Re: ftp installation hangs

[Allan Bowhill <bc587@scn.org>]

On Sun, 5 Jul 1998, Aaron Jackson wrote:

> >It would be a better to download the files first, but the router box
> >(a basic Debian Linux 2.0 install) isn't setup to serve ftp, and there are
> >some library problems in getting it to do that. I'm not even sure if it
> >would address the problem, unless the problem has something to do with
> >passive mode ftp in the OpenBSD installation.
> 
> I'll be the first to admit that I don't know anything about Debian
> Linux, but every unix, unix-like system I have used has been able to
> serve ftp, that is unless it has been disabled.  It's not an
> inetd.config issue?  Anyway, I did an ftp install from my power mac
> running linux and it took about two or three minutes for a complete
> install.  I think that the slowness of the connection is what is causing
> the problem.  I have heard about the same type or behavior from other
> unixes with net installs.

I was hoping that's what it would be, but it doesn't look like it. 
I was getting pretty good throughput up to the point of failure. I 
tried the same install three times, and it stopped at movie.gif each
time. If bandwidth were slow, would that not be too much of a coincidence?

Additionally, if I let OpenBSD stay stuck for a long enough period of
time, my isp disconnects for idle time. 

Since you can attest to the fact that the ftp installation works, my guess  
is that it has something to do with passive mode or a dropped process,
perhaps related to latency, as you suggested. Does ftp.openbsd.org do
any processing between sending archives?

If movie.gif is at the end of one of the archives, then perhaps something
is happening with a process that occurs inbetween archive transmissions.
I was thinking something might be reverting back to active ftp mode, but I
don't know.

The Linux router box doesn't serve ftp, becuase it's a base installation.
ftpd doesn't exist on my system, and I would need to fetch and install it.
However, now debian is in a major transitionary phase with moving
from libc5 to libc6, which are incompatible. Many of the existing binaries 
do not function under libc6. Arrrg! :)

--Allan