[vortex] duplex problems with 3c905

[Bogdan Costescu]

On Mon, 17 Sep 2001, Tim Bell wrote:

> It's plugged directly into a media converter, then a length of fibre,
> then another media converter, and then a Cisco 4500M.

I don't have experience with media conversions, but my common sense makes
me believe that the media converters and the intermediate media itself has
to support full-duplex communication in order for the whole end-to-end
segment to be full-duplex capable. Even more, my impression is that the
media converter becomes the partener (or remote end) of the connection, so
in fact you have 3 segments: card-converter1, converter1-converter2 and
converter2-Cisco. Each of these segments has its own media settings which
are more-or-less independent on the other segments; however, the whole
communication will be limited to the media capabilities of the least
capable segment.

> When I plugged it in, I started getting the "Transmit error, Tx status
> register 82" message, so I dutifully read vortex.txt, and tried forcing
> the driver into full-duplex mode.

If you force media settings, you have to do it at both ends of the
connection (if the partner is manageable) to avoid confusion.
Use the mii-diag tool (from ftp://ftp.scyld.com/pub/diag/) to see what the
card is thinking about its partner.


Sincerely,

Bogdan Costescu

IWR - Interdisziplinaeres Zentrum fuer Wissenschaftliches Rechnen
Universitaet Heidelberg, INF 368, D-69120 Heidelberg, GERMANY
Telephone: +49 6221 54 8869, Telefax: +49 6221 54 8868
E-mail: Bogdan.Costescu@IWR.Uni-Heidelberg.De