[vortex] Strange problem with 3com card

[Bogdan Costescu]

On Mon, 24 Sep 2001, Martin Chantler wrote:

> I ran the command that dumps PCI info out and it appeared there

Please post the relevant lines here too.

> Anyway, I assigned the 3c59x module to it which was already in the
> kernel and it locks up (or it waits) forever during system boot up - no
> error messages
> I noticed if I set the interface protocol from DHCP to 'none' it didn't do
> this

I suspect that the one "locking up" is the DHCP software, waiting for the
connection to become available. The problem is that some combinations
cards-switches do not finish establishing the connection very quickly; the
DHCP software notices this, thinks that the network has encountered an
error and resets the driver/card; then the connection establishment is
started from the beginning and so it never finishes. There are 2
solutions:
 - replace the driver with a very recent one; the connection is not reset
anymore whenever the driver is started so the DHCP software sees the
connection 'up' immediately
 - replace the DHCP software. Andrew Morton mentioned on this list that at
least one such software was recently fixed to cope with this kind of
situations.

Well, there is also a 3rd solution: change the hardware (card and/or
hub/switch)...

Sincerey,

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