Daemon News '199911' : '"Hey! Mr. Answer Man "'

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Hey! Mr. Answer Man

by Todd Whitesel

toddpw@toddpw.org

A bunch of quickies this month. Let's get to it, shall we?

List of Topics

Why do I have to set a netmask of 255.255.255.255 when I use an IP alias?
I want to use the wheel on my wheel mouse.
Do you have any newbie-level resources for setting up the IP Filter 'ipf' ?
How do I get NetBSD to remember my ifconfig settings?
Why does make reject '$(shell blah)' in this makefile I'm porting to BSD?
What's in this month's mailbag?

Q: Why do I have to set a netmask of 255.255.255.255 when I use an IP alias?

It is not that you need 255.255.255.255 specifically, but rather that the netmask you use must be appropriate for the host or subnet in the alias.

If you are aliasing a single address, then 255.255.255.255 is correct because it allows only that exact address to be considered for routing on that port.

If you are aliasing a subnet, then you should use the netmask for that subnet, so that all addresses on the subnet (and only those on the subnet) are considered for routing on that port.

This prevents the alias from confusing the kernel into sending packets out on the wrong network interface.

Q: I want to use the wheel on my wheel mouse.

Go look at Colas Nahaboo's X mouse wheel scroll page and enjoy the adventure of learning about your wheel mouse.

(Note, my source for this reports that "the Netscape hack didn't work for me on Linux", so of course your mileage may vary.)

Q: Do you have any newbie-level resources for setting up the IP Filter 'ipf' ?

For a somewhat NetBSD specific step-by-step, try this page. There is also the official IP Filter Home Page which has more links and is, of course, more general.

Don't forget to look at the example files in /usr/share/examples/ipf, and of course there's always the man pages for ipf and ipnat.

Q: How do I get NetBSD to remember my ifconfig settings?

Create a file /etc/ifconfig.interface which contains the arguments you give to ifconfig after the interface name.

For example, for an interface configured like so:


	% ifconfig ne0 inet 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0

you could use the following command to create this file:


	% echo inet 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0 > /etc/ifconfig.ne0

Alternatively, you can add a line to /etc/rc.conf that looks like this:


	ifconfig_ne0="inet 10.0.0.1 netmask 255.255.255.0"

(The inet is technically optional, because it's the default.)

Q: Why does make reject '$(shell blah)' in this makefile I'm porting to BSD?


	CONTRIBDIR := $(shell cd ../contrib && pwd)

The above is a GNU make specific syntax. The BSD make equivalent is:


	CONTRIBDIR != cd ../contrib && pwd

Q: What's in this month's mailbag?

I'd like to run OpenBSD on a system with a 350 mhz or better AMD K6-2 ... how well is that supported?
How do I set up an FTP-proxy and tell BSD (especially comsole ftp) to use it?
Is there a "Down-and-Dirty" method to export NT 4.0 Users (and their passwords) to FreeBSD?
I'm running FreeBSD RELEASE-3.3, and neither the generic nor a custom kernel seems able to detect a generic IDE 12x CDROM, which works fine under windows and linux. Any ideas?

Do you have questions for the BSD Answer Man? Send them to bsd-answerman@toddpw.org.
Any email sent to this address is assumed intended for publication and will become the property of Dæmonnews.

That's all for this month, folks.
Until next time, remember: there's no shame in asking RTFM questions any more, because these days, there is just too much FM to R.