Mach 3

As the result of configuring a kernel (section 12), a file named xkernel should exist in your current directory ( /usr/xkernel/build/yap). You may optionally create a file named rom in this directory. This is the ROM file described in section 13.2. This is an example rom file for the mach3 platform:

ethdrv/SE0 priority 20
arp 192.12.69.88 8:0:20:1:51:E6
arp 192.12.69.89 8:0:20:1:50:40

Each ARP entry corresponds to an initial binding between the IP address and the ethernet address. These entries are not necessary if you have hosts on your network which will respond to your RARP and ARP requests.

The ethdrv entry indicates the priority of the Mach packet filter used by the x-kernel. Priorities > 100 cause the x-kernel to grab ethernet packets and not allow the native Mach networking code to see them. This allows the x-kernel to fully communicate with other hosts, but makes it difficult to run x-kernel tests from a remote host.

By using a filter priority below 100, both Mach and the x-kernel see all ethernet packets. This is useful for allowing normal network activity while running x-kernel tests, but can result in troublesome interaction between the x-kernel protocols and the Mach protocols running on the same host. If you want to use a lower filter priority, we recommend either

• Configuring your x-kernel without TCP, SUNRPC and any other protocols which might cause interaction problems

  or

• using the non-standard protocol table ( /usr/xkernel/etc/prottbl.nonstd). In this case, of course, the x-kernel protocols will only be able to communicate with other hosts running the x-kernel with the alternate protocol table.

Since the x-kernel reads from the ethernet device, it needs to run with root uid. You will need to either su to root before running it or run it setuid root. Some Unix servers will allow members of group kmem to read the device; in this case members of the group need not su to root.

See the man page for the Mach ethernet driver ethdrv in appendix A for additional configuration requirements.

Since the x-kernel on the Mach platform does not respond well to CTRL-C's, we recommend running it in the background so you can easily send it a SIGKILL with the 'kill' command.

ROM options

The number of input threads and buffers used by the ethernet drivers in the Mach3 platform can be set with the following ROM file options:

shepherd threads N

shepherd buffers M

There should be at least as many buffers as input threads.