Alan Cox first developed IPX support for the Linux kernel in
1985.[1] Initially it was useful for little more than
routing IPX datagrams. Since then, other people, notably Greg Page,
have provided additional support.[2]
Greg developed the IPX configuration utilities that we'll use in this chapter
to configure our interfaces. Volker Lendecke developed support for the NCP
filesystem to allow Linux to mount volumes on network-connected NetWare
fileservers.[3]
He also created tools that allow printing to and from Linux. Ales
Dryak and Martin Stover each independently developed NCP fileserver
daemons for Linux that allow network-connected NetWare clients to
mount Linux directories exported as NCP volumes, just as the NFS
daemon allows Linux to serve filesystems to clients using the NFS
protocol.[4] Caldera Systems, Inc. offers a commercial and fully
licensed NetWare client and server that supports the latest Novell
standards, including support for the NetWare Directory Service
(NDS).[5]
Today, therefore, Linux supports a wide range of services that allow
systems to be integrated with existing Novell-based networks.
Although we don't detail the Caldera NetWare support in this
chapter, it is important that we talk about it. Caldera was founded
by Ray Noorda, the former CEO of Novell. The Caldera NetWare support is a
commercial product and fully supported by Caldera. Caldera provides the
NetWare support as a component of their own Linux distribution called
Caldera OpenLinux. The Caldera solution is an ideal way of introducing Linux
into environments that demand both commercial support and the ability to
integrate into existing or new Novell networks.
The Caldera NetWare support is fully licensed by Novell, providing a
high degree of certainty that the two companies' products will be
interoperable. The two exceptions to this certainty are "pure IP" operation for the client, and NDS server, though neither of these were available at
the time of writing. NetWare client and NetWare server are both available. A
suite of management tools is also provided that can simplify
management of not only your Linux-based NetWare machines, but your
Novell NetWare machines, too, by bringing the power of Unix scripting
languages to the task. More information on Caldera can be found at
their web site.
Along with Version 4 of NetWare, Novell introduced a feature called
the NetWare Directory Service (NDS). The NDS specifications are not
available without a nondisclosure agreement, a restriction that
hampers development of free support. Only Version 2.2.0 or later of
the ncpfs package, which we'll discuss later, has
any support for NDS. This support was developed by reverse engineering
the NDS protocol. The support seems to work, but is still officially
considered experimental. You can use the non-NDS tools with NetWare 4
servers, provided they have “bindery emulation mode”
enabled.
The Caldera software has full support for NDS because their implementation
is licensed from Novell. This implementation is not free, however. So
you will not have access to the source code and will not be able to
freely copy and distribute the software.
