Hi,

I am currently running XP and RH 8 on my machine.

The problem I have is that ip packets are transmitted fine but not received 100% on Linux.

How do I check if the card is set to half or full duplex?

Is it possible to set "duplex mode" in modules.conf?

The card I have is : 3Com 3C920 Integrated Fast Ethernet Controller (3C905C-TX Compatible).

I am using the following linux driver : 3Com 3c590/3c595/3c90x/3cx980

Could somebody please propose a solution?
Thanks

use mii-tool -v. this should inform you about your network card and how it is set up and working currently.

I have a similar problem and have been thinking it was a duplex problem (as I've seen such behaviour on our AIX computers at work. I have no answer yet, but have just begun to research the problem.

I believe the following options may work:

insmod 3c59x.o debug=1 options=0 full_duplex=0

This presumes that you are using the 3c59x driver that comes with the kernel and that the options on it are the same as the one found at described at http://www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html by Donald Becker who is the original author of the kernel module. I believe so... If so, this should turn on debugging (that's what we are doing), autoselect (default to 10BaseT) and turn off full_duplexing.

The website also has a number of diagnostic utilities which can indicate what is going on while in operation, and (perhaps?) configure them depending on the driver capabilities. A link on the above page to http://www.scyld.com/diag/index.html provides more information.

As I said I am just beginning here, I have read a bit but not enough of the scyld documentation. I have also downloaded the driver and diagnotic tools they have available (as well the drivers 3com themselves have produced (also, according to the source, based on Donald Becker's code)), but have not yet "tried" or compiled anything yet. I use a dialup connection, the ethernet is just my budding internet home networt. Currently my real job beckons.

Hope this helps,

Chris

Well I spoke to Donald Becker, the author of the Vortex driver and he suggested that this version is modified and is forcing Full Duplex.

I have posted a message on the mailing list and it could be possible that there is a version of this driver that supports Half Duplexing.

If all else fails I will have to write my own

How are you going to write your own?

I'm guessing your fairly into programming, and ain't no noob. heh

I'm using the kernel driver and it's running at half duplex with no problems, admittedly different hardware though, 3c905b-tx

...or modify the current open source one.

AFAIK with ethernet if you force duplex you also need to force speed, you can't auto speed and force duplex, try setting speed AND duplex with mii-tool:

mii-tool -F 100baseTx-HD eth0
mii-tool -F 100baseTx-FD eth0
mii-tool -F 10baseT-HD eth0
mii-tool -F 10baseT-FD eth0

I know you can force media type in the driver but I belive it's bit set in options= and may differ from card to card so it's best to load the module with no duplex settings then use mii-tool to force both speed and duplex. To make it permanent add an mii-tool line in your network startup script, or if you aren't sure where to put it you could just add it in rc.local.

Also if you force the network card its a good idea to force the hub/switch/router if possible.

Yip, I think it will be a nice task and an opportunity to learn

I have played around with mii-tool.

I have the following :

mii-tool -v
eth0: no autonegotiation, 10baseT-HD, link ok
product info: vendor 00:10:5a, model 0 rev 0
basic mode: autonegotiation enabled
basic status: autonegotiation complete, link ok
capabilities: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
advertising: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD flow-control
link partner: 10baseT-HD

How do I disable the flow-control?

the HD Half Duplex and FD Full Duplex ARE the flow control.

EDIT: well technically that's not entirely correct, but I don't think duplex is your problem.