Conexant NIC/modem combo problems

Thetargos · 08-07-2005, 03:00 AM

Ok, so I did my homework and searched the forums, but found nothing similar to what I'm experiencing. The hardware is found on a Compaq Presario 1211LA laptop.

I have a "problem" with this hardware. While the modem is a Conexant HCF modem, which is very easy to get going once you get the drivers for it from www.linuxant.com, the NIC is not so easy. Sure, the Linux kenrel does come with drivers for this adapter, since it is based off the Tulip design, however, performance from this adapter is really bad in Linux. Searching the web I came across this page which describes that the driver shipped with Linux 2.2 and 2.4 is a modified version from an older release and that it may have problems.

Since pretty much every one is using a 2.6 kernel, and I still have the poor performance problem, I think it is save to asume that the 2.4 driver was simply migrated over to 2.6, but not further modified... If so, I was wondering if there would be a safe way to install a more recent and thus better performing version of this driver.

This hardware is running in a Compaq Presario Laptop model 1211LA, and the output from lspci -vv is the following:

Code:

00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Conexant HCF 56k Modem (rev 08)
        Subsystem: Compaq Computer Corporation 623-LAN Grizzly
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 160 (5000ns min, 10000ns max)
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
        BIST result: 00
        Region 0: I/O ports at 1400 [size=256]
        Region 1: Memory at f4000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [58] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI- D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME+

00:09.1 Communication controller: Conexant HCF 56k Modem (rev 05)
        Subsystem: Compaq Computer Corporation Grizzly
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
        BIST result: 00
        Region 0: I/O ports at 1838 [size=8]
        Region 1: Memory at f4004000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
        Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 2
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot+,D3cold+)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME+

In my LAN with other computers raging in NIC adapters from an nForce2 forceth, a VIA Rhine, a 3Com and a SiS900, all perform very well and at full speed transfer rates (full 100Mbps or ~10 MBytes/second), but the laptop with the problem performs quite poorly at only 2Mbit/s or ~200KBytes/second. For browsing is OK, since my shared DSL connection is of only 1Mbit/s, but for NFS, SMB, FTP and other network applications, performance is simply unbearable. I know the easiest solution would be to buy a PCMCIA ethernet adapter and to ignore altogether the onboard NIC, but at the moment I cannot get one.

I know that the argument "but this works 100% in Windows" is not a valid one (though sadly true), even though this computer has a dual-boot setup (I'd rather use Linux than Windows). At any rate, I was wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem and if there would be a solution for it.

Thanks in advance for any information.