[vortex] duplex problems with 3c905

[Tim Bell]

Hi,

I have this card running under linux 2.4.9:

01:02.0: 3Com PCI 3c905C Tornado at 0xc800. Vers LK1.1.16

It's plugged directly into a media converter, then a length of fibre,
then another media converter, and then a Cisco 4500M.  There are no
other hosts on this network segment.

When I plugged it in, I started getting the "Transmit error, Tx status
register 82" message, so I dutifully read vortex.txt, and tried forcing
the driver into full-duplex mode.  This worked (so far as the error
messages stopped), but then I started getting receive errors, at a rate
of about 8% of received packets:

$ ifconfig eth2
eth2      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:01:03:45:27:DB  
          inet addr:XXX.XX.XXX.XXX  Bcast:XXX.XX.XXX.XXX Mask:255.255.255.252
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:2823725 errors:227890 dropped:0 overruns:1 frame:455780
          TX packets:2596649 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:100 
          RX bytes:1844154109 (1758.7 Mb)  TX bytes:508503880 (484.9 Mb)
          Interrupt:7 Base address:0xc800

My understanding is that the particular port on the 4500M is only
capable of half-duplex, so I've now tried switching off the force
full-duplex option.  The error messages returned (as expected).
And ifconfig shows collisions at a rate of 2% of received packets (as
well as a few errors), which I suppose is to be expected on a
half-duplex link:

$ ifconfig eth2
eth2      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:01:03:45:27:DB  
          inet addr:XXX.XX.XXX.XXX  Bcast:XXX.XX.XXX.XXX Mask:255.255.255.252
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:70841 errors:7 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:14
          TX packets:57334 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:1321 txqueuelen:100 
          RX bytes:42444973 (40.4 Mb)  TX bytes:10981035 (10.4 Mb)
          Interrupt:7 Base address:0xc800

In either full or half duplex mode, traffic is getting through.  The
only operational signs of trouble are the errors messages and output
from ifconfig.

Any ideas of what's going on?  Any suggestions of further diagnosis
methods?  How should I fix this?

I'd appreciate a CC of any reply, since I'm not currently on this list.

Thanks,

Tim.
-- 
Tim Bell - bhat@trinity.unimelb.edu.au - System Administrator & Programmer
    Trinity College, Royal Parade, Parkville, Victoria, 3052, Australia