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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!newshost.telstra.net!asstdc.scgt.oz.au!metro!metro!news.cs.su.oz.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.ysu.edu!news.cps.udayton.edu!news.engr.udayton.edu!blackbird.afit.af.mil!zombie.ncsc.mil!news.mathworks.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!in1.uu.net!van-bc!news1.io.org!bpci.net3.io.org!user From: rrwood@io.org (Roy Wood) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Oddball ethernet problem and solution (of sorts) Date: Fri, 29 Mar 1996 07:39:19 -0500 Organization: Silicon Angst Software Lines: 32 Message-ID: <rrwood-2903960739190001@bpci.net3.io.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: bpci.net3.io.org I tried installing an NE2000-compatible ethernet card yesterday, and encountered some very strange problems. The first clue was that even though ed0 was recognized by the kernel at boot, it kept timing out. This suggested that the interrupt was not being detected by FreeBSD (and yes, it was a unique interrupt, not a conflicting one). A quick check with the DOS-based diagnostic program that came with the card showed that indeed, the card was there, it could be initialized, the RAM on the card was okay, but it was generating no interrupts. Fine, you say, so the card is pooched.... not quite, says I. I popped the card in another machine, and, of course, it worked fine in that machine-- interrupts and all. Okay, so this is weird. I originally had the card configured for thin coax, so just for fun, I switch it over to twisted pair, and it suddenly starts working on the FreeBSD system. Well, at least the diagnostics are okay and ed0 is no longer timing out. I still need to do a test between systems to see if data is going in and out correctly. Anyway, the FreeBSD system is a P75 in a no-name motherboard. The ethernet card was originally manufactured by some division of Commodore back in '91, and is a 16-bit ISA card. My Adaptec 1542 works fine in the system, but the ethernet card has problems when configured for thin coax, but seems happy when configured for twisted pair. If anyone has any thoughts on the nature of the problem, I'd love to hear them. I'd much rather use the card with thin coax than twisted pair, but apparently some strange idiosyncracies of the timing involved is throwing things off. -Roy