3C900-combo

[Donald Becker]

On Fri, 26 Mar 1999, Paul Tod Rieger wrote:

> > > However, the 10Base2 (bus) and 10BaseT (hub) connections seem dead to
> > > the world. Is there another driver version I could try now? (I'm not a
> > > driver developer, but I'd be willing to help debug this.) Both
> > > connections had worked on Solaris 7, Intel.
> >
> > What is the detection message?
> 
> Mar 25 16:30:03 www kernel: 3c59x.c:v0.99E 5/12/98 Donald Becker  
> http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/linux/drivers/vortex.html
> Mar 25 16:30:03 www kernel: eth1: 3Com 3c900 Boomerang 10Mbps/Combo at  
> 0xff00, 00:60:97:b1:72:3c, IRQ 10
> Mar 25 16:30:03 www kernel:   8K word-wide RAM 3:5 Rx:Tx split,  
> autoselect/NWay Autonegotiation interface.

Hmmm, that's curious.
The "NWay Autonegotiation" transceiver type should only be set for Cyclone
cards.  The "autoselect" setting should override this, but...

> > Are you using the media type that you expect?
> 
> I've tried the 10Base2 (with my LAN) and 10BaseT (cable modem) connections.

Have you tried specifying the media type with a module option?

> > Check /proc/net/dev to see if you are sending packets.
> The file size is 0.

It's a pseudo-file generated on-the-fly.
It doesn't have a length until you read it.
   (And one hand clapping doesn't make a sound unless you listen for it.  We
   philosophically *deep* here folks.)

Try 'cat /proc/net/dev'.

> > If so, you likely have a routing problem.
> 
> I have tried the same network settings (and thus routes) with the  
> ne2k-pci driver and a ne2k-compatible NIC -- and had success.  In fact, I  
> am using this NIC as eth0 with the cable modem now.  I'd like to use the  
> 3C900-combo card's 10Base2 as eth1 with the LAN.

I suggest overriding the media setting.  Unlike 10baseT, which has a link
beat, a 10base2 connection is difficult to reliably sense.  You can do it by
spewing a garbage packets onto the network and seeing if one gets through,
but I'm morally opposed to that.

> Thanks for any more help!  (And the ne2k-pci driver. :-)  BTW, does it  
> need the 8390.o core?  I have been loading it....)

Yes, the ne2k-pci driver needs the 8390 core.
I wrote an autoload-8390 thingy for 2.1.*, and someone else cleaned it up
for 2.2.*.  So with 2.2 you now don't need to preload 8390.o.

Donald Becker					  becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov
USRA-CESDIS, Center of Excellence in Space Data and Information Sciences.
Code 930.5, Goddard Space Flight Center,  Greenbelt, MD.  20771
301-286-0882	     http://cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov/people/becker/whoiam.html