ISA 3com 3c509b card

[orpete]

dear list,

I have had the pleasure of installing linux on a machine for my boss. Now the limits of my skills are showing and I'm under a time crunch. The card is a 3com 3c509b isa nic.

The card did not automatically load, and when linux boots it reports that the installation has been postponed due to likely IRQ and I/O problems.

I have used the 3c5x9.exe program to turn off pnp and have turned off pnp on irq three to which the card is assigned (in the bios). BTW the card works with this configuration under windows.
My distro is RH 7.0
I know the irq and the i/o values, but have no idea how to tell linux the relevant news. I have heard it may be necessary to rebuild the kernel. Clueless as to what that might entail. In your response, can you be specific as to the file- and the tool- names I should modify/use.

Many thanks for your kind advice.

David

[bdl]

You should be able to do one of the following without a kernel recompile:

1) If the nic is built as a module, you should add these lines to /etc/modules.conf:

## example, YMMV

alias eth0 3c509
options io=0x300 irq=5

## eof

2) If the nic is built into the kernel, you can pass the arguments to the kernel at boot time, or add the append line to your lilo.conf file...

append="reserve=32,0x300 ether=5,0x300,eth0"

3) When you load the module by hand, specify the io and interrupt.

linuxprompt# insmod 3c509 option=[...]

..and so on.

Please note that the above io and interrupts may be different than your own, modify as necessary.

Please take a look at this link (http://www.scyld.com/network/3c509.html), this link (http://www.c0wz.com/mirrors/misc/multicard.html),and perhaps this link (http://wuarchive.wustl.edu/systems/linux/slackware/BOOTING.TXT) and for more info. Luck!

[ 07 April 2001: Message edited by: bdl ]

[bdg1983]

Just posted this in another thread...


You can use the dos configuration utility that usually is included on the driver diskette with ISA nics or is downloadable.

The utility can be used to turn on/off PnP and change the IRQ and I/O if necessary.

To List the Resources Used by your System

cat /proc/pci
cat /proc/interrupts
cat /proc/ioports

ISA PnP

pnpdump > /etc/isapnp.conf

[compunuts]

I have the same card but mine is Red Hat 6.2. The way I solve is to use IO-0x300 and IRQ=11 . It's documented in RH hardware list.