[eepro100] Twin laptops - one good NIC configuration - one bad

[John Sved]

Thanks for your comments.

I have since noticed in the boot.msg log that

DEll no. 1 has:

<5>Intel(R) PRO/100 Fast Ethernet Adapter - Loadable driver, ver 1.8.37
<5>Copyright (c) 2002 Intel Corporation
<5>
<5>eth0: Intel(R) 8255x-based Ethernet Adapter
<5>  Mem:0xfbfff000  IRQ:11  Speed:100 Mbps  Dx:Full
<5>  Hardware receive checksums enabled
<5>  cpu cycle saver enabled

Repeated attempts to not have this in the SuSE YAST2 network card 
configuration have failed.  i.e. it still appears.

I think that it was the eepro100 driver at some earlier point.

There is also some message on screen about tainting the kernel with an 
unnecessary driver.

Dell no. 2 does not have any such entry in the boot.msg file.

So this looks like a likely cause of the trouble. (Two drivers fighting ...)

How can the e100 driver be removed ?

-- JS

Donald Becker wrote:
>  
> On Mon, 17 Jun 2002, John Sved wrote:
> 
> 
>>I have two Dell Inspiron 4000 connected to a home/office network.
>>Several other PCs work OK with apparent 100/half.
>>
> ...
> 
>>Dell no. 1 works very poorly with windoze and linux.  The Longshine
>>LCS-883R-SW800M= switching Hub indicates that the Dell no. 1 is in full
>>duplex but the link/Act LED is continuously flashing at about 1 Hz.
>>
> ..
> 
>>This appears to be a problem with auto negotiation.  I suspect that the
>>Dell no. 1 windoze driver for the NIC has changed a register and it has
>>not or cannot be changed by the eepro100.  I can get it to change to
>>100/half in windoze but then the connection is poor.
>>
> 
> Something is broken.  There should be no perceivable performance
> difference between half and full duplex.
> 
> 
>>I have tried various options 0x10, 0x20, 0x100 and 0x200   and  ether=0,
>>0, 0x200 eth0   etc. via the SuSE 8.0 YAST network card configuration
>>tool.
>>
> 
> Without knowing the SuSE configuration and driver version, it's difficult to
> advise you which options might be valid.
> 
> 
>>The use of a different hub (Fibreline) "cures" the problem.  But there
>>are fewer indicator lamps to know the mode.
>>
> 
> That points to a hardware problem, or perhaps marginal cables.
> 
> 
>>Note: I have downloaded eepro100-diag, compiled it with gcc and tried to
>>start it.  Nothing happens.
>>
> 
> What do you mean by "nothing happens"?  Is there output?
> 
> Try running 'mii-diag --watch'.
> 
> 
>