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[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

> >
> > 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