Problem with Netgear FA311 NIC

[rcrosier]

I purchased a new Netgear FA311 100bt card today, and was semi-successful in installing it into Linux.

I can see the server via W98 and samba, but when I run an application from a mapped drive (S:) on the W98 workstation, it hangs for a long time then I get an 'error reading file' message.

This was working fine with a Linksys 10bt card earlier today with same cable in same port on hub. Hub is an Intel 10/100, and there are a total of 4 machines on it.

Anyone done this, know what I'm doing wrong, or have working files you'd like to send me?

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Creative Consulting Services
159 Rt 67W
North Bennington, VT 05257
802-447-8801

[mindwarp.out]

Well most likely it isn't the nic card, its probably the wan samba is setup. How does FTP work for you? also if you are adventurous, I believe in 2.4 there is a better driver for the netgear card. At any rate, do like ping -f address and check packetloss etc. and try ftp'n big files and post results.

Mindwarp

[rcrosier]

Why do you think it would be the way Samba is set up if it was working fine (but a bit slow) with the Linksys 10bt card? That card was working fine for a week or so...

Seems more like the card is not transmitting properly from the server, thus I thought maybe something went wrong in my compilation or setup of the driver.

[DMR]

If you used the Netgear driver that shipped with the unit, you might want to try the natsemi driver instead, found at scyld's driver site (http://www.scyld.com/network/). It worked much better for me than the Netgear-supplied driver. Note- you have to compile the pci-scan module as well and update dependencies before it will load.

Other than that, what about all the usual stuff: correct address/IRQ? Can you ping the card? can you ping other boxes on the network? etc.,etc...

Getting the FA-311 (under RH 6.2) to play nicely with my home network was something akin to wrestling with alligators.
:D

[rcrosier]

Thanks. I have already gone to the scyld web site, but I'm new to this, and really don't know what to do with it. Can you tell me what I'm supposed to do with the files I got? I realize I'm supposed to compile them, but that's about all I know!

[DMR]

rcrosier,

Sorry for the delayed response, I had a much longer work day than I expected, and sleep sounds really good right now. I'll
post a detailed description in the morning. Hope you can hang in there until then...

BTW: what about the other questions - Can you ping your NIC? Can you ping other machines on the network from your box? If you run ifconfig, what output do you get?


-DMR

[ 03 February 2001: Message edited by: DMR ]

[rcrosier]

DMR,
I can PING from my W98 (192.168.0.1) to the Linux box (192.168.0.99) OK, but when I PING from the Linux box to the W98 workstation, it seems much slower.

Remember, this was all working FINE with the 10bt Linksys EtherPCI card!

I don't even know how to set up FTP on this thing... I've only been working with Linux for a week and a half... Worked briefly with Xenix on Altos machines 20 years ago, but that's the extent of my education!

There is another W98 and an NT4 sp6a machine on this network, all working fine.

I've been looking for good information, but it's really hard to find well written, complete instructions for a lot of this stuff, where half of the commands necessary aren't left out. For instance, when I went to the scyld site, the instructions are so broken up and vague, that I don't know exactly what to do... feel pretty stupid.

Thanks in advance for your time!

[rcrosier]

PROBLEM SOLVED! (Sort of)
I checked one of the other machines in my office, and found that I had a Netgear FA310TX card, which is one of the ones that RH 7 comes with stock. Took that one out of the W98 machine and put it into the Linux box, and voila, it works great again! The Netgear FA311 works fine in the W98 box too.

Would really like to know why i couldn't get the FA311 to work though.

[DMR]

rcrosier,

Again, sorry for the delay. I got stuck troubleshooting a friggin' HP Pavillion running Window$ Millenium- not a great way to start the day! BTW: Xenix on ?! Man, I thought I was a dinosaur just because I learned assembly on an 8085
Anyway, here we go:

1) Yes, I do understand that everything worked with the Linksys, so I'm going on the assumption that your network settings were/are correct, and that the problems now revolves around the FA-311, not your network. If you've made changes to your network settings in an attempt to resolve the problems, let's just consider that a "higher-level can of worms"; we can addess it later.

