Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

On Thu, 13 May 2004, James Miller wrote:

> On Thu, 13 May 2004, Sindi Keesan wrote:
> 
> > I did not find a free crossover cable but I got four pci realtek 8139
> > cards and one more ISA (Kingston) to play with and then probably return.
> > Is there some easy way to make an adaptor so that a hub-type cable can be
> > used instead of crossover, since I can get several of those free?
> 
> I'm afraid the adaptor would cost as much as - maybe more than - a new
> crossover cable.  The plugs for UTP cable ends are cheap - 50 for a couple
> dollars or so.  But the cable crimping tool is expensive - $20-$30.  I
> have heard of people making up cables without the crimping tool - using a
> screwdriver to force down the cable-gripping tab on the plug and probably
> the metal contacts so they bite into the wire.  I know I could do this
> with a bit of patience and the right tools (small and large screwdrivers
> being the main ones).  If you're handy with tools, or know someone who is,
> you might give it a try.  Be prepared for failure on the first couple of
> tries, though - unless you're pretty good with this sort of thing.

Thanks.  Somehow I missed your response before I replied to David's
posting.  I presume my partner would also try to reuse the plug ends since
we don't currently have any new ones, but I can wait until another right
cable shows up since we have one already.  It is interesting to read about 
all this.  

> 
> > Most of the ISA cards were smc.
> 
> I'm very happy with my smc-ultras.  They work great under Linux (with the
> helper module loaded in addtion to the smc-ultra module)

I should probably have taken home a couple of these.  

I am getting nowhere with a Kingston ISA KNE2002LC.  

I ran both the SW71 and the SW32 net.i kernels, with power off in between 
(no choice because it would not reboot otherwise) and had the same lack of 
useful result as with the winbond 906:

with sw71 net.i kernel it gets stuck on com90xx.c line
with sw32 net.i kernel it gets stuck sooner, at md driver line.

I tried ne 0x300 irq=10 since the last two ISA cards were that but got 
back an error message about no NE2000 card at 0x300, IRQ=10.

I looked this card up in the online ethernet howto, which just referrned 
me to Kingston site, which only supports newer cards.  I could have 
emailed a technician.

I looked in www.google.com/linux as someone else suggested and found 
instructions on how to use X (fvwm) to get the card working, and also the 
fact that this card uses 'ne' and that Kingston cards should be identified 
as to address and irq when booting.  Probably that is only for pci cards.
My two Kingston PCI cards used tulip.o and worked perfectly first try.

I have four realtek cards (PCI), 2 each 8139 and 8139D that someone said
worked well for them, that I will use instead of these two ISA cards
unless anyone wants me to work on some other angle, out of interest.
I got this ISA card mainly to learn from, and I have learned that ISA 
cards can be more difficult to use than PCI cards unless they are 3com.

The Winbond 906 also has a BNC connector, and the Kingston card has a spot 
on it marked BNC with nothing on it (also a few other empty areas - all 
the cards are missing what someone said was for network boot. Looks like 
they kept using the same greenboard but different ICs, one of which is 
sort of pasted over something of a different size.

Sindi


> James