Trying to get a 3Com 3C905B-TX working on Redhat 9 (i586)

ASP · 10-07-2003, 06:10 PM

My problem is, redhat 9 recognizes my 3C905B network card, and it appears to work (well, the gui tool can activate\deactivate and reconfigure it), but it doesn't appear to actually initialize. I've included as much info as I can think of below.

I am running Redhat 9.0 on a i586. The kernel is version 2.4.20-8.

Output of /sbin/lspci:
00:08.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905B 100BaseTX [Cyclone] (rev 24)
00:0a.0 VGA compatible controller: Cirrus Logic GD 5446
00:0b.0 Network controller: Compaq Computer Corporation Integrated NetFlex-3/P (rev 10)
00:0f.0 ISA bridge: Compaq Computer Corporation Triflex PCI to ISA Bridge (rev 0a)
00:0f.1 IDE interface: Compaq Computer Corporation Triflex Dual EIDE Controller (rev 0a)

The DMesg Area Relating to this Card is Below:
3c59x: Donald Becker and others. www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html
See Documentation/networking/vortex.txt
00:08.0: 3Com PCI 3c905B Cyclone 100baseTx at 0x1080. Vers LK1.1.18-ac
00:10:4b:67:f0:47, IRQ 11
product code 4e47 rev 00.9 date 03-19-98
Internal config register is 1800000, transceivers 0xa.
8K byte-wide RAM 5:3 Rx:Tx split, autoselect/Autonegotiate interface.
MII transceiver found at address 24, status 7849.
Enabling bus-master transmits and whole-frame receives.
00:08.0: scatter/gather enabled. h/w checksums enabled

Anyone have any ideas?

finegan · 10-07-2003, 07:19 PM

The "dmesg" load looks exactly right.

ifconfig eth0 192.168.0.23 up
ping 192.168.0.1

Will work right (substituting your network for 192.168.x.x). What's the connection to? LAN to router to world or is it NIC to DSL/cable modem?

Cheers,

Finegan

ASP · 10-07-2003, 08:33 PM

This is going to be my gateway, and the network card is going to be the internal nic. The ip is 192.168.111.1, the computers will be 192.168.111.*.

Yes, pinging 192.168.111.1 worked, from that computer, the computers behind it could not. In fact, my hub has no connection light for that that card, and the card has no lights on (on the back of that card). The cable and port are fine, though, they work with the laptop I'm on now.

finegan · 10-07-2003, 10:38 PM

Okay, just to check then.

assigned the ip of 192.168.111.1 so that:

ifconfig ethX 192.168.111.1 up

and

ping -b 192.168.111.0

Will ONLY bring replies from 192.168.111.1 and the cable and the hub is know good, then yeah... the card has to be smoked. If you're certain that you've got a full "dmesg" read like:

Code:

PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:06.0
3c59x: Donald Becker and others. www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html
See Documentation/networking/vortex.txt
00:06.0: 3Com PCI 3c905B Cyclone 100baseTx at 0x1000. Vers LK1.1.18-ac
 00:10:5a:e5:b2:79, IRQ 11
  product code 5150 rev 00.12 date 11-25-98
  Internal config register is 1800000, transceivers 0xa.
  8K byte-wide RAM 5:3 Rx:Tx split, autoselect/Autonegotiate interface.
  MII transceiver found at address 24, status 786d.
  Enabling bus-master transmits and whole-frame receives.
00:06.0: scatter/gather enabled. h/w checksums enabled

I've sometimes gotten 3coms get a little grumpy over cheaper cable, or badly headed cable. The biggest perpetrator of this is the Sun HME card... As far as I can tell there's nothing wrong in software. Triple check the hardware, then toe tag the card.

Cheers,

Finegan

ASP · 10-08-2003, 07:00 PM

Thanks a lot for the help Finegan. I guess I'll try and see if it works, if not I guess I need to go buy another card.

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