conserver/README

				README
				======


Maintainer/Enhancer

    Bryan Stansell (bryan@conserver.com) of Certainty Solutions, Inc. -
    formerly Global Networking and Computing (GNAC).


Big new version released!

    7.0.0 is out! What's so great about 7.0.0? GNU's autoconf has been
    integrated by Mark Roth (roth@feep.net)! I met Mark at the [1]LISA
    conference last December and he (quite quickly) provided the patches.
    I've been dragging my heels getting it out to others, but it's now
    available.

    Now that I have autoconf capabilities, I've taken out the need to edit
    the conserver/cons.h file - everything is now a --with or --enable
    configure argument (makes sense, doesn't it!?!). As with any X.0.0
    release, I may have introduced something bad into the code for systems
    I don't have access to, so be careful.

    I've successfully built 7.0.0 on Solaris and Linux. I've been told the
    client has built successfully under cygwin on NT (progress on the NT
    front!). Last report shows FreeBSD as a failure (any coders out there
    with FreeBSD have time to send me patches?). If anyone successfully
    builds and installs the software under other operating systems, I'd
    love to hear about it.


Finally, a FAQ!

    Here's the start of a conserver [2]FAQ. Got any additions? Let me
    know.


Mailing Lists

    There are currently two mailing lists available.
    [3]announce@conserver.com is an announcement-only mailing list for
    informing of new versions, major developments, etc.
    [4]users@conserver.com is for general Q&A, discussions, ideas, etc
    for conserver users. You can sign up my sending a message to
    listname-request@conserver.com with a subject of "subscribe" or
    head over to the online [5]web pages.


Origin

    The console server software found here is a heavily modified
    version originally written by Tom Fine (fine@head-cfa.harvard.edu)
    and then Kevin S Braunsdorf (ksb+conserver@sa.fedex.com). Patches
    from Robert Olson (olson@mcs.anl.gov) were then applied to get
    network console support.

    Arnold de Leon (arnold@corp.webtv.net) then fixed various bugs and
    added enhancements while at Synopsys. I then took the result and
    continued fixing things and adding features we found useful.
    Certainty Solutions has been supporting my coding efforts (in too
    many ways to list) since 1996.


The conserver.com Distribution

    The result is a combination of many people's work. This version is
    being released in hopes that it will help others. There is no
    warranty or support implied by the distribution of the software.

    As of version 6.1.7, the packaging and numbering scheme has
    changed.  I used to package conserver as conserver-GNAC-v.vv. Since
    GNAC (now [6]Certainty Solutions) has changed it's name I've
    decided to drop the GNAC portion and use a 3 digit version number
    (conserver-v.v.v). Why change the version numbering? I need to
    differentiate this thread of the code from the original authors and
    I couldn't come up with a good replacement for the GNAC name - sad,
    but true.


Downloading

    The latest version can be found at http://www.conserver.com/.


Other Good Information

    Zonker Harris has fabulous documents regarding the hookup of
    consoles to terminal servers and other such devices. His
    [13]Greater Scroll of Console Knowledge is a great place to start.


References

   1. http://www.usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/lisa2000/
   2. http://www.conserver.com/FAQ
   3. mailto:announce@conserver.com
   4. mailto:users@conserver.com
   5. https://www.conserver.com/mailman/listinfo
   6. http://www.certaintysolutions.com/

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