Knoppix 3.9 - 3COM 3C905C-TX Problems

[Digital Parasite]

Hello, I have a 3COM 3C905C-TX NIC that is supported by just about every Linux distro under the sun, except that Knoppix 3.9 does not recognize the card as supported when I run the Network Card Configuration tool.

If I do a lsmod, I see 3c59x in the list with a '0' in the "Used by" column. I tried booting with the "pci=biosirq" cheat code just in case but still no dice.

I wonder if this is a 2.6 kernel thing? It seems that the latest stable Ubuntu Live CD also will not recognize my NIC card, but if I go back to Knoppix 3.7 which uses the 2.4 kernel, it works fine. In that case lsmod shows 3c59x with a '1' in the "Used by" column.

Any ideas on how to get this working with Knoppix 3.9? I don't have a DVD drive so I can't try the latest 4.0 DVD release.

Thanks.
DP

[rwcitek]

Any ideas on how to get this working with Knoppix 3.9?
From a quick Google search, it should work just fine. Run the following commands in a terminal:

lsmod
lspci
ifconfig -a
and post the output.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[Digital Parasite]

and post the output.

I Robert,

Here is the output you asked for:

lsmod

Module Size Used by
snd_mixer_oss 18688 0
snd 46308 1 snd_mixer_oss
mga 59904 1
drm 58900 2 mga
autofs4 18820 1
ntfs 163728 0
i810_audio 36884 1
emu10k1 72196 1
sound 71812 1 emu10k1
soundcore 11104 6 snd,i810_audio,emu10k1,sound
ac97_codec 20108 2 i810_audio,emu10k1
3c59x 42024 0
mii 7808 1 3c59x
intel_agp 22044 1
agpgart 30512 2 drm,intel_agp
jedec_probe 20352 0
cfi_probe 9984 0
gen_probe 6912 2 jedec_probe,cfi_probe
mtdcore 9800 0
chipreg 6656 2 jedec_probe,cfi_probe
map_funcs 5632 0
i2c_i801 11276 0
i2c_core 21248 1 i2c_i801
emu10k1_gp 6912 0
gameport 7552 1 emu10k1_gp
parport_pc 38596 0
parport 33480 1 parport_pc
8250 41692 0
serial_core 21120 1 8250
usbhid 42176 0
pcmcia 21776 0
yenta_socket 21896 0
rsrc_nonstatic 12160 1 yenta_socket
pcmcia_core 42272 3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
video 18308 0
thermal 14984 0
processor 24552 1 thermal
fan 7300 0
container 7296 0
button 7168 0
battery 12420 0
ac 7556 0
genrtc 12060 0
unionfs 109944 1
cloop 18848 1
sbp2 24456 0
ohci1394 33028 0
ieee1394 300600 2 sbp2,ohci1394
usb_storage 63296 0
ub 18332 0
ohci_hcd 21896 0
uhci_hcd 31376 0
ehci_hcd 31752 0
usbcore 101496 7 usbhid,usb_storage,ub,ohci_hcd,uhci_hcd,ehci_hcd


lspci

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset Host Bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845 845 (Brookdale) Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 12)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BA ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 12)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801BA IDE U100 (rev 12)
0000:00:1f.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801BA/BAM USB (Hub #1) (rev 12)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801BA/BAM SMBus (rev 12)
0000:00:1f.4 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801BA/BAM USB (Hub #2) (rev 12)
0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801BA/BAM AC'97 Audio (rev 12)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Matrox Graphics, Inc. MGA G400 AGP (rev 85)
0000:02:0a.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)
0000:02:0b.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Live! EMU10k1 (rev 07)
0000:02:0b.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Live! MIDI/Game Port (rev 07)


ifconfig -a

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:14 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:14 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:700 (700.0 b) TX bytes:700 (700.0 b)




Thanks,
DP

[rwcitek]

lsmod

Module Size Used by
3c59x 42024 0
mii 7808 1 3c59x


lspci

0000:02:0a.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)


Seems right. Don't know why ifconfig is not showing the interface. Give this a shot:

dmesg -c > /dev/null
rmmod mii
rmmod 3c59x
modprobe 3c59x
dmesg
ifconfig -a

and post the output.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[Digital Parasite]

dmesg

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:0a.0[A] -> GSI 22 (level, low) -> IRQ 22
3c59x: Donald Becker and others. www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html
0000:02:0a.0: 3Com PCI 3c905C Tornado at 0xd800. Vers LK1.1.19
*** EEPROM MAC address is invalid.
3c59x: vortex_probe1 fails. Returns -22
3c59x: probe of 0000:02:0a.0 failed with error -22



ifconfig -a

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:8 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:400 (400.0 b) TX bytes:400 (400.0 b)




So looks like it doesn't like the MAC address in Knoppix 3.9 (but works fine in 3.7). But is that what is killing it?

[Digital Parasite]

Any more ideas?

[rwcitek]

Any more ideas?
Unfortunately, not really. I Googled with "EEPROM MAC address is invalid"+"3Com PCI 3c905C"+linux which hit this page:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=158725

A quick browse through the posts shows a mixture of hits and misses. Seems like a bug in Knoppix 3.9's kernel module for that card.

Some simple suggestions:

1) try a few more google searches
2) try the 3.8.2 CD or the 4.0 DVD

Beyond that, I'd be grasping at straws. You could remaster with a different kernel, but I don't know if it is worth the effort or if it will even fix your problem. You could buy a new NIC, but again, is it worth it?

Whatever you try be sure to keep us posted. Good luck.

Regards,
- Robert
http://www.cwelug.org

[Digital Parasite]

Thanks for your help. From that link you provided it seems there is now an Kernel bug entered for this which is supposed to be added to the upstream kernel at some point. Hopefully that will fix the problem, as the suggestions of using "acpi=off" are not working for me. I will try the 4.0 CD whenever it comes out.