboel
192.168.56.108	scandium.fruttenboel
192.168.56.22	titanium.fruttenboel
192.168.56.31	gallium.fruttenboel
192.168.56.32	germanium.fruttenboel
192.168.56.99	proton.fruttenboel
With Linux, you can assign a second name which in most cases is an abbreviation of the full name, but that does not work in Minix. Also, if you only use lines in the form of: 
192.168.56.32	germanium
it will not work. All names need to be constructed of a node name and a domain name.

Network: ping

The ping command is part of Minix. But it has a slightly different syntax. With Linux, the syntax is: 

   ping -c 3 Be
but that's too cryptical for Minix. Here, the syntax is: 
   ping beryllium.fruttenboel
The parameter for the ping command must match exactly with the name in /etc/hosts. Minix responds with a single line of text: 
   beryllium.fruttenboel is alive

Network: Fixed IP address

Sometimes, the DHCP client of Minix reports that it did not get an IP address from the DHCP server. Still it is capable of retrieving data from the net. So I guess things are not as critical as mentioned by the software. Still, it's not an assuring thought. I am planning to use the Minix system as a fixed IP address machine as well. I found some guidelines on http://www.minixtips.com/2006/06/minix-with-static-ip-address.html and one of these days I will change the required files.

Using ncftp

By far the easiest way of transfering files between the Minix system and a running Linux computer is through FTP. Beryllium does not have a floppy disk drive anymore. And it's too expensive and time consuming to burn a CD-ROM for each and every file. Plus: Lithium does have a CD -Writer, but I haven't figured out yet how to run it with Minix. So the network comes in handy. 

   $ ncftp
   ncftp> open -u jan beryllium.fruttenboel
   Connecting to 192.168.56.4..
   ProFTPD 1.2.10 Server (Debian) [192.168.56.4]
   Logging in...
   Password requested by 192.168.56.4 for user "jan".
   
        Password requested for jan.
   
   Password : **********
   
   User jan logged in.
   Logged in to beryllium.fruttenboel
   ncftp /home/jan>
From this moment on you can exchange files and data to your hearts content. Fast and flexible.

Page created on 18 February 2007 and

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