Topic: SME 6 and network cards

[Anonymous]

While remember SME 5.x would work with just about any network card, I am having troubles getting SME 6 to recognise any. I've tried a range of hardware (various motherboards, various chipsets) and gone through a big box of old network cards (RTL, Novelle, SMC, etc), and can't get SME 6 to recognise any of them.

Without going into specific errors, does SME 6 have some kind of weakness in this area? Is is more likely to be a PCI problem rather than a network adapter problem?

The *only* card I can get to work is an old RTL8139C card. A batch of brand new generic RTL8139D cards give me no joy.

'modprobe' tells me there are no devices and 'insmod' gives me 'unresolved symbol' errors for example, with the 8139too driver.

Any hints? Is there a real problem here, or do I need to get my hands on an even wider range of hardware? Sorry this is so vague - but I just want to know if it is worth plugging on with this problem. I only want to set up a simple gateway.

-- Jason

[wyron]

To the best of my knowledge SME 6. knows an even wider variety of nic's than any earlier version.
But of course there are limitations.
I have tested a wide bouqet of 3Com, Planet, Realtec and Intel without even once experiencing a problem (from e-smith 4.12 and up).
But perhaps the more exotic brands are a different story ?
Then again, perhaps your problems originate from other hardware sources ?

[ldkeen]

Rather than trying to "guess" the correct module name if you login as admin the server will detect the NIC's and offer the correct module (providing it is supported). I mainly use the rtl based cards and 8139too with SME 6.0 and haven't had any problems.

[Anonymous]

Then again, perhaps your problems originate from other hardware sources ?

Perhaps - I just wanted to get a feel from other people first for the probing ability of SME6. I'll dig out a few more motherboards and try again.

An example of the motherboard I am having most troubles with is the GA-586T2, Intel 82430 TX chipset, with a 233M PII CPU. But then, I don't know about the 'unresolved symbol' errors are in the driver when I run 'insmod 8139too':

8139too.o: unresolved symbol mii_link_ok R59a901a8
8139too.o: unresolved symbol mii_ethtool_sset R7218fs2a
8139too.o: unresolved symbol generic_mii_ioctl_R6bf3e1d6
8139too.o: unresolved symbol mii_nway_restart_R9d2585b5
8139too.o: unresolved symbol mii_ethtool_gset R111992a1

It looks more like problems in the installation, unless hardware problems can do this too? I've seen references to these types of errors across many lists, but never any explanations.

-- Jason

[wyron]

Sorry, Jason - cannot help you there.
I've never had to run insmod, and don't recognize any of the error messages.
What I can tell you is that I have a Realtec 8139-based card running smoothly on the WAN-side of a freshly installed Pentium Pro 180 machine (SME6.0) with a 3Com905b on the LAN-side (also running smoothly).
There was never a hiccup during installation, so the implication is (to grab at a straw) that perhaps your chipset or bus is at fault or at least in someway affecting the process, unless, of course, your 8139-card is a burnout ?

[Anonymous]

Rather than trying to "guess" the correct module name if you login as admin the server will detect the NIC's and offer the correct module (providing it is supported). I mainly use the rtl based cards and 8139too with SME 6.0 and haven't had any problems.

The chipsets are supported, and the server does not detect the cards. That is the problem. Even when I force the driver, the module still does not load.

Strangely enough, I have no problems with an older 8139C card, but the newer 8139D cards I have no luck with. I suspect this is some other hardware problem - perhaps the newer cards only work in busmaster mode (I am attempting to use older M/Bs without this capability, ASAIK).

Maybe this is an IRQ problem - the cheaper cards only supporting a very narrow range of IRQs (but they don't document which ones, for manual setting of IRQs and slots).

-- Jason

[italo]

Have you taken a look at the MB BIOS setup? Maybe you need to configure something there, or something is misconfigured...or better you need to upgrade the BIOS...

I never had any problem with network cards and SME, not even ISA cards. Just check the BIOS, maybe your problem is there.

Italo

[Anonymous]

I just noticed the newer cards are for PCI2.2 and above, while the older (working) card supports PCI2.1 and 2.2. That could explain why the newer cards don't work.

[dexter]

Check BIOS and option: PnP OS installed: YES/NO . If you turn this settings to ON, you will have similar problems in new MB too. Take a chance

[Anonymous]

Check BIOS and option: PnP OS installed: YES/NO . If you turn this settings to ON, you will have similar problems in new MB too. Take a chance

Hehe - with PnP turned off, the kernel goes into an endless loop of errors.

I have just tried a different make of RTL8139D card, one that supports both PCI2.1 and 2.2 - and it works fine.

I have not idea why none of my older ISA cards don't work, but it does look like the newer cards don't work because they do not support the older PCI buses.

Something to watch out for. Serves me right for using a M/B and network cards that were manufactured 7 years apart

Thanks for your help all - I've found a card that works, and I'll stick with it

-- Jason

[Guest]

Running former version of SME (5.1.x) I had a few NIC's running with 100Mbit on the LAN side and since the last two weeks I upgrade the server to 5.6 and the NIC's are recognizable but each of them are running with only 10 Mbit.
The funniest thing is that mii-tool shows a basic status 'no link' but everything is running normally like before even the switch displays green which means that the connection should be 100 Mbit.

Who knows what's wrong here?