linux newbie having problems

[Shawn T. Rutledge]

On Wed, May 17, 2000 at 01:38:37PM -0700, David Saunders wrote:
> having a problem getting linux to see my network adapter after the install.
> my system dual-boots linux and windows 2k and i am able to connect while in
> windows.  i have cox@home internet service and have a 3Com Etherlink III ISA
> model # 3c509b adapter.  i have tried many times to get it to work and am
> still unable to.  any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Those are good cards, I use them too.  The newer ones have a plug-n-play
option, so if you were using it that way in Windows, it'll probably be
easiest for Linux' sake to hardcode the IRQ/port/etc. instead.  I haven't
tried using ISAPNP with them.  I will assume you know for sure that the
board is not being detected?  (if you're not sure, try
dmesg | grep eth
)  If you built the driver into the kernel then it will be automatically 
detected; if you're using a module, you will need to install the module.  
(modprobe 3c509)  In either case there should be a message about eth0 
being detected.

So I would recommend you do the following:

cat /proc/ioports
cat /proc/interrupts

and find a port/interrupt combination which is not already in use.
(IRQ 9 is usually a good choice for an ethernet card)
Then boot with a DOS diskette, and use the "etherdisk" that came with
the card; run 3c509 and go through the menus to tell the card to use
the io port/interrupt combination that you want.  It will store those
settings in some kind of non-volatile memory on the card, and they
won't change again until you change them on purpose.  That's why I
like these cards - the software setup is just as good as having hardware
jumpers to set the parameters.

Then, in your BIOS settings, under PnP setup, tell the BIOS to reserve
that interrupt for an ISA card, so it won't get allocated to any PnP
devices.

Now back in Linux, it should be detected.

If you have two 3c509's, only one will be automatically detected, and
you will need kernel parameters to tell it about the second card.  This
is my setup - one card for @home, the other for the LAN.

In Windows, you will probably also have to do manual resource allocation
and tell it to use the correct IO port and IRQ, if you have used this
method instead of PnP.

-- 
  _______                   Shawn T. Rutledge / KB7PWD  ecloud@bigfoot.com
 (_  | |_)          http://www.bigfoot.com/~ecloud  kb7pwd@kb7pwd.ampr.org
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