Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Sat, 9 Jul 2005, David Lane wrote:

> DOS has no native networking ability that I'm aware of.You generally have to
> use some other protocol set (Netware IPX etc).I still have the drivers I
> sent you,which maybe the zip file your referring to.The driver it'self is
> simply a sys file called up through the config.sys at boot.Getting a
> network,that's something else.
>
> David Lane
> _______________________________________________

I took another look at the files in 3C509.ZIP and they do seem designed 
for mslan or nwclient.  Most of the 2MB download was for Windows.  The 
only useful file in there was the 3c509cfg.exe, used to set the card to 
AUI/BNC/RJ45, and to set the IRQ (instead of using it as pnp).

3C509 is etherlink III (10MBit).

There are also 3C501 (etherlink I) , 3C503 (etherlink II - we have one of 
these) and 3C59X (for the 3c5x9 cards).  I have three of the latter, one 
of which would not work with 3c59x.o, even using the .net kernel from 
SW71.  'device or resource busy' - this usually means I have the wrong 
driver (but maybe it means the card is dead).

So I ran 3c59xcfg.exe and did a complete test (except for the echo part, 
which requires plugging it into a network and running the echo bit on the
other computer, which I did for the 3c509 cards to prove they worked). 
It passed.  I ran the test three times.

I tried it again in linux and now it works.  Did running the test switch 
something on?

I also tried to do an autoconfigure but it said I needed to be in a 
network - maybe that helped?

I have an SMC card which according to the chip on it should work with 
rtl9139 - 'device or resource busy' and the net kernel cannot find it 
either.

My working PCI 100MBit cards -
3c5x9 - three
tulip - three
rlt8139 - four known working and one other SMC left to test

I had two ne2kpci's as well.

My working ISA cards -
3c509 - four (two of them without RJ45)
3c503 - one 
Accton ne/8390 - one

I have reserved one of the PCI 3com cards for use in putting together new 
computers with linux so that I can do a file transfer using floppy disk 
BL, which does not support 8 of my 11 cards, none of which are 
particularly new, all of which are supported by SW7.1.

Considering that obsolete hardware is now on average maybe five years 
newer than when BL1 came out, it would be helpful if at least rtl8139 
could replace one of the more obsolete ethernet modules.

I personally have never run across a single ewrk3 eeepro wd,or 
smc-ultra - could one or more of these be replaced by rtl8139 in the next 
BL?  This could even save space:

eepro100 - 22K
ewrk3    - 19K
rtl8139  - 16K

Tulip is 40K, wd and smc-ultra under 8K.  I should put together my own BL3
with tulip and rtl instead of the other four modules and it would add up 
the same but not everyone has figured out how.

I presume Steven uses all the modules he included (or used them five years 
ago).

What have other users found to be the most commonly needed ethernet 
modules?

Sindi