I've been unsuccessful in getting my 3Com 3c529 MCA Ethernet card to communicate with the network using the AUI port, although the 10baseT (twisted pair) connection with the card works fine. The 3c529 is the MCA (IBM's proprietary microchannel architecture for the PS/2 and other machines) version of the 3c509 (same chipset), so I use the 3c509.o module that came with my Debian installation (Linux 2.0.36). The 3c509.c file in the 2.0.36 source tree actually has MCA detection code for the 3c529, although I'm not sure that it's complete.
To debug the problem, I've tried compiling the module myself from the 2.0.36 source tree, sometimes with certain modifications and also without any changes. However, I have the problem that the newly compiled 3c509.o will not work at all with my network card, even though the one that came with Debian (supposedly 2.0.36) does work. Is it possible that the 3c509.c source that was used in this version of Debian is different than the one in the 2.0.36 source tree I've been using to compile my own? Does anyone know what version of 3c509.c is in this Debian distribution? When I insmod the correct 3c509.o module without any arguments (insmod 3c509), I get the following (note that the card identification on the first line comes directly from the MCA card and thus has nothing to with the module's detection mechanism): # insmod 3c509 3c509: found 3Com 3c529 EtherLink III (10baseT) at slot 3 eth0: 3c509 at 0x200 tag 0, 10baseT port, address 00 20 af 99 a8 1e, IRQ 5. 3c509.c:1.16 2/3/98 [EMAIL PROTECTED] After this, I manually run /etc/init.d/network, and the card then works fine off the 10baseT port. [Note: The version of 3c509.c in the 2.0.36 source tree is also identified as v1.16 2/3/98, so it seems like it should be the same.] However, when I run the version that I compiled myself from the 2.0.36 source tree, I get the following: # insmod 3c509 /lib/modules/2.0.36/net/3c509.o: init_module: Device or resource busy If I subsequently replace the 3c509.o file with the correct module (the one that came with the Debian distribution), it then works as shown above. However, I want to enable the AUI port on the network card, so I use the xcvr option to set the transceiver port to 1 (AUI), but I get the same response from the module (which still claims that I am using the 10baseT port, as seen in the second line of output, where it should instead say AUI port): # insmod 3c509 xcvr=1 3c509: found 3Com 3c529 EtherLink III (10baseT) at slot 3 eth0: 3c509 at 0x200 tag 0, 10baseT port, address 00 20 af 99 a8 1e, IRQ 5. 3c509.c:1.16 2/3/98 [EMAIL PROTECTED] I then run the /etc/init.d/network script as before, but I get no ping response from any hosts (including IPs on my local subnet). If I then unplug the AUI connector and plug in the 10baseT cable, thinking that the program decided to use the 10baseT port as it claimed (ignoring my xcvr=1 option), it still fails to work, and I am unable to use the network card until I reboot (because rmmod does not properly allow me to insmod again without the xcvr=1 option). Please cc: any responses to me, as the debian-user web archive only seems to store mail from the first few days of each month. Thanks for any advice or information on this setup and my difficulties. Matt
