3Com Etherlink III (3C509B) won't work

"Carl" <moc.erawtfosdigir@treblig_tnomal> wrote in message
news:3FFD9714.7080901@treblig_tnomal...
> is their nothing significant in 'dmesg'

I didn't see anything relating to ethernet -- Is there anything in specific
you might expect (what should I look for ?)


> have you check in 'locate 3c509' text file for any tips?

Not yet ... I'll take a look an see (I didn't know these existed..)


> it is beginning to sound like a driver problem.

Yes that is my thoughts the more I look at this - I'm just new to this so
not sure where to look to see what to fix... thanks to all for helping me
muddle through this, hopefully I'll get it working soon.


>
> CL
>

"Cameron Kerr" <cameron.kerr@paradise.net.nz> wrote in message
news:slrnbvrjk2.dsv.cameron.kerr@orloc.localdomain ...
> On 2004-01-08, Geoff <geoff_r@canada.com> wrote:
> >
> > "Cameron Kerr" <cameron.kerr@paradise.net.nz> wrote in message
> > news:slrnbvpbko.dsv.cameron.kerr@orloc.localdomain ...
> >> On 2004-01-07, Geoff <geoff_r@canada.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> > Setup:
> >> > WAN
> >> > |
> >> > 3Com <--> Router <--> Other PC
>
> > Sorry the picture didn't work... the WAN is connected to the router
(it's
> > WAN port) while the PC and 3COM (in the redhat machine) are on the LAN
side
> > of the router.
>
> Use a monospace font when doing ASCII art.
>
> > I'm wondering if the NIC's (3Com) interrupt is not be
noticed/processed..
> > (I'm sure there are interrupts as there is traffic in the form of pings
> > to/from the PC)
>
> It is possible that the 3Com is dropping interrupts, possibly because of
> a driver issue. Might I suggest you try a different card?

I know the card does work as if I boot with a network install floppy disk it
will DHCP fine (with a "normal" boot it will not DHCP fine (I'm assuming for
the same reason that the pings don't work...))


> Or, get hold of the testing disk (usually a DOS program) which will
> perform hardware checking on it for you. I'm told that there are Linux
> programs for doing this also.
>
> >> You should also make sure that the Router is set to forward IP.
> >> 'cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward' should output 1.
> >
> > When I run look at /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward it is 0 - what does
this
> > mean ?
>
> On the router? Are you sure? It should be set to 1 so that it will
> forward IP packets. Usually, that's done by putting the following in
> your startup commands, although I imagine Redhat does it differently.

I ran this command on the RedHat system - the router is Linksys so I don't
have a command prompt (just a web interface that I know of..)

> echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
>
> --
> Cameron Kerr
> cameron.kerr@paradise.net.nz : http://nzgeeks.org/cameron/
> Empowered by Perl!

On 2004-01-08, Geoff <geoff_r@canada.com> wrote:
>
> "Cameron Kerr" <cameron.kerr@paradise.net.nz> wrote in message
> news:slrnbvpbko.dsv.cameron.kerr@orloc.localdomain ...
>> On 2004-01-07, Geoff <geoff_r@canada.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Setup:
>> > WAN
>> > |
>> > 3Com <--> Router <--> Other PC

> Sorry the picture didn't work... the WAN is connected to the router (it's
> WAN port) while the PC and 3COM (in the redhat machine) are on the LAN side
> of the router.

Use a monospace font when doing ASCII art.

> I'm wondering if the NIC's (3Com) interrupt is not be noticed/processed..
> (I'm sure there are interrupts as there is traffic in the form of pings
> to/from the PC)

It is possible that the 3Com is dropping interrupts, possibly because of
a driver issue. Might I suggest you try a different card?

Or, get hold of the testing disk (usually a DOS program) which will
perform hardware checking on it for you. I'm told that there are Linux
programs for doing this also.

>> You should also make sure that the Router is set to forward IP.
>> 'cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward' should output 1.
>
> When I run look at /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward it is 0 - what does this
> mean ?

On the router? Are you sure? It should be set to 1 so that it will
forward IP packets. Usually, that's done by putting the following in
your startup commands, although I imagine Redhat does it differently.

echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

--
Cameron Kerr
cameron.kerr@paradise.net.nz : http://nzgeeks.org/cameron/
Empowered by Perl!

