Re: Installing Debian onto a machine with multiple 3c509 NICs
Dan Gapinski wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I seem to be having some trouble with the 2.6r6 release
> of Debian. It appears that my 3c509b NICs have drivers
> for them, but as I have 3 NICs (for what I hope to be a
> decent router/firewall), I have to pass parameters for
> the irq, address, etc. The problem is that the bootstrap
> spits "bad param" messages when I use the parameters:
> io=0x240 irq=10 I did RTFM, but there is not much info on
> this. I guess my questions go like this: 1) What is the
> proper syntax for just one card? 2) Do you use one line
> of parameters for multiple cards (and if so, what's the
> proper syntax for that)? 3) Is there anything with this
> particular card that I should be aware of? 4) Would I be
> better off getting on with the install and installing the
> cards later?
>
You're in luck! I installed Debian 2.2 (r4 I think) onto a
machine with two 3Com 509b ISA cards (yours are ISA, right?).
Stupid question, but really important nonetheless: Have you
configured the cards individually to have different irqs and
i/os? This has to be done with one card in the machine at a
time (the default was irq 10, i/o 0x300 from what I recall).
I found the DOS config utility online somewhere if you don't
have it (I have it on a floppy, needless to say). Also, try
and remember which card is which, ie start with the card
with the lowest irq# and place it at the bottom, and
designate it 'eth0', etc.
Anyway, to answer your questions:
1) proper syntax is 'ether=irq,io,ethx' [ethx not necessary,
but advisable so you know which card is which - nothing
worse than plugging the cable modem into the card that
should be serving the LAN]
2) one line, with a space between each card entry (see
example below)
3) disable plug-and-play is advisable with multiple cards;
also configure them alone one-by-one
4) probably not if you can jump this small hurdle
You can actually pass the argument at the very beginning of
the installation process (where you normally press <Enter>
press F1 I think instead. You'll have to navigate through
the help files there to the one that tells you how to pass
arguments to the kernel (I had to because I used a SCSI HD
attached to a card without a BIOS). If not then, then during
the installation of the module should be fine as well.
Either way, something like this will show up in
/etc/lilo.conf when you're done:
append="ether=5,0x230,eth1 ether=12,0x210,eth0"
(normally you'd want to avoid irq 5 (sound cards often take
it) but since this was a server and didn't have one, I used
it, whilst my SCSI card took 9 or 11 I think - I'm unsure
because the computer is in another city :) )
Hope this helps.
Good luck
--
David P. James
Ottawa, Ontario
http://members.rogers.com/dpjames/
The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe.
-Dr. Leonard McCoy, Star Trek IV
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