Re: 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps ISA cards

hello again,

 I have been following your advices for setting up the 3c515 driver, but =
it is
still not working.

 I have used isapnptools, I have tried to recompile the kernel with modul=
es
support for the two NICs 3c509 and the 3c515, still the system cannot get=
 the
3c515. Why the 2.4.18-3 default RH kernel can load perfectly the driver w=
ith
the same setup and in the case of my kernel doesnt work? What I have to d=
o? I
have tried to change the setting of the EEPROMM but I cant figure out how=
 to
change the IRQ, BASE IO and DMA channel on the EEPROMM...Those settings w=
ill
go when the PC box is rebooted isnt it?

Many thanks

Miguel

Donald Becker ha escrito:

> On Mon, 3 Nov 2003, Miguel Gonz=E1lez Casta=F1os wrote:
>
> >  I have a 486 working as a router using linux RedHat 7.3. It has two
> > 3Com ISA cards, a Etherlink Fast 100 Mbps (driver 3c515) and Etherlin=
k
> > III 10 Mbps (driver 3c509).
> >
> >  The router is connected to a cable modem through the 10 Mbps ISA car=
d
> > and the other one interfaces with a switch-hub to the LAN.
> >
> >  I am considering if due to the limits of the bandwidth of the ISA bu=
s
> > if it really is worth to have a 100 Mbps to the LAN interface in the
> > 486.
>
> No, it's not.
>
> > If I use that 100 Mbps ISA i.e. in a Pentium III the performance
> > would be similar to a PCI NIC?
>
> Not at all.
> Even the worst $5 10/100 PCI NIC is far better than any ISA device.
>
> >  I am having problems to configure the parameters in the monolithic
> > kernel for using the two NICs in the /etc/lilo.conf because the syste=
m
> > detects the 3c509 card, but not the 3c515. What is funny is that If I
> > boot using modules, it uses isapnp, I cant make them work either, but=
 if
> > I reboot to the monolithic kernel then It suddenly appears to detect =
the
> > 3c515. If I shutdown and boot again the monolithic kernel, says that =
no
> > 3c515 card found...I=B4m stumped.
>
> This is a ISA-PnP bug in the kernel -- there is a PnP reset sequence
> that needs to be sent correctly.
>
> >  Anyway I dont know if the 3c515 is trying to use the wrong IRQ. When=
 I
> > succeed to recognize the 3c515 card (using the trick of booting the
> > modular kernel first), it seems that IRQ 10 is fine, but uses the DMA=
 3
> > channel...Is this right?
>
> It's whatever IRQ and DMA channel is assigned by the PnP code.
>
> The 3c509 has a non-PnP activation mode that uses the IRQ and I/O from
> the EEPROM.  Otherwise it uses the ISA-PnP assigned values.
>
> --
> Donald Becker                           [email protected]
> Scyld Computing Corporation             http://www.scyld.com
> 914 Bay Ridge Road, Suite 220           Scyld Beowulf cluster system
> Annapolis MD 21403                      410-990-9993