No network with 3c59x through Linksys Router

lnxpeng · 09-20-2003, 03:27 PM

Hey I am a newbie to Slackware Linux 9.0. I am having trouble with getting my 3c905-tx to work. I am going to route it through a linksys router/switch. right now, I can ping the other win2000pro computers on the network, but with a 50% packet loss and a delay of 10000 ms. I can also ping Google's IP (50%loss 10s delay also), but cannot use DNS. I know that the card works, since I have gotten it to sucessfully run under win2000pro ( crossover connection to another NIC), and through RedHat 7.1 (same). I have tried every combination of parameters i could, using full-duplex and half-duplex. I passed the parameters to the module by editing "/etc/modules.conf". I don't really know where to begin.

TIA,
lnxpeng

Saraev · 09-20-2003, 03:52 PM

Do the other machines have this packet loss and delay? If not, I'd say offhand that your 3Com card is trying to die.

lnxpeng · 09-20-2003, 04:20 PM

any reccomendations on a new one?

many thanks

Saraev · 09-20-2003, 04:24 PM

Anymore, any cheap card will do. There's a joint here in the southern SF Bay Area that sells em for 3 bucks each. If you've got a CompUSA or something, go there and pick something up. Anymore, you don't need to bother with expensive 3Com cards.

If you can see the chip on the card itself, anything that has "RTL" in them is a RealTek chipset. Linux likes those, and they're dirt cheap.

Just don't go out and buy a $50+ Intel ethernet card.

lnxpeng · 09-20-2003, 04:30 PM

many thanks

Rodrin · 09-21-2003, 11:15 AM

This could also be a cabling problem or mismatched speed/duplex settings.

r_jensen11 · 09-21-2003, 11:41 AM

run the network configuration tool, then choose dhcp instead of static or loopback, if you havn't already.

lnxpeng · 09-21-2003, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Rodrin
This could also be a cabling problem or mismatched speed/duplex settings.

I've tried all of the speed/duplex combinations, i think. To do this, I just edited "/etc/modules.conf" with "options 3c59x options=5 full_duplex=1", and so on for the different options I could find. My "/etc/modules.conf" was originally blank, so I just assumed that it checked that file when running login scripts and added the options. I have tried DHCP and static IP's, but only static would get through with long responses and high packet loss.

lnxpeng · 09-23-2003, 12:38 AM

Ok now I may be getting somewhere. I am almost certain that the card works. I browsed around and found out how to dump all of my different configurations into textfiles. Basically, the ping command loses the first 18 or so packets completely. When I examed the text dump for "dmesg" I found an interesting part:

NETDEV WATCHDOG: eth0: transmit timed out
eth0: transmit timed out, tx_status 00 status e601.
diagnostics: net 0cc0 media 8802 dma 0000003b.
eth0: Interrupt posted but not delivered -- IRQ blocked by another device?

at boot time the system said: (abridged)

PCI: Found IRQ 12 for device 00:11.0
3c59x: Donald Becker and others.....
00.11.0: 3con PCI 905 boomerang 100baseTx at 0xdc00
<skip a few lines>
PCI : Found IRQ 11 for device 00:02.3
PCI : Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:02.2
<skip a few lines>
PCI : Found IRQ 11 for device 00:02.2
PCI : Sharing IRQ 11 with 00:02.3

IRQ 11 happens to be my USB ports. I wonder if it is attemping to share that IRQ with another card? Right now, it is the only physical PCI card in the box. I have my AGP radeon 7500 and that network card as the only two cards there.

Any suggestions?
I think I will try disabling USB, since I don't use it, and then disable Plug and Play in my BIOS and see what happens.

Oh, and the PCI dump:
00:00.0 Host bridge: Sis 635 Host (rev 11)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Sis 530 Virtual PCI-to-PCI bridge (AGP)
00:02.0 ISA bridge: Sis 85c503/5513
00:02.2: USB controller: Sis 7001 USB controller (rev 07)
00:02.3 USB controller : "
00:11.0 Ethernet Controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905 100baseTx [boomerang]
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI technologies Inc Radeon RV200 QW [Radeon 7500]

Thanks in advance!

Saraev · 09-23-2003, 12:48 AM

yeah, kill the USB for now, and disable plug and play. In fact, disable plug and play but leave USB ON, and if it works, leave USB on.

lnxpeng · 09-23-2003, 12:52 AM

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! It works!!!!!! I disabled Plug and Play and USB both on BIOS.......I'm halfway to being a GURU!!! (well not really). Boy, troubleshooting Slack is a lot different than RedHat.

Many Thanks to all those who helped. And for you other fellow newbies, stick in there.....and don't be sqeamish about changing BIOS or editing startup scripts!