Re: Problems with the 3Com 3c905B NIC
"S.Salman Ahmed" wrote:
>
> I got this OEM 3Com 3c905B card and added it to my system (ABIT-BH6,
> Celeron 300A) which already has a generic 10/100 PCI NIC that has thus
> far been working perfectly with Rogers@Home service.
>
> BTW, the other NIC that works fine is detected by kernel as:
>
> eth1: Macronix 98715 PMAC rev 37 at 0xe400, 00:80:C6:EE:A2:E3, IRQ 10.
>
> I compiled in support for the card into the kernel that I am using,
> 2.2.17 from sources with no patches, using the 3c59x.c driver. The card
> is detected fine by the kernel at boot time as follows:
>
> eth0: 3Com 3c905B Cyclone 100baseTx at 0xe800, 00:01:02:ca:90:fb, IRQ 11
> 8K byte-wide RAM 5:3 Rx:Tx split, 10baseT interface.
> Enabling bus-master transmits and whole-frame receives.
>
> (BTW, I forced the card into 10baseT mode using a 3Com dos utility that
> I got from their web site)
>
> The link led at the back of my cable modem (Terayon Tera Pro) is light
> green. The 10baseT (link?) led on the 3Com NIC is lit green as well. I
> am using a CAT5-UTP cable with RJ-45 connectors to connect the 3Com NIC
> to the cable modem (same cable with which the Rogers supplied generic
> 10/100 NIC works without any problems).
>
> When I try and ping any host e.g. www.leitch.com, the Send and Receive
> lights on the cable modem blink almost simultaneously every 1
> sec. apart. But there aren't any blinking lights on the back of the
> NIC.
>
> I am at my wits end trying to figure out why this 3Com 3c905B NIX isn't
> working. I have tried the following (not in the same order) to debug/fix
> this problem:
>
> (1) upgraded the BIOS on my ABIT BH6 motherboard to the latest one
> available
>
> (2) inserted the 3Com NIC into different PCI slots on the mobo
>
> (3) took out my SoundBlaster PCI128 sound card from the motherboard,
> then subsequently took out the other generic NIC from my system so that
> the only PCI card in my system was the 3Com NIC
>
> (4) changed the NIC configuration using a 3Com dos utility from
> the default autosense/autonegotiate to 10Base-T media type
>
> (5) had a Rogers tech verify that there wasn't any problem with my cable
> modem (which BTW works fine with their supplied generic 10/100 NIC)
>
> Neither of the above solved the problem. I am using a static IP
> configuration with values set in /etc/network/interfaces.
>
> I am having the exact same problems with this same NIC in a second
> machine - my brand new PIII machine which also has the same NIC.
>
> I'd appreciate any information/comments/suggestions in how to fix this
> problem. I am using kernel-2.2.17 with the latest woody packages.
>
> If I am unable to fix this problem in the next couple of days, I will be
> replacing these 2 NICs with some other 10/100 ones. Any recommendations
> for a good PCI 10/100 NIC that "just works" with the current 2.2.17
> kernels with compiled-in support and without requiring any extra module
> arguments/parameters ? I'll be looking to get 2 of these NICs of the
> same brand and model initially.
>
> TIA.
>
> --
> Salman Ahmed
> ssahmed AT pathcom DOT com
>
> --
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Salman,
The Ethernet HOWTO has lots of information on the 3COM cards (including
the
3c905B) and how to make them work under Linux.
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Ethernet-HOWTO.html
I do have a 3C905B and a second card installed and operating just fine
in a 733MHz Pentium system connected to a cable modem. I was able to
get them
working by following the info in the HOWTO.
Regards, T. Tilton
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