82558 lock-up bug, even worse ?

[Bill]

"Stauffer, Walter" wrote:
> 
> > I am assuming that these are embedded (into the MB) ethernet
> controllers...
> > (Intel EtherExpress Pro100B's  perhaps ?)
> 
> Yes, they are all-on-the-board machines, manufacturer FIC (First
> International
> Computers), Model "Sahara 2000", NIC is on-board i82558 aka EEPro100.
> A very nice little machine fitting our need perfectly (if it works).

   Ah, finally...someone else that has the same problem as me. :)
I've been trying to get a Sahara 2000 box to work. It didn't want
to really work at all initially. I got a hold of FIC tech support
with the help of my distributor and they had me try backing off
a rev of the BIOS that shipped with it. The machine came with AMI
BIOS ML613 and upon flashing ML612 things seemed to mostly work.
Except for a weird bug that the tech told me about--if you unplug
or otherwise ungracefully power off the machine (NOT using the power
switch) then on the next boot you get the same behavior. Email with
Donald brought up the possibility of an issue with the PCI 
configuration space initialization of the chip. After I messed with
pci-config to try to see if anything jumped out at my (this particular
new problem is actually an issue for my intended use of the Sahara
2000) it seemed like the problem would usually go away with just a
scan or two, instead of the usual reboot required.

> This is OK - 4 other machines of the same type with the same installation
> (each one with its IP address of course) are working nicely.
> 
> > [...]
> > (or Disable in BIOS) the existing NIC... Install the new module (or
> rebuild)
> 
> Unfortunately I don't see an option to disable the on-board NIC (AMI BIOS).

   If you install another board in the board you can just not load a 
driver for the 10/100 chip and make sure you configure the new board
as eth0 in /etc/conf.modules.

> This seems a lot to me. Are these replaced (by Intel or the board manu-
> facturer) ?
> 
> Guess I should have been warned when I saw the Linux driver's message
> "... lock-up workaround enabled" on the first machine I purchased and did
> the prototype on (it worked perfectly and still does - of the more recent
> ones
> I have 50% with a problem).
> 
> Thanks for your thoughts and best regards,
> Walter

   So do you think it's really a hardware problem? Did you say you have
other Sahara 2000's working perfectly? I only have a single box
currently so I'm not sure what's at issue.

- Bill