A/UX 2.1 on a IIfx: Please tell me I'm wrong about Apple.

[Michael G. Lohmeyer]

In article <1991Feb14.200643.2976 at wubios.wustl.edu> jeff at wubios.wustl.edu (Jeff
Gabel) writes:

>A correction to my ravings here. Of course, I am referring to A/UX 2.0, not
>2.1. I got it mixed up with SunOS 4.1, etc.  Sorry.
>
>Configuration: Macintosh IIfx w/  8 Mbytes RAM
>                                  Apple 2-page display
>                                  Apple 8*24 display card
>                                  3Com EtherLink II Nubus
>                                  Segate 160 MB internal drive
>                                  1 - 1.4 MB internal floppy drive
>
>hangs after ``ifconfig'' outputs its results and the screen is cleared. Am I
>doing something wrong?  

     Being that the machine locks up right after the ifconfig, I would say
it is most definately the ethernet card.  Especially since the A/UX drivers
only support the Apple Ethertalk NB card, not 3Com's card.  The 3Com
card, I believe, is the same as the Apple card (they look almost exactly
alike) except for a couple changes that make them different, so the drivers
do not work with the 3Com card.  I have tried a 3Com card in my IIci running
A/UX 2.0 and it did not work.  

In another article, coolidge at cs.uiuc.edu (John L. Coolidge) writes:
>......We have two IIci's with 8*24 cards and have had no
>problems; I've also seen one run fine on a IIx......
>
>.....I've seen very similar symptoms here when an ethernet board
>decided to interrupt the machine 100,000 times a minute (blown something
>or another on the card).

     Another reason that I suspect the ethernet card (and the problem that
I presume that John Coolidge is talking about with 100,000 interrupts) is
that the Apple NB card, Rev. K, does not work in a Mac IIci.  It causes the
machine to pretty much lock up.  I called the Apple support line on this
problem and they told me that I need a Rev L or newer card.  I got a Rev M 
card and that seemed to solve the problem mostly. 

     I still ran into problems, though, with the machine locking up.  The
problems went away, though, after I removed all the networking stuff form
the kernal and added it again with the network card disconnected from
the network.  Apple told me that they had found a bug that if you do
newconfig to add in the networking stuff when the network card is
connected to the network, something will cause the card to not work
correctly sometimes.  By not work correctly, I mean that often I couldn't
get my machine to boot up.  I don't know all the specifics of this because
I didn't quite understand fully why this is happening, but there are
definately some problems with Rev K Ethertalk cards in a Mac IIci, and there
are also some other problems with the way you configure the kernal when the
network is connected.  I was told that Apple is planning to fix these problems
in future (after A/UX 2.0.1) revisions (it is too late to fix it in 2.0.1).

     I realize that Jeff's machine is a IIfx, but it is possible that these
problems are not isolated to just IIci's.

BTW-  We have two Mac IIci machines with Apple two page monitors and the 8.24
card.  They both work fine in regards to the two page monitors.

Mike
-------------
Mike Lohmeyer				mikel at berlioz.nsc.com
National Semiconductor Corporation
(408) 721-8075