by Hi,
I've got a bunch of PCI network cards which are said to be 100Mbit capable,
but currently none of them is working under Linux (2.0.32). :(
Maybe I chose the wrong driver or did something else wrong. These cards
do work under Dos/W**0.95 so the hardware seems to be okay.
1. No name product, biggest chip is a "DEC 21140-AC" labelled with the year
1995, and another chip "EK9618HHC4". This card is recognized by the
DEC Tulip driver (i.e. correct hardware ethernet address is displayed).
The card LEDs indicate correct link, but no packet goes through the net.
2. A Compex card named "ReadyLink 100". The biggest chip is labelled
"Compex TX9881" others "MX98704QC" and "MX98702QC". I can't find a date
on the chips, but the board has the label 1997 somewhere. This card is
not recognized at all by any driver. Rumors tell that the HP100 driver
is capable of running Compex cards, but apparently not this one...
3. A real monster with 4 TP ports, labelled "EM440TX 10/100 Fast Ethernet"
sold by Adaptec (at least the manual and the box read this name) but
carrying a Cogent label on the board. It has 4 DEC 21140-AC chips from
1995 and the whole card seems to be 4 times the same things. It has also
*one* DEC 21050 chip. The card is recognized by the DEC Tulip driver
(yes, all 4 ports) and the four hardware ethernet addresses are displayed
correctly (with a lot of warnings like "no EEPROM, this device might not
work" - hmm...) But again, no packet wants to go through. Yes, the LEDs
show correct 100Mbit link, and the ACT LED even flickers irregularly...
Hmm, which driver do I need for these cards? Are there other things to
configure? Do I need special configuration software for these cards? Do I
have to configure them in a special way under Dos/W**0.95 so they work under
Linux? (Hmm, what else can be wrong...?)
For the DEC chipsets I think it has something to do with the "AC" in
"21140-AC" since I have also an older Cogent EM100 card with a plain "21140"
on it - this one works out of the box. Is this true?
Just another question... is someone maintaining a complete database
of 100Mbit cards working under Linux?
And a last one... what speed can I expect from 100Mbit? My own tests
(ftping the kernel soures) show 3.2MB/sec (from memory to memory, no
disk access during this time) using a crosslink cable between two Linux
2.0.32 boxes. My NE2000 clones - which are only 10Mbit, ISA bus, and cost
almost nothing - reach 1.1MB/sec with a crosslink cable and also with
a coax cable. Have I misunderstood something? I thought 100Mbit ten times
faster than 10Mbit... ?
Thanks.