Network Card troubles - 3com 3c905c-TX/TX-M [Tornado]

lowpro2k3 · 07-23-2005, 07:32 PM

I'm having trouble on my new server getting this network card to do anything at all.

First let me say, I've been having nothing but trouble with this dumb server. First I cant get a kernel to compile for the life of me, and my boss is freaking out telling me we need the thing up ASAP. He said forget the kernel, we need Apache running. Well he's the one who signed the cheque on a multi-processor/dual SATA computer. So I got the computer running on SATA RAID 0 finally, but I can't recompile a kernel (for SMP support). Anyways maybe I'll get more time later to figure that out.

Right now he wants Apache up. Fine, I've done that before. I can't get this network card working.

Heres my `lspci` output:

Code:

02:08.0 Ethernet Controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [ Tornado ] (rev 78)

When I type `ifconfig eth0` I get:

Code:

eth0: error fetching interface information: Device not found

I researched and other people said if I modprobe the 3c59x.o driver it should work. Negative on my machine...

Code:

$ modprobe 3c59x
/lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/net/3c59x.o: /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/net/3c59x.o: unresolved symbol _mmx_memcpy
/lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/net/3c59x.o: /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/net/3c59x.o: unresolved symbol del_timer_sync
/lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/net/3c59x.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/net/3c59x.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/net/3c59x.o: insmod 3c59x failed

So basically these 2 symbols are unresolved:

Code:

_mmx_memcpy
del_timer_sync

I'm wondering if the _mmx_memcpy has anything to do with my hardware - dual AMD Athlon MP 2800's. Currently they would be set as a single i486 CPU, without SMP because I'm using the default sata.i kernel.

Thats all I really know what to do, and now I'm stuck. I hope some people can help me out because I'm really late getting this server up and running. I've run into nothing but problems the whole way through.

Thanks

egag · 07-23-2005, 09:14 PM

can you try " modprobe " instead of " insmod " ?

egag

lowpro2k3 · 07-23-2005, 09:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by egag
can you try " modprobe " instead of " insmod " ?

egag

Do you mean "insmod" instead of "modprobe"? I used modprobe...

I did a bit of reading about modprobe and found its basically a wrapper around insmod. I tried to use insmod instead (so I could see the default operation, and also to try and 'force' it to work with a -f flag), and I got the exact same error, except it was only the first two lines instead of all 4 from the failed output above.

I tried it by default, and also with the -f flag, like so:

Code:

$ insmod 3c59x
errors output here...
$ insmod -f 3c59x
errors output here...

I also tried removing the module with rmmod in case it was loaded in some sort of failed state, but this was not the case. It seems like an error occurs in my /var/log/syslog when the server tries to load this module (probably for my processor...):

Code:

Jul 23 ...: insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/char/amd768_rng.o: init_module: Device or resource busy
Jul 23 ...: insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/char/amd768_rng.o: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrenct module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters. You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
Jul 23 ...: insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/char/amd768_rng.o: insmod amd768_rng failed
Jul 23 ...: kernel: amd768_rng: cannot register misc device

I pointed this out, because it appears in my log file just before the insmod call to load my NIC driver happens. Looking more at the syslog file, these 3 things happen when my system boots:

Code:

Jul 23 15:59:56 hostname insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/net/3c59x.o: insmod 3c59x failed
Jul 23 15:59:56 hostname insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/usb/usbcore.o: insmod usb-ohci failed
Jul 23 15:59:56 hostname insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/char/amd768_rng.o: init_module: Device or resource busy
Jul 23 15:59:56 hostname insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/char/amd768_rng.o: init_module: Device or resource busy
Jul 23 15:59:56 hostname insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/char/amd768_rng.o: Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrenct module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters. You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
Jul 23 15:59:56 hostname insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/char/amd768_rng.o: insmod amd768_rng failed
Jul 23 15:59:56 hostname kernel: amd768_rng: cannot register misc device
Jul 23 15:59:56 hostname insmod: /lib/modules/2.4.29/kernel/drivers/net/3c59x.o: insmod 3c59x failed

The weirder thing is, this data keeps repeating in the logfile (at the same timestamp), like 6-8 times with nothing but those error messages looping until the output from that timestamp stops and it looks like a new reboot happens, where it starts all over again.

I actually just talked to my boss and he told me if I get him something to work on over the next few hours, he'll give me alot more free time to get the server working. I think I _need_ to recompile my kernel to at least load support for USB, _MY PROCESSOR(S)_ and native support for this 3c59x driver.

I appreciate any extra help in this thread, but odds are I'll need to recompile the kernel over the next day or 2, so keep on the lookout for my "kernel recompile errors" thread