ethercons: ethernet console driver for 5-current

[Kevin Oberman]

> Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 06:26:18 +1000
> From: Peter Jeremy <PeterJeremy at optushome.com.au>
> Sender: owner-freebsd-current at freebsd.org
> 
> 
> MOP (as you point out later) or LAT have the advantage of being more
> standard, but I'm not sure how well documented they are.

MOP is well documented. It is actually two protocols, one for download
(MOP/DL similar to bootp) and one for remote console (MOP/RC). Both are
very well and openly documented, but I left all of my documentation at
a former job thinking that I was unlikely to ever care about MOP
again. But I'm sure some of my old DECnet buddies still have
it. (Note that while MOP was included under the DECnet umberella, it
is really totally separate from anything else in DECnet and I think
pre-existed DECnet Phase II.

LAT was officially a proprietary protocol and, while quite efficient,
makes several assumptions about network characteristics that make it
poorly suited to general use. (I assume HP now owns LAT.)

I'd vote for MOP/RC as a simple protocol that is designed for exactly
this purpose. 
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman at es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634