Subject: Re: bin/5631: talkd (/usr/libexec/ntalkd) doesn't work
To: Matthias Scheler <tron@lyssa.owl.de>
From: Erik E. Fair <fair@clock.org>
List: netbsd-bugs
Date: 06/20/1998 13:43:01
At 13:12 -0700 6/20/98, Matthias Scheler wrote:

>Our "talkd" works absolutely perfectly. I successfully tried any
>combination of NetBSD 1.3.2, NetBSD 1.3F and Linux (Kernel 2.0.34,
>SuSE 5.1 distribution) a few moments ago.
>
>There are two probable reasons for your problem:
>a) You use a dynamic assigned IP address. Our talk daemon doesn't work
>   correctly if "inetd" didn't bind to a full routed address at startup.
>b) You are trying to talk with a system running Sun OS. Sun OS's talk
>   daemon was never compatible with anything except Sun OS.

Actually, the SunOS talk/talkd was also compatible with the VAX. The idiot
who designed "talk" at Berkeley sent out binary data in VAX-byte order
(backwards from just about everything else in the world, even Intel), and
Sun, in an effort to be compatible with what was then the majority of UNIX
systems out there, adjusted their talk program to try and deal. Since
"talk" only uses IP, it should be a simple matter to look at the address
that came in the packets, and keep swapping around the bytes until the
address family matches IP.

	Erik <fair@clock.org>