[vortex] Problem with 3com 10/100 Mini PCI adapter Revisited

Cameron Johnston cwj@xmission.com
Wed Feb 27 15:03:00 2002


I see from my perusal of the list archives (specificaly:
<http://www.scyld.com/pipermail/vortex/2001-July/thread.html#1237>) that
Akihiko Yamamoto had reported the same problems I am currently
experiencing with a 3c556B MiniPCI combo card in my Thinkpad T22. I
contacted Mr. Yamamoto off list and he replied to me that he has not yet
found a real solution to the problem, and therfore must boot into
Windows and soft reboot into Linux to place the card in a workable
state. 

I've tried everything that was sugested to Mr. Yamamoto, I've used the
kernel drivers and the newest drivers off the scyld.com site. In every
case cold booting to Linux the card is detected properly and assigned to
eth0 but no link is negotiated. The card is flawless under windows. 

I am told that the 3c905 DOS uttilites used to cover this card but that
is no longer the case. Nothing I have been able to find on 3Com's ftp
site seems relevant to this card. The setup cd has no diagnostic
uttilities that I can find. I have set the link negotiation to various
speeds, saved the settings and reset it to NWay/Auto from the Windows
device manager settings but this has had no effect on the card's
operation in Linux. I am not certain but I don't think Windows is
affecting a change in the card's eeprom. 

I would be happy to post any diagnostic output thats relevant, but from
the aforementioned thread, I can see that the diagnostic output didn't
help resolve the issue. 

Any ideas, or tools I may have over looked? I have a friend who works at
3Com who is trying to help me find anything that might get this to work
properly but he recomeneded I post to this list as well. 

For what its worth, I do have a working Cardbus ethernet card also under
the vortex driver, but I'd sure like to get the onboard ethernet
functional. 

Thanks in advance, 
Cameron 

-- 
Cameron W. Johnston	| If you wish to strive for peace of soul,
XMission Tech. Support	| then believe; if you wish to be a devotee
cwj@xmission.com	| of truth, then inquire. - Nietzsche