Subject: problems with 10/100 "le" (PCnet-PCI) interface....
To: NetBSD Networking Technical Discussion List <tech-net@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Greg A. Woods <woods@weird.com>
List: tech-net
Date: 07/27/2001 17:42:03
My IBM PC 325 server has an "le" interface on the planar board:

	le0 at pci1 dev 5 function 0: PCnet-PCI Ethernet
	le0: address 00:06:29:05:cf:8d
	le0: 8 receive buffers, 2 transmit buffers
	le0: interrupting at irq 10

According to the IBM manual it is capable of 100baseTX/FDX and
"auto-negotiation occurs without requiring software intervention."

However NetBSD-1.5W doesn't see the 100baseTX capability:

le0: flags=8862<BROADCAST,NOTRAILERS,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
        address: 00:06:29:05:cf:8d
        media: Ethernet autoselect
        supported Ethernet media:
                media autoselect
                media autoselect mediaopt full-duplex
                media 10baseT
                media 10baseT mediaopt full-duplex
                media 10base5
                media 10base5 mediaopt full-duplex
        inet 192.168.1.1 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.1.255
        inet6 fe80::206:29ff:fe05:cf8d%le0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1

If I leave it in "autoselect" or set "mediaopt full-duplex" my digital
VNswitch 900EX can indeed establish a link with it, but it fails
miserably to work reliably in either state.  I get well over 75% packet
loss, and no satisfaction....  (which is why I'm using the silly
Macronix card as the main interface now)

It does work just fine as a 10baseT card with all my switches and hubs.

I'm willing to experiment with adding new PHY code to try getting it to
work right, or trying other suggestions.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098      VE3TCP      <gwoods@acm.org>     <woods@robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods@planix.com>;   Secrets of the Weird <woods@weird.com>