Help! 3C503 not working in Dell 310 with HB TCP/IP

Larry Campbell campbell at redsox.bsw.com
Tue Sep 26 13:16:21 AEST 1989


OK, I'm stumped;  is anyone out there succesfully running a 3C503 Ethernet
board in a Dell 310 with 386/ix?

Here's the scenario:
    Dell 310 with the following devices:
	IRQ 3	COM2 (unused, not configured in to kernel)
	IRQ 4	COM1 (unused, configured in to kernel)
	IRQ 5	Wangtek tape controller
	IRQ 6	Floppy
	IRQ 7	Parallel port
	IRQ 11	Digiboard Com/8i multiport serial card

We were running 386/ix 2.0.1 and have just upgraded to 2.0.2.  So far,
so good.  Now we want to run TCP/IP.  (Interactive host-based TCP/IP
v1.1.2, but as you'll see below, I don't think it matters.)

So I install the 3C503, and just in case, run the 3Com diagnostic program
under DOS.  It dies with "ASIC chip missing or installed incorrectly", or
some such rot, and 3Com tech support hasn't a clue what THAT means.

OK, try ANOTHER 3C503.  Same problem.  Hmmm.  Stick boards in no-name 286
clone and run diagnostic - both boards work.  Mysterious, especially since
the 286 also has a comm port on IRQ 3.  OK, try pulling out Digiboard
because its shared memory conflicts with the default memory window on the
3C503.  Same problem.

Oh well, maybe the 3Com diagnostic is broken, let's just see if UNIX can
talk to the board.  Jumper 3C503 memory out of the way of the Digiboard,
fire up UNIX, am rewarded with "elinit: invalid Ethernet address from 3C503
board", or something like that.

3Com's clueless, Dell's clueless, Interactive's phone is either busy or not
answered.  I've carefully checked everything obvious, like I/O port conflicts.

HELP!  Any ideas?

Possible clue (possible red herring also):  the sysadm script for configuring
the Ethernet board looks like it should be responsible for editing both
/etc/conf/sdevice.d/el and /etc/conf/pack.d/el/space.c when you change
things like memory addresses or I/O port addresses, but the only thing it
actually updates in space.c is the choice of internal or external
transceiver.  I had to edit space.c by hand.  (Same problem as described
above both before and after my edits.)  Have I got a duff software kit?
-- 
Larry Campbell                          The Boston Software Works, Inc.
campbell at bsw.com                        120 Fulton Street
wjh12!redsox!campbell                   Boston, MA 02146



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