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Novell RCONSOLE via RS232 serial port

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First post, by Gopher666

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Some of you might remembers this tool for remotely managing Novell 4.x servers. It actually works well with Win95/Win98 clients using IPX/SPX with the synchronous mode.

Now for the asynchronous it's gets a bit more tricky, this is the mode which was made to connect to the netware server console via RS232 using a NULL-MODEM cable from other PC or ... it could even support regular DIAL-UP modem connection.

In the first round I would like to get this working with the same RCONSOLE.EXE from Win9X.

As preflight check I already tested the serial connection between the novell server and the client PC I using by booting both of them up with linuxes and testing it with minicom/screen, it works. You must test this otherwise your walking in the dark if you don't even know for 100% that serial works.

As the next step if I go with all default options using the null-modem cable in the client I still get nothing. Console is enabled on the serial with 9600bps all seems to be ok from both sides. Any clues there?

On the Novell side there are some fields for AT commands however I assume that when you select NULL modem connection there as well it don't try to use them.

Then after I get this working the next step would be to have it hooked up to a regular linux box with a screen. Anybody tried that? I don't know if this is some propriatery novell shit for the protocol or should work with 9600 raw session with putty?

Thanks

Reply 1 of 5, by vstrakh

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Do you have a simple null-modem cable (like 3 wires and that's all), or do you have a proper cable, with full (or at least loopback) handshaking?

Reply 2 of 5, by Gopher666

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No idea 🤣? But if it works fine with 2 minicoms/screens on 2 linuxes I don't see why shouldn't it with the novell but now that you said it I will just try all my nullmodem cables to see if it makes a difference. All 3 works fine between 2 linuxes.

Reply 3 of 5, by vstrakh

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Will it work or not - depends on the handshake configuration in sw. If NetWare wants hardware handshake (CTS/RTS/etc) it must be made available, otherwise sw will wait for the signal to start transmission, and will never see it. The best would be to have a full cable, where CTS/RTS are connected between endpoints. Cheapest way would be the loopback handshake, where CTS/RTS are connected locally on the DB9/25 connector to fake the responses from the other side.
Wiki has an article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_modem) see "Types of null modem" section.

Reply 4 of 5, by Gopher666

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I didn't have a single cable like that at home so I built one and guess what ... it worked 😁

It is slow, I don't know why. I did work fair amount with Linux/BSD/AIX/network hardware with 9600 bps serials but this is just megaslow like you push the down key 5 times and wait about 5 seconds until it goes down in the menu but at least it works 🤣. It's pretty much the same with all baud rates from 2400 to 9600 (that's the max you can configure on the Novell Server side).

Maybe some shielding issues with the cable, this junk wire is about 1.5m don't have full shielding just a shield line in it I soldered that as well on both end to the metal casings.

So now that Win9X rconsole works, I tested what happens if I do a minicom -D /dev/ttyS0 in linux.

Not a budge however if I reboot the Novell ATH0Q0V1X4S0=1 comes through the cable, that's something.

I guess it tries to detect if some modem is plugged in but that's it after that any key I push on linux it doesn't do a thing anymore.

Reply 5 of 5, by Jo22

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Possible, but I doubt it's the shielding. In the 90s, I've essentially used 10m of loudspeaker wire to connect PCs in different rooms.
It was a simple 3-wire connection without any physical handshake.

Is a memory manager installed, by any chance? It may slow down the timings, like Windows.
Also please try to enable 16550A FiFo, if it's available.

Edit: If you have to run stuff in Windows, please try running it full screen, too.
It will give a little bit better performance.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

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