Bug#309051: RC3 installer can't configure ISA-PNP Ethernet boards
Package: installation-reports
Debian-installer-version: RC3, from lcs.mit.edu
uname -a:
Date: 5/11/2005 +/- 1 day
Method: RC3 CDs
Machine: H-P Vectra VL
Processor: Pentium 2
Memory: 128M
Root Device: IDE /dev/hda
Root Size/partition table:
/ 4.8 GB
/var 2.5 GB
/home 500 MB
Output of lspci: Not relevant, no problems with PCI devices
Base System Installation Checklist:
Initial boot worked: [O]
Configure network HW: [E/O]
Config network: [E/O]
Detect CD: [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives: [O]
Partition hard drives: [O]
Create file systems: [O]
Mount partitions: [O]
Install base system: [O]
Install boot loader: [O]
Reboot: [O]
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it
Comments/Problems:
The installer is able to configure PCI network boards, but not ISA
network boards.
This machine is set up to be a multihomed router/firewall, among
other functions. It has four Ethernet boards:
1 PCI 3C905B Combo (AUI, 10Base2, 100BaseT)
1 PCI 3C905B 100BaseT only
1 ISA-PNP 3C509 Combo (AUI, 10Base2, 100BaseT)
1 ISA-PNP SMC-Ultra Combo (AUI, 10Base2, 100BaseT)
The installer's netcfg component detected and configured either PCI
network board with no problems, and was able to configure them and get them
to connect to their subnets.
It didn't detect either of the ISA-PNP boards at all.
If I accidentally hit <Esc> at "Detecting network hardware", another
screen came up, in which additional driver modules were listed. Nothing in
the installer manual or the screen messages said this function exists. If I
selected one of the ISA-PNP drivers, the configuration screen came back, and
showed that network card in addition to the two PCI cards. Configuring it
appeared to take, but pinging didn't work on any of the four boards.
After installation, it was possible to get all four boards working
simultaneously by manually editing /etc/network/interfaces,
/etc/modules.conf, and /etc/modules. The same edits worked for both 2.4 and
2.6 kernels, even though the update-modules manpage that installs with 2.6
says that /etc/modules.conf is in the process of elimination.
I can also bring up interfaces from the command line with modprobe,
ifconfig sequences.
There are some hints that hotplug is now being used to load all
network driver modules. This doesn't appear to work with any ISA boards,
since the kernel is able to detect PCI boards at boot without the help of
any config files, but it cannot detect ISA boards the same way. So if the
installer is to configure an ISA board, even an ISA-PNP board, it must edit
whatever config file is to tell the kernel to load the driver module, in
addition to the stanza it adds to /etc/network/interfaces. In fact, for a
configuration utility to handle all PC network boards, it really needs to
deal in separate ways with three different cases: PCI, ISA-PNP, and ISA
non-PNP.
Sorry I can't run additional tests on the installer just now. The
machine is in use to troubleshoot Libranet bug #197, which is related to the
same problem.
WISHLIST FEATURE:
The 3c59x driver has had a bug since kernel 2.4. It's still there
with 2.6. Contrary to what the kernel documentation says, 3c59x overrides
the board's automatic selection of the transceiver that's actually plugged
into a network, and arbitrarily selects the UTP transceiver instead. This
is a major PIA. It would be helpful if netcfg were to explcitly offer the
user a choice of transceiver when configuring a board which requires this
module. Of course, actually fixing the bug would be better, but that
doesn't appear to be in the pipeline.
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