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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!news.vbc.net!vbcnet-west!garlic.com!uunet!in3.uu.net!192.220.251.22!netnews.nwnet.net!Symiserver2.symantec.com!news From: tedm@agora.rdrop.com Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: Device timeout (2.1.5 + Intel ether16) Date: 7 Dec 1996 09:46:56 GMT Organization: Symantec Corp. Lines: 37 Message-ID: <58beeg$h4e@Symiserver2.symantec.com> References: <kashaniE1yEM4.Mvx@netcom.com> Reply-To: tedm@agora.rdrop.com NNTP-Posting-Host: shiva3.central.com X-Newsreader: IBM NewsReader/2 v1.2.5 In <kashaniE1yEM4.Mvx@netcom.com>, kashani@netcom.com (Ken Kashani) writes: > >We have recently installed FreeBSD 2.1.5 on a Pentium 133 >system to use as a web server. The server has an Intel >Etherexpress 16 card in it. > >All seemed fine until we started to test Apache by viewing >web pages on that system. On occasion the system would seem >to stop serving pages (for a fraction of a second) and then >printout the following message: > > /kernel: ix0: device timeout > I have had lots of experiences with these cards under FreeBSD. First of all, I wouldn't trust an Intel EtherExpress16 on a PC that contains a PCI bus in it. (I assume your Pentium does) As a matter of fact, if you have ever read the HARDWARE.TXT file in Windows95 you will find a paragraph from Microsoft where they state that there is a hardware bug in the Ex16 under PCI machines, and that despite their and Intel's efforts, they were unable to produce a stable network driver for Windows 95 for this card in PCI-bussed machines. Second, I have found the only way that the EX16 has ever reliably worked was to set the memory window to D000, and the Interrupt to 10, per the FreeBSD FAQ make sure your memory window on the card is set to 32K Next, if you look through the EX16 source code you will find that certain features (such as Multicasting) don't exist. The EX16 driver source is in a sorry shape. Last, I got errors like you describe when the network cable was not plugged into the card, (such as on a BNC card when the thinnet cable got jiggled. You might also check your wiring to make sure you have no intermittent contacts.