> - The messiest bit, though, is venti and networking.
> boot/boot figures it needs to set up the loopback
> interface for venti. But /net/ipifc doesn't exit
> and boot/boot considers this fatal. I suppose
> the Right Way(tm) to is to implement /net/ipifc
> and have it translate operations to the underlying
> network stack, but that seems an awful lot of
> work, for rather few applications. The not so
> right way would be to fake it, providing the
> interface, but just pretend all the messages
> succeed. But I copped out. I made one change
> to boot/boot. Now if it fails to open /net/ipifc/clone,
> it's not fatal.

the fact that the networking works differently is
a problem for a number of other applications, too.
dns, snoopy, aoe, cec come immediately to mind
as useful stuff that won't work with 9vx.

my inclination would be to give 9vx a proper
ethernet device, but that idea has been discussed
already.

i just wonder if all the coding around the fact
that the 9vx network is different is going to pay off.

- erik