[vortex] 3c905C not auto-negotiating full duplex 100BaseT

Bogdan Costescu bogdan.costescu@iwr.uni-heidelberg.de
Thu, 27 Sep 2001 11:53:15 +0200 (CEST)


On Thu, 27 Sep 2001, David LANDGREN wrote:

> Given that I haven't found out how to play with the EEPROM to set the card
> to autonegotiate...

One (easy) way is to use 3Com's '3c90xcfg' utility that you should get on
floppy-disk or CD when you buy the card or that you can download from
their web site.

The other way (NOT recommended!) is to read the docs (also from 3Com's
site) and use Don's 'vortex-diag' to read the EEPROM image, make the
correction with a hex editor and write it back.

>   8K buffer 5:3 Rx:Tx split, 10baseT interface.

... which means that you really have 10baseT set in your EEPROM.

> What's wrong with this picture? The link partner is an HP ProCurve 1600,
> and the port in question is configured for autoneg. In fact all ports on
> that switch are, in the unlikely event that I traced cables incorrectly.

Could you try 'mii-diag -R' too ?

> insmod 3c95x.o options=x
>
> where x is one of 4, 5, 0x204, 0x205...

I'm not 100% sure (it's been some time since I looked at Don's driver) but
you might be able to "force" autonegotiation with "options=8".

5/0x205 is not a valid one as it only works with fiber which you don't
have. 4 will force 100Mbit, 0x204 will force 100-FD; however, forcing only
one end of the connection is usually asking for trouble, if you want to
force media settings, do it at _both_ ends (card and switch). Even more,
forcing media settings this way (using options) is not the best way to do
it for your type of card - use 'mii-diag -F' .

Sincerely,

Bogdan Costescu

IWR - Interdisziplinaeres Zentrum fuer Wissenschaftliches Rechnen
Universitaet Heidelberg, INF 368, D-69120 Heidelberg, GERMANY
Telephone: +49 6221 54 8869, Telefax: +49 6221 54 8868
E-mail: Bogdan.Costescu@IWR.Uni-Heidelberg.De