2) The instructions at scyld are rather scattered, and leave out some steps that Newbies like us might not intuitively grok.
I still have higher-level problems concerning DHCP vs static addressing on my net, but here's how I got the initial driver install to work under Redhat 6.2:

a) downloaded pci-scan.c, pci-scan.h, kern_compat.h, and natsemi.c to /usr/src/linux-2.2.14/modules (as per Becker's instructions).
b) compiled pci-scan.o using the syntax listed at the end of the pci-scan.c file:
gcc -DModule D__Kernel__ -DEXPORT :D :D

[DMR]

*digs self out from the rubble, shakes plaster dust from hair, and surveys the blast damage...*

WTF?!?!

Sorry for half-formed garble that's masquerading as an answer in the previous post. My net connection burst into flames in mid-post, appended a couple of friggin "smileys" to the reply, and went AWOL for two days. Man, gotta love @home's reliability!! :mad: :mad:

Glad you got everything going. I think Netgear used a different chipset on the 311, which seems to cause headaches for a lot of Linux users. My Win98 box has a 311 in it also, and it installed without a hitch.

[ 05 February 2001: Message edited by: DMR ]

[rcrosier]

LOL... I thought I was just REALLY dumb, and couldn't figure out what to do from your instructions. I was wondering why the instructions you gave me looked like they sort of, stopped, mid-stream...

Thanks anyways!

[BobC2]

Yes, both the FA-311TX and FA-312TX use a different chip than the FA-310TX that does work. I'm another that failed to get EITHER to work.

DAMN those bastards at Netgear for putting "Linux" on the box and a driver that is old on the disk, and nothing to help on their site and not responding to email requests for help.

I did find a fa311lx.zip put on their site in Jan, but to be honest, I've given up on them.

BobC
--Screw me, and at every chance, I'll inflict a mosquito bite as a message someone else will find, and not buy your products as a result--

[georgezilla]

Ok.
So HOW do you get the fa311 to work?
I tried the "scyld" driver.
Downloaded all of the required ".o,.c,.h"'s
that it said I needed.
Compiled them,and did make on the driver.
And "POOF"...
the newley compilde driver is gone.
Nowhere to be found.
So now what?
I had a Linksys,it now is gathering dust.
( never did get it to work. )
Now the Netgear fa311.
Am now "0 for 2".
Where do I go next?
How about looking in ...
well crap...
brain fart.
Anyway, look in where ever it is that lists the drivers for my distro.
Then look for a nic that uses one of them?
Change distros?
( have a Mandrake 6.0 on the shelf. Or the RH 6.1? Crap, I even have a Turbo Linux around here somewhere. Can you tell that I really want to use Linux? Oops! Just found a RH 6.0! )
Or just sit in the corner and wait for the guys in the white coats to come and get me?

[dekemoose]

My understanding also is that the 311 does not work for crap with any Linux distributions. I am using a 310 with the tulip driver that works fine, but was unable to get a 311 to work. If I had to choose between spending another few bucks to buy a compatible card and spinning my wheels trying to get the 311 to work, I'd spend the money.

[dekemoose]

My understanding also is that the 311 does not work for crap with any Linux distributions. I am using a 310 with the tulip driver that works fine, but was unable to get a 311 to work. If I had to choose between spending another few bucks to buy a compatible card and spinning my wheels trying to get the 311 to work, I'd spend the money.

[jae1677]

http://www.linuxnewbie.org/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=12&t=000376

Open the make file and add a k infront of the gcc-whatever-the-comand-is-line after you install kgcc.

[rcrosier]

I was the original poster of this thread, and was never able to get the FA311 to work. What I did do, was to take an FA310 out of one of my W98 machines, put it into the Linux box, take the FA311, put it into the W98 box, and voila, they both work fine now! It's cheaper to get new hardware than to screw around with these forever.

[DMR]

Yeah,
The 311 doesn't seem to be worth the headache it can cause for a lot of people (even with the Natsemi driver). Other, more Linux friendly cards are out there for the same price. The 310, if you can find one, should set itself up while you're asleep :D