The installer recognized my network card as a 3c509, not a 3c905. As a result, /etc/conf.modules was pointing to the wrong network card driver. I changed the eth0 setting in this file to point to 3c90x and everything was fine. The module is there and compiled already, just the installer pointed to the wrong one. The behavior that led me to this was that the networking on the box (an apache/jserv/samba server) would just disappear for up to 3 minutes at a stretch, then reappear. The network would just stop responding. You may want to post an errata about this, as anyone with this extremely common network card will experience networking outages. I've seen many posts in the newsgroups about this problem, and I posted my solution there as well. Since fixing the driver issue we have aimed stress testing tools at the box for hours without any problems. We are very happy with the performance.
Can you send us the contents of /proc/pci on this machine?
output of /proc/pci: PCI devices found: Bus 0, device 18, function 1: IDE interface: UMC UM8886BF (rev 16). Fast devsel. IRQ 14. Master Capable. No bursts. I/O at 0x0. I/O at 0x0. I/O at 0x0. I/O at 0x0. I/O at 0x3000. Bus 0, device 18, function 0: ISA bridge: UMC UM8886A (rev 14). Medium devsel. Master Capable. No bursts. Bus 0, device 16, function 0: Host bridge: UMC UM8881F (rev 4). Medium devsel. Master Capable. No bursts. Let me know if there's anything else you need... thanks, fnord fnord.dammit
Apparently, there are different versions of the 3c905 that behave differently with the drivers. It's too bad 3com doesn't provide you with this information. From what I've gleaned from the community, there is a 3c905a and a 3c905b. The 3c905 driver is needed for the 3c905b. The 3c509 driver works for the 3c905a without a problem. It gets worse, though... There's a 3c905a *revision b* out there that isn't to be confused with the actual 3c905b. I don't know how you could even discern the difference in software, but apparently 3com can because the appear to provide the info to MS. Let me know if there's anything else I can provide you with. thanks, fnord
This is missing a bunch of /proc/pci -- we really do need all of it.
PCI devices found: Bus 0, device 0, function 0: Host bridge: Intel 440LX - 82443LX PAC Host (rev 3). Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Master Capable. Latency=32. Prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xf8000000 [0xf8000008]. Bus 0, device 1, function 0: PCI bridge: Intel 440LX - 82443LX PAC AGP (rev 3). Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Master Capable. Latency=96. Min $ Bus 0, device 7, function 0: ISA bridge: Intel 82371AB PIIX4 ISA (rev 1). Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Master Capable. No bursts. Bus 0, device 7, function 1: IDE interface: Intel 82371AB PIIX4 IDE (rev 1). Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Master Capable. Latency=64. I/O at 0xfcd0 [0xfcd1]. Bus 0, device 7, function 2: USB Controller: Intel 82371AB PIIX4 USB (rev 1). Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. IRQ 11. Master Capable. Latency=$ I/O at 0xfce0 [0xfce1]. Bus 0, device 7, function 3: Bridge: Intel 82371AB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 1). Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Bus 0, device 13, function 0: Ethernet controller: 3Com 3C905B 100bTX (rev 0). Medium devsel. IRQ 10. Master Capable. Latency=80. Min Gnt=10.Max Lat=10. I/O at 0xfc00 [0xfc01]. Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfedffc00 [0xfedffc00]. Bus 1, device 0, function 0: Display controller: Texas Instruments TVP4020 Permedia 2 (rev 1). Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. IRQ 9. Master Capable. Latency=6$ Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfecc0000 [0xfecc0000]. Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfd800000 [0xfd800000]. Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfe000000 [0xfe000000].
