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using AUI port of 3c529 (MCA) network card



I've been unsuccessful in getting my 3Com 3c529 MCA Ethernet card to
communicate with the network using the AUI port, although the 10baseT
(twisted pair) connection with the card works fine.  The 3c529 is the MCA
(IBM's proprietary microchannel architecture for the PS/2 and other
machines) version of the 3c509 (same chipset), so I use the 3c509.o module
that came with my Debian installation (Linux 2.0.36).  The 3c509.c file in
the 2.0.36 source tree actually has MCA detection code for the 3c529,
although I'm not sure that it's complete.

To debug the problem, I've tried compiling the module myself from the
2.0.36 source tree, sometimes with certain modifications and also without
any changes.  However, I have the problem that the newly compiled 3c509.o
will not work at all with my network card, even though the one that came
with Debian (supposedly 2.0.36) does work.  Is it possible that the 3c509.c
source that was used in this version of Debian is different than the one in
the 2.0.36 source tree I've been using to compile my own?  Does anyone know
what version of 3c509.c is in this Debian distribution?

When I insmod the correct 3c509.o module without any arguments (insmod
3c509), I get the following (note that the card identification on the first
line comes directly from the MCA card and thus has nothing to with the
module's detection mechanism):
# insmod 3c509
3c509: found 3Com 3c529 EtherLink III (10baseT) at slot 3
eth0: 3c509 at 0x200 tag 0, 10baseT port, address  00 20 af 99 a8 1e, IRQ 5.
3c509.c:1.16 2/3/98 becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov

After this, I manually run /etc/init.d/network, and the card then works
fine off the 10baseT port.

[Note: The version of 3c509.c in the 2.0.36 source tree is also identified
as v1.16 2/3/98, so it seems like it should be the same.]

However, when I run the version that I compiled myself from the 2.0.36
source tree, I get the following:
# insmod 3c509
/lib/modules/2.0.36/net/3c509.o: init_module: Device or resource busy

If I subsequently replace the 3c509.o file with the correct module (the one
that came with the Debian distribution), it then works as shown above.

However, I want to enable the AUI port on the network card, so I use the
xcvr option to set the transceiver port to 1 (AUI), but I get the same
response from the module (which still claims that I am using the 10baseT
port, as seen in the second line of output, where it should instead say AUI
port):
# insmod 3c509 xcvr=1
3c509: found 3Com 3c529 EtherLink III (10baseT) at slot 3
eth0: 3c509 at 0x200 tag 0, 10baseT port, address  00 20 af 99 a8 1e, IRQ 5.
3c509.c:1.16 2/3/98 becker@cesdis.gsfc.nasa.gov

I then run the /etc/init.d/network script as before, but I get no ping
response from any hosts (including IPs on my local subnet).  If I then
unplug the AUI connector and plug in the 10baseT cable, thinking that the
program decided to use the 10baseT port as it claimed (ignoring my xcvr=1
option), it still fails to work, and I am unable to use the network card
until I reboot (because rmmod does not properly allow me to insmod again
without the xcvr=1 option).

Please cc: any responses to me, as the debian-user web archive only seems
to store mail from the first few days of each month.

Thanks for any advice or information on this setup and my difficulties.

Matt


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