On Mon, 15 Jan 2001, Nyef wrote:

> Hello all.
> 
> I'm having some trouble getting ethernet working on my IIcx. I even went
> so far as to buy a second ethernet card in the hopes that it would work
> better, but no such luck.
> 
> Any help would be appreciated.
> 
> An abbreviated log (retyped manually):
> NetBSD 1.4.2 (REIKA) #8: Fri Sep 15 13:01:15 PDT 2000
> ...
> Apple Macintosh IIcx  (68030)
> ...
> ae0 at nubus0 slot a: MacCon Ethernet, 32KB memory
> ae0: Ethernet address 00:00:94:07:d7:c7
> ae1 at nubus0 slot b: EtherPort IIN, 16KB memory
> ae1: Ethernet address 08:00:14:92:95:73
> ...
> # ifconfig ae0 192.168.0.6
> # ping 192.168.0.7
> PING 192.168.0.7 (192.168.0.7): 56 data bytes
> ae0: device timeout
> ^C
> ...
> # reboot

After running the EtherPort driver through a disassembler, I noticed that
while it didn't ever call SIntInstall, it _did_ call VInstall. The obvious
conclusion was that the card didn't generate slot interrupts (which the
NetBSD ae driver appears to rely on). Looking at the ae driver code, there
is a procedure that is only compiled in if DEBUG is defined that calls the
interrupt handler manually if a timeout occurs. This got the MacCon card
to "work" (extremely slowly, and one has to keep sending packets out in
order to recieve any), and the EtherPort card to lock up the system when I
try to send packets out over it.

So now I have a few new questions:

Does the EtherPort SE/30 card work if you don't define DEBUG in
arch/mac68k/nubus/if_ae_nubus.c?

What is the best way of handling an ethernet card that has to be polled,
rather than interrupt-driven? (other than throwing it out, that is)

Are my problems with the MacCon card indicitive of a hardware
problem? (given that MacCon cards are listed as working in the ethernet
status document)

---------------------------
All programming can be viewed as an exercise.
---------------------------
Alastair Bridgewater
e-mail: nyef@softhome.net