Does Red Hat Linux 7 work any better?
have seen this same bug under RedHat 6.2 also, I have also noticed that I have a 3c905c Rev 120, which is an unknown device. The problem seems to go away if I grab 2.2.17.tar.gz and roll my own kernel. Here is a snippet of the error messages I am also seeing in dmesg. Thanks, John john.ws.strange [root@wonnfs: server oven OK eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82. eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82. eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82. eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82. eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82. eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82. eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82. eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82. eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82. eth0: Transmit error, Tx status register 82. Here is a output of my /proc/pci. [root@wonderwoman src]# cat /proc/pci PCI devices found: Bus 0, device 0, function 0: Host bridge: Intel Unknown device (rev 1). Vendor id=8086. Device id=1a21. Fast devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Master Capable. No bursts. Prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xf0000000 [0xf0000008]. Bus 0, device 1, function 0: PCI bridge: Intel Unknown device (rev 1). Vendor id=8086. Device id=1a23. Fast devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=14. Bus 0, device 2, function 0: PCI bridge: Intel Unknown device (rev 1). Vendor id=8086. Device id=1a24. Fast devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=6. Bus 0, device 30, function 0: PCI bridge: Intel Unknown device (rev 2). Vendor id=8086. Device id=2418. Fast devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Master Capable. No bursts. Min Gnt=6. Bus 0, device 31, function 0: ISA bridge: Intel Unknown device (rev 2). Vendor id=8086. Device id=2410. Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Master Capable. No bursts. Bus 0, device 31, function 1: IDE interface: Intel Unknown device (rev 2). Vendor id=8086. Device id=2411. Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Master Capable. No bursts. I/O at 0xffa0 [0xffa1]. Bus 0, device 31, function 2: USB Controller: Intel Unknown device (rev 2). Vendor id=8086. Device id=2412. Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. IRQ 19. Master Capable. No bursts. I/O at 0xff80 [0xff81]. Bus 0, device 31, function 3: Unknown class: Intel Unknown device (rev 2). Vendor id=8086. Device id=2413. Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. IRQ 17. I/O at 0xdcd0 [0xdcd1]. Bus 1, device 0, function 0: VGA compatible controller: NVidia Unknown device (rev 16). Vendor id=10de. Device id=100. Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. IRQ 16. Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=5.Max Lat=1. Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xfc000000 [0xfc000000]. Prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xe8000000 [0xe8000008]. Bus 2, device 31, function 0: PCI bridge: Intel Unknown device (rev 2). Vendor id=8086. Device id=1360. Fast devsel. Master Capable. No bursts. Min Gnt=6.Max Lat=128. Bus 3, device 0, function 0: PIC: Intel Unknown device (rev 1). Vendor id=8086. Device id=1161. Fast devsel. Master Capable. No bursts. Bus 4, device 5, function 0: SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7899 (rev 1). Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. BIST capable. IRQ 17. Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=40.Max Lat=25. I/O at 0xec00 [0xec01]. Non-prefetchable 64 bit memory at 0xf9fff000 [0xf9fff004]. Bus 4, device 5, function 1: SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7899 (rev 1). Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. BIST capable. IRQ 18. Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=40.Max Lat=25. I/O at 0xe800 [0xe801]. Non-prefetchable 64 bit memory at 0xf9ffe000 [0xf9ffe004]. Bus 4, device 7, function 0: Ethernet controller: 3Com Unknown device (rev 120). Vendor id=10b7. Device id=9200. Medium devsel. IRQ 19. Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=10.Max Lat=10. I/O at 0xe480 [0xe481]. Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xf9ffdc00 [0xf9ffdc00]. Bus 4, device 8, function 0: Multimedia audio controller: Unknown vendor Unknown device (rev 7). Vendor id=1102. Device id=2. Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. IRQ 16. Master Capable. Latency=64. Min Gnt=2.Max Lat=20. I/O at 0xe460 [0xe461]. Bus 4, device 8, function 1: Input device controller: Unknown vendor Unknown device (rev 7). Vendor id=1102. Device id=7002. Medium devsel. Fast back-to-back capable. Master Capable. Latency=64. I/O at 0xe458 [0xe459].
As nobody has said this is still happening with Red Hat 7.0, I'm closing this bug.