3C905-TX problems

[Jim Cornette]

Michael Bernstein wrote:
> Hi,
> 
>  I'm having problems with my first Linux installation (so expect some 
> naivite).  The Ethernet card - a 3C905-TX on an MSI K7N2G mobo - is a 
> real mare!!  Let me say that all works well under WinXP.  The NIC is 
> connected to the Cable modem (ftom ntl in the UK).
> 
>  I had loads of trouble getting the board to go "active" at all, but 
> finally managed after I turned off kudzu ("chkconfig kudzu off" and a 
> reboot).  Now I can ping and browse, but everything goes at a snail's 
> pace.  If I ping the BBC website I get 50% packet loss.
> 
>  I've spent a LOT of time with this now so help would be greatly 
> appreciated.
> 
> 
> Many thx,
>   Mike
> 
> PS   I tried to work with the on-board nVIDIA ethernet but that wasn't 
> recognised, and nVIDIA don't supply a driver for core 2.4.22-1.2115
>

This card stopped working correctly with The beta for RH10, which turned 
into Fedora Core 1.

The card has worked from at least RHL 5.2 up to RHL9. It doesn't work 
well with Fedora Core 1. Fedora Core 2 (Test 1) comes out later next 
week (mid-week). I hope the card works better with the 2.6 kernel driver 
for the card and the tools which setup, detect the card. (ethertool, 
kudzu, hwdata,system-config-network and the like.)

Mine was a PCI card version (Rev A) and went back to it's original owner.

The workarounds I have heard so far are to set the mode in the 
modules.conf file (or modprobe.conf file for the 2.6 kernel)

Disable Kudzu and the graphical bootloader.

If possible, i would get a cheap NIC, to get a reliable connection, 
until the problem with the 3Com NIC get fixed. (If ever)


Jim