[vortex] 3C905B-FX SC REV-A link problem

[Nix N. Nix]

Well, I figured it out:

It all boils down to how mii-diag handles the value of mii_val[0] and
mii_val[1].  Since mii-tool is based on mii-diag, that check is done in
both, with one difference:

In mii-diag (I paraphrase):
if (mii_val[0] == 0xffff || mii_val[1] == 0x0000)
    {
    fprintf (stderr, "No MII transceiver present!\n") ;
    return -1 ;
    }

In mii-tool (I paraphrase):
if (mii_val[0] == "0xffff")
    {
    fprintf (stderr, "No MII transceiver present!\n") ;
    return -1 ;
    }

IOW, mii-tool doesn't think that mii_val[1] == 0x0000 => no MII
transceiver.  This seems to be the root cause, since, on that particular
card, mii_val[0] = 0x0000 and mii_val[1] = 0x0000 .  So, I'm going to
ask the people who maintain net-tools as to why they took the "||
mii_val[1] == 0x0000" out of that if statement.

The RedHat 8.0 script does grep for the presence of "No MII transceiver"
and does return as if there was a link present so, if that if-statement
were in place as it is in mii-diag, this problem would immediately go
away.

Again, thanks for all the help.

On Thu, 2002-11-07 at 11:50, Donald Becker wrote:
> On 6 Nov 2002, Nix N. Nix wrote:
> > On Wed, 2002-11-06 at 19:49, Donald Becker wrote:
> > > On Wed, 6 Nov 2002, Nix N. Nix wrote:
> > > 
> > > > When an interface based on this card, using the 3c59x driver, is brought 
> > > 
> > > What driver version?
> > Umm, is this what you're looking for ?
> >     LK1.1.18ac 01Jul02 akpm
> >      - Fix for undocumented transceiver power-up bit on some 3c566B's
> >        (Donald Becker, Rahul Karnik)
> > 
> > This is from the 3c59x.c file as distributed with RedHat Linux 8.0
> >
> > > > up, mii-tool version 1.60 reports no link, even though the card works 
> > > 
> > > Does 'mii-diag' work?
> > 
> > Sorry, I don't have mii-diag on that particular machine, and I don't
> > want to mess with the default RedHat install, because it's a production
> > machine.
> 
> Hmmm, I don't understand why you are reluctant to get the proper tools
> for tracking down the problem.  Red Hat has no problem shipping broken
> drivers (see many of the other driver mailing lists).
> 
> Good luck with your problem.
> 
> -- 
> Donald Becker				becker@scyld.com
> Scyld Computing Corporation		http://www.scyld.com
> 410 Severn Ave. Suite 210		Scyld Beowulf cluster system
> Annapolis MD 21403			410-990-9993
>