[vortex] 3C905TX doesn't see 10Mbps hub till unplugged/replugged

[Bogdan Costescu]

On Fri, 30 Jun 2000, Donald Becker wrote:

> No, it might just mean that autonegotiation did not complete.

This is already a good indication. OK, it doesn't show "0x0000" partner
capabilities, but it means that something doesn't work well. We can use
this as an extra check only.

> Keep in mind that there are 100baseT4 MII transceivers, not just 100baseTx.

Yes, but we can detect them, can't we? And anyway, how many people use
these ? And even more, how many people complained about negotiation
problems with 100baseT4 ?
My proposal was to act in case we detect something wrong; if T4 works well
in all cases, it's not affected.

> 0xffff means that there is no MII transceiver.
> 0x0000 might mean that there is no MII transceiver, but it usually means
> that there is no link partner report (no autonegotiation).

We should be able to detect when there is no MII transceiver to eliminate
this possibility from the 0x0000 list. If there is no MII transceiver,
what does reg. 1 or reg. 4 return ?

> Consider MII+10base2 boards.  The driver must switch to 10base2 when there
> is no twisted pair link beat.

How is this done now ? AFAIS, there is a check for MII or NWAY in which
case reg.5 and reg.1 (which is never used afterwards!) are read and acted
upon, then there is a check for 10base2 (which will fail because we have
if_port==XCVR_MII) and then there is a write to Wn4_Media in case we don't
have NWAY (so the write will be done). Then vortex_timer does not change
anything...

Sincerely,

Bogdan Costescu

IWR - Interdisziplinaeres Zentrum fuer Wissenschaftliches Rechnen
Universitaet Heidelberg, INF 368, D-69120 Heidelberg, GERMANY
Telephone: +49 6221 54 8869, Telefax: +49 6221 54 8868
E-mail: Bogdan.Costescu@IWR.Uni-Heidelberg.De