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Question: DFE-650 not always Linux-compatible? 

Forum: PCMCIA Network Adapter Issues
Date: 2000, Feb 25
From: Anthony Jameson AJameson

Subject: DFE-650 not always Linux-compatible?
Reply-to: Anthony Jameson <jameson@cs.uni-sb.de>
BCC: jameson@sol.cs.uni-sb.de
--text follows this line--
Hi,

The D-Link DFE-650TX is well known as a Linux-compatible Fast
Ethernet card. For example, two such cards have been found to
work fine on my Toshiba Satellite 4090XCDT running S.u.S.e. Linux 6.0 

But just a few days ago I bought a third such card for myself,
and it's been nothing but trouble, even as its supposedly
identical twins continue to work fine. It's recognized by the
card manager, and the pcnet_cs driver is duly loaded. But it's
impossible to connect to the network: I always get the error
message "No route to host". In /var/log/messages, there's always a message like this: 

Feb 24 22:14:40 helena kernel: eth0: Tx timed out, cable problem? TSR=0x42, ISR=0x0, t=1000.

Followng the advice in the PCMCIA how-to, I've tried juggling
the IRQs and the ports, but the result is always the same.

And this is not a unique experience: I've corresponded with a
Linux expert in northern Germany who spent days combating
exactly the same problem with his new DFE-650TX card, before giving up and returning the card to the dealer.

So it looks as if D-Link may have made some change in their
card that renders it Linux-incompatible (though they still
claim Linux-compatibility for the card on the packaging and on their web site).

            Anthony Jameson

Here's some debugging information:

Kernel version: 2.0.36
cardctl version 3.0.6

Output of "cardctl ident":
Socket 0:
  no product info available
Socket 1:
  product info: "D-Link", "DFE-650", "Fast Ethernet", "Rev. D1"
  manfid: 0x0149, 0x0230
  function: 6 (network)

Output of "cardctl status":
Socket 0:
  no card
Socket 1:
  5V 16-bit card present
  Function 0: 

Typical sequence in /var/log/messages, starting with a system reboot:
Feb 24 22:13:51 helena syslogd 1.3-3: restart.
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel: klogd 1.3-3, log source = /proc/kmsg started.
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel: Inspecting /boot/System.map
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel: Loaded 5086 symbols from /boot/System.map.
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel: Symbols match kernel version 2.0.36.
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel: Loaded 18 symbols from 6 modules.
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel: Linux PCMCIA Card Services 3.0.6
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel:   kernel build: 2.0.36 #1 Fri Dec 11 16:26:51 /etc/localtime 1998
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel:   options:  [pci] [cardbus]
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel: Intel PCIC probe: 
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel:   Toshiba ToPIC97 PCI-to-CardBus at bus 0 slot 2, mem 0x68000000, 2 sockets
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel:     host opts [0]: [slot 0xf0] [ccr 0x10] [cdr 0x86] [rcr 0x02] [no pci irq] [lat 168/176] [bus 20/20]
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel:     host opts [1]: [slot 0xf0] [ccr 0x11] [cdr 0x86] [rcr 0x02] [no pci irq] [lat 168/176] [bus 21/21]
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel:     ISA irqs (default) = 3,4,5,7,9,10,11,12 polling interval = 1000 ms
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel: cs: IO port probe 0x1000-0x17ff: clean.
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel: cs: IO port probe 0x0100-0x04ff: excluding 0x378-0x37f 0x4d0-0x4d7
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel: cs: IO port probe 0x0a00-0x0aff: clean.
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel: cs: memory probe 0x0d0000-0x0dffff: clean.
Feb 24 22:13:52 helena kernel: eth0: NE2000 Compatible: port 0x300, irq 9, hw_addr 00:E0:98:77:94:FD
Feb 24 22:13:53 helena ypbind[124]: unable to register (YPBINDPROG, YPBINDVERS, udp). : Connection refused 
# Is the above relevant here?
Feb 24 22:13:54 helena lpd[147]: restarted
Feb 24 22:14:18 helena apmd[255]: Version 3.0final (APM BIOS 1.1, Linux driver 1.2)
Feb 24 22:14:18 helena apmd[255]: Charge: * * * (94% 2:38)
Feb 24 22:14:22 helena su: (to jameson) root on /dev/ttyp2
Feb 24 22:14:32 helena apmd[255]: Now using AC Power
Feb 24 22:14:40 helena kernel: eth0: Tx timed out, cable problem? TSR=0x42, ISR=0x0, t=1000.
Feb 24 22:15:45 helena kernel: eth0: Tx timed out, cable problem? TSR=0x42, ISR=0x0, t=6500.
Feb 24 22:17:45 helena kernel: eth0: Tx timed out, cable problem? TSR=0x42, ISR=0x0, t=12000.

/etc/pcmcia/config.opts: (Don't know if there's anything nonstandard here.)
#
# Local PCMCIA Configuration File
#
# System resources available for PCMCIA devices
#
include port 0x100-0x4ff, port 0x1000-0x17ff
include memory 0xc0000-0xfffff
include memory 0xa0000000-0xa0ffffff, memory 0x60000000-0x60ffffff
#
# Extra port range for IBM Token Ring
#
include port 0xa00-0xaff
#
# Resources we should not use, even if they appear to be available
#
# First built-in serial port
exclude irq 4
# Second built-in serial port
exclude irq 3

# First built-in parallel port
exclude irq 7

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Messages Inline: [ 1 ]  [ All ]  Outline: [ 1 ]  [ 2 ]  [ All ] 

1. Idea: Try This by Jochen Friedrich, 2000, Feb 25
1. Feedback: Hope others can try by Anthony Jameson, 2000, Feb 26
1. Feedback: tried and it works by Ingo Ciechowski, 2000, Feb 26
... 3 Message(s)
2. Question: bad performance with Jochen's patch and DFE-650 by Ingo Ciechowski, 2000, Feb 26
1. Performance should be equally bad under Windows by David Hinds, 2000, Feb 27
... 8 Message(s)
2. Agree: NetGear FA410TXC Tool works for D-Link DE-650 by Ingo Ciechowski, 2000, Feb 26
1. Angry: HELP! *Still* can't get D-Link DFE-650TX going! (Day 5) by Harold Boyer, 2000, Aug 18
(_ Re: Angry: HELP! *Still* can't get D-Link DFE-650TX going! (Day 5) by David Hinds, 2000, Aug 21

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