3Com Etherlink III

Pikie-Me · 09-30-2003, 01:52 PM

I can't seem to get an old ISA NIC - 3com Etherlink III card to work with RH9. It works fine in Win2k. I have configured it exactly like another NIC (eth0) in the system but with a different IP. Its interface eth1 will not communicate (I tried pinging to and fro) outside (I can ping it's IP). I have even disabled eth0 thinking there might be an irq conflict. Ifconfig looks perfect (or at least like the other systems I configured that are working). I am fairly new to Linux so any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks, PIKIE-ME

Pikie-Me · 09-30-2003, 08:22 PM

I have just installed the same Etherlink III NIC into another system (P-III 450, 384ram) and I can do the same thing..... I can ping my own static IP but not the IP anything else on the network. I know the network is up because it is talking fine.

It must be something with RH9?.?.? After all Billy boy could make it work...

PIKIE-ME

Pikie-Me · 10-01-2003, 09:17 AM

All...

I am fairly new to the Linux world, so any commands or suggestions are welcome....

I am also a little impatient.... In case you haven't noticed....

Pikie-Me · 10-03-2003, 11:23 AM

Okay.... I must say I was pretty shocked that NO ONE was willing to assist me in my problem.

I did get it corrected with a little help of multiple other posts and some creative internet searching.

The problem was with the NIC itself. I had to actually use a M$ box to change the BIOS on the NIC itself. I had to disable PnP on it. (That was a nightmare in itself...)

But now, my box is screaming on the Internet and my network.

This has been a great learning experience for me.

Thanks to all that helped...... Oh wait..... I forgot..... Nobody likes me.....

egustafs · 10-03-2003, 04:41 PM

I'm going thru the same process right now, trying to get my 3com Etherlink III card to run on my RH9 system.

any info you can provide as to what and or how you changed the BIOS on the NIC itself would be great. My Windows98 machine is available if I need it to change things like you did with your Win2k machine.

Being the Newbie that I am; I don't really know how to go about changing things onthe card.

it would be great if you have time to respond.

Pikie-Me · 10-03-2003, 06:38 PM

Tell ya what.... I will do my best to help... I kept running into so many snags that it is hard to say what I did....

So....Here we go....

Since you have a Win98 machine perhaps the actual files located here will do what you need. I was unable to get them to work, I am assuming it was because I was using a Win2K box and it wants a true DOS OS.

http://support.3com.com/infodeli/too...9/3c5096.1.htm

I think you can copy the .exe file to a floppy and run the program on the floppy (it will extract the files directly to the floppy)

You may not need Disk 1 but you might want to have it ready just in case.

Take a deep breath.....

Then try these steps:
1 - Boot your Win98 pc to DOS (Not Windows).
2 - Put this EtherDisk (Disk 2 - I think) in the diskette drive and type A: at the DOS prompt.
3 - Enter PNPDSABL.bat at the DOS prompt. The configuration and diagnostic
program will execute twice. The first time it executes, the
configuration and diagnostic program "kicks" the EtherLink III ISA out
of its PnP wait state. During the second execution, it disables
Plug 'n Play. The final message displayed will be:
"The 3C5X9 adapter, adapter number 1, was successfully configured"
4 - Finally, remove the EtherDisk from the diskette drive, and turn the
computer power off, then on.

Sounds simple....... But as I stated this didn't work for me.....

If this doesn't work for you let me know I think I may have a couple of other suggestions....

Also, there is a readme.txt file on the disks with some info....

Good luck

Pikie-Me · 10-03-2003, 06:40 PM

Also... I ment to ask..... Were you able to at leaste get it to get recognized by RH9 but couldn't get it to communcate outside the box?

If not, you may have a different issue.... Just a Thought....

egustafs · 10-03-2003, 07:27 PM

After much work I have been able to get my computer to recognize eth0 which is the only card I currently have attached to my mother-board. I believe it is seeing the 3com card. when I do /sbin/ifconfig it tells me it sees eth0. i checked the modules.conf file and it calls out the driver for the card: alias eth0 3c509. So it appears I'm using the correct driver.

the redhat network configuration tool lets me activate eth0. everything looks like I should be connecting to the net...but I can't seem to see anything beyond my compter.

Thanks for spending the time to respond. I will hopefully have time to get to this over the weekend and let you know if it works for me.

If I figure out some other problem I will also let you know what it was that caused this.

Thanks again.

-eric

Pikie-Me · 10-03-2003, 07:39 PM

It sounds exactly like my problem. I was even able to ping the IP I had assigned to it.

Sounds like you are on the right track... It can be fixed it's just a matter of doing the right things in the right order....

egustafs · 10-04-2003, 06:09 PM

My Win98 box doesn't have the slot for the 3com card. I do have a Win95 machine that I will use to try disabling PnP at some point. According to RedHat...you should do that.

Interesting and perhaps this will be useful to future visitors to this post....This is from the Redhat support website not sure if the link will work but:

http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/?page...etails&hid=215

and some text from the above link:

Component:
Network Interface
Status:
Compatible
Comments:
3C509B (EtherLink III)
Kernel Module: 3c509.o
Specifications: 16-bit ISA, Ethernet - 10BT, 10B2, 10B5 (AUI)(see below)

Before installing Red Hat Linux, we recommend that you use the DOS-based utility provided by 3Com to disable the PnP functionality and set the IRQ and I/O port. This utility are provided on the shipping drivers disk (version 6.1 as of 26 July 00).

Pikie-Me · 10-04-2003, 07:44 PM

Good luck with your Win95 box.

Unless you are determined as I was to get the freak'n card to work....... You could always spend about $15 and get a "real" NIC....Probably even a 10/100 PCI.?.?.?..... 8-)

Let me know how things turn out....

Take care, PIKIE-ME

egustafs · 10-05-2003, 02:37 PM

...i disabled the PnP using the '95 machine....still the same problem. I set my IRQ to 5 after checking to see what was free....making sure I didn't have a conflict with my soundcard. also my IO is set to 0x300.

I can still transmit but not receive according to ifconfig....

I'm not sure what elso to do? any suggestions?

I do have two other Network cards both of which I had running using RedHat 7.2....but I was having problems getting them to run on RH9 so i figured I would try this card which I happened to have.

I would say yes...I am not very happy with this freak'n card and I may even hold a ceremony to destroy it.

I'm not very happy with my other cards either...but atleast I know I've had them running in the past. It was quite a chore last time getting them to run...and didn't want to have to go through it again....but I guess I have anyway.

Any more suggestions on the 3com card that you might have would be great....otherwise I'm going to go back to smashing my head on the other cards. (SMC and Linksys)

any suggestions on ways to destroy my 3com card would be welcomed.

thanks for your help.....

egustafs · 10-05-2003, 07:01 PM

PIKIE-ME, thanks for all your time and effort. I'm typing this from my RH9 box. ...but I got my SMC card running on the tulip driver. just had to adjust the IRQ. I didn't know what the IRQ was before my ordeals with the 3com card....so didn't know to change it. that's all it was. I think my sound card is using IRQ=10. thanks again. my 3com card may actually live to see another day.

Pikie-Me · 10-05-2003, 08:40 PM

Outstanding!!!!

I am glad you were able to figure it out.

Take Care, Pikie-Me