[tulip-bug] ether= option on the kernel command line

[Florian Wunderlich]

Because of the media type autoselect bug (see below), I want to force
the compiled-in tulip driver to use a specific media type; according to
http://www.scyld.com/network/tulip.html, I have to pass
ether=0,0,media-type,eth0, which does not seem to work.

I tried ether=0,0,5,eth0 on an append line in /etc/lilo.conf and on the
lilo boot prompt, and /proc/cmdline shows that it was correctly parsed,
but the tulip driver seems to ignore it. When built as a module it works
fine when using options=5.

Is there a working way to set the media type for a compiled-in tulip
driver?


What I assume is an autoselect bug has already been reported by a number
of people:
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=432622&group_id=13004&atid=113004
http://www.geocrawler.com/archives/3/6977/2001/6/0/5904481/
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=430617&group_id=13004&atid=113004
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=425571&group_id=13004&atid=113004


In my case, the driver selects 10Base-T half-duplex though the NIC is
initially in 100Base-T half-duplex mode and the link partner
capabilities are 100baseTx and 10baseT. I have to unplug the network
cable every time a machine with a tulip card is booting after the driver
initialized the card and set the wrong speed; after plugging it back in
the NIC selects the correct speed again.
Interestingly no communication is possible after the driver initialized
the NIC incorrectly as the card now does 10baseT and the (dual speed)
hub still expects 100baseT.

BTW, the cards worked fine since kernel 2.0.0 or something.


Index #1: Found a Digital DS21140 Tulip adapter at 0xec00.
 Port selection is MII, half-duplex.
 Transmit started, Receive started, half-duplex.
  The Rx process state is 'Waiting for packets'.
  The Tx process state is 'Idle'.
  The transmit threshold is 128.
 MII PHY found at address 1, status 0x782d.
 MII PHY #1 transceiver registers:
   3000 782d 0181 b800 05e1 40a1 0001 0000
   0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
   0640 4018 6800 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000
   0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000.
 Basic mode control register 0x3000: Auto-negotiation enabled.
 Basic mode status register 0x782d ... 782d.
   Link status: established.
   Capable of  100baseTx-FD 100baseTx 10baseT-FD 10baseT.
   Able to perform Auto-negotiation, negotiation complete.
 Vendor ID is 00:60:6e:--:--:--, model 0 rev. 0.
   Vendor/Part: Davicom DM9101.
 I'm advertising 05e1: Flow-control 100baseTx-FD 100baseTx 10baseT-FD
10baseT
   Advertising no additional info pages.
   IEEE 802.3 CSMA/CD protocol.
 Link partner capability is 40a1: 100baseTx 10baseT.
   Negotiation  completed.
  Davicom vendor specific registers: 0x0640 0x4018 0x6800.