[epic] Possible bug related to autonegotiation ?

[petrucha.stefan@slsp.sk]

Hi,

I have problems with my SMC EtherPower II 10/100 (based on EPIC/100
83C170QF) network card. It refuses to communicate correctly with our
corporate network under Linux - under MS Windows there are no problems
however. I'm using Debian GNU/Linux (stable).

The driver seems to load correctly (the last line appeared a few seconds
later than the first four):

epic100.c:v1.07h 8/18/99 Donald Becker ...
eth0: SMSC EPIC/100 83c170 at 0xdc00, IRQ 7, ...
eth0: MII transceiver #3 control 3000 status 7809.
eth0:  Autonegotiation advertising 01e1 link partner 0001.
eth0: Setting full-duplex based on MII #3 link partner capability of 41e1.

But ping from/to adjacent machine failed.

First I thought that I screwed the DHCP configuration. So I managed to
get and setup a permanent IP address - did not help. Result of a quick
check by our network administrator: the switch the machine is connected to
received NO valid packet, and my check: the machine received NO packet from
the network.

I tried to change the cable, to compile and use a newer kernel (2.4.x) with
updaded driver (1.11+LK1.1.12), to specify different parameters when
probing the module - no success. Check of this list's archive gave no clue.

Then once by accident I succeeded to load the module, configure the
interface and ping another machine before the last diagnostic message (about
full-duplex) was issued - bingo! It was almost reproducible, so I left it
alone as I had other things to do.

Last friday we had blackout and, after 3 hours, the UPS went down too. The
problem is back, as the last trick does not work almost anymore. I
succeeded once, but when trying to automatise the procedure, it stopped
working at all, even when done by hand as previously.

Does somebody have any hints?

Regards

Stefan Petrucha


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