Dell OptiPlex GX1p network connectivity

[Hirson, Guy]

My apologies if this information is located somewhere already, but I have
not found anything useful.

I have a Dell OptiPlex GX1p (Intel Pentium II/450 system with 256MB RAM and
integrated 3COM 3C905B network adaptor - ostensibly, anyway). Dell UK deny
supporting Linux (or shipping Dell products with Linux) - so no support
there.

I have recently upgraded from Redhat 5.2 (kernel 2.0.36) to Redhat 6.0
(kernel 2.2.5) and installed version 0.99L of the Vortex driver (loaded as a
module). The system boots successfully and indicates the network modules are
loaded [OK]. However, there is no connectivity to anything outside of the
host.

If I "ifdown eth0; ifup eth0" it generally gets things working.

I had similar problems with Redhat 5.2 and more - when I got it going, it
was only in 10MBit mode. I fixed that by forcing 100BaseTx mode in
/etc/conf.modules. This configuration still exists, but I am still not
getting connectivity in 6.0.

Using vortex-diag and mii-diag seems to report all sorts of funny stuff in
the hardware, but I am not sure how much might relate to the integration
process of putting the hardware on the motherboard, so I am reluctant to
fiddle.

Has anyone any experience of getting Dell Optiplex systems to operate
properly in this regard?

Thanks,
Guy Hirson

PS: I have appended the outputs of vortex-diag and mii-diag - ignore them if
they are not relevant ...

vortex-diag.c:v1.08 5/3/99 Donald Becker (becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov)
Index #1: Found a 3c905B Cyclone 100baseTx adapter at 0xdc00.
The Vortex chip may be active, so FIFO registers will not be read.
To see all register values use the '-f' flag.
Initial window 7, registers values by window:
  Window 0: 0000 0000 0000 0000 f7f7 8010 00c0 0000.
  Window 1: FIFO FIFO 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 2000.
  Window 2: c000 564f 700a 0000 0000 0000 0008 4000.
  Window 3: 0000 0100 05ea 0000 000a 0800 0800 6000.
  Window 4: 0000 0000 0000 0cd2 0001 88c0 0000 8000.
  Window 5: 1ffc 0000 0000 0600 0807 06de 06c6 a000.
  Window 6: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 c000.
  Window 7: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 e000.
Vortex chip registers at 0xdc00
  0xDC10: **FIFO** 00000000 0000000a *STATUS*
  0xDC20: 00000020 00000000 00080000 00000004
  0xDC30: 00000000 2526dada 0ec1a800 00080004
 Indication enable is 06c6, interrupt enable is 06de.
 No interrupt sources are pending.
 Transceiver/media interfaces available:  100baseTx 10baseT.
 MAC settings: half-duplex.
 Station address set to 00:c0:4f:56:0a:70.
 Configuration options 4000.
EEPROM contents (256 words):
 0x000: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x010: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x020: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x030: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x040: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x050: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x060: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x070: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x080: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x090: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x0a0: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x0b0: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x0c0: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x0d0: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x0e0: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x0f0: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x100: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x110: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x120: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x130: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x140: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x150: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x160: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x170: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x180: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x190: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x1a0: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x1b0: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x1c0: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x1d0: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x1e0: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 0x1f0: 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0 00c0
 The word-wide EEPROM checksum is 0xc000.
Parsing the EEPROM of a 3Com Vortex/Boomerang:
 3Com Node Address 00:C0:00:C0:00:C0 (used as a unique ID only).
 OEM Station address 00:C0:00:C0:00:C0 (used as the ethernet address).
 Manufacture date (MM/DD/YYYY) 6/0/1900, division À, product À

*****************

Basic registers of MII PHY #0:  c000 c000 c000 c000 c000 c000 c000 c000.
 Basic mode control register 0xc000: Auto-negotiation disabled, with
 Speed fixed at 10 mbps, half-duplex.
  Transceiver in loopback mode!
  Transceiver currently being reset!
 Basic mode status register 0xc000 ... c000.
   Link status: not established.
 Your link partner can do c000:.