Changing media type of network card

Changing media type of network card

[Anindya Mozumdar]

Hi,
     I have a Intel EtherExpress/100 ethernet card. I would like to
change the media type to 10base2. However, any attempt of doing this
using ifconfig gives the error Operation Not Supported. Is there any
way I can change this ?
Thanks in advance.
Anindya.

Re: Changing media type of network card

[Emiliano Castagnari]

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Hash: SHA1

El  [ Sat 25, Jun 05 - 13:52 ] , Anindya Mozumdar expreso:
> Hi,
>      I have a Intel EtherExpress/100 ethernet card. I would like to
> change the media type to 10base2. However, any attempt of doing this
> using ifconfig gives the error Operation Not Supported. Is there any
> way I can change this ?

Try mii-tool, to do so, you should first find out what capabilities this
card supports. To do that, you could issue the command 'mii-tool <dev> -vv'.

This is the output for one of my network cards: 

- -=|[@lambda - root]: /]#> mii-tool eth0 -vv
Using SIOCGMIIPHY=0x8947
eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-FD, link ok
  registers for MII PHY 1: 
    3100 786d 0000 8201 01e1 45e1 0001 0000
    0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
    000c 0080 0000 0023 0c59 0406 0200 8560
    8a7b 01f9 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
  product info: vendor 00:00:20, model 32 rev 1
  basic mode:   autonegotiation enabled
  basic status: autonegotiation complete, link ok
  capabilities: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
  advertising:  100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
  link partner: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD flow-control

To change it, you could do something like this "mii-tool <dev> -F <media>", where
media is one of the supported capabilities.

Not every capability listed is always available. If this network card is attached to
a switch port that is not in autonegotiation mode, then you'll have to change this,
either to force it to the selected media type, or to be in autonegotiation mode.

Cheers !!
- -- 
# Emiliano Castagnari
[ -========================================================================- ]
          ('>   # Debian Sarge - GNU/Linux -  lambda 2.6.12-l01 #
    Gnu / (/)   # JID: torian@lug.fi.uba.ar
          '--   - } [ Libera tu mente - Libera tu Codigo ] { - 
[ -========================================================================- ]
[ GPGKey: http://gpg.lug.fi.uba.ar:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x0B8AF76F ]
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Re: Changing media type of network card

[Alexander Economou]

On 6/27/05, Emiliano Castagnari <ecastag@fi.uba.ar> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> El  [ Sat 25, Jun 05 - 13:52 ] , Anindya Mozumdar expreso:
> > Hi,
> >      I have a Intel EtherExpress/100 ethernet card. I would like to
> > change the media type to 10base2. However, any attempt of doing this
> > using ifconfig gives the error Operation Not Supported. Is there any
> > way I can change this ?
> 
> Try mii-tool, to do so, you should first find out what capabilities this
> card supports. To do that, you could issue the command 'mii-tool <dev> -vv'.
> 
> This is the output for one of my network cards:
> 
> - -=|[@lambda - root]: /]#> mii-tool eth0 -vv
> Using SIOCGMIIPHY=0x8947
> eth0: negotiated 100baseTx-FD, link ok
>   registers for MII PHY 1:
>     3100 786d 0000 8201 01e1 45e1 0001 0000
>     0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
>     000c 0080 0000 0023 0c59 0406 0200 8560
>     8a7b 01f9 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
>   product info: vendor 00:00:20, model 32 rev 1
>   basic mode:   autonegotiation enabled
>   basic status: autonegotiation complete, link ok
>   capabilities: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
>   advertising:  100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD
>   link partner: 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx-HD 10baseT-FD 10baseT-HD flow-control
> 
> To change it, you could do something like this "mii-tool <dev> -F <media>", where
> media is one of the supported capabilities.
> 
> Not every capability listed is always available. If this network card is attached to
> a switch port that is not in autonegotiation mode, then you'll have to change this,
> either to force it to the selected media type, or to be in autonegotiation mode.
> 
> Cheers !!
> - --
> # Emiliano Castagnari
> [ -========================================================================- ]
>           ('>   # Debian Sarge - GNU/Linux -  lambda 2.6.12-l01 #
>     Gnu / (/)   # JID: torian@lug.fi.uba.ar
>           '--   - } [ Libera tu mente - Libera tu Codigo ] { -
> [ -========================================================================- ]
> [ GPGKey: http://gpg.lug.fi.uba.ar:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x0B8AF76F ]
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (GNU/Linux)
> 
> iD8DBQFCvywkbsFzaguK928RAuylAJ4yBkwuuN8RnGFJn4Cqn2+ixQOk4wCaA+nd
> aAO9NvumX8VyivWCgD6MyDw=
> =pxo7
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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If mii-tool doesn't work for you , try ethtool
-- 
-------------------------
Alexander Economou
Systems & Network
    Administrator
-------------------------