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Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!simtel!news.sprintlink.net!news.clark.net!rwatson From: rwatson@clark.net (Robert Watson) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: ix0: doesn't want to work, anyone else had any luck? Date: 20 Jun 1995 03:02:08 GMT Organization: The Star-Lit BBS, Bethesda, Maryland, USA Lines: 59 Message-ID: <3s5dng$3o3@clarknet.clark.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: clark.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Me again ;). Our router is now upgraded to 2.0.5R of FreeBSD -- had a fairly trouble-free installation - worst part was that we had to manually install the kernel source because the custom install didn't list a kernel source only option on ti smain menu (and I hesitated to pick "Entire source: 200m" ;). Our troubles began when we tried to add a fourth ethernet card to the system ;). Currently we have 3 SMC Ultra Elite cards -- unfortunately, the SMC cards can only coexist in quantities of 3 in a machine. So we have the following config: device port iomem irq ed0 0x240 0xc8000 3 ed1 0x260 0xca000 5 ed2 0x280 0xcc000 9(2) I wanted to also add: ix0 0x300 0xd0000 10 (or 11) The first thing I found was that some devices in the kernel are not documented in man pages ;). There was no ix man page on our system, nor a number of other devices listd in lint (and the lin lines weren't too enlightening). The hardware file/relnotes files suggested ix0 for Intel EtherExpress, so I went ahead with that. For those who wonder -- yes, we have only one serial port on the system -- sio0 with irq 4 -- no conflict there. This all worked fine (minus ix0) under 2.0R. The installation of 2.0.5R was complicated by ed0 timeout errors on the same config that worked fine under 2.0R. I pplayed with io address space and stuffed them all in the C bank to keep things organized. Aventually it all worked after a few kernel compiles. Unfortunately, ix0 has never worked. The kernel never detects its presence, even though it interferes with other cards nicely when we're not looking. I tried a number of other io ports and irq's (0x260, 0x310, etc) irq's 10 and 11 were tried. We swapped in another factory-fresh card and had the same problem. These cards have been used on other systems succesffully (under dos/novell.) My first guess was -- the computer is out of some vital resource needed for ethernet cards -- like dma channels. I don't know that for sure though, as I'm not really quite sure how dma works (unlike ioports and iomem, dma ports/etc are relatively less common, I guess.) Since drq is listed as dyn (dynamic?) I assumed they'd be fine. Have I reached the limits of this hardware? Does this mean we either invest in an expensive dedicated hardware router or another freebs system to route cheaply? The system consists of -- wdc0 controller, sc console, sio0 (for slip), lpt0, ed[0-2] as seen above, and fdc0. We have one ide hard disk under wd0, and two floppies plus a qic tape on fdc0. We're certainly not out of irq's or iospace. Assistance would be appreciate! Has anyone else had any positive or negative experiences with the ix driver under 2.0.5R, or sticking in lots of ethernet cards, etc? ;). Thanks in advance. I can be emailed at rwatson@clark.net or rwatson@sidwell.edu, or just respond on the newsgroup; it may help someone other than me also that way. -- Robert Watson rwatson@sidwell.edu http://www.sidwell.edu/~rwatson/ The goal of science is to build better mousetraps. The goal of nature is to build better mice.