Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

I have two pci ethernet cards, both RJ45, both Winbond 840 (for which I 
found a linux 2.2.16 module by searching the web since SW71 did not 
include that module).  They have identical chips except for one chip with 
a slightly different number.  I plugged them into two non-identical 
computers, one a DFI PI (Intel cpu) and one a Gateway PII (AMD cpu).
The DFI booted fine, the Gateway told me:
Resource conflict:  PCI Network Controller
Bus:00  Device:0f Function:00

I checked and IRQ 5 10 11 and 12 are open.  Usually the pci cards put 
themselves on IRQ 9 10 11 or 12.

What sort of conflict is/was this?

I played around with resource configuration (auto PCI IRQs, reserved 
legacy IRQs) and only made things worse so put that back to defaults.
I hit ESC to resume despite the error (after reserving IRQ3 for the ISA 
modem in Com2) and was unable to dial with linux:  write: warning: 
input/output error,  modem hangup - twice.

I was going to return the card to where I got it from (free) but decided 
first to see if it worked in the DFI so I switched the two cards and now 
both computers booted and I dialed in linux on the Gateway.  (I have not 
yet tried using the network cards).  So it seems to be some sort of 
incompatibility between one of the two nearly identical cards, and 
something in the Gateway CMOS or hardware.

The two computers in question worked just fine with two other PCI network 
cards but I was replacing them because another list member is set up with 
BNC cable and these are a rare beast - RJ45/BNC pci cards that 
automatically detect which type of connector you are using.  They seem to 
run at the same speed no matter what type of cable is used.

My partner succeeded in surgery on a cut non-crossover cable and it is now 
crossover, at least it works at 10MBit.  He also made an RJ45 extension 
plug (plug into both ends) into a crossover adapter by rewiring it. This 
has saved us $1.16 plus tax.  

Can you use BNC cables to hook together 3 or more computers without a hub?  
We have two ISA BNC cards and, I am told, lots of BNC cables.