Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2007 17:24:47 -0500 From: Tim Daneliuk <tundra@tundraware.com> To: PU <uthoffp@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Problem with a NIC in FBSD 6.2 Message-ID: <46897B2F.1040700@tundraware.com> In-Reply-To: <7a49f37b0707021436p4e52e2e8mc165307ba610b5c7@mail.gmail.com> References: <7a49f37b0707021436p4e52e2e8mc165307ba610b5c7@mail.gmail.com>
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PU wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a bit of a problem I'm hoping someone here can help with. I built a
> 6.2 FBSD box and wound up with a bad NIC out of 3 and what I thought might
> have been a bad pci slot. I replaced the NIC with a new one, and moved the
> card to another slot just to make sure I took care of the problem.
> However, now when I boot up, my rl0 interface is recognized, but isn't
> 'initialized'. What I mean by that is that I see entries in dmesg, but an
> ifconfig does not show that interface. I can't even plumb the thing as the
> OS says it doesn't exist. What really throws me is that the other two NICs
> and a video card that were also moved are recognized with no problems at
> all. Problems just seem to follow the rl0 interface.
Hmmm .. ISTM that the way to attack this is to take a single NIC and
try it in each slot to make sure that card it properly recognized.
Repeat for each NIC. You will discover one of several possibilities:
a) A given NIC is actually bad in that it fails in one or more slots
where the other (good) NICs work in any slot you try.
Remedy: Place the NIC on the ground and strike it repeatedly
with a large hammer.
b) All NICs work in some slots but fail on others. This would hint
to one of two possibilities: A bad PCI slot or a motherboard
that does strange and perverse things by hardwiring certain
interrupts to certain slot positions (yes, I've seen this and
it's maddening). Remedy: Run over the motherboard with a large
tank.
c) Any given NIC will work in any slot, but they cannot all coexist in the
same machine. I have seen this sort of problem (not with NICs) and it
was the aforementioned PCI interrupt mapping being hardwired and/or
shared in unpleasant ways. REMEDY: Again, run over the motherboard.
P.S. RealTeks are not terrific NICs. For low end - if you can even still
find them, I like the old 3Com 3c905s. For a few bucks more, the
Intels seem to be quite nice as well.
P.P.S. Make sure the mobo BIOS isn't doing something unnatural about
interrupt mapping/sharing and PCI slot configuration.
P.P.P.S Roasting goats
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Tim Daneliuk tundra@tundraware.com
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Tim Daneliuk tundra@tundraware.com
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