Bug report, as much information as I can give...

[Winged Wolf]

Heya, I've got a bit of a problem.  I've got two machines (HP Vectra VLi8
MTs) with what appear to be 3c509B cards in them.

Trying to install Debian 2.1 (from a CD I bought at Fry's, not marked
'official'), everything goes wonderfully.  Until I try to bring up the
network interface.

The symptom is, the module loads properly, but nothing comes in or out.
tcpdump doesn't show anything going across the line at all.  Can't ping,
can't be pinged.

I'm using the 3c59x.c:v0.99H 11/17/98 driver (the one included with kernel
revision 2.2.12).

Trying to work around this problem, I've tried the following
combinations of options:
options=0 full_duplex=0
options=8 full_duplex=0
options=9 full_duplex=0

9 doesn't work, because I'm not using an AUI transceiver.  I'm supposed to
be using 10baseT, half-duplex.  The hub (Netgear EN104TP) does not show a
link light.  I've replaced the cable with a Known Good, and swapped the
port on the hub with a Known Good.

When I start up with:
options=8 full_duplex=0 debug=9

I get:

eth0: 3Com 3c905B Cyclone 100baseTx at 0x1080, 00:50:da:1c:9d:7d, IRQ 10
  Internal Config register is 1800000, transceivers 0xa.
  8K byte-wide RAM 5:3 Rx:Tx split, autoselect/Autonegotiate interface.
  Media override to transceiver type 0 (10baseT).
  Enabling bus-master transmits and whole-frame receives.
eth0: Media override to transceiver 0 (10baseT).
eth0: Initial media type 10baseT.

Then, when I ifconfig eth0 192.6.1.107 netmask 255.255.255.0:

eth0: vortex_open() InternalConfig 01000000.
eth0: vortex_open() irq 10 media status 8880.
eth0:  Filling in the Rx ring.
eth0: Media selection timer tick happened, 10baseT.
eth0: Media 10baseT has link beat, 88c0.
eth0: Media selection timer finished, 10baseT.

When I ping a host that I know is up, and is located on the same hub as
this machine:

eth0: Trying to send a packet, Tx index 0.
eth0: interrupt, status e201, latency 2 ticks.
eth0: in interrupt loop, status e201.
eth0: exiting interrupt, status e000.
eth0: Trying to send a packet, Tx index 1.
eth0: interrupt, status e201, latency 2 ticks.
eth0: In interrupt loop, status e201.
eth0: exiting interrupt, status e000.
eth0: Trying to send a packet, Tx index 2.
eth0: interrupt, status e201, latency 2 ticks.
eth0: In interrupt loop, status e201.
eth0: exiting interrupt, status e000.
eth0: Trying to send a packet, Tx index 3.
eth0: interrupt, status e201, latency 1 ticks.
eth0: In interrupt loop, status e201.
eth0: exiting interrupt, status e000.
...

And so on.  (It's now on index 50.)  And that was with a single ping
packet.  (Every 10 seconds or so, it tries 3 more times, one second
between each try.)

This is -not- the way that things are supposed to be working, I'd assume.
What information can I give you that will help track this problem down?

---
Mat Butler, Winged Wolf                       <winged@spastic.org>
SPASTIC Web Engineer                  SPASTIC Server Administrator