NIC Not Working

[Der Klempner]

My RH Fedora system has a 3c905 100Base TX [Boomerang] network card that doesn't want to work.

It's configured correctly with the right IP (10.0.0.100), subnet (255.255.255.0), gateway (10.0.0.1), and DNS servers, but I can't even ping the gateway! I thought it might be an issue with IPTABLES, but I have no idea how to stop IPTABLES so I can test that theory.

Whenever I try to ping the gateway (10.0.0.1), here's what shows up in my error log:

eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register d0.
Flags; bus-master 1, dirty 1(1) current 1(1)
Transmit list 00000000 vs. 0f9722a0.

Now, I know the NIC works fine, because if I boot from a rescue disk, I can access the network after manualy entering the NIC configuration data. It's only not working when I boot from the hard drive.

Any suggestions?

[harner]

here's my remedy: $20/new nic @ pricewatch. lol. i can't help ya, sorry!

[kkubasik]

a new NIC is not needed if it works from a rescue cd, and is really a waste of money. 2 things
1 is the rescue disk a MS disk or Linux
2 simply reinstalling Linux can fix many odd problems such as this, a tiny error in the install can cause all sorts of headaches

Finaly, you could update to a 2.6 kernel. My NIC wont operate under a 2.4 for some reasonl> I haven't bothered to trying to figure out why, but the new kernel has much more devices supported by default.

[Der Klempner]

1 is the rescue disk a MS disk or Linux

Linux. It's the RedHat Fedora Core install CD, and I'm using it as a rescue disk. I had some issues with GRUB where I couldn't boot the system. I had to use the rescue disk to install LILO instead, and so I had to download LILO. That's how I know the NIC works fine.

2 simply reinstalling Linux can fix many odd problems such as this, a tiny error in the install can cause all sorts of headaches

True, but this is the third time I've installed it, and it still doesn't work, same as the first time I installed.

Finaly, you could update to a 2.6 kernel. My NIC wont operate under a 2.4 for some reason. I haven't bothered to trying to figure out why, but the new kernel has much more devices supported by default.

I am running a 2.6 kernel.

uname -a
Linux www.mydomainname.com 2.6.5-1.358 #1 Sat May 8 09:04:50 EDT 2004 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

I'm starting to think it may have something to do with the kernel being configured for my dual processors. I can't imagine that the rescue CD loads kernel drivers for dual processors, so that's why the NIC works fine from the rescue CD, but not from the hard disk.

Does that sound plausible? And if so, how do I disable SMP in the kernel modules?

[Der Klempner]

Strangely enough, I installed a RealTek 8029 NIC and disabled the 3Com NIC, and now the network is working.

Needless to say, I would have to assume that the kernel driver for the 3Com NIC wasn't working in conjunction withthe SMP module. Fortunately for me, the RealTek's driver works fine.

Thanks for the help!