Geoff wrote:
> "Carl" <moc.erawtfosdigir@treblig_tnomal> wrote in message
> news:3FFD9714.7080901@treblig_tnomal...
>
>>is their nothing significant in 'dmesg'
>
>
> I didn't see anything relating to ethernet -- Is there anything in specific
> you might expect (what should I look for ?)
>
>
>
>>have you check in 'locate 3c509' text file for any tips?
>
>
> Not yet ... I'll take a look an see (I didn't know these existed..)
>
>
>
>>it is beginning to sound like a driver problem.
>
>
> Yes that is my thoughts the more I look at this - I'm just new to this so
> not sure where to look to see what to fix... thanks to all for helping me
> muddle through this, hopefully I'll get it working soon.
>
>

what module is being loaded for the card?

do an lsmod or check in /etc/modules.conf

what is the version of kernel in network install vs that in the normal
os, and can you do an lsmod during network install to see which module
is loaded for the card and which version?

cl

"Geoff" <geoff_r@canada.com> wrote in message
news:bxkLb.74$k97.5063@news20.bellglobal.com...
>
> "Carl" <moc.erawtfosdigir@treblig_tnomal> wrote in message
> news:3FFD9714.7080901@treblig_tnomal...
> > is their nothing significant in 'dmesg'
>
> I didn't see anything relating to ethernet -- Is there anything in
specific
> you might expect (what should I look for ?)
>
>
> > have you check in 'locate 3c509' text file for any tips?
>
> Not yet ... I'll take a look an see (I didn't know these existed..)
>

AHH I may have found the problem...,
----------------------------------------------------------
No received packets
If a 3c509, 3c562 or 3c589 can successfully transmit packets, but never
receives packets (as reported by /proc/net/dev or 'ifconfig') you likely
have an interrupt line problem. Check /proc/interrupts to verify that the
card is actually generating interrupts. If the interrupt count is not
increasing you likely have a physical conflict with two devices trying to
use the same ISA IRQ line. The common conflict is with a sound card on IRQ10
or IRQ5. The easiest solution is to move the 3c509 to a different interrupt
line.
--------------------------------------------

How do I change the interrupt line ? - can I just change the value in the
modules.conf file ?

"Carl" <moc.erawtfosdigir@treblig_tnomal> wrote in message
news:3FFED02B.4040004@treblig_tnomal...
>
>
> Geoff wrote:
> > "Carl" <moc.erawtfosdigir@treblig_tnomal> wrote in message
> > news:3FFD9714.7080901@treblig_tnomal...
> >
> >>is their nothing significant in 'dmesg'
> >
> >
> > I didn't see anything relating to ethernet -- Is there anything in
specific
> > you might expect (what should I look for ?)
> >
> >
> >
> >>have you check in 'locate 3c509' text file for any tips?
> >
> >
> > Not yet ... I'll take a look an see (I didn't know these existed..)
> >
> >
> >
> >>it is beginning to sound like a driver problem.
> >
> >
> > Yes that is my thoughts the more I look at this - I'm just new to this
so
> > not sure where to look to see what to fix... thanks to all for helping
me
> > muddle through this, hopefully I'll get it working soon.
> >
> >
>
> what module is being loaded for the card?

How do I know which version is loaded ?


> do an lsmod or check in /etc/modules.conf

interesting... modules.conf is the following:
-----------------------------------------------------------
alias usb-controller usb-uhci
alias eth0 3c509
options 3c509 irq=5
alias eth1 3c509
-----------------------------------------------------------

Is it correct to have eth0 and eth1 aliased to the same card ? (3c509)

>
> what is the version of kernel in network install vs that in the normal
> os, and can you do an lsmod during network install to see which module
> is loaded for the card and which version?

I belive the kernel for nomal boot is 2.4.20-8
I'm not sure what the kernal for the network install is...

I have noticed a difference (which probably explains the problem I am having
(see prev. post in a thread up)) is that the IRQ assigned by the network
install is IRQ=10.
Verison of the dirver for network install is 1.18c 1 Mar 2002.

Geoff.

On Fri, 9 Jan 2004 12:49:44 -0500, Geoff wrote:
>
> interesting... modules.conf is the following:
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> alias usb-controller usb-uhci
> alias eth0 3c509
> options 3c509 irq=5
> alias eth1 3c509
> -----------------------------------------------------------
>
> Is it correct to have eth0 and eth1 aliased to the same card ? (3c509)

if it is if both cards are the same type card.

I have two linksys nics,
grep eth /etc/modules.conf
alias eth0 tulip
alias eth1 tulip

mine would not work when I tried using the io/irq values as seen from
my windows box.

