I have a pc with 2 network interfaces:
eth0 3c905C TX/TXM Tornado
eth1 3c900 10baseT Boomerang

Both are using 3c59x module with no special settings.

I am unable to ping from another machine to the 3c900. I believe the card is good because I can ping it from the 3c905C and when I boot to WindowsXP, both cards can ping any machine.

The pc with the two cards is set up to dual boot via grub (fedora linux or windowsXP).

The /etc/modules.conf has the following entries:
eth0 3c59x
eth1 3c59x
At one point, I did have the line 'options 3c59x debug=8' in there.

The /var/log/messages file has the following error in relation to eth1 at boot:
eth1: vortex_error(), status=0xe005
eth1: Transmit error, Tx status register d0

I have checked the site scyld with the vortex.html but must admit that I really don't understand most of it. I am using the default 3c59x module that came with Fedora.

Our network administrator checked all the basic connections and checked the WindowsXP setup which worked okay. We are trying to get this set up for a student project that will demonstrate firewall configuration in Linux.

Barb

Barb,
did you install the machine with any firewall options?

check to see if iptables or ipchains is being loaded, and if they are, temporarily disable them.

Cheers
Jo

I disabled iptables in the following way:
mv /etc/rc.d/rc.3/S08iptables /etc/rc.d/rc.3/_S08iptables
shutdown -r now
went to interactive setup, when asked about iptables, entered 'n'
(I think that disables iptables?)

Still unable to ping the card. Still 'Transmit error' message in /var/log/messages.

I'm guessing Fedora has a similar config layout to Redhat.

if this is the case, compare the contents of the
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 and
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth1 files

if eth0 is working and eth1 isn't this may offer up some useful advise.

http://www.faqs.org/docs/securing/chap9sec90.html has some info on the config options in these files.

Cheers
Jo

I checked that web site. I think my ifcfg files are okay. Here's the content of each.

eth0
DEVICE=eth0
BOOTPROTO=none
BROADCAST=192.168.1.255
IPADDR=192.168.1.1
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
NETWORK=192.168.1.0
ONBOOT=yes
TYPE=Ethernet
HWADDR=(ok)
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=no

eth1
DEVICE=eth1
BOOTPROTO=none
BROADCAST=10.1.1.255
IPADDR=10.1.1.1
NETMASK=255.255.255.0
NETWORK=10.1.1.0
ONBOOT=yes
TYPE=Ethernet
HWADDR=(ok)
USERCTL=no
PEERDNS=no

I see your ifcfg files have very different IP addresses etc.

How does this compare to your windows XP config?

Also, if you swap the ip addresses etc around, does the problem swap cards (this would show if the problem was related to the card, or the config)

WindowsXP is set up with the same configuration. The IP addresses are all pingable in windows, doesn't matter which card.

In linux, if I swap the IP addresses (eth0 10.1.1.1; eth1 192.168.1.1) then 192.168.1.1 is the unpingable address.

hmm.. If what I understand you are saying, doesn't that imply that it is something to do with the card (I'm assuming you swapped EVERYTHING that was IP related, not just the IP address).

What you've said is that the unpingable address is ETH1 in BOTH cases?

at this point I have to admit bafflement . I am not a linux guru, but my research suggests that both NICs use the same driver.

If you physically remove the NIC that is configured as ETH0 what happens? (curious about a potential hardware conflict)

Maybe someone who knows what the heck they are talking about can help further

Cheers
Jo

I'd agree that it was the card except it works fine in windows.

I don't think I can't physically remove the 3c905C card because it is on the motherboard. If there is another way to disable it, I'd be happy to try that.

At one point, we did try reversing the eth0 and eth1 MAC addresses, but I think we ran into some conflicts and gave up. (I didn't actually do that.)

can you disable the 3c905 in the bios?

Then remove all references to eth1 from the modules.conf and your ifcfg files and see what happens?

Cheers
Jo

I tried disabling 3c905 in the bios by disabling the network controll interface. Kudzu came up on the next reboot and asked if I wanted to disable the 3c905 device to which I said okay.

After quite a bit of messing around, I was able to get rid of the eth1 and set eth0 to use 3c900. The same message in the /var/log/messages was there for this card. Still didn't respond to ping.

Could this be a problem with autonegotiating (3c900 won't and other machine does?

Thanks for all the advice.
Barb

I'm having pretty much exactly the same problem. I have a Boomerang 3C905 built into the motherboard of this Optiplex GXa, and for some reason, it just will not talk to the network. I tried putting another NIC in there, and as soon as the boot loader gets to bringing that ethernet interface up, bam, the system locks. If I just try to use the Boomerang, it won't grab DHCP info, nor will it work if I assign a static IP. I've tried just about everything and no luck. My friend, who is very experienced with Linux in general and who runs Fedora Core himself, says that it's possible the kernel just doesn't understand the PCI bus interface.

I think I've found the solution to this issue. Simple, but non-obvious.

http://fedora.artoo.net/faq/#3c905

It worked for me, let me know if it works for you.

For those wondering which part of this very interesting web page is relevant to this conversation, it is question 6, around 2/3s of the way down the page

Well spotted Ouroboros.

Barb, I know you are not running Fedora, but it may still be relevant.

Regards
Jo

I entered the command

chkconfig kudzu off

as root, then restarted the machine.

It worked like a charm.

Thanks for all the help!
Barb