Knoppix 3.9 - 3COM 3C905C-TX Problems

**Digital Parasite** · 09-08-2005, 05:24 PM

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** · 09-09-2005, 04:56 AM

Originally Posted by Digital Parasite

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:

Code:

lsmod
lspci
ifconfig -a

and post the output.

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

**Digital Parasite** · 09-09-2005, 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by rwcitek

and post the output.

I Robert,

Here is the output you asked for:

lsmod

Code:

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

Code:

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

Code:

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** · 09-09-2005, 04:00 PM

Originally Posted by Digital Parasite

lsmod

Code:

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

lspci

Code:

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:

Code:

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** · 09-09-2005, 05:53 PM

dmesg

Code:

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

Code:

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** · 09-12-2005, 03:16 PM

Any more ideas?

**rwcitek** · 09-13-2005, 05:57 AM

Originally Posted by Digital Parasite

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....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** · 09-13-2005, 02:37 PM

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.