[5269] in RedHat Linux List
Re: 3com Bommerang netcard
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Stephen Zedalis)
Wed Nov 20 08:16:55 1996
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 08:15:38 -0500 (EST)
From: Stephen Zedalis <tintype@zedalis.com>
To: redhat-list@redhat.com
cc: Lars.Tolle@uni-c.dk
In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.3.95.961120132020.15165Q-100000@tolle.uni-c.dk>
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
Reply-To: redhat-list@redhat.com
On Wed, 20 Nov 1996, Lars Tolle wrote:
> I am running RH4.0 on 2 100Mhz Pentium machines these have the new 3COM
> bommerang netcard (3c900 series).
> I installed them with an other card. The build a kernel which supported
> the 3c59x netcard, but before i compiled the kernel I got the 3c59x.c file
> from the net, which should support the 3c900 cards.
> But now both of the machines is randomly loosing the connections to the
> network.
> The machines is running as news-servers so there is ALOT of net-traffic.
> When i boot the machine i get the following messages in my logs:
>
> ==========================================================
> kernel: eth0: vortex_open() irq 11 media status 8822.
> kernel: eth0: Media selection timer tick happened, MII.
> kernel: eth0: Media MII is has no indication, 8822.
> kernel: eth0: Media selection timer finished, MII.
> kernel: eth0: Transmitter access conflict.
> ==========================================================
>
> And this messages is being printed to stderr all the time:
>
> eth0: Transmitter access conflict.
>
> I also have another machine with the same setup, but this is my own, so
> there is not the same amount of net-traffic. This machine NEVER goes down,
> except when i screw up :-)
>
> Any help is appreciated...
We had the same problem with the boomerang cards. It doesn't matter what
driver you have at this point. What we found is that even if you use the
supplied software disk to lock access at one transfer rate, that the
driver despite what options you give, puts the driver in autosense mode.
Since you can't lock the port, you get periodic changes from one transfer
rate to another (10-100-10). It is worse on heavily loaded
machines (like news boxes) Although the messages are annoying, you can
turn them off (until you get new cards) by using a -c 1 option to kerneld
when you start up. If you have a smart switch connected to these cards
you can see the problem at 100BaseTx where you get several FCS and
alignment errors. You can also verify, that even after locking the card
via EEPROM and/or the driver options, that the card will still autoswitch
if put in a differently configured port. Also from your messages above,
if you follow the instructions given with the driver, it does NOT behave
like the vortex cards and the card starts with the MII interface instead
of a fixed 100BaseTX transciever. We were not successful with any of the
drivers provided by Don Becker and he does not respond to our email.
We have switched to SMC EtherPower 10/100 9332DST cards. At 100BaseTx,
they appear to be much faster cards than the 3Com at the same speed.
However, they also have several problems. First, the (tulip) drivers are
written by Don Becker. Same support issues. Second, it appears that
the driver was written primarily for 100BaseTx and it was assumed that
it would work with 10BaseT. Our testing shows severe problems at 10BaseT.
We get several overrun frame buffer error messages if we try to run the
cards at 10BaseT full duplex. One plus is that the driver comes with the
kernel, the minus is that there have been several tulip.c patches in the
latest set of kernels.
Bottom line. We have not found ANY good solution for 10BaseT full duplex.
Seems like full duplex was added to 10BaseT as an afterthought, and it is
also hard to find switches/hubs that support it. Too bad, many network
collision problems could be solved by going full and may not have required
100 Mbps. If you are using 10BaseT half duplex, stick with the tried and
true 3Com 3C509s or whatever you are used to using. If you are using
100BaseTx, the SMC cards work quite well. Avoid any mixed environment.
N-way autosensing DOES NOT work well, if at all at this time. Realize
that all my comments are directed toward Linux as an operating system and
may not apply to the Bill-derived operating system imitations.
--
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