Problem with 3c905B NIC and netboot

[Omar Walid Llorente <omar@oasis.dit.upm.es>]

Hi everybody,

First of all thanks for your attention.

I'm testing a 3com 3c905b-tx Nic for netbooting linux and windows95 (we
now use wd, smc, ne and 3c905-tx cards without problems).

The first problem i had was to get a 3com packet driver, i hope this
info helps, because i had problems for getting it. I got a packet driver
in beta version for the 3c905B-tx NIC, it is in my ftp server:

        ftp://flont.dit.upm.es/pub/linux/pktdrv/3c90xpd.com ( it is
about 45Kbytes )

I used netboot-0.7.2, and i made an image with this packet driver
without any problem in a floppy, so
the packet driver works, configures the card in 100Mbps FD and do auto
negotiation as well ( at least with the SuperStack II Switch 3000 from
3com ).  So it gets the operative system from the server and boots.

The next step was to try this image in a EPROM, and this didn't work. I
don't know exactly why, because the booting message is, and only is (
without printing the "Boot loader for net boot" message ):

Uncompressing... done

but then the machine HANGS without giving control to the packet driver.
I tried all configurations for the EPROM socket ( 64 an 128 Kbytes, with
the corresponding ones ) and the tests provided by the
configuration program where all ok.

I've read what Alex Harin says about errors reading the ROM socket, so I
called 3com for info about it. They said that they have no reading
problems with the ROM socket when using an image called 3C905-MBA
(URL: http://www.3com.com/products/dsheets/400350.html ) which they sell
in packets of 100 roms (i don't know the prize).  They also said me that
they had changed something
about the kind of Rom, now using the TriROM format --don't ask me what
the hell is this :-(

What i don't know is if they have made a NIC which only can use their
EPROM images, i suppose it could be possible... The only thing that
keeps my faith is that the name of the image is 3C905-MBA and not
3C905B-MBA, which could mean that it works with the 3c905-tx NIC ( so
it's compatible with it ), which we use in our labs without any kind of
problem with netboot.

I suppose the only man who could answer this would be Gero Kuhlmann,  if
he could have a 3c905B-tx  card in his hands... Any help or comment in
this way would be very grateful.

By the way, i'm trying to test an Intel EtherExpress Pro 100+, as an
alternative. I've read that it's possible to make it work with
netboot...

In other hand, i would like to thank all the work made by Gero and his
assistants and collaborators.
Thank you very much indeed, you made my life easier.

    Omar.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Centro de Calculo
    Departamento Ingenieria Telematica (ETSIT)      e-mail:
omar@dit.upm.es
    Universidad Politecnica de Madrid               Tel:(+34)
913367366-Ext.328
    Ciudad Universitaria, s/n 28040 Madrid (Spain)  Fax:(+34) 913367333
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------








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