[realtek] RTL8101L/BL Support

Gerassimo Tselentis g_tselentis@worldonline.co.za
Wed Jan 29 00:56:57 2003


Hi

This is my first posting, so excuse any inconsistencies, I've tried to
do everything by the book.

I read this thread and it interests me because I have exactly the same
problem. Only I have a Realtek 8100BL on my board (GIGABYTE GA-8SKML
based on SiS650 chipset), not a 8101BL. Let me call the defective PC, PC
A. I have the same symptoms when I look at logs of my DHCP server:
DHCPDISCOVER and DHCPOFFER, but no response. I've made sure my pc is
running 'stock', i.e. no firewall, no custom routes, just a default
Mandrake 9 install. I've got exactly the same configuration on another
PC which I will call PC B. On PC B I have an SMC network card based on a
RTL8139C chip, and everything works fine. Also, as you will see in my
rtl8139-diag output below, the RTL8100BL is detected as a RTL8139C chip.
So what I did is disable the onboard LAN on PC A and insert the working
network card. But, exactly the same thing happens. This has got me
boggled up. I have noticed that you mentioned that RTL8139C chip hasn't
been fully tested yet, but since the person who started this thread
shares the symptoms I have, I thought I'd butt in and add my case. As a
matter of interest, what chipset does Markus have?

I have tried both drivers on PC A, i.e. 8139too and rtl8139. I have
tried to use a combination of the options that are available in the
newer 2.4.19 kernel. So well after googling I found your thread and so
I'll also supply you with my rtl8139-diag output:

rtl8139-diag.c:v2.10 9/18/2002 Donald Becker (becker@scyld.com)
 http://www.scyld.com/diag/index.html
Index #1: Found a RealTek RTL8139 adapter at 0xe800.
RealTek chip registers at 0xe800
 0x000: 5bed2000 000031c1 80000000 00000000 00002000 00002000 00002000
00002000
 0x020: 06e68010 06e68610 06e68c10 1b31b200 06e60000 01000000 0000fff0
00050000
 0x040: 74400000 00000000 32750c52 00000000 008f10c0 00000000 0088c510
00100000
 0x060: 1100000f 01e1782d 000145e1 00000000 00000704 000107c8 60f60c59
7b732660.
Realtek station address 00:20:ed:5b:c1:31, chip type 'rtl8139C'.
  Receiver configuration: Reception disabled
     Rx FIFO threshold 16 bytes, maximum burst 16 bytes, 8KB ring
  Transmitter disabled with normal settings, maximum burst 16 bytes.
    Tx entry #0 status 00002000 incomplete, 0 bytes.
    Tx entry #1 status 00002000 incomplete, 0 bytes.
    Tx entry #2 status 00002000 incomplete, 0 bytes.
    Tx entry #3 status 00002000 incomplete, 0 bytes.
  Flow control: Tx disabled  Rx disabled.
  The chip configuration is 0x10 0x8f, MII half-duplex mode.
  Interrupt sources are pending.
   Rx Complete indication.
   Transmit OK indication.
Decoded EEPROM contents:
   PCI IDs -- Vendor 0x10ec, Device 0x8139.
   PCI Subsystem IDs -- Vendor 0x10ec, Device 0x8139.
   PCI timer settings -- minimum grant 32, maximum latency 64.
  General purpose pins --  direction 0xe5  value 0x12.
  Station Address 00:20:ED:5B:C1:31.
  Configuration register 0/1 -- 0x8d / 0xc2.
 EEPROM active region checksum is 0a1d.
EEPROM contents (64 words):
 0x00:  8129 10ec 8139 10ec 8139 4020 e512 2000
 0x08:  5bed 31c1 8d10 f7c2 8801 03b9 60f4 071a
 0x10:  dfa3 9836 dfa3 9836 03b9 60f4 1a1a 1a1a
 0x18:  0000 8680 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 2000
 0x20:  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
      ...
 The RTL8139 does not use a MII transceiver.
 It does have internal MII-compatible registers:
   Basic mode control register   0x1100.
   Basic mode status register    0x782d.
   Autonegotiation Advertisement 0x01e1.
   Link Partner Ability register 0x45e1.
   Autonegotiation expansion     0x0001.
   Disconnects                   0x0000.
   False carrier sense counter   0x0000.
   NWay test register            0x0704.
   Receive frame error count     0x0000.

This is the output when I configure eth0 with ifconfig (previous was
with eth0 disabled):

rtl8139-diag.c:v2.10 9/18/2002 Donald Becker (becker@scyld.com)
 http://www.scyld.com/diag/index.html
Index #1: Found a RealTek RTL8139 adapter at 0xe800.
RealTek chip registers at 0xe800
 0x000: 5bed2000 000031c1 80000000 00000000 0008a03c 0008a03c 0008a03c
00002000
 0x020: 06e68010 06e68610 06e68c10 1b31b200 06e60000 0c0a0000 02d8fff0
0005c07f
 0x040: 74400400 0000940e 072b55cd 00000000 008f1000 00000000 0088c510
00100000
 0x060: 1100700f 01e1782d 000145e1 00000000 00000704 000107c8 60f60c59
7b732660.
Realtek station address 00:20:ed:5b:c1:31, chip type 'rtl8139C'.
  Receiver configuration: Normal unicast and hashed multicast
     Rx FIFO threshold 256 bytes, maximum burst 256 bytes, 32KB ring
  Transmitter enabled with normal settings, maximum burst 256 bytes.
    Tx entry #0 status 0008a03c complete, 60 bytes.
    Tx entry #1 status 0008a03c complete, 60 bytes.
    Tx entry #2 status 0008a03c complete, 60 bytes.
    Tx entry #3 status 00002000 incomplete, 0 bytes.
  Flow control: Tx disabled  Rx disabled.
  The chip configuration is 0x10 0x8f, MII half-duplex mode.
  Interrupt sources are pending.
   Rx Complete indication.
   Transmit OK indication.
Decoded EEPROM contents:
   PCI IDs -- Vendor 0x10ec, Device 0x8139.
   PCI Subsystem IDs -- Vendor 0x10ec, Device 0x8139.
   PCI timer settings -- minimum grant 32, maximum latency 64.
  General purpose pins --  direction 0xe5  value 0x12.
  Station Address 00:20:ED:5B:C1:31.
  Configuration register 0/1 -- 0x8d / 0xc2.
 EEPROM active region checksum is 0a1d.
EEPROM contents (64 words):
 0x00:  8129 10ec 8139 10ec 8139 4020 e512 2000
 0x08:  5bed 31c1 8d10 f7c2 8801 03b9 60f4 071a
 0x10:  dfa3 9836 dfa3 9836 03b9 60f4 1a1a 1a1a
 0x18:  0000 8680 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 2000
 0x20:  0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
      ...
 The RTL8139 does not use a MII transceiver.
 It does have internal MII-compatible registers:
   Basic mode control register   0x1100.
   Basic mode status register    0x782d.
   Autonegotiation Advertisement 0x01e1.
   Link Partner Ability register 0x45e1.
   Autonegotiation expansion     0x0001.
   Disconnects                   0x0000.
   False carrier sense counter   0x0000.
   NWay test register            0x0704.
   Receive frame error count     0x0000.

Yep everything seems fine :-/

If there's any other info I can supply I'll be glad to do so. Now to go
buy a new NIC in the meantime ...

Thank you for your time and I look forward to a reply
G. Tselentis

P.S. The above output only applies to the onboard LAN, not the SMC NIC
mentioned.