USING IBM OS/2 LAN SERVER 2.0 WITH NOVELL NE2000 NETWORK ADAPTER ================================================================ LAN Server uses the NDIS standard of interfacing between the adapter driver and the protocol driver. Thus, any NDIS driver should in principle work. Still, I found that it is not entirely without complications, and have tried to explain the things to beware of in this file. Try reading it if you have trouble with an NE2000 adapter, or any other unsupported adapter. First you have to find the driver. I found it in the Microsoft forum on CompuServe; that seems to be were the NDIS drivers are growing. You need an OS/2 version for the OS/2 requester/server, and a DOS version for the DOS requester. I have included the drivers, as downloaded from Microsoft, in the files NE2000D.ZIP and NE2000O.ZIP. The following information has been gathered by using LAN Server 2.0 Entry with OS/2 2.0. However, I see no reason why it shouldn't apply to LAN Server 2.0 Advanced and OS/2 1.3 as well. Part One: OS/2 requester ------------------------ The LANINST install program needs a .NIF file to explain how the driver's entry in the PROTOCOL.INI file is to be. Unfortunately, the .NIF file in NE2000O.ZIP is meant for Microsoft's LAN Manager, and is completely wrong for LAN Server. I have written a new .NIF file, patterned after the IBM supplied ones, and that seems to work. First you have to put the NE2000.OS2 driver from NE2000O.ZIP, together with my NE2000.NIF in a directory or drive by themselves (since LANINST will copy the entire directory, there should be no other files there). Then you can start the LANINST program on LAN Server or Requester. When asked by LANINST to insert the network drivers disk, you must insert the LAN Server drivers disk, even though you don't need those drivers. Afterwards you can direct it to copy additional network drivers from the directory containing the NE2000 files. NE2000 should now appear in the list of possible network adapters. Select that and the NETBIOS protocol - and the IEEE protocol if you need it. I have not changed the NETBIOS defaults. You may need to change the NE2000 defaults: I/O address base of 300 hex, and interrupt req. 3. The interrupt setting require some additional explanation: The NE2000 card supports IRQ 2, 3, 4 and 5. Some clones support other IRQs as well. If you have set your card for IRQ 2, you must select IRQ 9, since IRQ 2 is redirected to IRQ 9. I have, however, had a TRAP D problem (see below), which I thing may result from using an interrupt above 8, so I recommend using IRQ 3, 4 or 5 if entirely possible. (Remember: serial ports may use non-standard IRQs by placing arguments on the DEVICE=COM.SYS line). Now complete LANINST. LANINST updates the CONFIG.SYS, but does unfortunately forget to include the network adapter driver, if it is not one of the IBM supported ones (this may be a bug in LANINST or in my .NIF file). Therefore, you must manually add the following line to your CONFIG.SYS: DEVICE=C:\IBMCOM\MACS\NE2000.OS2 (the driver has been copied to C:\IBMCOM\MACS by LANINST). The line _must_ appear after the PROTMAN.OS2 line, but otherwise there should be no special requirements. Now, your network should work. If not, here is a list of problems that I have encountered: During driver installation: Hardware does not respond: The I/O addr. is probably wrong. Check that the IOBASE setting in IBMCOM\PROTOCOL.INI matches the adapter. Could not set up IRQ using DevHlp: The interrupt is already reserved by another driver. No error message, but driver doesn't install: The driver doesn't support the interrupt used. I got this reaction when trying to use IRQ 15. Late in CONFIG.SYS processing: Internal Error - CPS: Extent not found: I don't know what this means. You can get access to the hard disk by booting on the OS/2 install disk, and running CHKDSK /F (found on disk 2). You may be able to boot from the hard disk again if you remove all network references from CONFIG.SYS. But otherwise, don't worry: you can always reformat the hard disk. When starting the requester: Network not configured correctly: Probably, the adapter driver did not install. Possibly, the adapter driver failed to bind to NETBIOS. Network busy or out of resources: 1) Something's wrong with your cabling. Remember to terminate properly, even if using just a single card. 2) The driver's interrupt (see IBMCOM\PROTOCOL.INI) doesn't match the adapter's interrupt. When stopping the requester (done automatically when shutting down OS/2): Internal Error - TRAP D I don't know what's causing this, but I have a theory that it occurs when using an interrupt above 8. Extra tips: The IBMCOM\LANTRAN.LOG may some times gives extra information on errors. The entire NDIS specification may be downloaded from multiple sources, including 3COM. 3COM also has an introduction to NDIS on their bulletin board. WARNING Don't use the bug-fixed HPFS.IFS dated 18 june 1992. Should you get ~~~~~~~ the TRAP D error mentioned above, then you will get the CPS: Extent error next time you boot. I have never had the CPS: Extent error with the april 1992 edition of HPFS.IFS. Part Two: DOS requester ----------------------- Note: I have not tried to optimize the following. For instance, I believe I am installing both NETBIOS and IEEE protocol, which may not both be needed. First you install LAN Support Program: Put the following files in C:\LANMAN DXMA0MOD.SYS DXM.MSG DXMT0MOD.SYS DXME0MOD.SYS PROTOCOL.INI PROTMAN.DOS NETBIND.EXE PRO.MSG NE2000.DOS The NE2000.DOS file comes from NE2000D.ZIP. The rest come from the LAN Support disks. The .MSG files will have to be renamed slightly, depending on language, see the manual. The PROTOCOL.INI is a text file, which should look like this: [PROTOCOL_MANAGER] DriverName = PROTMAN$ [ETHERNET] DriverName = DXME0$ Bindings = NE2000 [NE2000] DriverName=MS2000$ Interrupt=3 IOBase=0x300 (prototypes are available on the LAN Support disks and in NE2000D.ZIP). Set Interrupt and IOBase as appropriate. Int 2 is redirected to int 9. Add the following to CONFIG.SYS LASTDRIVE=Z device=c:\lanman\protman.dos device=c:\lanman\ne2000.dos device=c:\lanman\dxma0mod.sys 001 device=c:\lanman\dxme0mod.sys device=c:\lanman\dxmt0mod.sys SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM /E:512 /P (The 001 parameter is a country code, which may need changing). Add the following early in AUTOEXEC.BAT c:\lanman\netbind Reboot. Then you install the LAN requester: Use the INSTALL program. The INSTALL program adds some parameters to DXMT0MOD.SYS in CONFIG.SYS. For some reason, this requires that the adapter is available at that time, which is impossible, since it cannot be used until after NETBIND. I removed these parameters, and then it ran fine. =============================================================================== If you have any comments, you can write to me: Rune Kock Terrasserne 16, 172 DK-2700 Bronshoj Denmark Or send E-Mail on CompuServe; my ID is 100111,2277 (checked irregularly).