3c556 basicly not working.

3c556 basicly not working.

[Chris Meadors]

I think I posted a message earily to l-k, but I was really distraced at
the time, and haven't seen it show up yet, so I probally got something
wrong.

Anyway, for a little more information:  I have a 3Com mini-PCI card in my
laptop.  It is based on the 3c556 chip.  I'm using the 3c59x driver from
2.4.13-ac5.

Both compiled into the kernel or as a module I'm having no luck.  The
driver seems to load without complaints.  But reports the MAC address as
all Fs.  Actually most information I've seen returned from the card is all
Fs.

ifconfig does seem to assign an IP to the interface.  But when any traffic
is generated that tries to access the interface, it seems the machine
hangs.  It won't even change consoles.  Then I get an error in my logs
various commands not completing and I can change consoles again.  Basicly
the machine totally pauses everytime I access the interface but quickly
resumes when the command fails.

I can get what ever information you'd like to see, but I'll have to get
another network card back into the machine so I can transfer the data off.

-Chris
-- 
Two penguins were walking on an iceberg.  The first penguin said to the
second, "you look like you are wearing a tuxedo."  The second penguin
said, "I might be..."                         --David Lynch, Twin Peaks

Re: 3c556 basicly not working.

[Andrew Morton]

Chris Meadors wrote:
> 
> I think I posted a message earily to l-k, but I was really distraced at
> the time, and haven't seen it show up yet, so I probally got something
> wrong.
> 
> Anyway, for a little more information:  I have a 3Com mini-PCI card in my
> laptop.  It is based on the 3c556 chip.  I'm using the 3c59x driver from
> 2.4.13-ac5.
> 
> Both compiled into the kernel or as a module I'm having no luck.  The
> driver seems to load without complaints.  But reports the MAC address as
> all Fs.  Actually most information I've seen returned from the card is all
> Fs.
> 

I've never seen a satisfactory explanation for this one.  Usually
it's fixed by altering the `PnP OS' setting in the BIOS.

Re: 3c556 basicly not working.

[Chris Meadors]

On Sat, 3 Nov 2001, Andrew Morton wrote:

> I've never seen a satisfactory explanation for this one.  Usually
> it's fixed by altering the `PnP OS' setting in the BIOS.

Well I just looked, it is as I feared.  There is not PnP OS or
Windows/Other setting in the BIOS of this laptop.

Anything else you can think of?

Thanks again,
Chris
-- 
Two penguins were walking on an iceberg.  The first penguin said to the
second, "you look like you are wearing a tuxedo."  The second penguin
said, "I might be..."                         --David Lynch, Twin Peaks

Re: 3c556 basicly not working.

[Andrew Morton]

Chris Meadors wrote:
> 
> 
> Anything else you can think of?
> 

Yeah, but nothing which'll make your NIC work ;)

Please send me a copy of the `lspci -xxx' output for the device.
To do this, first run `lspci' with no args, to get this:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX - 82443BX/ZX Host bridge (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 440BX/ZX - 82443BX/ZX AGP bridge (rev 03)
00:02.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1450 (rev 03)
00:02.1 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCI1450 (rev 03)
00:03.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c556B Laptop Hurricane (rev 20)
00:03.1 Communication controller: 3Com Corporation: Unknown device 1007 (rev 20)
00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: Cirrus Logic CS 4614/22/24 [CrystalClear SoundFusion 
...

And then run

	lspci -xxx -s 00:03.0

Where the bus/slot/function identifiers refer to the 3com
device.  (Running lspci -xxx against all PCI devices is risky.)

-

Re: 3c556 basicly not working.

[Tom Sightler]

> On Sat, 3 Nov 2001, Andrew Morton wrote:
>
> > I've never seen a satisfactory explanation for this one.  Usually
> > it's fixed by altering the `PnP OS' setting in the BIOS.
>
> Well I just looked, it is as I feared.  There is not PnP OS or
> Windows/Other setting in the BIOS of this laptop.
>
> Anything else you can think of?

I experienced some similar problems when I first received my Dell Latitude
C810 which has the same card.  In my case the card worked fine after
upgrading to the latest BIOS from Dell.

Interestingly, the card has a similar problem in Windows ME in that it's
won't initialize properly on first boot, but if I remove and reinstall the
driver it comes right up.

I think the problem is that the BIOS fails to initialize the PCI bridge
properly, but this is a total guess.

Anyway, my suggestion would be to verify that you have the most current BIOS
for your system, and select any options at all that would indicate a legacy
system.  Also, another stupid suggestion is to try ACPI in the kernel, a
friend of mine insist that his card started working after he simply compiled
in ACPI, he thinks the bridge was brought up in standby mode and somehow
ACPI fixed this (I'm skeptical, but it is just a suggestion).

Later,
Tom

Re: 3c556 basicly not working.

[Chris Meadors]

On Sun, 4 Nov 2001, Tom Sightler wrote:

> I experienced some similar problems when I first received my Dell Latitude
> C810 which has the same card.  In my case the card worked fine after
> upgrading to the latest BIOS from Dell.

This machine also has Win2k on it.  I was trying to get IBM to help me
with this a little, as I was seeing some funky stuff even in Windows.  The
latest BIOS upgrade did help a little.

In Windows the card does work.  But before when I was shutting down the
machine wasn't turning all the way off.  The back light on the screen was
staying on.  Now the backlight turns off, but I still don't think it
shutsdown properly, because Windows won't restart properly, it just hangs.
I have to hold the powerbutton to get it to shut down, when I hit the
powerbutton again it won't POST, unless I unplug the AC adaptor first.

Actually when booting from Windows to Linux, even Linux hangs on the first
boot.  Right when it tries to load the ACPI kernel driver.  Linux seems to
shutdown properly and start backup (actually this is the first machine
I've seen power off with ACPI instead of APM in the kernel).

> Interestingly, the card has a similar problem in Windows ME in that it's
> won't initialize properly on first boot, but if I remove and reinstall the
> driver it comes right up.
>
> I think the problem is that the BIOS fails to initialize the PCI bridge
> properly, but this is a total guess.
>
> Anyway, my suggestion would be to verify that you have the most current BIOS
> for your system, and select any options at all that would indicate a legacy
> system.  Also, another stupid suggestion is to try ACPI in the kernel, a
> friend of mine insist that his card started working after he simply compiled
> in ACPI, he thinks the bridge was brought up in standby mode and somehow
> ACPI fixed this (I'm skeptical, but it is just a suggestion).

There are really no legacy options in the BIOS.  I have turned off the
legacy floppy support because there is no floppy controller in this
machine.  I've turned on the serial port because I need it sometimes.

And as I stated above I do have ACPI in the kernel.  I know the hangs on
loading ACPI are related to the card because I could reboot between
Windows and Linux all day without a hang before I installed this card.  I
tried removing the card and the laptop does work properly without it.  So
it would also be my guess that there is something wrong with the BIOS.

But the card works in Windows, and Linux can shutdown properly, so what
ever the problem is it can be worked around it seems.

Anway, I'll keep watching IBM for BIOS updates, and work as much as I can
with Andrew to see if anything can be worked out.

-Chris
-- 
Two penguins were walking on an iceberg.  The first penguin said to the
second, "you look like you are wearing a tuxedo."  The second penguin
said, "I might be..."                         --David Lynch, Twin Peaks