In comp.os.linux.networking Geoff <geoff_r@canada.com> wrote:
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> No received packets
> If a 3c509, 3c562 or 3c589 can successfully transmit packets, but never
> receives packets (as reported by /proc/net/dev or 'ifconfig') you likely
> have an interrupt line problem. Check /proc/interrupts to verify that the
> card is actually generating interrupts. If the interrupt count is not
> increasing you likely have a physical conflict with two devices trying to
> use the same ISA IRQ line. The common conflict is with a sound card on IRQ10
> or IRQ5. The easiest solution is to move the 3c509 to a different interrupt
> line.
> --------------------------------------------

> How do I change the interrupt line ? - can I just change the value in the
> modules.conf file ?

That only informs the driver of what IRQ the card is using. (and I
thought the driver could find that by interrogating the card nowadays,
so maybe if you HAVE an irq= thing there, that is wrong?).

If you want to change the irq that the card uses, you have to set it on
the card.

Depending on the card, that may involve using the dos setup disk for
it, or if you are lucky and it is pnp (which probably is faulty on the
card ..), using isapnp, or if you are very very lucky, use 3c5x9setup.

Peter

>>How do I change the interrupt line ? - can I just change the value in the
>>modules.conf file ?

well interrupts can be shared so lets first make sure the modules.conf
has the correct interrupt.

>
>
> That only informs the driver of what IRQ the card is using. (and I
> thought the driver could find that by interrogating the card nowadays,
> so maybe if you HAVE an irq= thing there, that is wrong?).
>
> If you want to change the irq that the card uses, you have to set it on
> the card.
>
> Depending on the card, that may involve using the dos setup disk for
> it, or if you are lucky and it is pnp (which probably is faulty on the
> card ..), using isapnp, or if you are very very lucky, use 3c5x9setup.
>
> Peter

I think he just needs to make sure the driver is trying to use the
proper irq that the card is set to. he should do this

lspci -v

or

cat /proc/pci


that should list several devices, and you should from that be able to
tell the irq your network card is on.

if you do not have 2 network cards installed, you should only have 1
entry for a network card in /etc/modules.conf

alias usb-controller usb-uhci
alias eth0 3c509
options 3c509 irq=5
alias eth1 3c509

I would eliminate altogether or just put a # in front of that options
line, and see if that fixes it. but first if you do not have 2 cards,
erase that alias eth1 3c509 line altogether.


i really expect the 3c509 should work without manually telling the
driver which irq the card is set to, what does the readme say about that?


as a note I have an nforce chipset and my modules.conf has this for
network settings

alias eth0 nvnet


clg

In comp.os.linux.networking Carl <moc.erawtfosdigir@treblig_tnomal> wrote:

> >>How do I change the interrupt line ? - can I just change the value in the
> >>modules.conf file ?

> well interrupts can be shared so lets first make sure the modules.conf
> has the correct interrupt.

I agree. That's what I said.

> > That only informs the driver of what IRQ the card is using. (and I
> > thought the driver could find that by interrogating the card nowadays,
> > so maybe if you HAVE an irq= thing there, that is wrong?).
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^
i.e. don't set the driver to the wrong IRQ.

> > If you want to change the irq that the card uses, you have to set it on
> > the card.
> >
> > Depending on the card, that may involve using the dos setup disk for
> > it, or if you are lucky and it is pnp (which probably is faulty on the
> > card ..), using isapnp, or if you are very very lucky, use 3c5x9setup.

> I think he just needs to make sure the driver is trying to use the
> proper irq that the card is set to. he should do this

> lspci -v

No he shouldn't. It's a 3c509B. That's an *isa* card. It predates even
PnP, and the procedure for dealing with it is generally to turn off
pnp on the card via jumpers (later cards had pnp that worked badly),
set the irq and io to one of a known good set of posibles via some dos
utility or 3x5x9setup, retire to a safe distance, reconfigure your
driver, and reload it.

PnP and isapnp were sometimes known to work with the card, but not
that often that one would want to do things that way.

> if you do not have 2 network cards installed, you should only have 1
> entry for a network card in /etc/modules.conf

> alias usb-controller usb-uhci
> alias eth0 3c509
> options 3c509 irq=5

Hmmm. So one can tell the driver which irq. I couldn't remember wther
it was the irq or the io region. You see, the 3c509 can be set to any
of several io regions, and I wouldn't like to probe at the wrong ones!

I seem to remember that 0x300 and 0x270 were "good" regions to set it
to. And that then it could be set to one of several IRQs, such as 3, 7,
9, 11.

> alias eth1 3c509

> I would eliminate altogether or just put a # in front of that options
> line, and see if that fixes it. but first if you do not have 2 cards,
> erase that alias eth1 3c509 line altogether.

> i really expect the 3c509 should work without manually telling the
> driver which irq the card is set to, what does the readme say about that?

I think it would need either the irq or the io region or both. But the
modern driver may be smarter. Looking at the source would tell us.

Peter