*BSD News Article 46033


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From: wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu (Bill Paul)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Install with 3C503
Date: 25 Jun 1995 17:25:06 GMT
Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research
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Daring to challenge the will of the almighty Leviam00se, Michael Hanke
(mike@hit.handshake.de) had the courage to say:

: Hi

: I'm just new with BSD and want to install it over my local net. There is a  
: local FTP-server where all the BSD files reside. Problem is that my old  
: 3c503 network card isn't detected by BSD. I've booted with the -c options  
: and tried various settings with no success :-(
: In the setup menu there is the ed0 device and ifconfig shows it running  
: but it seems that the card doesn't work. Pinging from another computer  
: shows no response and pinging from my forthcoming BSD-machine (as I hope!)  
: can't get through.
: Is there a known problem or a workaround I missed?
: thanks in advance

: Michael

If there's an 'ed0' in the sysinstall menu, then the card *was*
detected by FreeBSD. No two ways about it. I happen to be using a
couple of 3c503s with FreeBSD (both the 8-bit and 16-bit types)
and they work fine. Here are some things to watch for:

- The FreeBSD 'ed' driver does not support the use of programmed I/O
  with the 3c503. In other words, you must have the card jumpered to
  use a shared memory segment: you _cannot_ jumper the shared memory
  setting to 'disabled.' I think FreeBSD will complain if you do.

- Don't use boot -c to try 'various settings': try the *right*
  settings. Whatever you specify for the I/O port and iomem values
  should match your card exactly. The IRQ is a little trickier:
  the IRQ on the 3c503 can be set through software and is not
  jumper-configurable. Your choices are 3, 4, 5 and 9. So long
  as you select one that doesn't conflict with any other device,
  you should be okay. The iomem value shouldn't conflict either.
  Best bet is to jumper the board for an I/O port and iomem value
  that you know won't conflict with anything an then use boot -c
  to set the driver parameters to match. Disable any devices
  that you even suspect might cause conflicts.

- It makes a difference whether you use the AUI port or the
  coax/twisted pair port. (In general the 3c503 will be either
  AUI/10base2 or AUI/10baseT.) If you use the AUI port rather
  than the on-board coax/twisted pair tranceiver, then you must
  set one of the 'link' flags with ifconfig in order to tell
  the system that it should use the AUI port, since I believe it
  tries to use the transceiver by default. If you compile a kernel
  with 'flags 0x0001' in the config line for the 'ed' driver,
  it'll use the AUI port by default instead.

  What you can do for now is get to the emergency holographic shell
  in sysinstall and type 'ifconfig ed0 link0' and then try pinging
  the machine again. Alternatively, try connecting the machine
  to your ethernet using the other port.

- If this is an older 8-bit 3c503 card, be advised that you'll need
  to use reduced read/write block sizes in order for NFS to work
  correctly. In sysinstall, the 'Options' screen all the way at the
  beginning lets you specify a 'Slow NFS' install for older ethernet
  adapters. Be sure to use it if you get the urge to install over
  NFS.

I hope this helps. I've gotten pretty good use out of my 3c503
cards. They're hadrly state of the art anymore, but they're pretty
reliable once you get 'em going. :)

-Bill

--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~T~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-Bill Paul            (212) 854-6020 | System Manager
Work:         wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu | Center for Telecommunications Research
Home:  wpaul@skynet.ctr.columbia.edu | Columbia University, New York City
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