now, we've installed various 3com cards from the hardware compatibility
list.  
In each case, 'bsd detects the card at the correct address and gives us
the right hardware address.

However, wierdness occurs when we try to use the card. 

1. the link light does not come on at the hub where we plugged the wire
in 
2. the link light _does_ come on intermittently when we ping another
host (never connects though).
    Apparently, the link only comes up when sending a packet.  That's
just a guess though.


Has anyone experienced anything like this?  I've installed NetBSD on a
few other machines with similar netcards, and I've never seen this
before.  The thought has hit that maybe the machine is cursed.  ;-)

Could NetBSD subtly not like the AMD 486/133 chip for some reason?

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	David Christiansen (NT) 
> Sent:	Wednesday, October 08, 1997 4:02 PM
> To:	David Christiansen (NT); 'port-i386@netbsd.org'
> Subject:	RE: Wierd experience attempting fresh install of 1.2.1
> on a Dell  [solved]
> 
> 
> 	in case anyone's wondering, the problem went away when we
> installed a 1542B instead.  Wierd.
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:	David Christiansen (NT) 
> > Sent:	Wednesday, October 08, 1997 1:14 PM
> > To:	'port-i386@netbsd.org'
> > Subject:	RE: Wierd experience attempting fresh install of 1.2.1
> > on a Dell
> > 
> > > 	The machine is an AMD 486/133, installing on Adaptec 1542CP's
> > > sd0.
> > > 
> > > 	when creating the usr and var partitions, we hit lots and lots
> > > of hard errors.  Later, just for grins and giggles, we did a
> > > copy_kernel, and that failed with lots of fd0a soft errors.   Sure
> > > enough, the machine certainly doesn't boot ;-)
> > 
> > 	we reduced the DMA rate on the controller, rebuilt the floppies,
> > and the problem still happened.
> > 	After changing the floppy drive to run off the fd controller on
> > the SCSI card instead of the built-in controller, AND using the
> > drive's
> > physical geometry instead of the logical geometry, and then we only
> > got
> > one fd soft error, creating /dev/drum.  
> > 
> > 	The kernel copied successfully.  Now, we reboot the machine, the
> > boot loader comes up, but it won't go any further than that-- the
> > machine hangs immediately when you hit return at the boot prompt
> > (before
> > any kernel messages are printed).  
> > 
> > 	This machine only has scsi drives.  We have tried explicitly
> > specifying sd(0,a)/netbsd to the loader, but to no avail.  Mounting
> > the
> > partition from the filesystem floppy, it appears that the kernel
> there
> > is correct.  In a freak, desperate attempt, we renamed the kernel
> just
> > to make absolutely sure it was loader-related and not
> kernel-related.
> > The problem still happens.
> > 
> > 	As before, any suggestions would be great.  :-)
> > 	Thanks!
> > 	-Dave
> > 	
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:	Andrew Gillham
> > Sent:	Tuesday, October 07, 1997 7:53 PM
> > To:	David Christiansen (NT)
> > Subject:	Re: Wierd experience attempting fresh install of 1.2.1
> > on a Dell
> > 
> > In the downright wild guess category..  Is the adaptec configured
> for
> > a high DMA rate?  I believe it can vary from 5.0 to 10.0?  Perhaps
> > it is too high.  Also, is the bus clock rate locked at 8Mhz, or not?
> > (should be a jumper on the mainboard)
> > 
> > -Andrew
> > 
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From:	Carl Shapiro
> > > Sent:	Tuesday, October 07, 1997 7:11 PM
> > > To:	David Christiansen (NT)
> > > Subject:	Re: Wierd experience attempting fresh install of 1.2.1
> > > on a Dell
> > > 
> > > Hard errors?  Have you tried to "verify media" through the Adaptec
> > > BIOS?  Hard
> > > errors could be a symptom of bad sectors...  Regarding the soft
> > errors
> > > with
> > > your floppy, I have only run into those problems if 1) I am using
> a
> > > really
> > > cheap floppy disk 2) the drive writes bad floppies.
> > > 
> > > Good luck!
> > > 
> > > Carl