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  • From: Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] Re: connecting via Ethernet
  • Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 19:18:05 -0400 (EDT)

> >
> > insmod 8390 (okay)
>
> So far so good.
>
> > insmod 3c59x - Device or resource busy
>
> Wrong module.

>
> > insmod ne 'Use of PCI-ne2000 driver recommended!'
> > (and it identified io 0x6500 and irq 12)
>
> Wrong module.
>
> > insmod ne2k-pci: No useable cards found, driver NOT installed'
>
> It's possible that your previous mistakes have clogged the NIC.
> If that is so, it may take a hard reset to clear the NIC.

So do I do 8390 and then ne2k-pci? Or first also ne? I will try one more
time - 8390, ne, ne2k-pci but I suspect it will tell me it cannot find any
PCI cards. This is the same chip that was used on ISA cards.


> > route
> > eth0 is not on the list.
>
> eth0 will not be on the list until you ifconfig it.
>
> > Is this or is this not a pci card?
>
> What does net.i say?
>
> > Linux tells me first that it is not really a pci card,
>
> How exactly does "Linux" tell you that?

Linus online HOWTO says this is an old design of chip pasted onto a PCI
card. It says the same thing about the winbond 940 chip which is on a PCI
card: '10+ year old design glued onto a PCI card' which runs at about the
same speed as ISA.

> > then treats it as if it were,
>
> How?

After I fixed the BIOS linux consistently said the card was at IRQ 12 and
0x6500. And when I insmod ne it tells me to use ne2000 PCI driver, which
I think means it is a pci card.


> > then tells me to load the pci module,
>
> Sounds reasonable to me.

insmod ne2k-pci:

> > then says it cannot find a pci ethernet card,
>
> Because of your system BIOS. Don't blame "Linux" for this.

The BIOS is fixed. It still tells me it cannot find any PCI cards.

>
> > It seems to be rather confused, as am I. Help!
>
> Change a PCI setting in your BIOS. Boot net.i.
> Does it get a useable IRQ for eth0? If not: repeat.


I fixed the BIOS so IRQs 11 and 12 are PCI not legacy. Now when I boot
linux finds the card at IRQ 12, that is not the problem. net.i lists
various .c files including ne and ne2k-pci and one other which did not
work either, via-rhine.

>
> > I see why the rummage sale does not sell cards with BNC
> > connectors, which means that they are older and thus
> > probably more prone to these problems.
>
> On the contrary, old BNC cards are less prone to problems
> (other than wear and tear). Most BNC NICs are ISA cards
> and don't use PCI to set the IRQ and io address.

Well, now I also have two ISA cards and will discuss them below.

>
> The biggest advantage of old NICs (other than the cheap price)
> is that you are almost certain to find the appropriate module
> in Slackware (once you figure out exactly which module to use).
>
> > At least all my parallel ports take the same plip module.
>
> And we all know how well PLIP works for you.

Apart from one Hercules card it is now working fine on all my computers
just so long as I don't use a script and the cable does not fall off the
computer. A bit slow is all and I need to unplug the printer first and
cannot transfer .img files with plip so they come out the same. Plip did
fine on 147MB non-image files every time. I had the time.

Today I stopped by the yard sale where I got the working cable and he
pulled out another which was not crossover and said he would hunt up a
crossover for me. We found in a dead computer an ISA 3Com Etherlink III
card. This has RJ45 and something resembling a game port.

1992

Linux HOWTO says to us driver 3c509 and something about latency and not
enough buffer but the B version had more RAM onboard. Mine is version TP
which is not mentioned. I should use a DOS utility to disable PnP first,
then do a hard reset. The utility also lets me select 10baseT (RJ45),
10base2 (BNC) or AUI (the game port?) and this is not automatic. I did
not understand much of this and don't know where I would get a utility.
I do not have any free ISA slots either.

Jim went through our recycling collection and found two cards with RJ-45
and BNC connectors and both have winbond chips.

W89C906F - ISA - uses ne and 8390 Labelled $4.95 sale on the back
W89C940 - PCI - uses ne, ne2k-pci and 8390.
'A cheap ne2000 card with 10+ year old design....'

If this works I will use it temporarily in the last three computers and
then hunt up three more PCI cards. I already have 3 ISA cards that I want
to use and only 2-3 slots per computer.


> Cheers,
> Steven






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