New to Linux, Need help with NIC - 3COM 3c905-tx

[Frank Scholten Linde]

>  I am new to Linux and after several hair-pulling days, I finally got 
> Red Hat 5.1 installed... Whew, they weren't kidding when they said it 
> was difficult.
> 
>  Anyways, I am having trouble initializing my NIC card.  I am 
> using a 3Com 3C905-TX (PCI) Card.  I read a bunch of info on the 
> card and new drivers and kernels and stuff, but I just got more 
> confused.  Hear is what I know:
> 
>  I am running Kernel version 2.0.35, it's trying to set the irq to 0 
> which I get a warning that it probably won't work.

Try to place the card in another slot, that might help (try to use the combined
pci/isa slot.

  I got a copy of the 
> updated 3c59x.c file but can only find a 3c59x.o file on my system.  
> However when I run ifconfig it does mention 3c59x.c.

You have to compile the .c file into a .o file. Read ahead

  I just can't 
> figure out where this file is.  I do not have the directory structure 
> /drivers/net as listed in the boomerang.html.  Any help would be 
> greatly appreciated...

IF you installed RH 5.1 out of the box it oughtta recognize the 3c905
card without a prob (at least that always happens on the ones i installed it
on). It normally always selects a free irq. Maybe you just don't have any free
irq's on ya system caused by toooooooo many cards in it? You can check the
irq's that are in use in the file /proc/interrupt. 
There is one version i had, but i dunno wheter that was RH 5.0 or 5.1 where the
3c59x driver that was included in the distribution didn't work. It installed
without a prob, ifconfig looked okie (NOT the irq 0 thingy) but there was just
no network connection possible at all.
In that case i downloaded the new driver source from that vortex HP as well,
compiled it (like discribed on that page as well) replaced the old one, problem
solved. 
And with the "installation out of the box" you have the 3com driver compiled as
a module, and you can find that module in /lib/modules/2.0.3x/net/. And that is
of course then the 3x59x.o. And that is where you have to put the newly
compiled driver then as well.


ANyway .. hope this kinda helps. Succes


Frank


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Frank Scholten Linde - system/network administrator
E-Mail: <f.scholten.linde@tgi.nl> <frank@tgi.nl>
Date: Fri Dec  4 02:57:54 1998
Time: 08:42:01
XFMail * Redhat 5.2 - 2.0.36 *** Get smart, get linux ***
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